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November 25, 2005
The Enemy Behind You
In their failure to provide balanced reporting on the Iraq war, the mainstream media is faithfully following the same script that led to the defeat of the democratic forces in Vietnam. The MSM's refusal to report positive news provided a kind of "suppressing fire" that skewed the average American's view towards pessimism, and allowed a small phalanx of Leftist legislators to finally persuade Congress to pull the plug on funding to the South Vietnamese.
The MSM is adept at rooting out individuals who hold views in line with their own, and then presenting them as speakers for the majority. See, for example, the recent hyping of the fraud-ridden fantasies of former Marine Staff Sgt. Jimmy Massey. Anyone who reads the milblogs would know immediately that Massey is an exception, yet he got tons of press--all without the the scrutiny of even the most rudimentary journalistic fact-checking.
Well, Mona Charen has found a voice of with a slightly different point of view: Marine Sgt. Todd Bowers, who has completed two tours in Iraq. Bowers is understandably suspicious of the press, based on his first-hand experience. Charen:
In his first tour, he noticed that members of the press were reluctant to photograph Iraqis laughing, giving the thumbs up sign, or cheering. Yet Bowers saw plenty that would have made fine snapshots. In Baghdad, Al Kut and Al-Nasiriyah, Bowers reported no signs of anti-American feeling at all among Iraqis.
Fallujah, of course, was different, as the city was a hotbed of terrorism, and the battle of Fallujah was one of the fiercest engagements of the war. During the battle, Bowers found himself sharing a ride with an embedded reporter for the AP. He was asked what he thought of the destruction. Bowers responded that it was "Incredible, overwhelming. But it definitely had to be done." He also stressed that because the enemy had fought so dirty, tough calls had to be made. Later, he saw himself quoted in newspapers around the country to the effect that the destruction was "overwhelming" as if he could not cope.[...]
It's easy to understand how a fresh-faced j-school freshman could be swayed by utopian propaganda about "changing the world" as he or she sits safe in some college classroom. But it's another matter entirely to excuse the bias of field reporters who are risking their lives yet willfully ignore the evidence in front of their faces.
There was plenty of progress to report, if the press had been interested. When the battle of Fallujah was over, the Marines set up a humanitarian relief station in an abandoned amusement park. Together with Iraqis locally hired and trained for the purpose and with an assist from the Iraqi ministry of the interior, they distributed rice, flour, medical supplies, baby formula, and other necessities to thousands of Iraqis. For six weeks, Bowers reports, the distribution went beautifully, "like a well-oiled machine." Not worth a story, apparently. Only when something went wrong did the press see something worth reporting. A small group of Iraqis were turned away from the food distribution point, though they had been waiting in line for hours. They were given vouchers and told they could come to the front of the line the next morning when supplies would be replenished. These few unhappy souls were then besieged by press types eager to tell their story.
At the same site, the Marines had repaired an old Ferris wheel. The motor was dead, but when two Marines pushed and pulled by hand they could get the thing turning to give rides to the children of the Iraqi employees. They did so for hours on end. A photographer from a large American media company watched impassively. "Why don't you take a picture of this?" demanded one Marine. The photographer snorted, "That's not my job."
It's tough to win a war when you're enemy is in front of you, and also behind you--shooting at your back.
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