All The News That Fits...Their Agenda
By William A. Mayer
In what reads like a stupid April Fools joke, Bernard Weinraub and Thom Shanker are continuing Howell Raines’ and his New York Times’ war on the Bush administration and in particular on Operation Iraqi Freedom [the entire Time’ lead page is veritably reeking with negativity and sophomoric second guessing] with an article entitled Rumsfield’s Plan For War Criticized On Battlefield.
The piece creates a mood of despair, an impression that battlefield leaders are in near rebellion against the Pentagon and that the Joint Chiefs are fractured along intricate lines of fissure - that the Army is fighting the Air Force and the Marines almost as hard as it is fighting the enemy.
Based primarily on “anonymous” alleged sources – who would want to be sourced for drivel like this - this screed alleges friction between the US Army Chief, General Shinseki – a Clinton appointee [heavily promoted by RINO turncoat William “The Poet” Cohen] and holder of an Master’s Degree in literature from Duke – and his civilian boss, the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, over the conduct of the war.
Shinseki is the same buffoon who thought that the US Army morale could be strengthened by allowing all Army soldiers to wear the black beret heretofore the sacred and solitary privilege of the elite Army Rangers [keep in mind that the new contract for the berets went, not surprisingly, to the Bancroft Cap Company in – of all places – Arkansas].
This diversity promoted, quota General is also the mastermind behind that mind-blowing conception “Army of One” [as long dead DIs spin in their graves] and the guy who wants to abandon tracked heavy armor in favor of lightly armored wheeled vehicles – a suggestion which has knowledgeable members of the ranks doing more than scratching their heads and making sure their life insurance premiums are paid.
While we actually hope that there is friction – serious friction - between the Secretary and this bootlicking Clinton sycophant, we would never take the Times’ word for it without independent confirmation.
Regardless, and despite the foreboding headline, the article in question is merely a re-hash of ignorant suppositions made by fellows intent on spreading disinformation apparently at the behest of Mr. Raines, who has carried on his little vendetta against George Bush ever since he took over the helm at the Times just before September 11 - apparently chagrined that his doyen - Mr. Gore, whom Raines endorsed - went down in flames.
Under Raines’ tutelage the Times’ news coverage has been rendered a marionette to its editorial position – their recent misquoting and mischaracterization of Henry Kissinger – as detailed by numerous left of center publications - including the august Washington Post – as opposing Bush’s “preemptive” war is only additional fodder to support the contention that the Times is using its news operation as an editorial bully pulpit, with the bulbous Raines doing the bullying.
Actually it is more than bullying - the methodology being employed is transparently fraudulent; the non-sourced statement, the bald faced lie, the insinuation not backed by fact, the suborning of personal vendettas to skew perceptions.
It's insidious and corrosively ruinous to the underpinnings of a republican form of government - the ghost of William Randolph Hearst lives!
It seems to be America's burden at this crossroad that such left-wing partisan jerks are in no short supply…
Let's be clear from the get go - Bush had it spot on, but he didn't go far enough...
David Gregory, Helen Thomas, Peter Arnett, Christiane Amanpour, Wolf Blitzer, Adam Clymer, R.W "Johnny" Apple, Bill Plante, Andy Rooney, Dan Rather & Mike Wallace and a whole gaggle of their ilk, too numerous to chronicle here, are all major league anal apertures.
But it is more than that, more than just cheap shilling - jockeying for narrow partisan advantage.
They represent the head of a snake; a Puff-Adder - coiled and menacing – forked tongue flicking this way and that.
They are doctrinaire Bush haters whose loathing has consumed whatever vestige of objectivity they might once, however briefly, have harbored. They hate America and now function solely as de-facto disseminators of misinformation targeted at shattering the overwhelming US public support for the war effort - as such maybe they should merely be shipped off to the radical Islamic regime of their choice where they could then set about to pursue their trade more honestly.
Imagine what they could accomplish with a cadre of AK armed Feydayeen Saddam behind them?
Unfortunately the Iraqi Ministry of Disinformation was flattened a few days ago - so sad.
That Arnett was even able to land a gig - anywhere in the field of journalism - is almost beyond belief in light of his seditious and totally fallacious claim that the US intentionally bombed a baby formula factory during the Gulf War, when all the facts at the time indicated that the factory actually was a laboratory engaged in the manufacture of chemical and biological weaponry.
That NBC would be the party to give Arnett still another chance is worrisome in the extreme, they apparently being perfectly willing to also overlook Arnett’s specious claim [1998, while working for CNN] that US forces routinely used nerve gas during the Vietnam War.
That this campaign is being undertaken by some of the most venerated member of the elite media is simply beyond comprehension.
Unless, of course, what those of us on the right have been saying all along is correct - that these conduits of opinion are knowingly and in a cold-blooded premeditated manner intending to damage America's long-term interests..
This is a hard and serious charge.
It is nonetheless manifestly true. This is no accident - these people are not composed of the dull rejects from journalism 101 at Boise State.
This is a calculated scheme to turn what has so far been the most successful ground war in history into a stinking albatross around the neck of Bush and the Republican Party.
It’s an effort composed of many pieces; during the run up to that first strike against Saddam’s Baghdad bunker it centered on the rabid “anti-war” movement – all the way intentionally overlooking its Marxist organizers, it then shifted to the size and composition of the coalition - as if any country outside the US and the UK even mattered. Now hands are being dramatically wrung over supposed deviance from some grand unchangeable plan delivered - as if by Moses from atop the Washington Monument - and shortly it will morph again - this time to supposed concerns over civilian casualties, the dangers of urban warfare of “humanitarian crises of untold proportions” ad infinitum.
The “concerns” will never end, even after the war there will be the matter of land mines, depleted uranium ordnance, UN involvement and whatever else they feel may gain traction.
All will be gauged against the same unattainable standard that these folks now use to measure the progress of the war:
The war should be over before it begins.
The allies must only fight by the Marquis of Queensbury’s rules.
The cost of the war must not exceed “x” dollars, “x” being substantially less than whatever it actually costs.
No civilians must die in the conflict, especially if they are intentionally killed by Saddam’s forces and then offered up by Peter Arnett on Saddam-O-Vision as evidence of Yankee evil.
France, Germany and Russia, in close cooperation with Kofi Annan and the March Hare, must be allowed to call the shots and determine the battle plan – America and Britain will be relegated to do the bleeding.
It would merely be ridiculous if it were not so deadly serious.
The ball is now in their court, they stand accused of aiding abetting the enemy in a time of war. This is traitorous activity.
Whatever efforts they deem worthy of expending to reclaim at least a shard of credibility now falls on their narrow and tremulous shoulders.
It will be a tough sell with such self indulgent journalistic pro-terrorist excuses as Christine Amanpour [who along with her then Clinton State Department hubby, James Rubin, fed the public bilge that allowed her handlers in the Clinton WH to conduct a pro-Islamic fundamentalist air war in Eastern Europe of unprecedented proportions] leading the pack.
SaddamArnett image ©2003 FeralCo/Barking Walleye Productions, all rights reserved.