Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to What planet do you live on?

Outcomes
TB — (archived)

...name one effect that the Washington Post or the democratic Leadership has had this war its planning, its conduct, its outcomes or its possibility of success

Let's focus on outcomes and possibility of success.

--I have already pointed out that the media and the Left were pushing for failure at the very beginnings of the war, long before any of what we are seeing now was evident. Any temporary setback was seized on as an early sign of disaster. Any impressions of chaos and looting were extensively covered. How long did the museum looting story stay in the forefront? Even after it was shown to be exaggerated, to use a generous term? Positive stories were covered much more reluctantly, usually only when their noses were shoved in it, like stories about the elections. And almost always with the standard "BUT" added to show that this story was not significant.

--I have already pointed out that the constant and unbalanced defeatism of the media and the Democrats has encouraged our enemies beyond what might otherwise have been the case. You can't dismiss this. The Democratic Party, throughout the last election season, did everything possible to create the impression that we were on the very cusp of fleeing Iraq if things did not improve.

Would this encourage or discourage more of the violent activity designed to create this exact result?

--I have already pointed out that the media has consistently and aggressively spread negative information on the war and its conduct. The Abu Ghraib aberration received months of coverage, with photos lovingly spread across the internet. This was the best thing that had happened to the Washington Post in years. This story was seized gratefully by anti-American media in the Middle East and dispersed across the area, with the expected effect. Other similar stories of American crimes received similar broad coverage orders of magnitude greater than any positive coverage.

The most recent example was the Sunnis supposedly burned alive, a story that is looking to be a complete fabrication at this point. Yet violence has taken place based on the wide dissemination of this incident.

Does this kind of coverage, true or not, no matter what the motivation behind it, aid in creating stability over there, or did it aid in creating chaos?

--The media, and on occasion politicians with security access, have routinely revealed classified information on surveillance techniques, interrogation techniques, tactical and strategic analyses, and methods of tracking terrorist finances.

Again, whatever the rationale for doing this, did this make life more difficult for our enemies, or did it make life easier?

After the damage is done, papers like the New York Times later print on the back pages their regrets on blowing the cover of the SWIFT tracking program. Or we see things like this.

Our enemies in Iraq and elsewhere are firmly convinced we can be made to retreat and give up, that their side will win by tactics of attrition. They are acting accordingly. It is ludicrous to believe that the intensive opposition to the war on the part of the media and politicians has nothing to do with this.

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