Posted on 05/02/2006 2:51:50 PM PDT by bad company
As soldiers, we have two enemies that should our allies in the war on terror. I am not referring to the negative nature of journalism, or the sedition of those who release classified information. Although those do complicate our lives, they are to be expected. After all treason was old when Alcibiades defected, and even the best battles in war are going to look bad in full color, live. Instead, there are two former allies that have defected: higher education, and mass media (specifically film).
Let us treat these one at a time. Higher education is at its pinnacle in the United States. Not only do places like Yale and Harvard still hold tremendous power in our collective consciousness, but also pretty much every town in the US, of any size, has a college of some sort. As much as CNN would try and spin it negatively, even the Chinese Communist People's Daily admits that the United States is still a place many serious foreign students come to learn, especially for advanced degrees, with more that half a million foreign students studying here every year. If those students were fed a serious education that included the value of American society, and an honest look at our virtues that would be roughly 120,000 non-Americans that would have a pro-American, and presumably anti-terrorist outlook on the world. Instead, they are fed Anti-American and ant-Western vitriol such that on American Campuses they welcome and defend former members of the Taliban while ejecting American military recruiters. Who do they want to win anyway?
The second should-be, once-was ally is American film. While there are many Arab films, they do not achieve the notoriety in their own country that American films do. American films, and to a lesser extent television, are pervasive throughout the Middle East. How do I know that? Because Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al Zarqawi keep complaining about it, and even referring to them! And why not? American movies are generally more numerous, and often better produced than films in the Middle East and elsewhere (although we are starting to see more, and better films from all over the world). This should be a huge advantage to us, since it could portray the Americans positively, an American perspective if you will. Instead, what do they get? Terrorists as the real victims, even heroes! Americans as the enemy of Democracy! Americans are racist! American’s hate gays! Americans hate Muslims (admittedly this one is a stretch, but it is not lost on the locals)! Americans want to impose a Christian Theocracy on Britain (also only by implication)!
I realize that educators and filmmakers fear that they could be perceived as propagandists of America. But right now they are viewed in America as propagandists for Islamofascism, and is that any better? (Have some values!)
This would not be hard to do either. There are lots of things that are really good about America. After all American film and higher education did spring up there, and they seem to have a pretty high opinion of themselves. Look at all the great things that have happened here, and the great things that we have done. If you have a hard time thinking of them then perhaps your education is lacking.
I am not saying to overlook the bad things either, but the real story there is that bad people ultimately lose in America. Afterall we started out with slavery, patronage, and property requirements for voting, and those are all gone. And we are still a work in progress, but we have made more progress in American society in 200 years of history, than much of the world has in 2000. You could even still tip a hat to all those wing bat causes (and be a little forward thinking in you preemption of problems) by making a movie about Chavez’s hero, Simon Bolivar, and how he idolized George Washington so much he wore a medal of his image whenever he made a public appearance. How great would that be!
All I am saying is this: we are in a fight to the death with Osama and his ilk, and actually most people seem to realize that. This is a fight that the army cannot win alone. I am a soldier, and frankly I do not want amateurs and draftees fighting with me. We do just fine on the battlefield as professionals. But is it too much to ask that these industries contribute what they are good at to the war effort. If the media and academia are so worried about losing the freedoms that America provides for them, is it too much to ask that they do their part to defend them, by telling the world how great those freedoms are, and what they need to do to get them? I can fight terrorists ‘til the cows come home, but I have no idea how to fight hatred of America, especially when it comes from Americans.
bump for later
What ever gave you this idea? The media and acedemia have taken their freedoms for granted for so long, the only way they are going to realized that their actions are cripling the nation (and albeit blindly, themselves) is when its their blood running in the streets.
And we as honorable soldiers and patriots will insure that ours will be spilt long befor theirs is.
Im not saying that its right. Im just saying......
No, it's not too much to ask, but the "elites" are too stuck on cooing over their own opinions and actions to help the people fighting a war.
I personally think the soldiers can fight back against the press and the professors. The soldiers simply choose not to. The day they change their mind the battle with that quarter would be over in about 20 minutes.
When sacking pacifists you get to take your time aiming.....
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