Modern Heroes - Our soldiers like what they do. They want our respect, not pity.

Opinion Journal ^ | 10/04/2007 | ROBERT D. KAPLAN

[Argentine-Firecracker]

I'm weary of seeing news stories about wounded soldiers and assertions of "support" for the troops mixed with suggestions of the futility of our military efforts in Iraq. Why aren't there more accounts of what the troops actually do? How about narrations of individual battles and skirmishes, of their ever-evolving interactions with Iraqi troops and locals in Baghdad and Anbar province, and of increasingly resourceful "patterning" of terrorist networks that goes on daily in tactical operations centers?

The sad and often unspoken truth of the matter is this: Americans have been conditioned less to understand Iraq's complex military reality than to feel sorry for those who are part of it.

The media struggles in good faith to respect our troops, but too often it merely pities them. I am generalizing, of course. Indeed, there are regular, stellar exceptions, quite often in the most prominent liberal publications, from our best military correspondents. But exceptions don't quite cut it amidst the barrage of "news," which too often descends into therapy for those who are not fighting, rather than matter-of-fact stories related by those who are.

[Argentine-Firecracker]

"An army at war and a nation at the mall do not encounter each other except through the refractive medium of news and entertainment.

That medium is refractive because while the U.S. still has a national military, it no longer has a national media to quite the same extent. The media is increasingly representative of an international society, whose loyalty to a particular territory is more and more diluted. That international society has ideas to defend--ideas of universal justice--but little actual ground. And without ground to defend, it has little need of heroes. Thus, future news cycles will also be dominated by victims.

The media is but one example of the slow crumbling of the nation-state at the upper layers of the social crust--a process that because it is so gradual, is also deniable by those in the midst of it. It will take another event on the order of 9/11 or greater to change the direction we are headed. Contrary to popular belief, the events of 9/11--which are perceived as an isolated incident--did not fundamentally change our nation. They merely interrupted an ongoing trend toward the decay of nationalism and the devaluation of heroism."

Mr. Kaplan is right!

[Yardstick]

*Bump*

[dellbabe68]

ping

[SMARTY]

“That medium is refractive because while the U.S. still has a national military, it no longer has a national media to quite the same extent.”

We’re a two party system with a one party media.

[SueRae]

Hits the nail on the head. Free Republic posters regularly post news about all that is being done right in Iraq and Afghanistan. Notice the relative silence from the media since the surge? No daily body counts? Why is it that if there’s no bad news to report, there’s no news?

With painfully few exceptions, the media has been completely subverted and sadly, American media and the ‘National Enquirer’ mentality of many listeners place a higher value of the latest dalliances of talentless celebutantes than on the real heroes and role models of our time.

[Leisler]

"..The media is but one example of the slow crumbling of the nation-state at the upper layers of the social crust.."

On the left it is not accurate to call it slow crumbling. It has been knowing and active dismantlement by any means. My complaint is in the so-called Republican so-called Party. It is neither republican, nor a party. It has no party goals, no party standards, either economic, social, ethical or morals. Frankly, it is cowardly with respect to discipline its own members. I won't even talk about taxes and spending. I'd trust to lend a 100$ to a street corner pimp than I would the RP. I think a lot of the weaselness is do to collage and advanced education and physical cowardliness. The entire elites grow up sling words and writing b.s. papers and then go into politics or management. They take crap courses, write crap papers for crap professors and get crap degrees in crap majors. I suppose this is fit mental training for politics.