Okay, sorry for the delay, but thought that I would link to several articles that are informative.
The first two will make you mad -- here is an article by Howell Raines, former editor of the New York Times (he was forced to resign after one of his reporters, Jayson Blair, fabricated numerous articles, and the second is from a chat by Associate Editor Robert Kaiser of the Washinton Post.
Here is one question and answer from the online chat that is quite telling and explanatory of the Post's coverage of the war.
Atlanta, Ga.: I do not believe in conspiracy theories, but as of late, things that were once dismissed as laughable, impossible or "unpatriotic" are turning out to be at least partially true e.g. Halliburton's White House ties, intra-agency turf wars, U.S. government knowingly releasing "untruths," etc. My question to you, do you easily dismiss conspiracists or do you at least consider the possibility they may be speaking truths? How does this affect as you as journalist (assuming if affects you at all)?
Robert G. Kaiser : Lots of questions like this, too, but this is a particularly thoughtful version that I would like to answer.
Let's begin with an old joke: Even hypochondriacs get sick. Conspiracies are very difficult to run inside the U.S. government, thankfully. But they happen. Watergate is really a collection of conspiracies that were kept secret for a long time, and might never have been revealed. The Iran-Contra affair is/was a conspiracy that has never been fully explained (for example, we have never been able to discover the real role of George H.W. Bush in that dark business).
To answer your specific questions, I do personally react against theories of vast conspiracies. This is just part of my skeptical makeup, I guess. But I try never to reject the possibility entirely.
So, for example, I do think there was what amounted to a kind of conspiracy to get the U.S. into a war against Iraq, if we define the term as a secretive plot involving a group within the government but excluding many important officials, who bent events and information to their undeclared purpose. Although you'd have to say it was a barely undeclared purpose. "
Remember also that these two men were or are still in charge of hard news coverage for the New York Times and the Washington Post -- not the opinion pages.
Here are several articles that are much more interesting and beneficial.
Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal (former speechwriter for Reagan) and a marine stationed outside of Fallujah are required reading for today! If you wish, visit http://www.thegreenside.com for more letters from the front.
Also read this letter from another Marine. These stories are not being reported, but you can help spread them around!
Now that we have 24/7 coverage of the atrocities committed by U.S. Forces in Iraq, and the constant drum-beat that America is Evil, America is Evil, America is Evil.... where is the same level of outrage when one of our own - trying to show compassion to a nation totally foreign to the concept of generosity- is barbarically beheaded on camera?
I supply the reader with four short examples clearly illuminating the horrific intellectual debasement of the liberal mind:
Where is the outrage from California Rep. Stark (D)? He verbally assaulted one of our own soldiers on his personal answering machine for daring to condemn the Representative’s vote against condemning the atrocities while showing full support for the rest of our troops. Rep. Stark (the “Left Coast” indeed!) seems to be siding with the terrorists by trying to shut down opposition to his own views by verbally assaulting one of his own constituents in a time of war, no less!
Where is the outrage from Sen. Ted Kennedy (D)? He has castigated the Bush administration for the prosecution of one of the most successful wars in human history in terms of the shortness of the occupation of a foreign force, the limited number of civilian casualties (otherwise known as “collateral damage” – see comments by John Kerry on his own war time atrocities that everyone is dismissing out of hand.
Where is the outrage Barbara Streisand? The embodiment of Hollywood hypocrisy, Barbara utilizes every means necessary, no matter how crass, to pathetically declare her complete ignorance of world affairs. She drones on behind the thick veil of willful ignorance about aspects of life she knows nothing about. Would to God she would just once pronounce some sort of solution to the problems as she sees it from on high. But no. Banter, without the slightest hope of meaningful dialogue. Much like clouds without rain during a drought…..they look ominous, but in the end pass over without displacing even the minutest pebble of the human landscape.
Where is the outrage liberal Media? From the annals of time, world leaders have had their detractors. That is part of freedom that remains both insufferable and tolerable. For the sake of my right to write this column, I must bear the opposition to be heard. But, unlike them, you don’t see me calling for their boss’ head on a platter when ever one of their misfits break rank and cross the ethical line. I may point out the error, but I leave them to their conscience (maybe that policy should change?). While we listen to the anti-American media pontificate about Rumsfeld’s head this, and Bush’s Vietnam that, Mr. and Mrs. Lunchpail wait with baited breath out here in fly-over country for one, just one, condemnation of the Al Queda thugs who killed an ABC reporter 2 years ago, who kill civilians world-wide, and who sacrifice their own on the alter of perverse religious ambition. They have now barbarically cut off the head of an American, “justified” by the abuse our troops inflicted on Iraqi prisoners. Before it goes to press, as of right now, I go on record to blame the blood-thirsty, ideologically blinded, anti-American media for the death of that innocent civilian.
