Dec. 17, 2010
COMMENTARY: Why Is Everyone Afraid to Talk About the Wars? Where are the Media Lambs?
By Joseph J. Honick
Two very telling events occurred within hours after the recent mid-term elections: Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell pronounced his major mission will be to demolish the Obama administration….the likely new Speaker of the House was unable to respond with any concrete answer when asked about Afghanistan.
Given the sheer immensity of what the longest wars in American history imply for so many millions here and in the afflicted nations, it might be reasonable to expect the new Republican House leader to have had almost emotional responses to such inquiry. They did not. Far worse, the assembled media lambs were totally silent in asking more detailed answers.
Yet, in a subsequent television interview, Congressman John Boehner, the handsome and usually well spoken Republican leader was shown to be a “cryer”, often registering tears in response to questions. But there were no tears when he held his first press conference after an election that would catapult him to a position third to the President of the United States in Constitutional succession.
Any reasonable American is entitled to know precisely what the new political victors see as the path to success in Afghanistan, and if not success, a logical route to some conclusion. But no sale.
Just about all the Republican leaders can continue to campaign on has to do with taxes, an assault on President Obama and something called the “deficit.” The fact is close to $2 trillion of that bottomless pit of spending relates to foggily defined missions in Iraq and Afghanistan that some predict may well last well into 2015.
It is also more than a little frightening and frustrating that Democrats are virtually mute on the subject of the wars. Maybe it’s because they incriminated themselves by buying into the story of some massive missile threats that supported President Bush’s commitment to an invasion first of Iraq and then to sustain a conflict in Afghanistan under the protective mantle of NATO.
Then add in the hypocritical United Nations that can warmly welcome a murderer like Gadaffi, always has spare time to bash the State of Israel and play other games, but seemingly cannot come up with any meaningful intervention on the wars? This is the same UN that looked the other way when the only person convicted in the Lockerbie slaughter was not only freed on a phony alibi he was close to death but was welcomed as a hero to the Libyan cheerleaders.
So why are the political leaders of the nation and the world virtually mute? Where is the shame of the media that have virtually cooperated in all of this by dispatching and embedding star correspondents to battle zones so they could be photographed alongside courageous troops who get wounded and killed, and, if they survive one deployment, can get more and chances under fire.
Fascinatingly if not shamefully, when the Israelis in 1981 singlehandedly swooped into Iraq and knocked out Saddam Hussein’s nuclear operation, all they reaped was the anger and criticism of what pretends to be the civilized world, including the United States. Were those not among the widely touted WMD’s (Weapons of Mass Destruction) whose elimination could have saved tons of lives?
Perhaps there is some evidence to be found in the daily publication of Department of Defense contract awards that few if any talk much about. The daily tens of millions and often billions suggest these contractors have a vested interest in these conflicts. In fact, The Wall Street Journal -- no liberal herald -- printed precisely that concern of defense contractors that military budgets for their gadgets and other stuff might be reduced.
Not long ago we raised questions about the mess in Afghanistan and no one has yet been willing to answer even one of them.
If, as the victorious Republicans assert, the American people have declared for a change, when might we expect voices that speak about the dangers our men and women have been committed to instead of just the amount of money we spend on health care? Will they and their children and grandchildren not carry the burdens of the trillions so far spent and the billion or so likewise used to sell those conflicts?
* * *
Joseph J. Honick is a frequent contributor to Huntington News Network and is president of the international consulting firm GMA International Ltd., based in Bainbridge Island, WA.
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COMMENTARY: Why Is Everyone Afraid to Talk About the Wars? Where are the Media Lambs?
By Joseph J. Honick
Two very telling events occurred within hours after the recent mid-term elections: Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell pronounced his major mission will be to demolish the Obama administration….the likely new Speaker of the House was unable to respond with any concrete answer when asked about Afghanistan.
Given the sheer immensity of what the longest wars in American history imply for so many millions here and in the afflicted nations, it might be reasonable to expect the new Republican House leader to have had almost emotional responses to such inquiry. They did not. Far worse, the assembled media lambs were totally silent in asking more detailed answers.
Yet, in a subsequent television interview, Congressman John Boehner, the handsome and usually well spoken Republican leader was shown to be a “cryer”, often registering tears in response to questions. But there were no tears when he held his first press conference after an election that would catapult him to a position third to the President of the United States in Constitutional succession.
Any reasonable American is entitled to know precisely what the new political victors see as the path to success in Afghanistan, and if not success, a logical route to some conclusion. But no sale.
Just about all the Republican leaders can continue to campaign on has to do with taxes, an assault on President Obama and something called the “deficit.” The fact is close to $2 trillion of that bottomless pit of spending relates to foggily defined missions in Iraq and Afghanistan that some predict may well last well into 2015.
It is also more than a little frightening and frustrating that Democrats are virtually mute on the subject of the wars. Maybe it’s because they incriminated themselves by buying into the story of some massive missile threats that supported President Bush’s commitment to an invasion first of Iraq and then to sustain a conflict in Afghanistan under the protective mantle of NATO.
Then add in the hypocritical United Nations that can warmly welcome a murderer like Gadaffi, always has spare time to bash the State of Israel and play other games, but seemingly cannot come up with any meaningful intervention on the wars? This is the same UN that looked the other way when the only person convicted in the Lockerbie slaughter was not only freed on a phony alibi he was close to death but was welcomed as a hero to the Libyan cheerleaders.
So why are the political leaders of the nation and the world virtually mute? Where is the shame of the media that have virtually cooperated in all of this by dispatching and embedding star correspondents to battle zones so they could be photographed alongside courageous troops who get wounded and killed, and, if they survive one deployment, can get more and chances under fire.
Fascinatingly if not shamefully, when the Israelis in 1981 singlehandedly swooped into Iraq and knocked out Saddam Hussein’s nuclear operation, all they reaped was the anger and criticism of what pretends to be the civilized world, including the United States. Were those not among the widely touted WMD’s (Weapons of Mass Destruction) whose elimination could have saved tons of lives?
Perhaps there is some evidence to be found in the daily publication of Department of Defense contract awards that few if any talk much about. The daily tens of millions and often billions suggest these contractors have a vested interest in these conflicts. In fact, The Wall Street Journal -- no liberal herald -- printed precisely that concern of defense contractors that military budgets for their gadgets and other stuff might be reduced.
Not long ago we raised questions about the mess in Afghanistan and no one has yet been willing to answer even one of them.
If, as the victorious Republicans assert, the American people have declared for a change, when might we expect voices that speak about the dangers our men and women have been committed to instead of just the amount of money we spend on health care? Will they and their children and grandchildren not carry the burdens of the trillions so far spent and the billion or so likewise used to sell those conflicts?
* * *
Joseph J. Honick is a frequent contributor to Huntington News Network and is president of the international consulting firm GMA International Ltd., based in Bainbridge Island, WA.
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