"War on Pessimism"

Neil Cavuto pounded his fellow journalists in yesterday's Common Sense:

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. No sooner had we encountered some tough fighting in Iraq, than our generals encountered tough questions at briefings.

Is this another Vietnam? Did we get too cocky? Are we in too deep? And here's the one that killed me, were the French right?

I don't know about you, but I don't remember one of our guys saying it would be a cakewalk taking out their guys.

They didn't call it a "video game war." Journalists did. They didn't say Baghdad would be gone in days. Journalists did. They didn't underestimate the power of stubborn Republican Guard troops. Journalists did. And they didn't set themselves up to fail. Journalists did.

Let's be clear: war is hell. We owe it to our men and women to appreciate the difference between a high tech war that looks good on TV screens and a very real war that's often too horrible to put on any screen.

We know the difference. And I can tell you our soldiers know the difference....

It seems to me that some (many? most?) journalists are perilously close to judging the success and/or failure of warfare based upon whether events meet their expectations — which have been derived, in most cases, from little experience and no expertise.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 03/26/03 08:50:19 AM
Categorized as Media.