Posted on 12/23/2004 11:04:25 AM PST by txradioguy
So many people are trying to make sense out of this mess hall attack in Mosul yesterday. I had a little bit of an opportunity to watch some of the coverage yesterday morning. And I had an opportunity, obviously have had an opportunity to watch some of the coverage today. I want to go back, and in setting this up, remind you of a story I told you earlier this week. I run into a lot of liberals. Let's face it, I'm a magnet for liberals and when I'm out there I run into a lot of these people and it's interesting lately these liberals have been genuinely curious what I think rather than wanting to just insult me and laugh and get into little fights. They've been genuinely interested in what I think. And I don't remember the specifics of how all this came up, it was about media bias, and I said, "You know something--" And I used CNN as an example, but you could use ABC or CBS, MSNBC, doesn't matter. I said, "If you wonder about media bias--" They don't understand what we think is biased. They think their anchors are objective and reporters and all that. I said, "Forget that. Forget that your anchors are not biased, because they are. I mean, if you're not going to recognize that, let's move on to something else." I said, "If you would just give me two hours or three hours just to sit and observe and comment while producers and editors put together a three-hour news block, I could show you exactly how the audience sees you."
You liberals don't have any idea how you are seen. You don't know what you look like when you do your jobs. You don't know how you appear to people, and until you have some empathy for that, you know, empathy is a key ingredient to the success of a program like this, not sympathy, but empathy. And until you have some empathy and understand how your audience perceives you, you're never going to get this biased business. And, of course, they don't have empathy because they have basically a condescension and a contempt for most of the audience as being too stupid to know anything which is why they put the news together the way they do. If you really want to know how you are seen, just let me watch you put it together and I'll tell you what you're doing that is going to be seen as liberal bias, and they're intrigued by this. I will never get the chance, but they're intrigued by this.
Well, the coverage of what happened in Mosul yesterday and today is a classic example of liberal bias in the media. It is a classic example, and I got an e-mail today for a soldier in Mosul who was eating in a mess hall very close to the one that was hit by what is now said to be a homicide bomber and he gives us the reason why this happened. But the mainstream press, as I'm watching this yesterday morning and it didn't matter, forget Fox, but it didn't matter what network I switched to watch the coverage of this attack, it was clear that the tone here was, "See why this is an unjust war? See why this is wrong? See why we shouldn't be here? American soldiers have died. We don't need to be there. There's no point to this." And they were building this up and it was very subtle, you had to know how to watch this, but all of you do. I mean, you could pick this out, some of this was good, it wasn't all bad, some of it was informational and some of it was necessary, but the never ending wall-to-wall coverage of this that made it appear as though it was the worst tragedy in the history of American warfare, and the reason they wanted to make it look like the worst tragedy in American warfare is because they are intent, still, on proving to people this is an unjust war. Well, the audience is much more sophisticated today, and if the recent election results do not tell the left anything, they ought to tell them this.
The American people support this war. The American people support the troops. The American people don't like seeing this. The American people hate it, the American people cry over this, and sob, and everything else, but at the same time it doesn't make the American people think that what we're doing is wrong. And that seems to be a natural conclusion that the left always comes to. Any tragedy in war proves war is wrong. Any tragedy in war, particularly if the enemy gets abused in a prison, why, then, it's really a bad war. It's really an unjust war, and we need to skedaddle and hightail it out of there. At the same time, they have people calling for more troops. At the same time they have people demanding more up-armored Humvees and so forth.
So it was painful enough to watch this yesterday. It's been painful today to watch the injured arrive back in Germany and be taken off the plane and headed to the hospital, without this tone of, "See, this isn't worth it." And that's what really irritates me. Don't let these heroes die in vain, ladies and gentlemen. Is there anybody among us who could amply express the sadness for the loss of these soldiers? Is there anybody among us who could sufficiently express the sympathy we have for their surviving loved ones? I mean, we could pause, we can reflect, some of us could even sob, but can any of us do any more than wonder if this is the reward for liberators? This is something that is going to challenge everybody's belief in the validity of all this now and then. It would be easier to understand this if it were a land grab or an oil grab in Iraq, but we're there as liberators, we're there to free people and that makes this all the more difficult.
The Republican Primary in '08, McCain wants it, Hagel wants it, a whole bunch of people are going to get in there, and they're trying to set themselves up with free media coverage with the liberal spin machine by criticizing Rumsfeld and Bush, trying to ingratiate themselves with that aspect of the media, thinking that they've got a larger constituency that they can reach other than the existing Republican base, blah, blah, blah. All that we'll get to in just a moment. Before the break, though, I want to read to you this note I got from a soldier in Mosul. Just got this thing, it cleared at 11:46 this morning, 14 minutes before the program started, well, 20 minutes before the program started.
