Micro-Reporting.
Remember the other day when I blogged this:
Yesterday on Meet the Press this was said:
Again, the MSM refuses to put anything into context. First our troops are in the field working to defeat the terrorists they do not sit in the barracks and play cards and wait for the terrorists to come to them. They go after them. They report each incident like it was something all onto itself and refuse to paint a larger picture for us.
It all seems a chaotic mess because this is the way the MSM is reporting it (and perhaps because as Michael Yon points out there seems to be no rhyme or reason why the army releases its information). 20 Marines killed in Haditha just seemed to happen for no reason at all. There is no explanation of why Haditha and Rawa are important. There is no reminder the Marines were fighting the core of the terrorists in Fallujah last year (much closer to Baghdad). Thank God for The Belmont Club and The Fourth Rail and other such blogs!
Source: Blogger Beer - Can Not See the Forest for the Moss.Yesterday on Meet the Press this was said:
Mr. Russert: All of you have had distinguished military careers, leading men into war. We now have a majority of the American people saying this war is a mistake. General Downing, how long can you conduct a war that is not supported by a majority of the American people?
Gen. Downing: Well, Tim, you absolutely have to have the support of the American people. And the troops that we have in Afghanistan and Iraq right now feel this very, very strongly. They want the support. Quite frankly, I think one of the problems that we're having is that the news media, the opposition to the war are framing this entire discussion in the terms of casualties and casualties only. I think what we don't have is a serious discussion about why you take those casualties.
We're not out there roaming the roads in Iraq and Afghanistan, looking for IEDs to blow up. Everything we're doing in a military campaign, both the U.S., the coalition and the Iraqi forces, are aimed at objectives. And those objectives are to promote the political process, number one, because what we're doing, Tim--for the last six weeks we've been doing this--we're preparing for the election in the middle of October--I mean, the referendum on the constitution and then the following one, the election in December to ratify it.
The other things we're doing is we're supporting the economic development of that country and the social development. That's why these military operations are going on. And I really think that it's incumbent upon you and the others and the responsible American press to put the casualties into these kind of context. In other words, what is it that they're accomplishing? I mean, can you imagine us and, you know, it's been quoted out there in the Web, judging the D-Day invasion of Normandy back in 1944 by the casualties that were suffered?
Source: Meet the Press Transcript Sunday August 28, 2005Gen. Downing: Well, Tim, you absolutely have to have the support of the American people. And the troops that we have in Afghanistan and Iraq right now feel this very, very strongly. They want the support. Quite frankly, I think one of the problems that we're having is that the news media, the opposition to the war are framing this entire discussion in the terms of casualties and casualties only. I think what we don't have is a serious discussion about why you take those casualties.
We're not out there roaming the roads in Iraq and Afghanistan, looking for IEDs to blow up. Everything we're doing in a military campaign, both the U.S., the coalition and the Iraqi forces, are aimed at objectives. And those objectives are to promote the political process, number one, because what we're doing, Tim--for the last six weeks we've been doing this--we're preparing for the election in the middle of October--I mean, the referendum on the constitution and then the following one, the election in December to ratify it.
The other things we're doing is we're supporting the economic development of that country and the social development. That's why these military operations are going on. And I really think that it's incumbent upon you and the others and the responsible American press to put the casualties into these kind of context. In other words, what is it that they're accomplishing? I mean, can you imagine us and, you know, it's been quoted out there in the Web, judging the D-Day invasion of Normandy back in 1944 by the casualties that were suffered?
Again, the MSM refuses to put anything into context. First our troops are in the field working to defeat the terrorists they do not sit in the barracks and play cards and wait for the terrorists to come to them. They go after them. They report each incident like it was something all onto itself and refuse to paint a larger picture for us.
posted by Marcus Aurelius at 1:20 PM
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