May 24, 2004

Bush’s Speech Tonight (And the Real Meaning of the Recent Hysteria Over Abu-Ghraib)

Even we in the blogosphere have been surprised by the amount of bias shown lately by the mainstream media, specifically in the tremendous attention given to the actions of 20 soldiers at Abu-Ghraib, and the near-suppression of all the good news coming from Iraq.

Let me tell you my thoughts on why we have been seeing such near-hysteria from the media lately.

It’s because we’re so close to handing off Iraq to the Iraqi interim government. At that point, a great achievement by President Bush will be undeniable: the creation of a free Iraq. And there will no longer be any claim that the U.S. is bent on imperialism or occupation.

Those who oppose Bush are making a last-ditch effort to prevent his success in this case. But Iraq will be free, and it will be handed back to its own people, next month, on June 30th.

I thought Bush did a great job tonight. He spoke to the Iraqi people as much as he did to Americans. He inspired and led the peoples of both countries. My favorite line: “Iraqis can be certain a free Iraq will always have a friend in the United States of America.”

Let the Media Know, They are Being Cowards

Some of the most moving passages from a great essay by Bill Whittle (emphasis in original):

Blah, blah…war is lost…blah blah blah… disaster, wreck and ruin…

...Well, we did not level Fallujah, and we did not do it because those bodies on that bridge were bait, pure and simple. We didnt take the bait. Or, I should say, our military didnt take the bait; I took it, hook line and sinker. I wanted to level the goddam city and then walk away and let them kill each other. Now, as Al Sadrs support evaporates; as his militia thugs are being hunted and killed by shadowy Iraqi ghost armies and extremely corporeal Marines; as his fellow Mullahs condemn him; as Iraqi demonstrations against him and all that poison and ruin he represents continue to rise; as his headquarters are destroyed, his most vicious soldiers killed in their own backyards, playing defense in an urban environment by Marines whose skill and tactics stagger credulity for their expertise and success now, we must ask ourselves: did you want to feel good or did you want to win?

...Because we did not take the bait, because we so clearly were not the staggering, drunken, imbecile Giant we are accused of being by our European betters, we denied the Syrians and the Iranians the general, nation-wide uprising they so dearly wanted. Idiots. We vote in November. They played their hand now. Kerry and Bush are in a dead heat after eight weeks of unrelenting catastrophe for Bush. And there is such a thing as catastrophe fatigue.

...Catastrophes are only catastrophes; disasters are only disasters: they are not the end unless we decide they are. And so, let us, right here and now, decide that they are not the end. Because this is something we need to understand, something we need to feel deep in our bones: We are so strong, as a nation, that nothing can stop us when we set our minds to something. Nothing. We can only stop ourselves. All the players know this to be true. Al Sadr knows it. France and Germany know it. The Jihadis know it. The UN knows it. You and I know it.

Fallujah, as Bill shows, was an attempt by Al Sadr to rally Iraqis to revolt against the U.S. and the coming Iraqi Democratic goverment. It didn’t work. Instead Iraqis turned on Al Sadr, in vindication of the U.S. and all we and our allies are doing there.

The mainstream media, which advises fear and alarm, in the face of little or no opposition to our army, is guilty of cowardice.

Cowardice: it can be stated that succinctly.

Let’s let the media and the left know, that they are being cowards.