[cuchulainn]

Not to belittle the casualties one bit, but we Americans need to buck up.

We are invading a nation! A few people have been hurt or killed.

Imagine that at D-Day plus 5 we'd had fewer than 100 casualties (dead, wounded and captured, combined), whole German divisions had surrendered and we'd pushed hundreds of miles into France. We'd have seen it as a miracle of Biblical proportions.

Now I know that comparing D-Day to now is very shaky -- so many differences ... technology, topography, enemy strategy, you name it.

But geeze! Fewer than 100 casualties, and today I hear these phrases from the talking heads and other press: "setbacks" "stiff resistance" "slower than expected advance" (probably the same ones who were all gah-gah about the "unprecedented" fast advance just two days ago), "reconsidering strategy."

Fah! Poppycock!

Perfectionism is well and good. Yep, the goal should be zero casualties, but let's be realistic and not hightail it yip-yipping when we don't reach that impossible goal.

Imagine if the news organizations had a webcam atop the Normandy cliffs. They'd be playing the utter defeat of Allied troops 24/7 -- after all, the Germans ...gasp.... inflicted casualties, heavy casualties.

Don't you know? If you take casualties, you have failed.

[CZ 75 BD]

What would the 24hr news weasels say about the 23,000 AMERICAN casualties in one day at Antietam?

[SoDFW Jason]

CZ, soooooooo true.

[Blackhawk]

There are two things to keep in mind:

1. A "few" victims can be given names, which causes people to identify with them. How few? There were 16 victims from the fragging. Who among us knows their names? Our focus is on the perp. We're outraged, especially by the treason and unprecedented nature of the crime. The "up close and personal" nature of media coverage by embedded correspondents makes reports fo casualties from this war more personal.

2. After many casualties have been suffered spread out over time, we become desensitized to new reports. Each year, 40-50 thousand die in car crashes in the U.S. Who pays any attention unless they're close to home or they're involved? Anonymous casualties are much easier to "deal" with psychologically.

It's not a matter of "bucking up." This is a war, and they have dangers beyond the normal hazards of life. We'll get used to the reports. We always do.

[cheygriz]

War is about breaking things and killing people.

I hate to see even one American injured, much less killed. But the plain fact of the matter is simple. People get killed in wars.

[cuchulainn]

Blackhawk,

Yeah, I know...

I guess my comments were aimed more at the media than the American people (who AFAIK are sticking in there). The defeatist hyperbole of some of the media just got to me this morning. Casualties are not "setbacks" at the small level we are receiving them (no matter how many times Wolf Blitzer says the word "setbacks").

I was raging against the memes.

[Drjones]

cuchulainn;

So true.

Thank you for saying that.

I needed that.


Thank you
Drjones

[Standing Wolf]

I'm sure the leftist extremists of the national so-called "news" media will continue to do everything they can think of to undermine support for President Bush and our troops.

[Blackhawk]

cuchulainn,

Agreed. I guess I just don't consider the media as part of "us" as much as I consider them as constant, consistent, and pernicioius adversaries mostly inimical to America and what it's all about.

Shame really, but the media's rape of our nation during the Vietnam War was a BIG contributor to my cynicism about it.

If the media wants my respect, they will have to become respectable and stay that way for a long time. :rolleyes:

[Coronach]

My wife and I are listening to Fox News (by far the "best" of the 24-hr news channels, but best is, after all, relative) and they said that "Yesterday was a tough day for coalition forces, but the morale still seems to be high among the soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Division..."

Whereupon wife immediately snorts "Probably becuase they're not listening to you people." God love her.

We're steamrollering a country. We're 50-ish miles from Baghdad on, what, day 4? Jeesh! What makes for a "good day for coalition forces?" They all surrender, en masse, and Saddam kills his two sons and himself in a fit of rage?

NEWSFLASH: Soldiers are going to die. Civilians are going to die. The enemy is going to pull some pretty good tricks and sucker a few units in. They're not going to go with the gameplan, and show up where we don't expect them, and they're going to maybe even win a few battles. They're going to capture US servicemen. We're going to commit fratricide. Choppers are going to crash. Jets will get shot down. The Iraqis will gas some US troops.

EVERYONE KNOWS THIS BUT THE MEDIA.

Heads of CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, BBC, and Fox: This is not news. Stop treating it like it is.

Bottom line: we're running up the score to an obscene degree, and its only the first quarter. The fact that the Home Team might actually complete a pass for a first down does not darken our day, especially when we force a fumble, again, with the very next play.

Mike