shawa
CNO
Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Posts: 2004
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 Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 10:39 am Post subject: The Kerry Doctrine: De-legitimizing the Troops |
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| Quote: | ~SNIP~
General Powell defined probably the most famous of these tenets as "is the action supported by the American people?" It is here that the Kerry Doctrine has stalled. While the public has lost enthusiasm for the war due to the Democratic leadership implementation of the Kerry Doctrine (and due to valid concerns such as the commitment by the Bush Administration to do what it takes to win the war) there is one segment of the population that has not: the implementers, our servicemen and servicewomen. They have kept their resolve.
Most of us have the respect enough for our troops to realize that if they - who are dying, suffering, departing, losing their limbs - believe in this mission, they must be on to something. While most of the American public is willing to give up a little more of our time we would rather spend watching American Idol to the mental perturbations of being in a war, the well is not inexhaustible. We can only take the concern for so long.
This is where Arkin and Engle, et al. enter the story. Since Americans are willing to ‘take the soldiers word' for it, the troops must be discredited to advance the Kerry doctrine. This is not my cynicism. It is born out by observation. Just as Arkin has called our soldiers "mercenaries" and Engle claims every soldier he talks to has decided we have lost in Iraq, there other indications of the Kerry Doctrine in the writings and sayings of Democratic leadership and their liberal media accomplices.
During this phase (which has gone on in a low-level fashion for some time in the extreme leftist media but is now becoming main stream liberal media fodder) we will see (and are seeing) these basic stories:
Efforts to discredit the soldiers' public opinions:
The soldiers don't understand why they are there. (ala Kerry's trapped in Iraq remark)
The soldiers have lost hope.
The soldiers can't speak out because of military protocol.
The soldiers in Iraq are confused, misguided, misled, bamboozled, uneducated, and the victims of societies failings. Their lives are wasted.
Efforts to misrepresent the soldiers' opinions:
One or two guys who express a desire to go home in a moment of weakness (which is really just about every soldier that ever served) will be portrayed as "losing hope" or "realizing we just can't win".
If a soldier admits he does not have a complete grasp of every conceivable factoid about the war then it will be reported as "he/she doesn't even know why he/she is here in Iraq".
And the most insidious effort - as Arkin has so graciously volunteered to bear the brunt of as the first purveyor for the mainstream liberal media - is the direct degradation of the soldiers in order to discredit and silence them.
Those soldiers that deny they fall into any of the above categories have ulterior motives for being there such as money, excessive amenities, and to persecute their own religious war (I haven't seen this one yet, but just wait; some enterprising liberal writer will turn this into the personal crusade of Christian soldiers.)
The soldiers are ungrateful that we took time away from our busy lives to give them as much support as we already have.
Of course, this is not a complete list, but it is about all I can take without getting physically ill. The thing to take away is that this recent spate of media coverage that has misstated and misrepresented the view of the vast majority of our troops is no accident. It is merely the next page of a dog eared policy document. And there is a reason why it is happening now; to give the Democrat leadership political coverage for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq. Make no mistake: these things are not gaffes, misstatements or editing errors. The specific design is to desensitize the half-awake portion of the American public to the sound of criticism of the troops just as they did during Vietnam. The Kerry Doctrine has moved beyond attacking the Bush Administration and Republicans. It has now set its sites on American patriotism and nationalism, the bastion of the American military. Sorry to tell you, but you soldiers are now in a two front war with Islamic extremism and Liberal extremism. But you are not alone. Some of us understand what is happening and will at least promote your voices, no matter what your message, in order to make sure the media doesn't speak for you. |
Very good article at: American Thinker
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“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” (Thomas Paine, 1776) |
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