WaPo’s Cohen “Wasted Lives”

| March 20, 2007

For some reason, Richard Cohen thinks it’s OK to call American lives “wasted because he prays at the altar of John McCain and Barack Obama. In the Washington Post this morning, Richard Cohen, runs a piece entitled “Wasted Lives“;

Back when I was in the National Guard and fearing a call-up for the war in Vietnam…

Whoa, whoa, wait…one of the members of the press was in the National Guard during Viet Nam? To hear them yammer on about President Bush and Dan Quail, I always thought journalists all spent that entire war on patrol in the Mekong Delta armed with only a spear and living off of field mice turds. Oh, sorry, please continue, General Cohen;

It is painfully hard to say — and even harder to write — that the lives lost in Iraq were wasted. It sounds like a judgment on the dead when it is meant, of course, as an indictment of the living: America’s political leadership. But some sort of finger has to be pointed at the president and some sort of reminder offered that it is not just a policy that has failed but that people have been killed or wounded. This is the real cost of a war that need not have been fought.

What is not painfully hard to say nor write, Mr. Cohen, is that you’re an idiot and your life has been wasted. Of course you want to point your finger at the President, but how about pointing a finger at your-damn-self and all of your fellow journalists – just for a change. Wasn’t it the journalists that forced an end to the first war against Saddam Hussein with idiot reports and photos about “The Highway of Death”? Wasn’t it the journalists who trumpeted that Clinton’s asprin factory bombing was a blow against terrorism, and his bravery at firing off a cruise missile at Iraq’s Defense Ministery, how brave and bold Clinton was for withdrawing our troops from Somalia with their collective tail between their collective legs. And now you have the temerity to champion the same strategy that led us to 9-11;

The way to protect our soldiers is not to double our losses but to agree on a sensible withdrawal policy. Particularly for the Bush administration, all this concern for the troops comes a bit late and smacks of insincerity. The war may not have started with a lie, but it seems it will end with one.

Yep, the lie told about an honorable exit from Iraq before the job is finished – told by you and your journalist buddies.

“When members of Congress pursue an antiwar strategy that’s been called ‘slow bleed,’ they’re not supporting the troops, they are undermining them,” Cheney said last week. Bush, who is a softer, gentler Cheney, has said substantially the same thing. “I think you can be against my decision and support the troops, absolutely,” the president said last month. “But the proof will be whether or not you provide them the money necessary to do the mission.” In other words, the only acceptable way to support the troops is, paradoxically, to put more and (it seems) more of them in danger. The present “surge” threatens to become an open-ended escalation. The war goes on.

What makes this “surge” an open ended escalation is the refusal of the media and the Left to shut up and stop encouraging the jihadists. I’m not saying you should shut up for all eternity, neither is the Vice President. Just shut up long enough to make the jihadists at least think there’s no way out, no way he can win the war.

Unless, of course you want to “waste” more American lives.

Category: Media, Terror War

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jvf

You have an incredibly naive view of asymetrical warfare if you think that insurgents would “give up” if only the Washington Post and the New York Times would only withhold their criticism.

They are locals, they need almost nothing in terms of resources to fight us, and they will continue to do so no matter what. They could care less what the American public thinks, nor do they necessarily have access to US media. I’m sure some of them are media savvy, but most of them just want to kill foreigners on their turf. And most Iraqis seem to believe this is justified.

If this is the case, then all of Iraq is “the enemy” and we should just turn the entire country into a parking lot. Is this what you call victory? If not, we have nothing left to accomplish there. The chances of us turning Iraq into a stable democracy is about zero.

jvf

The insurgents (terrorists, whatever you want to call them) don’t need to win militarily. All they need to do is keep killing Americans. Which they are doing, and will continue to be able to do, with almost no money and only the most primitive weapons. Again, that’s the meaning of assymetrical warfare.

Did the Russians lose Afghanistan because Pravda editorialized against the war?

Of course not.

And no, it wasn’t “journalists” who “forced the end of the first gulf war”. It was grown ups like George H.W. Bush and Colin Powell, who knew better than to open Pandoras Box. Unlike his idiot son.

Philadelphia Steve

Those of us who point out Bush’s incompetence in his management of the occupation of Iraq are accused of “encouraging the enemy” in Iraq.

Which enemy?

The native Iraqi Sunnis (about 80% of US deaths)? Who are supported by the Bush family friends in Saudi Arabia?

The Shia, who are conducting ethnic clensing with the training of the US and assistance of the Iranians?

The Kurds? Who are destabelizing our NATO ally Turkey?

The (small minority) of al Qaeda? Who are supported by (again) the Bush family friends in Saudi Arabia?

The Taliban in Afghanistan, who Bush let get away to rebuild so he could have his “slam dunk” in Iraq?

Besides, didn’t George W. Bush himself encourage insurgents to kill Americans when he offered them the opportunity to “Bring it on!”? Or does Bush get the automatic Conservative FREE PASS on that one?

jvf

“The Soviets had to fight an entire population across the whole country who targeted the Soviet Army and puppet militia”
When a majority of the Iraqi population thinks it is ok to kill coalition troops, and the “government” exists only thanks to a massive us troop presence in a fortified zone, the analogy is apt.

We are not fighting “Jihadists” in Iraq. We are fighting a home grown Sunni insurgency. This is not about religion. This is about a desperate segment of the Iraqi population which will never give up. The biggest irony is that we are supporting the side which Iran supports.

Yes, this is a waste, in every sense. Did you see Bush’s speech on the anniversary on the war? He looked truly beaten. I almost felt sorry for him.

trackback

[…] Because there’s a serious lack of serious news, I’m using today’s space to answer some of my critics who took offense that I criticized Richard Cohen in his piece entitled “Wasted Lives” in the Washington Post. According to emails, my being named Idiot of the Day of some low-traffic Leftist blog and comments here, I’m naive because I suggested that Cohen and the Democrats’ other willing accomplices in the media shut up for a change until the war against terror ends. This stems from the fact that I don’t understand asymetrical warfare, according to an aspiring journalist who hid her identity when she joined This ain’t Hell and posted a link to this particular blog post on her own blog at Salon. […]