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Unbiased media?

Posted 11 Dec 2004 in Bill Clinton, Democrats, hypocrisy, Iraq, liberals, media bias, military, terrorism, war

What’s up with the so-called “embedded reporters” in Iraq? Obviously more than a few of them are using their position to air their political views on the war. First we had the picture of the American soldier shooting a terrorist. Now we have US soldier Specialist Thomas Wilson who put Donald Rumsfeld on the spot at the behest of reporter Edward Lee Pitts: “Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal”. This journalist was upset because Rumsfeld wasn’t taking questions from the press during the pep rally, so he managed to talk a soldier into doing his dirty work for him. Seems to me that he had a bit of an axe to grind and wanted to score some points for himself by creating a story of embarrassing Rumsfeld at this rally. Or maybe he was just upset that the Humvee that he’s riding around in hasn’t been up-armored yet. Frankly, I’m surprised that the soldier was such a willing accomplice in what amounts to public insubordination.

First off, if a soldier has a complaint, anybody in the military knows that you take it up the chain of command. You don’t go above your commander’s head. Asking such an obviously loaded question of the Secretary of Defense (and on-camera, no less), wasn’t meant to get an answer. Or even intended to get results. It was a blatant attempt to discredit the war and Bush’s handling of it.

Secondly, soldiers ARE getting armored vehicles. 15 months ago, production of armored Humvees was about 30 per month. When it became clear that roadside bombs were becoming part of the conflict, the military cranked up the orders for armored vehicles and in 2004, they began producing about 450 armored Humvees per month. And the armor add-on kits have been fitted on to 15,000 Humvees. Only 8,000 of the 30,000 wheeled vehicles in Iraq have no armor. The point is, our military has the best equipment in the world. They’re not perfect, but they’re damn good. And they are NOT being ordered into combat with substandard equipment, as was inferred by Pitts’ disingenuous question.

The spin in the media was that there was this “brave” soldier who had the guts to stand up to a superior officer and ask the tough questions about why our troops are poorly equipped. Nothing could be further from the truth. Dan Rather got it wrong with his little memo fiasco. Pitts got it wrong on this.

Oh, and the next time liberals wanna whine about our military not having the best equipment, perhaps they need to ask Bill Clinton why he cut military funding for 8 years.

Posted by FullMetalPatriot
12th gen. American, Constitutionalist, Harley-riding Texan, gun owner & NRA member, blogger, illustrator, Florida Gator alumnus. #TCOT

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