thedrifter
06-16-03, 05:58 AM
Spinning the Rescue of Pfc. Lynch
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Exclusive commentary by Gary Larson
Jun 15, 2003
What God-awful lengths an antiwar anti-Bush press will go to spin the rescue of Private First Class Jessica Lynch from an Iraqi hospital. If nothing else, this sadness validates that liberal mainstream spinners stop at nothing, including belittling our brave GIs, to smear the Bush administration.
A columnist for the liberal Los Angeles Times picks up on the antiwar British Broadcasting Company’s report that the rescue from the Iraqi hospital was “staged.” That’s right, staged as in “Wag The Dog” staged. I kid you not.
Turns out the producer of the BBC report later debunks that notion, saying U.S. Special Forces did what military is always wise to do: Protect itself in a worst-case scenario in wartime. Call this common sense.
Columnist Robert Scheer calls it “fictitious.” With not a shred of proof, he labels the event “one in a series of egregious lies marketed to us by the Bush administration.” The smug columnist plays partisan jury, judge, then hangman. All whilst sitting at his laptop in Los Angeles, 8,000 air miles from Iraq. Embedded with forces he was not, and it shows.
Newspapers, most liberal and a lot antiwar, suck up Scheer’s column. No effort is made to tell the real story, like from U.S. Special Forces. After all, they did the rescue, called an “extraction” by the military. Instead, media gives sanction to Scheer’s scorn for our Armed Forces--on the eve of Memorial Day, no less--while slurring the Bush administration. All in day’s work, it appears, for mainstream press.
What Scheer fails to point out: The Nasiriyah hospital was behind enemy lines. Enemy AK-47 bullets and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) whizzed by not far away. GIs had been killed in action that day. The city was not secured, presenting a host of ambush opportunities. Scheer and papers carrying his snippy, Maureen Dowd-like screed fail utterly to give context to the rescue. Talk about intellectually dishonest--old hat now, it seems, among the left. Where’s their honor? Dignity?
A critical factor Scheerr also fails to inform is U.S. military strategy. Amassing stunning firepower to assure victory is playing it strictly by the book. Anything less is plainly dumb. Putting power at the point of attack is the “first principle in strategy” in Clausewitz’s book On War.
Scheer presumes a God-like clairvoyance among our GIs. Like police who fire on the unknown “unarmed,” they are expected to Know--intuitively?--bad guys’ weaponry and intent. Would that a clear crystal ball be issued to street cops and military? Ouija boards, anyone? Alas, dark reality is not so kind or generous.
Do war critics prefer death and injury among our military going in timidly to do an extraction? Would they deny Clausewitz’s sage advice to obtain “superiority at the decisive point” to fetch the badly-injured Pfc. Lynch?
So what if that rescue was carried out by media types? Try this scenario:
Jeeploads of khaki-clothed reporters rush in, laptops a-blazing, under “PRESS” signs. Confident they’ll not be shot at, noble is their mission, they believe a civil welcome awaits ‘em behind enemy lines. Maybe hors d’oeuvres?
So In they go, epaulets flapping, in broad daylight, unarmed into a war zone, to check out Pfc. Lynch from the hospital. No sweat. No way will these political correct be ambushed. Nah. Lily white flags flying atop their jeeps will protect them. If not, the big “PRESS” signs in jeep windows certainly will. Sure. And pigs fly.
At the first crack of an assault rifle, or RPG, reporters make for the nearest coalition forces. They demand instant protection, and for that to be ensured. “Save us,” they say, “for our crystal balls were wrong.” Suddenly, in a flash, they’re believers in full-force extraction. Finally they’d get it.
Reality is like that. Sobering. ‘Tis pity whining antiwar pundits don’t recognize that before carping (quite exposing their political stripes) in their vain, dishonest attempts to insult the world’s finest military, and malign a president. Someone ought to apologize. Mr. Scheer? Don’t hold your breath. It’s not called liberal hubris for nothing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gary Larson is a USAF combat veteran (Vietnam) and retired business magazine editor. He is not the retired cartoonist of the same name.
http://www.washingtondispatch.com/article_5787.shtml
Sempers,
Roger
:marine:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Exclusive commentary by Gary Larson
Jun 15, 2003
What God-awful lengths an antiwar anti-Bush press will go to spin the rescue of Private First Class Jessica Lynch from an Iraqi hospital. If nothing else, this sadness validates that liberal mainstream spinners stop at nothing, including belittling our brave GIs, to smear the Bush administration.
