While traveling in Oregon I met a young man while sitting at the pool with my family. He was up here, fishing with his father. As it turns out, he is 5.5 years into his 6 year commitment with the US Air Force. We had a long talk about Iraq and Afghanistan and the overall terror issues. I want to share some things he said to me:
1. He hates war. He said that anyone who likes war is crazy. I agree with him.
2. He says that he is not convinced that there are not WMD's in Iraq still. He says that they are constantly finding buried stuff. He says you would be amazed at what they buried, including airplanes.... He's also pretty sure that a lot of stuff got out of the country and moved it to places like Iran and Syria.
3. He feels like we might have been able to do a bit more negotiation before we went into Iraq, he feels like Afghanistan was done just right though. However, he also stated (as I have earlier in this blog) that there is clear moral justification for this war. He thinks everyone should see the pictures of the many people killed by Sadam. I have a link to such pictures earlier in this blog. If you think this is not a moral war, go look at them.
4. He is totally disgusted with the press. He states that the press has clearly not done a fair job reporting this war. He says that they do not show the good things that have happened, they have not shown the positive results of this war. He feels like the press have made this war worse, because they have kept the military from doing things (life effectively sweeping cities) that really needed to be done. Thus, the insurgency remains strong. I agree with him, the press is not doing our country any favors.
5. He feels like the Iraqi people will get sick of the insurgents, and when they do and they start standing up for themselves and policing their own people. It is then when things will really start to get better.
6. One other thought of his.... if you didn't vote, then you don't have any room to disagree about anything.
This young man has done his time, and served our country well. I salute him. He also told me one other very chilling thing..... he didn't ask me to keep it to myself, so I'll share it here. I've not heard about this in the press, but I have no reason not to believe him. I'm told by this young man that there was a terrorist cell of 3 men broken up at NORAD. Now *that* is scary. I've looked for any news reports on this incident and I can't find any. So I don't know if it was hushed up, or if I was being fed a line. Still, I thought I'd share it with you just the same.
Salutes to the men and women in uniform!
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5 comments:
It doesn't bother me that the media holds and promotes certain opinions and ideologies. They have a right to their opinions just like we do.
What bothers me is blind partisanship. Being so devoted to your cause or opinions that you are unable to accept or present anything that does not align itself with your viewpoint.
It is important for the media to keep people responsible, including those whose viewpoints they happen to agree with.
Otherwise those with different viewpoints feel demonized, and those with similar viewpoints get away with irresponsible behaviour.
Rob
I agree with your points. I would not have a negative opinion of the press if they would just state clearly that they have a specific point of view that they wish to express, that are expressing opinion, and filtering the news they present to match that point of view. The difference between the mainstream press and the likes of Limbaugh or Hanity is that the later makes clear that they have a particlar ideology, and there is no question about it. I've never heard Rather, Jennings or any of the other talking heads say such a thing. In fact, they seem to go out of their way to pretend to be non-bias.
The press is a collection of individuals. If you have issues with specific people within the press fine who are these people specifically? To badmouth the press in general is similar to saying you don't like ice cream because you once swelled up like a bumblebee when you ate a scoop of tutti fruity. Does that mean you cannot tolerate chocolate or vanilla? The long diatribe by you about your conversation with person is kind of overdone in my opinion.
>> The press is a collection of
>> individuals. If you have issues
>> with specific people within the
>> press fine who are these people
>> specifically?
I think I mentioned a few (Jennings, Rather, etc... ) in a comment here.
There is an old saying, if it looks like a cat, if it meow's like a cat and if it claws your furniture like a cat, then it's probably a cat. Seems to apply in general to the press.
Are all members of the press liberal? Of course not. That was not my point. My point is that whoever is "reporting" an event, needs to just present the facts without any commentary or color.
Once you add the commentary or color or are selective in the facts you present, it becomes editorial, and when that happens, you need to make clear that you are doing just that.
Thats all I'm saying.
>> The long diatribe by you about
>> your conversation with person
>> is kind of overdone in my
>> opinion.
You have my personal permission to change the channel at any time. Thanks for coming.
My point is that whoever is "reporting" an event, needs to just present the facts without any commentary or color.
Totally agree. It is sometimes hard to know what to believe anymore. I try to get my news from many sources and sort of "balance it out". I think by combining TV news with Print News with Web news -- you get a global picture.
I remember when I went out of country to Europe way back when and read a foreign paper for the first time. It was quite eye opening. Same news, just presented in, well -- a different way. It certainly read different anyway. It matters how the news is presented and what slant is given to it.
It is nice to be able to have access to that stuff continously now.
You have my personal permission to change the channel at any time. Thanks for coming.
Well said :) Write on (all pun intended)
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