My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.
2006-06-25
A Word Or Two On The Story Of The Day
The blogosphere is all a-flutter about the New York Times publishing of the SWIFT program which has successfully tracked terrorist financial transactions over the last fve years. And I'm sure it will get pretty worked up tomorrow about the Times revealing the contents of a plan for drawing down American troop levels in Iraq by the end of next year.
And you know what? It should be all a-flutter.
But a couple of words: first, I was travelling yesterday, and had a lengthy layover in Dallas Airport. And, sadly, the only thing on the airport TVs was CNN. And you know what? In the three Headline News loops I saw I never saw the story come up. Not once. So if this really was such a big story why wasn't CNN piling on? Sure, there was the terror arrests in Florida that helped, but CNN has never been one to let a real news cycle slow down its agenda. And while I'm sure that terrorists read the Times piece with great interest, it's interesting that this story is not likely to make a huge domestic impact.
And secondly, it's time to start putting the blame for the continuing War on the War where it at least partially belongs: on the shoulders of the administration. Let's be honest, as conservatives, we were all very happy to point out that blame for 9/11 fell on previous administrations for their tepid response to terror attacks past. So, to be fair and consistent, we must also acknowledge that the continuing attacks on the war effort by the press are, at least in part, due to the lack of response by this administration to previous attacks. Starting with the reporting of the charade that was the 9/11 commission, followed by reporting on secret CIA prisons (yet to be found), failure to report on Iraqs WMDs, the report about the telephone intercept program, the data mining--there have been plenty of violations of classified materials and government secrecy. But not a single high-profile investigation, not one prosecution, much less any convictions to help send a message to both the press and the bureaucracy.
When a child behaves badly, blame is rightly placed on the parents; if the press and the bureaucracy--and the Democrats--choose to act like ill-mannered children, then the grown-ups need to act accordingly. By not doing so for five years, the Bush administration has all but given carte blanche to its enemies to pursue whatever course they want to to thwart and obstruct the administration's efforts to keep Americans safe.
It's time for the grown-ups to step in and bring a halt to War on the War. Before someone gets killed. | |
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