Toxic Corrosion
Daniel Henninger, in his weekly column for the Opinion Journal, points out the toxic effect that the media coverage and the political atmosphere are having on America's will. He also points out how badly damaged the United States will be by a defeat in Iraq. Our allies are rightfully getting worried.
The United States is talking itself into defeat in Iraq. Its political culture is now in a downward spiral of pessimism. In the halls of Congress, across endless newspaper columns, amid the punditocracy and on Sunday morning talk shows–all emit a Stygian gloom about America.
Yes, on any given day on some discrete issue (Prime Minister Maliki's bona fides, for example), the criticism of the American role is not without justification. But the cumulative effect of this unremitting ill wind is corrosive. We are not only on the way to talking ourselves into defeat in Iraq but into a diminished international status that may be harder to recover than the doom mob imagines. Self-criticism has its role, but profligate self-doubt can exact a price.
Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins wonders "whether the clock has already run out." To U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton the new strategy is "a dead end." For the Bush troop request, presidential candidate Joe Biden predicted "overwhelming rejection." (His committee resolution to that effect yesterday passed by three votes.) Presidential candidate Chuck Hagel: "We have anarchy in Iraq. It's getting worse." And not least, Sen. John Warner this week heaved his tenured eminence against the war effort, proposing another "non-binding" resolution against more troops.
To pick one amid scores of similar characterizations in the media, the Associated Press wrote from Washington before the State of the Union speech that "Democrats–and even some Republicans–scoffed at his policy." "Scoff" is a strong word, suggesting eye-rolling ridicule. (The line was so good that the AP ran it after the speech as well, under another writer's byline, this time from Baghdad.) But of course amid the giddy vapors of mass mockery, they all "support the troops."
Our slide to a national nervous breakdown because of Iraq is not going unnoticed. Australia's foreign minister, Alexander Downer, has been visiting across the U.S. this week. "I've been pretty worried about what I've heard," Mr. Downer said in an interview. Walking on Santa Monica beach Sunday before last, Mr. Downer said he encountered a display of crosses in the sand, representing the American dead in Iraq.
"What concerns me about this," he said, "is that it's sort of an isolationist sentiment, subconsciously, not consciously, and that would be an enormous problem for the world. I hope the American people understand the importance of not retreating and thinking the world's problems aren't theirs."
Please do read the whole thing. Henninger's column is one of my weekly must reads for a good reason. The fact of the matter is that America may well suffer irreversible damage if we are defeated in Iraq. And a precipitous withdrawal will be a defeat, no matter how it is "framed" as a "redeployment" or any of the other smokescreen words. The media, in its obscene zeal to damage the administration is too stupid to realize that they are offering the nation itself as a sacrifice to their arrogance. There has been exactly one reporter with the guts to say out loud that the media is damaging the country. One.
The left's toxic, corrosive attacks on the war, the administration and the troops themselves are having a cumulative destructive impact on this nation. The media, in echoing those corrosive attacks are causing real, permanent damage. Somehow we who have not broken faith have allowed our voices to be overwhelmed by the left's screeching noise machine. We have got to reverse that and be heard.
Sign the petition if you haven't already. Please.
Other Links to this Post
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Blue Crab Boulevard » Not One Penny — Thursday, 25 January , 2007 @ 9:15 am
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The Thunder Run — Thursday, 25 January , 2007 @ 12:47 pm
By Sam L., Thursday, 25 January , 2007 @ 9:27 am
I am constantly reminded of the Fram Filters commercial of some years back: A mechanic holding up a Fram filter, recommending we change oil and filter regularly, because if we don’t, it shortens the life of our engines. And ending with “You can pay me now, or you can pay me later.”
Also, the old adage, “A stitch in time saves nine.”
Stopping now will cost more money and lives later, and we’d have to be truly brutal later.
By skeneogden, Thursday, 25 January , 2007 @ 9:36 am
I hate to invoke the “V” word, but Cronkite and buddies did much the same thing to undermine our effort in Vietnam. His reporting on the Tet Offensive was unpatriotic and certainly gave our enemies encouragement. Unfortunately most people will not take the time any more to mine the truth from all of the available sources. It’s not only their loss but ours as well.
By James, Thursday, 25 January , 2007 @ 5:13 pm
>…toxic effect that the media coverage and the political atmosphere are having on America’s will.
This is impossible in a Free Democratic Open Society.
It’s the public that’s important. Without information nobody can have any educated opinion at all. It’s all gossip. And gossip is useless to a Republic.
It’s not the “news”, or “information” from the “MSM”. It the info itself. Good or Bad, news is news. Not to spread the news is not a service to a Democracy you want.
What’s corrosion is not trying to give a complete picture of events to the public.
The most obvious complaint people should have is: is the public getting “balanced” reporting from all news services.
Nobody seems to complain when most of the “news” is “good”. They complain when most of the “news” is “bad”; not to someone’s liking.
If you get mostly “bad” news there are two reasons and only two reasons. Either the reporting isn’t balanced, or the news IS mostly bad.
And you can’t fix either problem if the news isn’t reported.
So what is the problem? Bad reporting or bad events?
It can be both.