Posted on 10/30/2009 4:41:58 PM PDT by Congressman Billybob
Late last week, in the dead of night. President Obama made an unannounced trip to Dover, Delaware, where he was photographed saluting some flag-covered coffins that were coming in from Afghanistan. There were 18 coffins on this day. And afterwards, Obama said that this experience “would influence his decision” on troop levels and future policies in the war in that Afghanistan.
Well, first I fault the press. I’ve been saying for years that reporting on war casualties, in Iraq, Afghanistan, or wherever, is defective. The national importance of casualties should be gauged by relative casualties in other, American wars. It’s called context. It is especially important in public issues involving deaths of Americans.
Is a disease or condition that kills ten children a year as worthy of public attention and millions of dollars of spending as a another disease that kills a thousand children a year? Put the question that way, and any sensible citizen or sensible politician will say, of course not. The focus and the spending should go where it will save the most lives, do the most good.
But that sort of question cannot be answered without the comparative statistics. Few things matter in the abstract. It is only when put in context that the importance of most fact can be weighed. By and large, the American press does not put death stories – civilian or military – in comparative context.
Let us return to Obama’s midnight trip to salute the coffins at the airbase at Dover, Delaware, where all American casualties return to American soil. Since this Administration is fond of comparisons to the preceding, Bush Administration, here it is: President Bush never went on a single trip to Dover to salute the coffins. Instead, on many occasions he met personally with the families of the fallen soldiers. And President Bush met with them privately, and did not release any photographs of those meetings to the press. Draw your own conclusions about which President was honoring the dead, and which was, possibly, using the coffins of the dead as a backdrop for a photo-op.
Mind you, I have said before and say again, to the family who has lost a son or daughter, husband or wife, mother or father, a single death is a permanent tragedy. However, any nation which bases its foreign policy on the death of one, or only a few, soldiers might as well retreat within its borders and disband its military.
Here is a list of wars that the United States would have abandoned and lost, if the sudden death of 18 soldiers was sufficient to break our resolve to fight:
We would have abandoned the American Revolution after the Battle of Boston, or the Battle of Manhattan, or several other battles lost in New Jersey as Washington’s troops retreated in the face of defeat after defeat.
We would have abandoned the War of 1812 after the British swept aside the incompetent defense of Washington, D.C., and burned that city. There would have been no defense of Fort McHenry, where the Star-Spangled Banner was still flying in the morning, the nation was saved and the National Anthem was written.
We would have lost the Civil War, otherwise known as the War of Southern Succession, at a hundred points where more than ten thousand men fell on both sides of various battles. The result would have been a diminished United States, and a small Confederacy, neither of them of major consequence in the world.
We would have lost World War I, and the Germans would have created their dominance over Europe. But that loss would probably have ruled out the later loss of World War II, since Germany already had its dominance.
We would have lost the Korean War. But then that war was a draw. You DO know that there is only an Armistice in Korea? The original Declaration of War is still in effect.
We would have lost the Vietnam War earlier. We would have lost Gulf War I, and the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The invasions of Panama and Grenada however, would have made the grade by being so relatively bloodless.
Whenever President Obama gets around to making a decision on the conduct of the War in Afghanistan, I urge all readers to look up on the Internet the histories of other military actions in American history, to judge the competence of what he chooses. It may not be a pretty picture, but it will be more accurate than the press accounts suggest.
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About the Author: John Armor practiced in the US Supreme Court for 33 years. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu His latest book, on Thomas Paine, is available here: www.TheseAreTheTimes.us (Note the suffix, .us)
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John / Billybob
BTTT
Well said!
Thank you.
Well said. I googled to do a limited search to see if someone disclosed how the press knew that the Son of OBama was going to Dover in the middle of the night and did not find any details. I did run accross the following from a site from a poster: Melany “Bite Size” S
http://www.yelp.com/topic/washington-obama-honors-fallen-soldiers-in-surprise-visit-to-dover-md
Ignore, if you can, the toads who comment on the item below:
My husband actually is in the unit who does these Dover “Missions and receive the fallen soldiers. It’s suppose to be an honoring of the soldier not the president. Using dead soldiers to get publicity. How low can you go? It pisses me off that the Press was even their. How did they find out that obama was going to visit the fallen soldiers. People should be giving tribute to the men who have lost their lives not giving props to the pres for saluting them. Common people.”
bump
Every day I awake hoping that I can not be further disgusted with the Prez. I am disappointed yet again.
If the elected Pres—ent wants to honor the fallen - fine.
Just leave the cameras behind.
The pos in the white house cannot get any lower than this when he goes on a photo op showing faux concern over our fallen military. To hell with him and to hell with his obedient supporters. God help the USA
Yes.Back when Nightline was threatening to embarrass the administration by reading out the names of all the dead in Iraq, the Secretary Rumsfeld should have countered by ordering an honor guard to read out the roll of the dead from the Vietnam memorial, starting at the same time that Nightline started, and continuing for however long it would have taken to read out the entire list.
That would have turned Nightline's stunt into a demonstration of just how few casualties resulted from the invasion of Iraq.
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