Open Letter to the Mainstream Media

Open Letter to the Mainstream Media:

Our enemies in Iraq and Afghanistan have been developing a new weapon, a weapon so deadly that it can turn the tide of war and force US forces out of the region for decades to come. The weapon will not only drive a stake into the morale of American fighting men and women but it will turn the tide of domestic sentiment irreparably. To date we have seen the deployment of this weapon on a daily basis, but as military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have continued, the sophistication of this tool has increased at a frightening pace.

The weapon is you, the American Media.

Our enemies are by no means stupid and unsophisticated, rather they are savvy operators who rapidly shift and refine their tactics in order to defeat the US Goliath. Any amateur who can read a history book knows that the key to defeating the Americans is not to prevail on the battlefield or to mount consistent terror operations in North America, rather it is simply winning the battle for public opinion. The strategy is rather simple: persuade the public to THINK they are losing the war and in turn the public will influence its government to withdraw the military and ultimately cede defeat. In this scenario, the enemy can lose every direct encounter with US Forces and still win as long as the everyday American sees escalating casualty counts, regular media appearances of enemy leaders such as al-Zarqawi and Bin Laden, conspicuous public attacks on troops and civilians, and half-truth and/or concocted images of atrocities by American troops. How is this accomplished? Well, the second part of the equation is to identify a willing partner to be the wholesale distributor of the propaganda. Who can imagine a more willing accomplice than a media whose seething hatred for the current administration knows no bounds? The stage is now set. As gatekeepers to the information and stories consumed by millions of Americans on a daily basis there are no bounds to the volleys of digital shots that can be fired by Al Qaeda and the Iraqi insurgents. Does it matter that the war in Iraq has claimed a mere fraction of the casualties of other American wars of similar duration (WWII- .05%, Korea -4%, Vietnam- 4%)? Does it matter that the video of Bin Laden and al-Zarqawi are shot in caves and safe houses late at night in the presence of maybe a dozen sympathizers and not during the day amongst the population for fear of being killed or captured? Does it matter that the number of IED and homicide attacks has declined exponentially in the past year? Does it matter that the insurgency uses innocent civilians for human shields while they fire on US troops? Does it matter that many of these atrocities are the result of doctored ambush sites (e.g. a safe house miraculously turned into a mosque overnight in March 2006)? No, what matters is that each of these incidents is melted and formed into a bullet that is loaded into the media outlet chamber and fired into the heart of the American populace. We are subject to endless editorials, TV images, and body counts that seem to resonate directly from Al-Jazeera as opposed to the NY Times…all creating the false witness that we are losing the fight and not only have succumb to the high body count but have now lost our morality as Americans. Frightening….

Anyone who has good aim, a willing weapon, and an unlimited supply of ammunition can kill an elephant with a BB gun. However, if one takes the weapon away, now all the shooter can do is throw the BB’s at the elephant, who after a while gets annoyed, turns and tramples the shooter. It’s time to take away this weapon from our enemy and deny him unlimited access to the American public. As Americans of all political affiliations, we need to recognize the fact that our mainstream media has become the favored weapon of our enemies in the war on terror in a Machiavellian pursuit of awards and ratings. We owe it to our fighting men and women to actively seek the truth and in turn deny our enemies the appeal of our ignorance. If not, our soldiers will become the next generation of Vietnam Veterans and we will have lost the war on terror.

Sincerely,

Your Consumers

Our Soldiers and the Real America

He’s at it again. John Kerry, in a speech to students at Pasadena City College, commented that if they were able to navigate the education system, they could get comfortable jobs - "If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq," (http://www.sgvtribune.com/news/ci_4578136). Kerry’s treacherousness truly knows no bounds: falsely implicating his fellow soldiers for acts of atrocities (e.g. beheading civilians, killing babies, etc), accusing US soldiers of killing innocents in Iraq, and now alluding that only backwater miscreants end up in Iraq for lack of anything else to do. To be honest, after the 2004 Presidential Election, I expect no less from this spineless coward than vile treason to flow from his mouth during every speech he makes. However, what troubles me to my core is the silent nod of approval by the media in their reporting of his remarks and the wink from the Democratic Left. Election Year aside, this is how the party really and truly feels. They honest to God believe that the United States Military is full of murderers, rapists, idiots, backwater hicks, and people who have no where else to go in their lives. They feel that our soldiers mindlessly ship off to Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. and robotically do the bidding of President Bush (who, I might add, is out to take over the world by the way…along with Wal Mart). The Left simply cannot comprehend that someone would willingly go to fight for something he or she believes, they cannot imagine making a sacrifice for anyone other than themselves, they cannot accept that this is precisely what our nation’s finest does day in and day out. It is this putrid cowardice that has penetrated the Democratic Party and has morphed into the mainstream, hatred and contempt for our soldiers is the mantra of the Left. While most politicians keep their true feelings hidden, unlike Kerry, their silence is a blaringly resounding agreement.

