Full Metal Straitjacket
Ralph Peters savages the New York Times' "investigative report" that attempted to smear all returning troops as psychos just waiting for a chance to kill. (I posted about that slime job here.) Peters says that the Times is trying to place a leper's bell on returning veterans. If you don't know what a leper's bell is, this will explain the term.)
The purpose of Sunday's instantly notorious feature "alerting" the American people that our Iraq and Afghanistan vets are all potential murderers when they move in next door was to mark those defenders of freedom as "unclean" – as the new lepers who can't be trusted amid uninfected Americans.
In the more than six years since 9/11, the Times has never run a feature story half as long on any of the hundreds of heroes who've served our country – those who've won medals of honor, distinguished service crosses, Navy crosses, silver stars or bronze stars with a V device (for valor).
But the Times put a major investigative effort into the "sensational" story that 121 returning vets had committed capital offenses (of course, 20 percent of the cases cited involved manslaughter charges stemming from drunken driving, not first- or second-degree murder . . . ).
Well, a quick statistics check let the air out of the Times' bid to make us dread the veteran down the block – who the Times implies has a machine gun under his bathrobe when he steps out front to fetch the morning paper. In fact, the capital-crimes rate ballyhooed by the Gray Lady demonstrates that our returning troops are far less likely to commit such an offense.
Again, the Times' smear certainly wasn't an accident. The paper's staff is highly paid and highly experienced. Its editors know that a serious news story has to put numbers into context. But their sole attempt at context was to note that offenses by former soldiers have ticked up since we went to war.
The Times is trying to make you fear our veterans (Good Lord, if your daughter marries one, she's bound to be beaten to death!). And to convince you that our military would be a dreadful place for your sons and daughters, a death-machine that would turn them into incurable psychopaths.
Peters touches on the way the left and the media (i know, I know, that's redundant) seems to be increasingly pathologically against the military. He mentions how they try to make the veterans fit into their Hollywood-driven picture of what they believe the military is. Damn the truth, full smear ahead. The twisted Hollywood fantasy of the military has been noted before, of course. The only real bright spots in all of this are that a) the Times version of the military is being thumped pretty widely at this point and b) their stock price continues to plummet – likely as a result of this kind of "journalism." Their latest attempt to fit every returning vet with a full metal straitjacket appears to have backfired.
Other Links to this Post
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Blue Crab Boulevard » A Fictional World — January 20, 2008 @ 9:00 am
By David M, January 18, 2008 @ 1:16 pm
The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the – Web Reconnaissance for 01/18/2008 A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often.
By sam, January 18, 2008 @ 5:02 pm
I read Mr. Peter’s editorial and like it. I also read Iowahawk’s take on the NYT editorial and liked it even better. http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/ Hilarious.
By Maggie, January 18, 2008 @ 6:03 pm
Ralph Peters and ALL the bloggers who are keeping this NYTimes “piece-o-crap” story alive enough to keep slicing it with the death of a 1000 cuts ALL deserve medals.
Bravo … and keep the “hits” coming!