Time to Get Out of Iraq (RINO ALERT)

Townhall ^ | 08/15/2005 | Armstrong Williams

[Dane]

I find it amazing that after all this time basic services in the major cities are so decrepit.

So says the keyboard commentator 8,000 miles away and uses a biased mainstream press to make his comments(i.e not actually on the scene).

[AntiGuv]

Fair enough. I am inviting two people I'm aware of that are on the scene to describe the basic services in Iraq and dispute my characterization if it's inaccurate. Let's see..

[angkor]

The only civilians who can safely report from Iraq are Arab nationals (as stringers to AP etc and who who can circulate somewhat freely), or Western reporters sitting at IZ briefings in Baghdad.

That does not make for good reporting.

I'm all for the days of WWII, when much of the reporting came from enlisted scribes. Even Stars & Stripes is a piece of leftist propaganda these days - demoralizing to those on the ground and full of AP pap - yet the Pentagon still doesn't seem to understand that it needs to tell the story itself, with its own personnel.

[newzjunkey]

Yup. Won't hear that out of Brian Williams and the rest, will we?

[newzjunkey]

Press releases won't cut it. We need finesse and the public faces just don't measure up. Clinton was brilliant at waging a media campaign. I have a sense that FDR was pretty good too. There have to be things the administration can do to improve support for the troops and this conflict.

We almost need a propaganda factory just in hopes of getting some balance rather than all negativity all the time.

[newzjunkey]

yet the Pentagon still doesn't seem to understand that it needs to tell the story itself, with its own personnel.

Another thing to thank Vietnam for. (sarcasm)

[Dane]

Clinton was brilliant at waging a media campaign

Amd was made much easier by a mainstream press that 90% of it's employees agreed with clinton and didn't have a hostile bias against him.

It's funny how you leave out the obvious, or are now going to say that the mainstream media is fair and balanced.

[Allegra]

We've been 'staying the course' for two and a half years now and we're not much better off than we were in spring of 2003..

Oh, but we are. This mission is headed for success. The news just refuses to report it truthfully. I can't tell you how many troops I've met who have expressed frustration and downright anger at how the media is distorting the truth of what is happening in Iraq.

I've seen the progress with my own eyes having been in Iraq since January '04, and it's amazing. Baghdad is rebuilding in spite of frequent attacks and infrastructure is being improved all over the country.

As Iraq moves forward with its constitution (on which the citizens get to vote in October), with the election of its leaders in December and other milstones in which the people are empowered, the progress will be so evident that the media simply won't be able to cover it up anymore.

[AntiGuv]

OK, then I hope you're right, and to backtrack on my previous comments, the first order of priority would be to get accurate reporting of the situation on the ground. Perhaps newzjunkey is the one on the right track that the Pentagon needs to revitalize its own journalism endeavors. Hmm.. I was never very fond at all of the whole MSM 'embed' policy so maybe that was a cardinal problem in this entire mission..

[KeyWest]

"We need, as a nation, to toughen the heck up. Grow some spine"

Heading to Iraq? when?

---

Total BS. Many of us have served in the military and in combat. From what I have seen so far, the press and those like you are exactly what I saw back in the US after returning from Vietnam. The true cowards are spineless wimps who want to hide in the corner, fearful of facing up to evil.

[angkor]

All you'd need to do is look at the daily left-wing tripe printed in Iraq Stars & Stripes to know that the Pentagon is doing an abysmal - almost insanely incompetent - job with the PR efforts.

After getting a dose of leftie CNN in the chow hall (courtesy of Armed Forces Network, which also carried Fox News), I'd pass on reading S&S because I knew it was worse than anything CNN could invent. Full of AP and Reuters crap, and very thin on anything supporting the troops.

Just how many reporters does S&S have in Iraq, anyway?! One??. Two??

This is one area where the Pentagon cannot continue to outsource to civilians. In this instance I'm all for full-on "propaganda" (e.g., real news slanted toward the positive), written and edited by enlisted and commissioned personnel.Certainly no more embeds of Kevin Sites' seditious ilk, and any foreign nationals (e.g., non-Iraqis) found in country should be treated as spies, regardless of their credentials.

This is, after all, a war.

[stockpirate]

"The insurgents are not"

Here is your clue, they are terrorists, not insurgents.

[alnick]

Thank you for your encouraging post.

And BTW, I admire your courage. Living in Iraq right now takes guts.

[wingman1]

"Therein is the way in which Iraq will become like Vietnam."

Armstrong Williams reminds me of people I knew years ago who were once supportive of the American effort in Vietnam, only to change their minds later when the war became unpopular.

[Bahbah]

I am inviting two people I'm aware of that are on the scene...

Mike has been back in the states for some time.

[LibLieSlayer]

"The true cowards are spineless wimps who want to hide in the corner, fearful of facing up to evil".

OUTSTANDING STATEMENT OF TRUTH!!! BRAVO!

Those that fit this mold, are as great of a danger to America as the terrorists themselves. They work to achieve the same end result!

LLS

[TexasCajun]

I Agree!

Let's move on to Iran, the heart of the problem!

[q_an_a]

once they make the big mistake - put hand in cookie jar and get caught, everyone in Washington sells out so they can get back on the talk show circuit and earn the big bucks. Someone call Tammie Baker and find out how she got back? this is the crime of the pigs at the trough we call Washington DC or Celebrity.

[montag813]

First Armstrong was revealed as a crook. Now a RINO. What's next? Father of a "love child"? What an irrelevant putz.

[Milligan]

Your correct. During WWII the Japanese were just as fanatical as the terrorist. Instead of Allah they had their Emperor to die for. Remember the Kamikaze and Bonzi attacks? The Japanese civilians in Saipan jumping off cliffs to escape capture?

If we don't win in Iraq we will become the paper tiger for the terrorist. We need to get over Vietnam and grow a spine. Images on TV do influence people...especially Cindy Sheedan types.