McQ does a fair job of following up on this Beauchamp thing [1]:
“They told stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.”
This myth, essentially left unchallenged, stained a generation of soldiers. It, of course wasn’t the only myth circulated by the anti-war, anti-military crowd. We’re all familiar with the composite it built of the ‘crazy Vietnam vet’. I say “essentially unchallenged” because rebuttal wasn’t invited and those who did rebut the meme mostly had no voice.
That was then, this is now, and those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it, to borrow a phrase. Well I refuse to ignore it and I certainly refuse to allow it to repeat in the case of our soldiers in Iraq. Once more for the slow among us – I am not denying that bad things happen or that soldiers do bad things. However, that certainly doesn’t mean I can’t spot reports and stories that are bogus and meant to hurt the overall view the public at large has of our soldiers. I’m not claiming some grand conspiracy, or some concerted effort on the left. But I am claiming that the sort of stories Beauchamp offered lent themselves to that sort of perception whether the author intended that or not (and I’m of the opinion that’s precisely what he intended, but I’ll leave it there).
I agree, that’s precisely what he intended. more, I am firmly convinced that is precisely what TNR intended by printing it. they saw that has an advantage, because they knew their leftist readership would lap it up. They lap it up, because it furthers the whole anti-Bush, anti-war meme, and furthers the power of Democrats.
Make no mistake, that’s all this was ever about. But that they were willing to this march the good name of the American military in the process of all of that, tells me it all I need to know about the kind of people we are dealing with.
Meanwhile, Kudos to McQ. Kudos, too, to Jawa, who says in part:
Looks like TNR picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.
Actually, I see no evidence that they have, as yet, stopped. Cute line, though.
Update: (Bit)
Don Surber [2] correctly identifies the pattern:
TNR fell for him the same way the Democratic Senate subcommittee fell for Lt. John Kerry’s wild tales of “Jenjis Khan” in Vietnam some 36 years ago.
TNR fell for him the same way the Washington Post fell for Janet Cooke’s wild tales of an 8-year-old heroin addict.
TNR fell for him the same way TNR fell for Stephen Glass or the New York Times fell for Jayson Blair.
In each case the fabricator told the listener exactly what the listener wanted to hear. I suggest doubling the dose of skepticism when someone tells you something that fits your take on an issue.
I figure that’s pretty much an impossibility, given that it asks the average liberal to question his position. But… there is something that all this reveals, but not many people are talking about: The leftist media is about spreading these falsehoods, because they do not have any truths that match their agenda.