BCT Editorial – 12/4/09
This page was last updated on January 2,
2010. Shared sacrifices; Editorial; Beaver County Times; December 4, 2009. This critique also covers the companion editorial “Talking points.” As are most (all?) editorials on this topic, this is an example of projection on the part of the Times. And is pretty much a repeat of portions of previous editorials. As I wrote in a previous
critique, “I might be inclined to believe the concern expressed by the
editorial is genuine except for one thing. Times editorials
consistently do their damnedest to belittle the mission of our armed forces
in Iraq. Maybe it’s me, but I don’t honor someone by telling them
their actions are misguided and worthless.” Here are some examples of “troop support” by the Times.
First, though the Times told us in graphic terms the surge wouldn’t
work (here,
here,
here,
here,
here),
it said go ahead anyway. The point was to set up the Times to
claim it was right regardless of how things transpired. At the time I
wrote, “What a gutless position! Worse than gutless, it displays an
amazing lack of principles and a willingness to sacrifice American lives to
make a political point. If the Times truly believes ‘the effort
to pacify Iraq most likely will fail and that many more American personnel
will be killed, maimed and wounded in a futile effort,’ it has a moral
obligation to fight against the troop increase.” Second, when Gen. Petraeus reported the
surge was having success, the
Times told us he was “playing a numbers game.” Third, you’ll recall the Times gave
credit for progress in Iraq to the
“Sunni awakening,”
Iran, and Muqtada al-Sadr,
not our troops. © 2004-2010 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved. |