TARANTO:Tet’s Real Lesson
Tet’s Real Lesson
We have long argued that America’s mainstream media–because of what they see as the “lessons of Vietnam”–are actively working to promote American defeat in Iraq. (We gave this theme a lengthy treatment in a talk last November at the Hudson Institute, which later became an essay in the February issue of The American Spectator.) From CNN comes one of the most striking bits of evidence yet that this is the case. This promo for a “CNN exclusive” appears today on the homepage of CNN.com we’ve captured it here for posterity as well):
Almost 2,800 Americans have been killed so far in Iraq and one of the most dangerous insurgent opponents is the sniper. CNN has obtained graphic video from the Islamic Army of Iraq, one of the most active insurgent organizations in Iraq, showing its sniper teams targeting U.S. troops. The Islamist Army says it wants talks with the United States and some Islamist Internet postings call for a P.R. campaign aimed at influencing the American public. The video is disturbing to watch but CNN believes the story, shocking as it is, needs to be told.
By airing this video, CNN is participating in what it acknowledges is “a P.R. campaign aimed at influencing the American public” in ways favorable to America’s enemies. And the network does not even seem to realize what a shocking admission this is.
With the midterm elections less than three weeks away, the media are filled with Tet talk. Here’s Simon Hooper, in a commentary that also appears today on CNN.com:
For veteran statesmen such as [James] Baker, the parallels with another era-defining American war must also be striking. In the late 1960s the U.S. military found itself fighting an unwinnable conflict, enduring mounting casualties against a growing chorus of dissent at home–in Vietnam.
On Wednesday [President] Bush himself acknowledged parallels between the current situation in Iraq and the 1968 Tet Offensive–widely considered to be the point when American public opinion turned against the war.
As we noted yesterday, Thomas Friedman of the New York Times also drew the analogy in a column whose description of Tet is worth repeating:
Although the Vietcong and Hanoi were badly mauled during Tet, they delivered, through the media, such a psychological blow to U.S. hopes of “winning” in Vietnam that Tet is widely credited with eroding support for President Johnson and driving him to withdraw as a candidate for re-election.
Tet, that is, was a military victory for the U.S. that turned into a propaganda victory for the communists because American journalists presented a false picture of what had happened.
The media today are eager to repeat their “success” in Vietnam–and it was a success inasmuch as the media were hugely influential over the course of events. But from a journalistic standpoint it was a gross failure. The real lesson of Vietnam is that journalists got the story wrong. We are not at all convinced that the American people are about to get fooled again.
October 20, 2006 - 12:42 AM on October 20th, 2006
i remember as a kid the events of TET. I remember seeing Walter Commiekite on the evning news looking into the camera and informing the American people that the war was “unwinnable.”
This launched a hugely successful propaganda campaign where the American people were largely convinced that the TET offensive had been successful for the VC and that we could never win when in fact exactly the opposite was true.
These degenerate Leftists in the media today are indeed trying the same tactic. They’ve tried so hard to compare Iraq to Vietnam; they are right in one respect: their conduct.
October 20, 2006 - 04:16 AM on October 20th, 2006
2800 people dead… 2800 families without their next relative…
I really wonder if a flag, some noble words about freedom, Thomas Jefferson and Abe’ Lincoln quotes and (over and over again) comparisons to the WWII situation may really wipe away the pain that those feel who are personally affected…?
October 20, 2006 - 06:11 AM on October 20th, 2006
Mattias, stop thinking with the knockwurst. How many people did Saddam kill in a year? You really think that murderous people like saddam in power is a safer, more peaceful world? Then you had better see a good student of Sigmund Freud.
October 20, 2006 - 07:09 AM on October 20th, 2006
What is a “knockwurst”?
October 20, 2006 - 07:13 AM on October 20th, 2006
A Wienerschnitzel.
October 20, 2006 - 07:24 AM on October 20th, 2006
If you meant “Knackwurst” you rather referred to a kind of sausage than to a Schnitzel.
October 20, 2006 - 07:49 AM on October 20th, 2006
In Wisconsin, they are the same thing in the German Grocery.
October 20, 2006 - 08:11 AM on October 20th, 2006
Hmm… Maybe that shop is run by Austrian people (Wiener Schnitzel is an Austrian Dish) and there are regional differences in how things are called, but you may see in any dictionary that a “Wurst” is a sausage and a “Schnitzel” is sth. steaklike (flat piece of young cow or porc without a bone).
October 20, 2006 - 11:10 PM on October 20th, 2006
I wonder why CNN isn’t running the story about how a Marine sniper unit killed some Islamist snipers and recovered the Marine sniper rifle that the Islamists had taken from the body of a Marine that they had killed months earlier. Oh wait that might lead people to believe that the US fighting men and women actually are capable of taking the fight to the enemy. In the ROTC department at the college I went to there was a poster on the wall that said “US Paratroopers give the enemy the maximum opportunity to die for his country.” There have been hundreds of incidences of US Army and Marine snipers eliminating Islamist snipers (?) from far beyond the range at which the Islamists were able to engage them. For our Marines, a shot at 400 meters with an optics equipped rifle is a pot shot. True snipers have hit targets at ranges in excess of a mile. A Canadian sniper in Afghanistan shot a Taliban fighter off of a horse at over 2600 meters. The Taliban member didn’t hear the shot that killed him and with a semi automatic rifle a second aimed shot could’ve been fired BEFORE the first shot was heard. Doesn’t that just send chills up your spine?
October 21, 2006 - 12:24 AM on October 21st, 2006
I saw a great bumper sticker:
U.S. Marine Corps–Travel Agents to Allah
October 21, 2006 - 05:19 PM on October 21st, 2006
I wonder if the liberal education establishment will ever teach the truth about Tet? From a military standpoint, Tet was a disaster for the Viet Cong. They were decimated militarily. Had the American press been as pro American during Vietnam as they were during WWII, it would’ve been reported as the victory that it was. Instead it was reported as a massive failure and became an anti war propaganda tool. Had Cronkite (an unqualified to do anything but read the news reporter) actually reported the news instead of editorializing on it, the people would’ve realized exactly how successful we were being in Vietnam. The Same is true of the war in Iraq. Yes, some areas of Baghdad don’t have as much electricity as they did during the Hussein regime, however, over 3 times as many households in the country have utilities that did not under Hussein regime. Basically, Saddam and his boys were siphoning off all of the electricity to Baghdad. Thereby forcing the much of the country to live in 17th century conditions. Had Saddam not been so greedy, his country could’ve prospered and he’d have been hailed as a great leader instead of as despot and tyrant.The same applies to Kim Jong Il, except North Korea lacks Iraq’s natural resources.
October 23, 2006 - 08:17 AM on October 23rd, 2006
“True snipers have hit targets at ranges in excess of a mile. A Canadian sniper in Afghanistan shot a Taliban fighter off of a horse at over 2600 meters”
I would believe the distance but not the fact on the moving target (as a rider in two dimensions!)… If that shot happened, the sniper had somewhat luck (and the Taliban bad luck…)