Thursday, September 30, 2004
War questions
Following are my answers to Orin Kerr as posted on the Volokh Conspiracy dated 9/28:
First, assuming that you were in favor of the invasion of Iraq at the time of the invasion, do you believe today that the invasion of Iraq was a good idea? Why/why not?
Good or bad "ideas" are not related to decisions about war. War is only contemplated in response to present or future threats. This war certainly succeeded in moving the battleground from mainland US to the middle east.
Second, what reaction do you have to the not-very-upbeat news coming of Iraq these days, such as the stories I link to above?
The so-called MSM is incapable of providing "upbeat news" from Iraq or any other US Theatre of Operations because their cocooning and pack mentality is left wing and hostile to any assertion of US power.
Third, what specific criteria do you recommend that we should use over the coming months and years to measure whether the Iraq invasion has been a success?
To measure the successful invasion over the coming months would be a self-defeating exercise in futility, as the invasion was completed successfully over a year ago. Criteria to be used in measuring pacification and democracy building efforts are best defined by the troops on the ground and their leaders, even though such criteria and reports will be buried and ignored by the MSM as not fitting their pre-determined and myopic story line. Thankfully, the Blogosphere has numerous members fitting the above and other posts from natives and current residents of Iraq. Perhaps enough people will read them to eventually overcome or at least ameliorate the bias of the MSM. As to specific criteria, what's wrong with economic activity, education, and democratic activity? None of this is noticed by our "elite betters", who report only deaths, kidnappings, hostages, hatred, and "widespread attacks".
UPDATE: The following from Clayton Cramer illustrates my point about the MSM exactly:
Stories Like This Make Me Wonder How Low The Mainstream Media Will Go
This is from an article in the Tennessean, in which one of their columnists relates what he found out from talking to Marines in Iraq. Part of this indicates that NBC is engaging in at least questionable journalistic practices as part of their "Defeat Bush" campaign:
Is there anything that the mainstream media won't do to defeat Bush?
<
type="text/javascript" src="http://www.feedmap.net/blogmap/blogapi.ashx?method=blogmapbadge&feed=http://rltaylorjr.blogspot.com/atom.xml">First, assuming that you were in favor of the invasion of Iraq at the time of the invasion, do you believe today that the invasion of Iraq was a good idea? Why/why not?
Good or bad "ideas" are not related to decisions about war. War is only contemplated in response to present or future threats. This war certainly succeeded in moving the battleground from mainland US to the middle east.
Second, what reaction do you have to the not-very-upbeat news coming of Iraq these days, such as the stories I link to above?
The so-called MSM is incapable of providing "upbeat news" from Iraq or any other US Theatre of Operations because their cocooning and pack mentality is left wing and hostile to any assertion of US power.
Third, what specific criteria do you recommend that we should use over the coming months and years to measure whether the Iraq invasion has been a success?
To measure the successful invasion over the coming months would be a self-defeating exercise in futility, as the invasion was completed successfully over a year ago. Criteria to be used in measuring pacification and democracy building efforts are best defined by the troops on the ground and their leaders, even though such criteria and reports will be buried and ignored by the MSM as not fitting their pre-determined and myopic story line. Thankfully, the Blogosphere has numerous members fitting the above and other posts from natives and current residents of Iraq. Perhaps enough people will read them to eventually overcome or at least ameliorate the bias of the MSM. As to specific criteria, what's wrong with economic activity, education, and democratic activity? None of this is noticed by our "elite betters", who report only deaths, kidnappings, hostages, hatred, and "widespread attacks".
UPDATE: The following from Clayton Cramer illustrates my point about the MSM exactly:
Stories Like This Make Me Wonder How Low The Mainstream Media Will Go
This is from an article in the Tennessean, in which one of their columnists relates what he found out from talking to Marines in Iraq. Part of this indicates that NBC is engaging in at least questionable journalistic practices as part of their "Defeat Bush" campaign:
Consider this story Rose saw reported: ''I was going through the battle damage assessment at my desk with NBC's Today on the TV. The attack occurred in the middle of the night. I had the footage of the attack on my computer, and here's Katie Couric (or whoever hosts it) showing the same bomb location.And there are other examples of significant news that is not being reported, that should be:
''I had pictures of the bombed vehicles, which is how I knew she was talking about the same location. The next shot is kids being carried into a hospital. We had eyes on this for a long time. If there were kids in there, they were toting weapons or the terrorists used them as human shields. …
''I went to our Combat Operations Center and walked into them watching the same thing. I verified what I thought and spoke with our intelligence guys. They said the whole thing was staged and probably old footage. They track the footage and have seen repeat footage shown in the past. They also said to look at the footage and see if it makes sense. More often than not, it doesn't … pulling a child from rubble with relatively clean clothes. ''
''The Najaf shrine — HUNDREDS of dead women and children were brought out after Sadr left,'' Rose wrote. ''They (Sadr's supporters) rounded them up during the battle and brought them in to be executed. Why? Because they anticipated the Americans would eventually enter the shrine and walk into a media ambush. We never went in. The people of Najaf love us right now because of that. They hate Sadr and want him dead.This sounds like it should have been a major story. But it reflects badly on anti-U.S. insurgents, so don't expect any coverage of it on ABC, CBS, NBC, or CNN.
''Have you heard that one yet (in the media)?''
No we haven't. We just get one side. That's bad journalism — by a news media acting in concert with Kerry.
Is there anything that the mainstream media won't do to defeat Bush?
