Ralph Peters has some calm advice in the NY Post in Winning Big:
In combat, the ideal leader is the man who remains calm and methodical under fire. Today's 24/7 broadcast news demands just the opposite: raised voices, an atmosphere of crisis and a rush to judgment.Much more rationality by following the link.
After declaring victory on Friday and Saturday, a number of media outlets all but announced our defeat yesterday, treating the routine events of warfare as if they were disasters.
Nonsense.
We're winning, the Iraqis are losing, and the American people have executive seats for what may prove to be the most successful military campaign in history.
I do recognize that the majority of our journalists are doing their best to cover this war accurately and fairly. But, with a few admirable exceptions, even seasoned reporters lack the perspective needed to judge the war's progress. Few have read military history. Even fewer have served in the military. They simply don't understand what they are seeing.
Every low-level firefight seems a great battle to them. Each pause in the advance is read as a worrisome delay. While they see friendly casualties up close, they rarely witness the devastation inflicted on our enemies. And when isolated groups of Iraqis do stand and fight, the journalists imply it means the Iraqi people are opposed to our intervention.
I remember when the first US astronauts landed on the moon, there was some initial delay back "at Houston" in pinpointing their exact landing spot. We were all thereupon treated to silly goose Walter Cronkite whipping out his own handy moon map on national TV and trying to tell the people at NASA where the landing had taken place. They were polite enough not to tell Wally to shove it.
It's entertaining for the televised newshawks to be in a constant frenzy, but there's a ton of chaff mixed in with the wheat.