Why is this contempt so accepted by the public at large? Do we live in a society that has lost it’s grasp of the values that have defined this great nation? How do Americans really view our fighting men and women? While I have lost faith in many of our politicians and certainly much of my faith in the Right for not doing enough to defend the honor of our soldiers, I have not lost faith in the American people. I’m not talking about the whackos over at Starbucks who whine for hours on end about how much they hate Bush…I don’t care about them, because they DON’T VOTE…they could care less, their views are played out daily by the MSM and in their liberal minds that is their vote. I’m talking about the Silent Majority, the Middle America, and true America…the people who work for a living, raise decent children, and pay their taxes. I’m talking about the folks who will vote for their values, for what they hold dear….they will vote for their safety, they will vote for their soldiers (chances are they know several who have served), and their will vote for their country. These are the Americans who support our troops, who raise millions and millions of dollars in charitable causes for injured soldiers, who send Oreo cookies to that Marine at Camp Fallujah, and who will come out to proclaim that they power lies not with those who squeal the loudest but with those who silently sacrifice for their countries and the loved ones they hold dear.

Individual Responsibility

In the news today, officials in NYC are having their first meeting to discuss the banning of trans fat from all 24,000+ restaurants in the city. The Nanny State strikes again! First the Bronx lawsuits by two teenagers attempting to extort settlement from McDonalds who allegedly contributed to their obesity, next the city of Chicago discussed portion limits, and now the trans fat debate. The common denominator here is the arrogance of the Left robbing choice from the individual and arrogantly assuming that Government can better make it for them. Ironic considering their furor over the NSA Wiretapping, apparently taking away individual rights only applies to terrorist phone calls. Ridiculous…

The bottom line is that our society has completely forgotten the concept of individual responsibility. Everyone else is to blame: the evil fast food companies, tobacco companies, alcohol companies, and so on. What this neglects is the simple tenant that demand drives supply: these companies simply would not exist if there wasn’t a market need for their products. People want to eat fast food (sometimes lots of it), people choose to light up, and people crack open the beer cab. It is their choice to do so….simple as that. However, if negative effects arise, there is a staunch refusal to accept responsibility and rather they choose to place blame.

Here is a quick list for the people who feel they can partake with abandon yet not accept the consequences of their actions.

1) If you eat fast food you are going to get fat and have health issues
2) If you eat abnormally large portions of food, you will become obese
3) If you smoke for 30 years, chances are you will develop lung cancer and die
4) If you light alcohol on fire you will burn yourself
5) If you drink and drive, you can die and if you get caught you will be arrested
6) If you load a gun and fire it, anyone in the line of fire will be injured or worse be killed

And the list goes on and on….my point is that as a society we need to start taking responsibility for our actions and stop blaming others (e.g. Corporate America, racism, Bush, or the “Government”) for our problems. You are responsible for YOU, others are not to blame.

We Should Celebrate Heros Like This...

In a time when the MSM bends head over heels to quote the latest military body count for the month, I come across the below link. As a society we need to focus more on the stories of heroism behind the "stock quote" like figures that get rammed through our heads every day. Behind each number is a story, a life, an example of unimaginable bravery in the shadow of death. Stories like Lance Corporal Christopher Adlesperger's need to be told, we need to put a personal face on the fight...May his memory be with America always.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-me-bravery3oct03,0,7857858.story?page=1&coll=la-home-headlines

It's the Strategy Stupid

What is the consensus for our war strategy in Iraq? If you pay much attention to the Mid-Term Election hype you will hear a plethora of interesting phrases emanating from both political parties: cut-and-run, redeployment, phased-withdrawal, timetable for withdrawal, stay the course, flexible stay the course….and so on. If one takes the time to tune out the incessant static of the talking heads, you will quickly realize that they all mean essentially the same thing: there simply is no coherent strategy coming from either party. It is now a documented fact that the Democrats support varying forms of military withdrawal from the conflict and if they mount a coup in November their focus in Iraq will geared in this direction. The Republicans on the other hand register all across the spectrum…all the way from stay the course to phased withdrawal…depending upon the politician, journalist, or news outlet the proposed strategy differs. With the stakes as high as they are in terms of national security, widespread contagion of militant Islam, the prestige of our great military, and the pride of our great nation; the strategy in Iraq is simple….to unconditionally win the fight. By blurring the strategic focus of our efforts in the region and subsequently placing constraints on our efforts in the region we are setting ourselves up for defeat in Iraq.

