For some time, a large number of Americans have lived in an alternate universe where everything is supposedly going to hell. If you get up in the morning to read the New York Times or Washington Post, watch John Murtha or Howard Dean on the morning talk shows, listen to National Public Radio at noon, and go to bed reading Newsweek it surely seems that the administration is incommunicado (cf. “the bubble”), the war is lost (“unwinnable”), the Great Depression is back (“jobless recovery”), and America about as popular as Nazi Germany abroad (“alone and isolated”).
Reality, he says, will collapse this alternative world soon.
Strategypage fleshes this out. Noting that our troops are confused by the defeatism they hear from our media and certain leaders:
A story slowly creeping into the news is the disconnect between what American troops experience in Iraq, and what is reported back in the United States, and the rest of the world. For U.S. troops, who are reenlisting in record numbers, even after multiple tours in Iraq, they are fighting a war they are winning, and they see the evidence of this all around them.
As to the hostility of the world, don't get too worked up. They weren't too happy with us under the sensitive Clinton administration, either. And the reason is simple:
The hostility from the rest of the world is easier to understand. With the end of the Cold War, everyone will naturally gang up on the lone superpower. Add to the mix all those disappointed Soviet Union fans looking to relive the good old days, and you have a mass of hostility looking for an outlet. America makes the perfect villain, because it’s one that isn’t really a threat. The U.S. will not only take the heat, but continue to be a good trading partner and be quick with a helping hand if anyone gets in trouble.
Yes. Complain about us but never the real thugs. The Europeans and the human rights industry know that picking on us will never result in hit squads finding them in the middle of the night. Complain about Iran or Cuba and you start stacking empty cans in front of your apartment door--just in case. Complain about America and suddenly you're on the A-list invitation list for the best parties. Tough call, eh?
But one day the press will start reporting what is actually happening rather than pretending their opinions are news:
What the troops think, and experience, is something that can be ignored for the moment. If it becomes too obvious that reporting victory in Iraq cannot be avoided, then the media depends on the fact that the media reports the present, not the past. The media works on the assumption that its readers have no long term memory. Thus there would be a flurry of stories on how all is well in Iraq, and then on to the next headline grabbing disaster. This happened right after the 1991 Gulf War, and right after the three week invasion of Iraq in 2003. History and punditry do not mix.
The press and the opposition will never admit their mistakes--despite their insistence on the curative powers of such admissions for the administration's real and purported mistakes on the war. Instead, much like they were "always" supportive of the Afghanistan campaign, the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and the Cold War; once the Iraq War is won, the former critics will insist their nitpicking was crucial to forging victory and that victory was their goal all along.
But I'll settle for what we'll get. Just as our President has accurately stated that our war will not end with a formal surrender of our enemies, this war will not end with the loyal opposition signing their surrender papers on the deck of a battleship.
