Robert D. Kaplan, a correspondent for The Atlantic and a visiting professor at the U.S. Naval Academy, wonders, where are the heroes? He knows there are American heroes, but why don't we hear about them?
I'm weary of seeing news stories about wounded soldiers and assertions of "support" for the troops mixed with suggestions of the futility of our military efforts in Iraq. Why aren't there more accounts of what the troops actually do? How about narrations of individual battles and skirmishes, of their ever-evolving interactions with Iraqi troops and locals in Baghdad and Anbar province, and of increasingly resourceful "patterning" of terrorist networks that goes on daily in tactical operations centers?
Kaplan goes on to say,
The media struggles in good faith to respect our troops, but too often it merely pities them. I am generalizing, of course. Indeed, there are regular, stellar exceptions, quite often in the most prominent liberal publications, from our best military correspondents. But exceptions don't quite cut it amidst the barrage of "news," which too often descends into therapy for those who are not fighting, rather than matter-of-fact stories related by those who are.
Would you say Dan Rather struggled in good faith Mr. Kaplan? I would not. Nor would I accuse the Washington Post or the New York Times of good faith. As violence declines in Iraq both the Post and the Times now find their anti-administration focus in the Blackwater incident. Stories of wanton murder by former U.S. military men, true or not, get top billing while the steady gains of the U.S. Army and Marines go unreported.
The media is increasingly representative of an international society, whose loyalty to a particular territory is more and more diluted. That international society has ideas to defend--ideas of universal justice--but little actual ground.
In other words, the loyalties of our media luminaries lie elsewhere.
Update: Power Line buttresses my point about the Washington Post.
The Washington Post -- more interested in influencing events in Iraq than in reporting them
Stanley Kurtz at NRO's Corner notes that yesterday's Washington Post ran three stories about Iraq on the front page, yet buried a report about the substantial decline in U.S. and Iraqi civilian deaths on page 14. When the death count goes up, that's almost always front page news at the Post.
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