A columnist for the liberal Los Angeles Times picks up on the antiwar British Broadcasting Company’s report that the rescue from the Iraqi hospital was “staged.” That’s right, staged as in “Wag The Dog” staged. I kid you not.
Turns out the producer of the BBC report later debunks that notion, saying U.S. Special Forces did what military is always wise to do: Protect itself in a worst-case scenario in wartime. Call this common sense.
Columnist Robert Scheer calls it “fictitious.” With not a shred of proof, he labels the event “one in a series of egregious lies marketed to us by the Bush administration.” The smug columnist plays partisan jury, judge, then hangman. All whilst sitting at his laptop in Los Angeles, 8,000 air miles from Iraq. Embedded with forces he was not, and it shows.
Newspapers, most liberal and a lot antiwar, suck up Scheer’s column. No effort is made to tell the real story, like from U.S. Special Forces. After all, they did the rescue, called an “extraction” by the military. Instead, media gives sanction to Scheer’s scorn for our Armed Forces--on the eve of Memorial Day, no less--while slurring the Bush administration. All in day’s work, it appears, for mainstream press.
What Scheer fails to point out: The Nasiriyah hospital was behind enemy lines. Enemy AK-47 bullets and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) whizzed by not far away. GIs had been killed in action that day. The city was not secured, presenting a host of ambush opportunities. Scheer and papers carrying his snippy, Maureen Dowd-like screed fail utterly to give context to the rescue. Talk about intellectually dishonest--old hat now, it seems, among the left. Where’s their honor? Dignity?
A critical factor Scheerr also fails to inform is U.S. military strategy. Amassing stunning firepower to assure victory is playing it strictly by the book. Anything less is plainly dumb. Putting power at the point of attack is the “first principle in strategy” in Clausewitz’s book On War.
Scheer presumes a God-like clairvoyance among our GIs. Like police who fire on the unknown “unarmed,” they are expected to Know--intuitively?--bad guys’ weaponry and intent. Would that a clear crystal ball be issued to street cops and military? Ouija boards, anyone? Alas, dark reality is not so kind or generous.
Do war critics prefer death and injury among our military going in timidly to do an extraction? Would they deny Clausewitz’s sage advice to obtain “superiority at the decisive point” to fetch the badly-injured Pfc. Lynch?
So what if that rescue was carried out by media types? Try this scenario:
Jeeploads of khaki-clothed reporters rush in, laptops a-blazing, under “PRESS” signs. Confident they’ll not be shot at, noble is their mission, they believe a civil welcome awaits ‘em behind enemy lines. Maybe hors d’oeuvres?
So In they go, epaulets flapping, in broad daylight, unarmed into a war zone, to check out Pfc. Lynch from the hospital. No sweat. No way will these political correct be ambushed. Nah. Lily white flags flying atop their jeeps will protect them. If not, the big “PRESS” signs in jeep windows certainly will. Sure. And pigs fly.
At the first crack of an assault rifle, or RPG, reporters make for the nearest coalition forces. They demand instant protection, and for that to be ensured. “Save us,” they say, “for our crystal balls were wrong.” Suddenly, in a flash, they’re believers in full-force extraction. Finally they’d get it.
Reality is like that. Sobering. ‘Tis pity whining antiwar pundits don’t recognize that before carping (quite exposing their political stripes) in their vain, dishonest attempts to insult the world’s finest military, and malign a president. Someone ought to apologize. Mr. Scheer? Don’t hold your breath. It’s not called liberal hubris for nothing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gary Larson is a USAF combat veteran (Vietnam) and retired business magazine editor. He is not the retired cartoonist of the same name.
http://www.washingtondispatch.com/article_5787.shtml
Sempers,
Roger
:marine: