{"id":250,"date":"2007-03-20T08:07:35","date_gmt":"2007-03-20T13:07:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/2007\/03\/20\/general-cohen-reporting-for-duty\/"},"modified":"2007-03-20T09:33:18","modified_gmt":"2007-03-20T14:33:18","slug":"general-cohen-reporting-for-duty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=250","title":{"rendered":"WaPo’s Cohen “Wasted Lives”"},"content":{"rendered":"

For some reason, Richard Cohen thinks it’s OK to call American lives “wasted because he prays at the altar of John McCain and Barack Obama. In the Washington Post\u00c2\u00a0this morning,\u00c2\u00a0Richard Cohen, runs a piece\u00c2\u00a0entitled “Wasted Lives<\/a>“;<\/p>\n

Back when I was in the National Guard and fearing a call-up for the war in Vietnam…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Whoa, whoa, wait…one of the members of the press was in the National Guard during Viet Nam? To hear them yammer on about President Bush and Dan Quail, I always thought journalists all spent that entire war on patrol in the Mekong Delta armed with only a spear and living off of field mice turds. Oh, sorry, please continue, General Cohen;<\/p>\n

It is painfully hard to say — and even harder to write — that the lives lost in Iraq were wasted. It sounds like a judgment on the dead when it is meant, of course, as an indictment of the living: America’s political leadership. But some sort of finger has to be pointed at the president and some sort of reminder offered that it is not just a policy that has failed but that people have been killed or wounded. This is the real cost of a war that need not have been fought.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What is not painfully hard to say nor write, Mr. Cohen, is that you’re an idiot and your life has been wasted. Of course you want to point your finger at the President, but how about pointing a finger at your-damn-self and all of your fellow journalists – just for a change. Wasn’t it the journalists that forced an end to the first war against Saddam Hussein with idiot reports and photos about “The Highway of Death”? Wasn’t it the journalists who trumpeted that Clinton’s asprin factory bombing was a blow against terrorism, and his bravery at firing off a cruise missile at Iraq’s Defense Ministery, how brave and bold Clinton was for withdrawing our troops from Somalia with their collective tail between their collective legs.\u00c2\u00a0And now you have the temerity to champion the same strategy that led us to 9-11;<\/p>\n

The way to protect our soldiers is not to double our losses but to agree on a sensible withdrawal policy. Particularly for the Bush administration, all this concern for the troops comes a bit late and smacks of insincerity. The war may not have started with a lie, but it seems it will end with one.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yep, the lie told about an honorable exit from Iraq before the job is finished – told by you and your journalist buddies.<\/p>\n

“When members of Congress pursue an antiwar strategy that’s been called ‘slow bleed,’ they’re not supporting the troops, they are undermining them,” Cheney said last week. Bush, who is a softer, gentler Cheney, has said substantially the same thing. “I think you can be against my decision and support the troops, absolutely,” the president said last month. “But the proof will be whether or not you provide them the money necessary to do the mission.” In other words, the only acceptable way to support the troops is, paradoxically, to put more and (it seems) more of them in danger. The present “surge” threatens to become an open-ended escalation. The war goes on.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What makes this “surge” an open ended escalation is the refusal of the media and the Left to shut up and stop encouraging the jihadists. I’m not saying you should shut up for all eternity, neither is the Vice President. Just shut up long enough to make the jihadists at least think there’s no way out, no way he can win the war.<\/p>\n

Unless, of course you want to “waste” more American lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For some reason, Richard Cohen thinks it’s OK to call American lives “wasted because he prays … WaPo’s Cohen “Wasted Lives”<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-terror-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}