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Sunday, August 28, 2005

“Giving hope and encouragement to the enemy.”

That’s how at least one of the 1,500 pro-victory demonstrators in Crawford, Texas is describing the calls for surrender being made at Cindy Sheehan’s camp outside President Bush’s ranch. And there is really no way to challenge the veracity of that statement. The professional protesters crouched on the Trippi/Sheehan bandwagon may not know it, but al-Jazeera and CNN International reach the enemy. And they report this movement (which by all appearances is more manufactured than spontaneous) as sectarian strife within the United States on par with the one we are attempting to resolve in Iraq.

That, of course, is a gross exaggeration. John Hinderaker- as reliably conservative as it gets- soberly admits that public support for President Bush’s handling of the Iraw War is in a deep valley. Most of that is, as always with those polls, a reflection of general malaise rather than a keen and informed critique of military management. And when a respondant’s thoughts do reflect substantive qualms, they are often based on scandalously skewed reportage from the likes of the New York Times which, like it or not, seeps into all other media outlets- even Fox News.

My thought is this: there are those who are legitimately concerned with the progress of the war. These people answer no when a pollster asks if they are particularly keen on the war. But they want victory. They want a honorable return for our men overseas. They want the destruction of the self-same Islamic extremism that attacked us on 9/11 and now, ex-post facto- yes- is our enemy in Iraq. I suspect a majority of Americans (and possibly a majority of Republicans) fall into this category. They are not ones to cut and run.

These people are not represented by Cindy Sheehan, who wants us to throw up our hands in exhaustion. But you wouldn’t know that as her movement is contextualized in the media. That bit of spin is dangerous: the broadcast notion that America thinks we have lost and ought to leave. That does encourage and aid the enemy. The American “united front” has a long and proud history. Certain pacifist coteries have always shunned it. Has our national media, too?

Posted on August 28, 2005 07:49 AM. Permalink