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Jewish World Review June 8, 2005 / 1 Sivan, 5765 Lib media refuses to accept truth about Iraq even when shown to them By Jack Kelly
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Without a hint of irony, Edith Lederer of the Associated Press reported June
3rd that "UN satellite imagery experts have determined that material that
could be used to make biological or chemical weapons and banned long-range
missiles has been removed from 109 sites in Iraq."
We've been told repeatedly by those on the Left — which includes most
journalists — that Bush Lied! when he gave the danger posed by Saddam's WMD
programs as one of the reasons for going to war with Iraq. Did the UN lie,
too? Is the UN lying now? When did Karl Rove go to work for Kofi Annan?
Two themes have dominated media coverage of the war in Iraq: that the casus
belli was illegitimate (which is why we hear so much about WMD that hasn't
been found and so little about mass graves that have been found), and that
the cause is hopeless.
Journalists constantly compare the war in Iraq to the Vietnam war. This may
be because Vietnam is the only war with which they are familiar, the study
of military history not being foremost on the agenda of most scribes. More
likely it's because it suits their ideological purposes to compare Iraq to
the only war America has ever lost.
Those who have studied military history think a more apt historical parallel
is with the battle of Okinawa, which concluded 60 years ago this month.
Okinawa was the bloodiest battle of the Pacific war. More than 12,000
Americans were killed (along with 101,000 Japanese soldiers and about
100,000 Okinawan civilians), and 38,000 wounded in two and a half months of
fighting.
The first parallel between Okinawa then and Iraq today is that it was clear
when the battle of Okinawa began on April 1st, 1945, that the U.S. would win
World War II. It has been clear since the elections in January that the
insurgents would lose in Iraq.
The second parallel, the emergence of the suicide bomber, is a proof of the
first.
Okinawa was as bloody as it was chiefly because of the kamikaze pilots.
Nearly 5,000 of the 12,000 American dead were sailors killed in kamikaze
attacks.
The kamikaze behind the wheel of a car or truck has become the weapon of
choice in Iraq, and — as our media constantly remind us — has created much
carnage in the last two months.
The suicide bomber is a weapon of fanatics. But it is also a weapon of
desperation. The Japanese were fanatical from Pearl Harbor on. But the
kamikaze didn't make an appearance until Oct. 19th, 1944, near the end of
the battle of Leyte Gulf, which marked the effective destruction of the
Japanese navy. The Japanese didn't turn to suicide bombers until defeat was
staring them in the face.
Perhaps the silliest of the many silly things journalists have written about
the war in Iraq is that the wave of suicide bombings is happening despite
Iraqi/American offensives such as Operation Lightning in Baghdad. It is
more likely that the increasingly indiscriminate bombings are a desperate
effort to fend off destruction as the terrorists are flushed from their
hiding places.
"The Iraqi insurgency is running out of tricks, and like a cornered rat it
is fighting back furiously," wrote Gary Anderson, a retired Marine officer
who has advised the Defense Department on Iraq in the Washington Post June
2nd. "The recent spate of suicide bombings...has many commentators wringing
their hands and wondering what is going wrong. In reality, the question
might be: What is going right?"
Amir Taheri notes the terrorists began with targeted attacks on American
troops. But this failed to dislodge the Americans, and resulted in many
insurgent deaths.
Then the terrorists attacked the Iraqi police and army, but these failed to
stem recruitment or slow deployment of new units.
So the terrorists began indiscriminate attacks on Shia civilians. But these
failed to provoke a civil war.
Now they are attacking Sunni Arabs, obliterating in the process their base
of support.
"The insurgents know how to kill, but they no longer know who to kill,"
Taheri said.
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© 2005, Jack Kelly |
Mitch Albom | |||||||||||
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