"Dear Rush: I'm a soldier currently stationed in Mosul. I'm getting ready to redeploy back to Germany. I was in a Mosul chow hall when the attack took place, not the one that got hit, though. Another soldier from our warehouse came down to our chow hall to make sure we were allright when he heard the news the chow hall got hit. After lunch, we walked down to the combat support hospital where all the wounded were being treated to give blood. They said they didn't need any but thanked us for our concern. We support them logistically. Our warehouse is the medical logistics center for all of Northern Iraq. We were able to get a few details of what happened before the story broke and it became common knowledge. I was horrified at the number of casualties. It was the biggest mass cal. at that hospital since I have been in Iraq and probably the biggest since the war started in 2003. I knew the story would be big, Mr. Limbaugh, and the name of the city where I'm stationed would be flashed across the cable news stations and newspapers all over the country. So I got on the satellite phone, I was ale to talk to my father and told him not to worry about me, that I was okay. Soon after that, the story broke. I was reading much of the coverage on the Internet, and I have to say that I am disgusted with what I am seeing. It seems to me that the liberal media is just thrilled this happened so it gives them a good headline to make Bush or Rumsfeld look bad. Don't these people get it? This is not just about politics in America. In fact, it was never about politics, until liberals -- notice I don't say Democrats, Mr. Limbaugh, but liberals -- was never about politics until liberals made it that way. I spent a little time in Israel when I was growing up, so I knew about the growing problem of extremist Islamic terrorism before September 11th. September 11th just brought a whole new dimension to it. We are at war with people who want to kill us. They are not noble or brave. There is no honor in killing yourself for your religion. A real hero would rather live for what he believes, but someone who kills himself along with others for it is just a cowardly murderer. And we were at war with these people. We were attacked first. And to see the liberals use what happened yesterday as an excuse to make America look bad is just -- well, I can't put it into words. I coulda died. Many of my fellow soldiers did die. Don't they get the seriousness of this? To use their deaths to further their political agenda now? How can these people who claim to support the troops support us when they seem excited at the political opportunity this attack has given then. Okay, anyway, thank you for all your support. I look forward to resuming broadcast excellence for the full three hours when I get back to Germany."
I'm not going to mention his name, just to protect him. He doesn't ask me not to, but just to give him a zone of privacy, but he's a specialist and he's in Mosul. First name is Dave.
From one Spec.4 to another Merry Christmas and God Bless you. HOOAH!
*PING*
Actually, it's an example of how outrageous it is that Rummy doesn't sign each and every letter that comes out of the DoD personally.
"It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom --"
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
"Rush should be put in charge of interrogations at Gitmo"
LMAO!!! I missed that but I agree that he should run them
But if you think the Libs and their allies cry about abuse now...can you imagine the howl that would arise if El Rushbo...cigar smoke curling up into the light...came into the room to begin an interrogation?
Amen. And VERY true.
"Specialist Dave", God bless you all! Most Americans DO know the seriousness of your mission and thank you ten thousand times over for your service and support you 100%!
And I can tell you personally that none of us EVER take that appreciation for granted.
Alan Combes was bordering on nasty when discussing this issue yesterday. He kept hammering that the reason this happened was that there were not enough troops in Iraq. The guy he was interviewing stated that the Generals disagreed - that any increase in troops would be interpreted as a move in the direction of occupancy and would feed local insurgency. They had been anticipating an increase in insurgent activity as they approached elections.
His plan was to hang up Christmas decorations, have Nativity scenes outside of the cells and sing Christmas carols to them. The ACLU would have a stroke if that happened.
People like Alan want to have it both ways when it comes to bashing what we're doing over there.
Troops get blown up...Alan says "well that wouldn't hve happened if there'd been more troops!"
We move in an extra 50K soldiers to calm down the insurgents...Alan says "with that many troops on the ground aren't we creating resentment among the people that we're becoming an occupier of their land and no better than what we got rid of?"
FNC is reporting now that this suicide bomber used a VERY sophisticated bomb vest...similiar to the ones that Hamas uses and that he was able to enter the chow hall because he was wearing an Iraqi Army Uniform! No amount of troops in the WORLD would have stopped this from happening.
BTTT
Merry Christmas spode...good to see you.
I'd like him to be called before a stupid senate hearing and have him do just that.
Now, most importantly, tx, thanks for serving. You're one of the reasons we're the greatest country the world has ever known and you have no idea how much MOST of us appreciate it.
I saw something interesting this morning I want to share with you. A six year-old cousin is visiting me for the holidays. He's all boy, a real hellion! LOL. He absolutely loves Action Figures . . . you know, being Rocky Balboa or Ahnold in one of the Terminator movies . . . whatever. He brought them all with him last year. He even had all the noise and annoying gadgets to go with them. He nearly drove me crazy last year.
This year . . . when he pulled out his toys . . . they were all soldier Action Heroes. Navy, Marines, Army, Air Force . . . he had them all. He had the airplanes that went with them. He had the tanks, the Hummers, the whole enchilada.
You know what, tx? The noise didn't bother me at all this year. I looked through his cardboard box . . . nothing but warriors. No Rocky. No Ahnold. No Wrestlers.
Now . . . who are the REAL heroes of our youth? Our children "get it" even if some of the Liberal Adults don't.
By the way . . . his mother is a devout Liberal. After I looked through his box, I glanced at her. Before I could say anything, she wagged a finger, and said, "I don't wanna hear it. Not one word."
I sat on the floor with a satisfied smirk . . . and helped Ryan massacre some Taliban -- our enemy of choice this day.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.