Do you really think you will hear condemnation from the above-mentioned people? Of course you won’t! Just as Al Jazera wouldn’t air the murder of an Italian because Al Queda wasn’t able to force their captive to “submit” to them (mind you, Islam means “to submit”) before blowing his brains out, you won’t see the American Media show the whole video of 5 Al Queda thugs ruthlessly behead one of our own. And, just by chance, they do…they will blame the Bush Administration for his death rather than rightfully blame the thugs who actually committed the crime. We will prosecute our loathsome few who were “Caught on Tape” abusing Iraqi’s. We have yet to prosecute those who have killed so many innocent lives around the globe. Even Saddam Husein gets better treatment than our soldiers who going to be court martialed.
While these examples are not meant to be comprehensive, they illustrate vividly how we, as American citizens, face more than one enemy. We not only face the global threat of cowardly terrorists trying to raze civilization, as we have known it for some 2000+ years, we face the unbearable enemy from within!
This writer, for one, is more terrified of the Bastian of hedonistic, humanistic, Marxist liberalism that is slowly choking our country to death by, ironically, utilizing the very institution freedom depends on most – namely, the rule of law in a free society – to stifle the true freedom of expression we all posses. What determines human destiny is not the bloated bureaucracy of human government, but the inherent drive of the human spirit, born within the heart of each person, given free reign to exercise himself as he sees fit, within the safe confines of the rule of law, to create, imagine, reform, and shape the future for the good of all mankind…not just a select few who think they know better than anyone else. THAT is what defines and separates liberals from all else, the “Blue” states from the “Red” ones… and what separates the future of this country from the ash heap of failed societies.
Mike Carbiener
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Citizen at Large.
I thought I would start out with posting an article written by John Kerry during the 1992 election. Contrast this with his comments today about President Bush and Vice President Cheney, not to mention his lying about discarding his medals. I will post more original thoughts and items later, but thought that this was important now.
Copyright 1992 The Washington Post
February 28, 1992, Friday, Final Edition
HEADLINE: No Time to Resurrect Vietnam
BYLINE: John F. Kerry
BODY:
The following statement was made on the floor of the Senate yesterday.
Mr. President: I rise reluctantly, but I rise feeling driven by personal reasons of necessity, to express my very deep disappointment over yesterday's turn of events in the Democratic primary in Georgia.
I am saddened by the fact that Vietnam has yet again been inserted into the campaign and that it has been inserted in what I feel to be the worst possible way. By that I mean that yesterday, during this presidential campaign and even throughout recent times, Vietnam has been discussed and written about without an adequate statement of its full meaning; what is ignored is the way in which our experience during that period reflected -- in part -- a positive affirmation of American values and history, not simply the more obvious negatives of loss and confusion.
What is missing is a recognition that there exists today a generation that has come into its own with powerful lessons learned, with a voice that has been grounded in the experiences both of those who went to Vietnam and those who did not. What is missing, and what cries out to be said, is that neither one group nor the other from that difficult period of time has cornered the market on virtue or rectitude or love of country.
What saddens me most is that Democrats, above all those who shared the agonies of that generation, should now be refighting the many conflicts of Vietnam in order to win the current political conflict of a presidential primary. The race for the White House should be about leadership. Leadership requires that one help heal the wounds of Vietnam, not reopen them; that one help identify the positive things that we learned about ourselves and about our nation, not play to the divisions and differences of that crucible of our generation.
We do not need now to divide America over who served and how. I have personally always believed that many served in many different ways. Someone who was deeply against the war in 1969 or 1970 may well have served their country with equal passion and patriotism by opposing the war as by fighting in it. Are we now 20 years or 30 years later to forget the difficulties of that time, of families that were literally torn apart, of brothers who ceased to talk to brothers, of fathers who disowned their sons, of people who felt compelled to leave the country and forget their own future and turn against the will of their own aspirations? Are we now to descend, like latter-day Spiro Agnews, and play, as he did, to the worst instincts of divisiveness and instincts of reaction that still haunt America? Are we now going to create a new scarlet letter in the context of Vietnam?
Certainly those who went to Vietnam suffered greatly. I have argued for years, since I returned myself in 1969, that they do deserve special affection and gratitude for service. And, indeed, I think everything I've tried to do since then has been to fight for their rights and recognition. But while those who served are owed special recognition, that recognition should not come at the expense of others, nor does it require that others be victimized or criticized or said to have settled for a lesser standard. To divide our party or our country over this issue today -- in 1992 -- simply does not do justice to what all of us went through during that tragic and turbulent time.
I would like to make a simple and straightforward appeal, an appeal from my heart as well as my head. To all those currently pursuing the presidency, in both parties, I would plead -- simply look at America. We are a nation crying out for leadership, for someone who will bring us together and raise our sights. We are a nation looking for someone who will lift our spirits and give us confidence that together we can grow out of this recession and conquer the myriad of social ills that we face at home.
We do not need more division. We certainly do not need something as complex and as emotional as Vietnam reduced to simple campaign rhetoric. What has been said has been said, Mr. President, but I hope and pray that we will put it behind us and go forward in a constructive spirit for the good of our party and the good of our country.
The writer is a Democratic senator from Massachusetts. He is a Vietnam combat veteran and was a founding member of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War in 1971.