I will use the favorite analogy of the Left when referring to the War in Iraq: Vietnam. While the United States Military fought valiantly in Vietnam against an extremely determined foe, the fundamental error in our strategic planning was to enclose our ground operations below the 17th Parallel exclusively in South Vietnam. With the exception of the Cambodian excursion in 1970 and special ops missions in Laos, we did not venture into North Vietnam for fear of retribution by the Soviets and Chinese Communists. Knowing this, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces were able to alter their fighting strategy to match our self-inflicted constraints. It is a well understood fact that if General Westmoreland and later General Adams were allowed to cross the 17th Parallel, the North Vietnamese would have been thoroughly routed within a matter of months. However, by defining the campaign to fit exclusively within a formal set of boundaries and constraints, we grasped defeat from the jaws of victory at the hands of an enemy who followed no such rules. Ironically, the proclaimed “defeat” in the Vietnam War is defined as withdrawal. Fast forward 30 years and we have a similar scenario in Iraq: an overtly political and constrained fight against and enemy who knows no such boundaries, a strategy with an end goal of withdrawal, and a poorly managed domestic front. As it stands today, my prediction is that history will repeat itself in Iraq…that is if we do not change the course by redefining our strategy. By adopting a “fight to withdraw” policy through placing selective constraints on our war fighting strategy we are setting ourselves up for failure in Iraq. I’ll say it again; we will lose the fight in Iraq.

To redefine our mission in Iraq, I will flip back to another chapter of American History: World War II. The United States of “Greatest Generation” earned the moniker by its steadfast dedication to achieving the ultimate goal of unconditional victory. Hearing names like Iwo Jima, Normandy, Ardennes Forest, Saipan, and Tarawa all solicit an immediate sense of patriotism and pride for Americans because they are symbols of our perseverance, sacrifice, and most importantly victory. While the tide of World War II changed multiple times and at devastating cost, we did what it took to win…and winning was our ultimate goal. American commanders didn’t tell their troops to fight just hard enough so the French Resistance could take over from the Nazis or ask their Marines to continue to train the native population of Guadalcanal while letting the Japanese defenders take potshots at them from their spider holes in the jungle or reconsidered plans to crush Germany because deposing Hitler could create a martyr figure….sound familiar? The United States knew that the only way to achieve peace was to completely incapacitate and defeat its enemies in the Pacific and Europe. It is through this adopting this strategy that we will grasp victory from the jaws of defeat in Iraq.

It is with this historical analogy in mind there are three strategic proposals that must be implemented in order to win the fight in Iraq : complete military victory, diplomatic vigilance, and selling the American public. First, the military needs to be given one directive in regard to their operations in Iraq: destroy the enemy and deny him his base of operations. What this means will be defined by the commanders on the ground according the situations in their area of influence. Some provinces respond best to the carrot, others can only be brought in line by the stick…regardless, no more rules, just win the fight. Commanders need to prudently balance their priorities when it comes to training and operating with the new Iraqi military and fighting the insurgents. If we can use the Iraqis to help us, great, if not we use American soldiers. Unless we savagely defeat the insurgency in Iraq by all means available to us, casualties will continually trickle in. No borders, no rules, just win. Second, we need to diplomatically push for an Iraqi lead government which has been validated by the electorate. We need to allow them to create institutions they can call their own and respect their decisions when they are made in a legitimate matter. Going back to the first point, the primary focus should be on stopping the violence which will therefore allow peace to proliferate. Finally, a clear strategy of unconditional victory needs to be voice to the American public. The problem with public opinion is not the lack of support for the war itself but rather the discontent over our strategic confusion in the region. We are an infinitely competitive society, our culture places an extremely high value on winning whether it be in business, politics, reality television, or sports…Americans will understand the goal if it is placed in the context of our struggle in Iraq. People distrust the strategy in Iraq, they don’t distrust why we are there. It is the duty of the administration to voice this to the populace and tap into this social sentiment. Otherwise the war will be lost to the person who can sow the most discontent.

Until this strategic realignment occurs, there will be a continued blurring of our direction in Iraq and our success in the region will be jeopardized. We owe it to the sacrifice and commitment made by our country and military to win.