Stolen Honor

Here's a post from ThreatsWatch by Steve Schippert that perfectly captures what happened to America and to our servicemen during and after Vietnam. Far too many men who served their country had their honor stolen (or more properly, clouded) by media that controlled the flow of information.

Now, according to Cronkite and all those who shared his twisted view, the battle against communism was nonsense and the military was different.

The battle was not to be against communism, but clearly against America’s own military by the sole arbiters of information flow. The battle was engaged against John.

That offensive, launched in living rooms and coffee shops from coast to coast, went unchallenged from military service members in the field. There was no mechanism nor the technology for them to rebut or directly dispute the nonsense that the Tet Offensive of 1968 spelled doom for South Vietnam and American involvement there. For, if a credentialed member of the media did not report it, it was never heard or considered.

It was this single caveat that enabled an agenda-driven media establishment to dictate the course of a war, successfully snatching political defeat from the jaws of a military victory.

It was this single caveat that enabled an agenda-driven media establishment to shroud, obscure and effectively steal the honor of honorable men like John, forever altering the course of their lives.

The media directed the fabrications about Vietnam, repeated them endlessly and made the falsehoods into "common knowledge". One of the very early posts on this blog addressed just a few of those myths.

In many ways we're fighting the exact same war again now. No, Iraq isn't Vietnam, but there are some who want it to be. I'd rather not cooperate in allowing honor to be taken away from the soldiers again.