The Media War

Andy has linked to a blog post by Michael Yon, a reporter/blogger in Iraq.  It's long, detailed, rough, graphic (pictures of dead people) and it meanders all over, frankly, but it also bravely puts the unvarnished things that Yon has witnessed out there for all to evaluate.  No filter.  No slant.  Just the facts. Yon went to Iraq out of a feeling of duty; he is not there to pander to anyone, and he faces great danger for the sole reason of providing the public with a description of what he sees. 

Andy writes:

We lost the victory in Vietnam. We are in danger of losing the victory in Iraq. We lost the victory in Somalia. Osama and Al Qaida have forecast that we have a history of running away from victory.

We need to know what is happening. The truth, not the spin. We need to see it from the views that our troops see it. This is a real war. The consequences of losing are great. The consequences of losing at the point of victory will cause problems for our grandchildren.

I agree with him 100%.  We simply must make the right decisions now.  We hold the future in our hands.  Either we fix the Middle East, or it will haunt our children and their children and their children's children, and they will look back at us and wonder why we squandered the opportunity to make it right.

The foremost points that emerge from Yon's writing - to me, at least - are that the military desperately needs our support, that our fighting forces are lean and mean and well-trained, and that we are not getting the true picture of Iraq from the MSM. Yon writes:

Since the start of this war, there’s been a lot of killing going on: killing of our soldiers and allies; killing of Iraqi civilians, soldiers and police; but, especially, a lot more killing of bad guys. The particulars of the killings are seldom publicized, but killing the enemy is in fact one of the primary purposes we have soldiers in Iraq.

That is war.  That's what it is all about.  Kill enough of them, and they eventually give up and we win and we get to have things done our way. Lose, and we are humiliated, the Great United States of America will no longer be effective as the umbrella under which the free world can find shelter, and the enemies of freedom and the West become even stronger.  Next time, 9/11 might look like child's play.

The thing is, we are winning.  But ask yourself:  Is this country feeling/acting like it is winning?