Kill Faster! - Defeated by the Media

The New York Post ^ | May 20, 2004 | Ralph Peters

[Tom Jefferson]

May 20, 2004 -- IN Iraq last month, I learned a great deal about the future of combat. By watching TV. During the initial fighting in Fallujah, I tuned in al-Jazeera and the BBC. At the same time, I was getting insider reports from the battlefield, from a U.S. military source on the scene and through Kurdish intelligence. I saw two different battles.

[Naspino]

This all goes back to what I was thinking this morning. If Israel had pushed out the Palis 10 years ago in a "ruthless" engagement. No one would care today. If we'd initially brought Iraq to the dirt no one would care today. It'd be written about but public outrage doesn't last. To the media and their disciples the humiliation of one man is equivalent to the slaughter of a million (Rwanda). When you humiliate someone each day for a year you feed their outrage for a year. When it happens "so fast", as Albright they would later say about Rwanda, "what can you do?"

[jjm2111]

Can't we jab Al Jazeera's satellite feed?

[Travis McGee]

Savage is just going OFF on our media rat traitors!!! He's reading WW2 NYT headlines, demonstrating the ingrained patriotism of our reporters. "US Forces Blast Japanese Forces!" etc. Then he's reading our current headlnes: "US Forces Blast Wedding Party" etc. It's great! Calling them out as traitors. He read the Cicero quote about the enemy inside, punctuated with "Dan" and "That's You Tom." etc.

[risk]

I don't know this is all about killing. It's about winning. We need a press that's behind our survival, the survival of our troops, and for freedom in the mideast.

[Texasforever]

i agree, we need to kill them so fast that the news media doesn't have time to catch their breath

Yep it is a lot easier to beg forgiveness than to ask for permission. If we are going to be labeled war criminals regardless of what we do then we might as well go for the gold.

[risk]

...go for the gold.

The "gold" is winning. Every action we take should be toward that end. There is no substitute for victory, not even revenge.

[Rightwing Conspiratr1]

The media are the insurgents in Iraq.

[Rightwing Conspiratr1]

Another answer... MIL-SPAN Cable and official military reports and feeds.

[Texasforever]

The "gold" is winning. Every action we take should be toward that end. There is no substitute for victory, not even revenge.

Who said anything about revenge?

[Trinity_Tx]

Not just a good question, but I think it's The Critical, "Live or Die" one.

We are strong enough militarily to defeat those who would harm us. But that old "pen mightier than the sword" thing is too true when the people are so clueless.

I guess the only way to really defeat them, and thereby survive, is to fight fire with fire and agressively use the freedom of speech & press ourselves. Fox helps... talk radio, the Internet.

If only we could get the people to wake up and listen. Might take something even worse than 9/11 to shake them out of their blissful oblivion though, I'm afraid.

[OESY]

Absolutely right. Winning is everything.

When your enemy (the liberal Dem media) is unprincipled, one has to stay resolute on key priorities. Witness Dem/Media resistance to the First Gulf War -- followed by criticism for not taking out Saddam, as the Dem/Media switched positions to attack from a different direction. That criticism may well have been followed by accusations that too many soldiers were lost in Baghdad, there was no plan, we're in a quagmire, we have no exit strategy.

It is totally predictable, as was the converse during Bosnia and Kosovo under Clinton. Not a peep when we let caravans of war criminals like Karadzic and Mladic pass through our checkpoints and huge refugee problems were created by relying exclusively on bombing at 15,000 feet while knocking out bridge and other infrastructure. Every misstep was treated lightly by the Media, which provided context, perspective and excuses wherever possible to soften the impact. Did anyone mention looting back then?

Unlike Vietnam, Bush should not allow the media to set constraints, to tie our hands behind our backs, to restrict our ability to mine actionable intelligence, to release dangerous prisoners. The Dem/Media will criticize Bush on every aspect of his conduct of the war, but if he wins their criticism will not resonate, i.e., it will be discounted, by voters. If Bush wins, America wins.

[Tom Jefferson]

BTTT

[atomicpossum]

I thought CNN was the "Arab CNN."

[Americanwolf]

Can you charge a media entity with Sedition or Treason.... Mind you I can already hear the screams of McCarthyism from the far left, but I think if there were provable actionable charges that outlets like CNN or CBS, were indeed providing aid and comfort by providing false propaganda to the enemy and to demoralize our troops in the process. The Media might change there tune very quickly. But the pickle is proving it. When is the media going to accept the responsibility that comes with the freedom of speech that this country provides them. If the Government can not hold them accountable someone has too.

[johnb838]

If a media outlet continually gives aid & comfort to the enemy, in effect assuming the role of propaganda organ for that enemy, then they should be judged to have BECOME the enemy and should be taken out.

This pussyfooting problem will be taken care of when our losses through terror strikes get up in the tens of thousands. Apparently pre-emption really doesn't work -- we have tried to avoid the Chamberlain appeasement game but fate seems to be directing us toward an all-out, world-wide bloodbath all the same.

[johnb838]

HEre's the difference: In WWII the left were pacifists -- UNTIL the Soviet Union was invaded. Then all of a sudden they were hawks and chirping about why was Roosevelt not entering us into the war. This time, the left is still angry over Vietnam and the demise of the Soviet Union so they will never support us. I say we hang them.

[Wolfstar]

The Global War on Terror is going to be a decades-long struggle.

No, actually, it won't if John Kerry is elected. He'll find a way to surrender to the UN and Euroweenies post haste.

[tet68]

And, as other people say, the rest of the world is already brainwashed into hating America, so we actually lose nothing.

As I said on another post, it is all about resolve, the last time we demonstrated our resolve was in WW II at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it is becoming clear that we are going to have to demonstrate it again.