Odysseus once again weilds the Cluebat of Logic and Rightous Anger™; this time the subject of his rant is the outrageous lack of substantive actions against Iran in the face of the public statements of it's elected President concerning Israel and the Holocaust, and it's open race to become a nuclear power.
As I've said before, NOBODY weilds the Cluebat™ more effectively than Odysseus does.
He should be considered a national asset.
Update: On the post above, I left a comment responding to another commenter that had asked, in essence, why we blame the democrats for the administrations seeming lack of a responce to events in Iran, when Republicans hold both chambers and the White House. I put forth the idea that the CONSTANT partisan screeds/memes aimed at every action President Bush has taken in the last 5 years may be one (large) part of the reason why the response has been lackluster. I furthur contended that the Democrats still hold the power with the MSM, and that the media is the single greatest influance on public opinion. I contend that, taking Iraq as an example, the media has either chosen not to report any story favorable to the administration, or has spun an adimitedly bad event in such a way as to make it even worse, with the blame being placed at President Bush's feet. Here is an example of non-reporting...ever hear of Paul Ray Smith?
He is the first, and so far ONLY winner of the CMH in the occupation of Iraq. The ONLY news entity to report on the presentation of the award ceremony was CBS, and even with them, it was only deemed worthy as a one time sound bite, and was only shown because the viewers chose it from among three options. (guess CBS miscalculated the public's interest when they provided the option..)
Every war needs it's heroes. War is a desperate, dirty business that requires the full support of the public at home, if it has a chance of being successful, and honoring heroes is a part of maintaining that public support at the levels needed, like it or not, thats a fact of life. By not allowing any heroes to be widely acknowledged, the MSM is helping to choke off that support when it is most critcally needed....and I believe that this is being conciously done in furthurance of a partisian (Democratic) agenda.
Posted by Delftsman3 at December 18, 2005 09:41 PM | TrackBackDelftsman,
Although I disagree with your reasoning why heroism is under-reported, I share your sadness. It's frustrating to hear the stories about our brothers' valor and honor only from each other. Why does the rest of the nation not want to hear about such things? Great and wonderful deeds are being done by these fantastic guys, and yet they go unnoticed an unappreciated in large.
In small, however, I am proud and glad to report the oppsoite is true. I can't tell you how many times these past 4 years when I've been doing the homeland security gig in NYC I've been stopped in the streets and thanked. Especially on those days when I think nobody but us gives a rats ass, it really turns it around to get a simple "great job man, keep it up" from some guy you would never peg as a supporter.
Streetgang6
Posted by: streetgang6 at December 21, 2005 02:11 AM"Why does the rest of the nation not want to hear about such things?"
Your second paragraph PROVES my contention that it's the MEDIA, NOT the people, that don't want to know the stories of heroism.
Stories of heroism tend to raise public support, thus raising support for President Bush.
The average person on the street DOES support our troops, and WANTS to know about our heroes.
About the only way to hear about any of them is to read the Blogs, and mostly the "conservative" Blogs at that.
Even when a "progressive" Blog reports an act of heroism, they tend to focus on the negative aspect of the story, ie, "sgt. so&so lost his life in furthurance of BushCheney Haliburtons illegal war"...it's truth, but it's truth slanted in such a way as to almost become a lie.
They take the sacrifice made by one of our brothers or sisters and turn it into anti-war propaganda. Indeed, sometimes they point to the lopsided cost, such as in Paul Smith's case to paint our brave men as savage, bloodthirsty marauders, rather than men and women doing their duty in the finest traditions of our country.
You and I both know that all these heroes made their sacrifices for really one thing and one thing only, the protection of their comrads in arms; to ignore them is to belittle that sacrifice, and a slap in the face to all those that serve.