PS. Bryan ,when we gonna see you dance ?

Drtuddle on August 18, 2006 at 11:59 AM

Um, how about never?

Bryan on August 18, 2006 at 12:01 PM

I suspected as much. Bryan, you’re worse than that wretched, malingering armadillo.

You are too self-conscious. There is nothing wrong with your face. Au contraire! I appreciate your serious demeanor and the earnestness with which you approach such important topics. I really value your talents on this team.

WE CANNOT WIN THE WAR AGAINST THE ISLAMO-NAZIS AS LONG AS WE ENGAGE THEM WITH OUR WESTERN IDEALS.

. . . To root out an entrenched enemy force from bunkers and tunnels — at least what our Marines had to do to take Iwo Jima from the Japanese in WWII.

Bryan Preston does an excellent job as guest host of today’s Vent, and goes a long way to explai…

In the example that Bryan used, if the press had reported the high number of casualties in taking the island, support for the war would have evaporated overnight and there would have been demands for an immediate cease fire.

But the press was prohibited from reporting the actual numbers because of imposed military censorship, and the public’s morale was not affected.

Likewise, our defeat at the Battle of Savo Island was “classified” and remained unreported until the 1960’s. The government did so to prevent erosion of the war effort during the Battle of Guadalcanal.

This is what has been missing since Vietnam, at least: Controlling the information flow out of a war zone.

In case anybody in the media is paying attention: The First Amendment DOES NOT APPLY OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES.

The military can — and IMHO, should — require that all reports FROM A WAR ZONE be submitted for censorship, the way it was done in 1941-1945.

The media has an agenda that is not at all hidden: To undermine the Bush administration and force and end to the war in Iraq by undermining the popularity of the war through biased and incomplete reporting, and manipulation of the news presentation to reflect adversely on the administration. We are crazy to let them get away with it.

When PBS’s The News Hour shows it’s “Honor Roll” at the end of the show, it is NOT about honoring our fallen men and women. It is about PRESENTING THE MEME that Americans in Iraq are being picked off, one by one, and we’re helpless to do anything about it — with the unstated implicaton that we should quit Iraq in order to “stop the killing.”

If The News Hour really wanted to honor our dead, they would be also describing the mission they were on when they were killed, the results of that mission, and how badly the enemy was hurt.

Giving context tells the entire story, and that story is that we are winning the insurgency (truth: we are), that recovery is proceeding well (did you know that oil production now exceeds that of Saddam’s government pre-invasion?). If you do, you didn’t learn if from the leftist so-called “Mainstream Media”.

To return back to Iwo Jima for a moment, the American public was told at the time that taking Iwo Jima was IMPORTANT to the war effort, that the cost in blood was necessary to shorten the war. It was true. Taking Iwo Jima gave the United States an airfield capable of landing battle-damaged B-29’s returning from raids over Japan. Taking Iwo Jima also eliminated it as a base for Japanese fighters to attack the bombers on the way in.

Had The News Hour existed then, free of military censorship like today, they would have reported the total number of US casualties, IGNORED the Japanese losses, ignored the role that the air strip on the island played, and flashed the pictures of each KIA Marine on the screen in a littany that would have lasted months.

And before the week would be out, there would have been calls for pulling out of Iwo, for cancelling the invasion of Okinawa, for shelving PERMANENTLY, the use of the Atom Bomb on Japan, in liew of a “cease fire” with the Empire of Japan.

That’s Point one.

Point two:

Ernie Pyle, America’s best-known WWII correspondent who was killed in action once said “Every reporter is a citizen of somewhere and a believer in something.”

Before any “journalist” is allowed to embed with our troops or enter the theater, what it is that they (and their editors) believe about the war, the troops, and the national leadership should be ascertained and only those reporters NOT hostile to the mission, the troops, and the administration should be allowed to go along.

We should never knowingly allow a media Fifth Column unfettered access to the battlefield or any country we occupy.

The object of fighting a war is to WIN, as Bryan convincingly explained. Allowing the hostile, agenda-driven media to control what is said about war is to invite defeat, not at the hands of the people we are fighting, but of Fifth Column media.

Yes, I am openly advocating MILITARY CENSORSHIP during wartime, and the media howling monkeys who object can stuff it where the sun don’t shine.

George W. Bush should have repeated FDR’s fireside chat of 23 February, 1942 on March 16, 2003, and every six months thereafter.

“Your Government has unmistakable confidence in your ability to hear the worst, without flinching or losing heart. You must, in turn, have complete confidence that your Government is keeping nothing from you except information that will help the enemy in his attempt to destroy us. In a democracy there is always a solemn pact of truth between government and the people, but there must also always be a full use of discretion, and that word ” discretion” applies to the critics of government as well.

This is war. The American people want to know, and will be told, the general trend of how the war is going. But they do not wish to help the enemy any more than our fighting forces do, and they will pay little attention to the rumor-mongers and the poison peddlers in our midst. ”

[Franklin D. Roosevelt, "Fireside Chat 20 (February 23, 1942), On the Progress of the War,"

http://millercenter.virginia.edu/scripps/diglibrary/prezspeeches/roosevelt/fdr_1942_0223.html]

Earlier today, Wander said:

Today, the NY Times is still trying to decide which side they are on.

They already have decided – they are on the enemy’s side.

Michelle Malkin says going soft on an enemy has never won anybody a war.
Check out HotAir.com for a great video podcast.
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I say boot the MSM/press out of any military conflict, anywhere. So what if we don’t get the news for a few days, because our enemy won’t be getting the news via the New York Times either /sarcasm. Wars are never won with standoffs, or by pullouts. You either go into an armed conflict to kick ass and win as fast as possible, and sure as hell not to lose, or stop short of the mission. BTW, you use every means at your disposal.

Vietnam was not lost by our military (God Bless our Vietnam Vets), but instead, by a group of dumb democrats, and a dumber defense secretary that didn’t know the difference between a Model-A Ford, or F-4 Phantom jet, or what the goals and objectives were. Thank God our military aren’t fighting protracted conflicts like Nam anymore. 

But Flower Power DID win a war….

For the North Vietnamese….

We must get out and vote to keep these kooks out of office (despite our frustration with current conservative politicians).

Thank you Bryan for giving us gals an opportunity to view the vents the way many guys do :)

Oh Entelechy, you beat me to the punch! I was just about to comment about how NICE Bryan looks too!! Michelle is cute, but she’s just not my flavor. I dig the dudes.

Foreign insurgents swayed an election in Spain with their terror, and they seek to dictate the leadership of the US in a similar manner. The tragic part is, it seems to be slowly working. We’ll never be free to live in peace until we are free from the enemys of freedom, here at home and abroad. The only way to do that, sadly, is to either acquiesce to their demands, or root them out of their “caves and tunnels”, wherever they may be. For shame that such a large number of people in seats of power and influence in the US would sooner acquiesce than decisively end the threat to the freedoms they, and all of us, enjoy.

To be honest though, I think Barbara Streisand in a buhrka would definitely be an improvement.

The topic of the vent was extremely serious and I agree with all of you who support fighting with the clarity and strategy to win, no matter what it takes.

Also, I detest all those who not only don’t support, but undermine, the effort.

Then, uh, I saw Bryan. Oh, those glaaasses! And the way you move those lips…do you ever wear the same clothes or do you change them for every shoot, like Michelle does?

Topic? Hmmmm…there was a serious topic discussed in this post but what the heck was it? I need a cold shower…

Ah, yes, it’s very serious, indeed. We need to fight to win!

Thank you Bryan for giving us gals an opportunity to view the vents the way many guys do :)