U.S. Navy Senior Chief Navy Diver Jason Deatrick engages the target during tactical formation training on Wheeler Army Base, Hawaii.
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Supporting our enemies? How newspapers support our enemies through words
By: Lyn Nofziger | Submitted on: 03/27/03Today?s news media somehow has the idea that wars should be fought gently, if at all. They do not understand that war, like politics, ain?t beanbag.
It is for this reason they wring their hands when a soldier is killed and demand explanations when enemy civilians die in bombing raids.
Thus it is that they are making a major fuss because someone?s bomb or rocket or some other kind of explosive hit a market place in Baghdad yesterday, killing 14 persons and wounding dozens more.
I?m sorry for those people; I truly am but I don?t think we should call off the war or call for a major investigation or bow down and apologize because of a few inadvertent civilian casualties.
Civilians have been slaughtered by the thousands in prior wars. Recall, for instance, Hiroshima, the fire bombing of Tokyo, the bombing of Dresden, the German rocket attacks on London in World War II. The purpose of waging war is to win; it is not to save civilian lives. The war on terror of which this is a part began with the deliberate murder of more than 3000 American civilians.
But the fact is, however, in this war, more than in any other, civilian lives are being taken into consideration as the United States proclaims that its purpose is to liberate Iraq, not to conquer it. Although it is also a fact that it has to be conquered in order to be liberated.
Fortunately for Iraqi civilians technological advances in weoponry have made it possible to pinpoint military targets with considerably more accuracy than in the past, thus insuring that fewer civilians will be killed by wayward bombs and missiles.
Unfortunately for the Iraqis Saddam Hussein is not filled with the same humanitarian spirit that has President Bush ordering that everything possible be done to avoid civilian casualties, even if such an approach endangers more Americans. Therefore the Iraqi leader has not hesitated to use civilians as human shields for military and communications installations, counting, as he does, on Bush?s reluctance to kill them and on the American media?s protests if they are killed.
I believe that the president?s approach is counterproductive and will lengthen the war, and will not call off the dogs of the media or lessen the anti-American propaganda flowing from Hussein and the Arab nations of the middle east every time a civilian is killed.
It is not possible for Bush at this time to build a Mr. Nice Guy image among the Arabs, the European cowards or the American peaceniks. Therefore, he ought to go ahead and win this war as quickly as possible, before, indeed, we wind up bogged down in the sandy quagmire of the Iraqi desert, fighting again a no-win Vietnam-style war of attrition.
It is for this reason they wring their hands when a soldier is killed and demand explanations when enemy civilians die in bombing raids.
Thus it is that they are making a major fuss because someone?s bomb or rocket or some other kind of explosive hit a market place in Baghdad yesterday, killing 14 persons and wounding dozens more.
I?m sorry for those people; I truly am but I don?t think we should call off the war or call for a major investigation or bow down and apologize because of a few inadvertent civilian casualties.
Civilians have been slaughtered by the thousands in prior wars. Recall, for instance, Hiroshima, the fire bombing of Tokyo, the bombing of Dresden, the German rocket attacks on London in World War II. The purpose of waging war is to win; it is not to save civilian lives. The war on terror of which this is a part began with the deliberate murder of more than 3000 American civilians.
But the fact is, however, in this war, more than in any other, civilian lives are being taken into consideration as the United States proclaims that its purpose is to liberate Iraq, not to conquer it. Although it is also a fact that it has to be conquered in order to be liberated.
Fortunately for Iraqi civilians technological advances in weoponry have made it possible to pinpoint military targets with considerably more accuracy than in the past, thus insuring that fewer civilians will be killed by wayward bombs and missiles.
Unfortunately for the Iraqis Saddam Hussein is not filled with the same humanitarian spirit that has President Bush ordering that everything possible be done to avoid civilian casualties, even if such an approach endangers more Americans. Therefore the Iraqi leader has not hesitated to use civilians as human shields for military and communications installations, counting, as he does, on Bush?s reluctance to kill them and on the American media?s protests if they are killed.
I believe that the president?s approach is counterproductive and will lengthen the war, and will not call off the dogs of the media or lessen the anti-American propaganda flowing from Hussein and the Arab nations of the middle east every time a civilian is killed.
It is not possible for Bush at this time to build a Mr. Nice Guy image among the Arabs, the European cowards or the American peaceniks. Therefore, he ought to go ahead and win this war as quickly as possible, before, indeed, we wind up bogged down in the sandy quagmire of the Iraqi desert, fighting again a no-win Vietnam-style war of attrition.
