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Contributors
J.F. Kelly, Jr. - Contributor
J.F.
Kelly, Jr. is a retired Navy Captain and bank executive who
writes on current events and military subjects. He is a resident
of Coronado, California. [go to Kelly index]
 Survival
in Combat
Trial by media…
[J. F. Kelly, Jr.] 11/30/04
Since
the war in Iraq began in March 2003, our armed forces have
toppled the
evil regime of Saddam Hussein, taken him prisoner,
killed his two murderous sons and dismantled his government,
removing it as threat to us or to Iraq’s neighbors. In
spite of continued terrorism and insurgency, due principally
to an overly generous policy of restraint and failure to do whatever
it would have taken to establish sufficient security, we have
returned control of the government to the Iraqis who will participate
in free elections in January.
Our forces have worked hard to restore services and rebuild
infrastructure. Our government is providing hundreds of millions
in aid to help get the country back on its feet. Coming on the
heels of a spectacular victory in Afghanistan resulting in the
overthrowing of the Taliban government and the establishment
of free elections, our armed forces have compiled a record of
successes that should make Americans proud. They have accomplished
these things with the smallest military establishment in terms
of people and combat platforms since prior to World War II and
it was done without having to re-institute the draft.
So why are these accomplishments not being celebrated with
more regularity in the news media? Why, instead, is the American
public being bombarded with a steady barrage of stories and images
that emphasize the negative aspects of the war such as burning
vehicles, angry mobs of Islamic fanatics and the grieving relatives
of casualties whose grief is being shamelessly exploited by journalists
intent on emphasizing the bad consequences of a war they oppose?
Why do the biggest stories to come out of the war in Iraq even
include the mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and the shooting
by a young Marine of what later appeared to be an unarmed and
wounded Iraqi in a Falluja mosque that was being used by insurgents
as a base for attacks against us?
Why have these overblown
incidents of war received such enormous emphasis by the media?
Because, I submit, the overwhelmingly
liberal television media in the United States remain opposed
to “Bush’s war” and will go to nearly any length
to discredit our pursuit of it.
Much has already
been written about the Marine shooting incident but it bears
repeating that most journalists or, for that matter,
most civilians, with the exception of some law enforcement personnel,
haven’t a clue as to what is involved in hand-to-hand combat.
By combat, I mean the real kind where someone actually is trying
to kill you, not the Hollywood or video game version. I include,
in the category of the clueless, the so-called embedded journalists
seeking to enhance their professional standing as war correspondents,
apparently believing that they have a mission to “keep
the military honest”.
Unless you have personally
faced a fanatical enemy who is determined to kill you and your
buddies unless you manage to kill him first,
then you are not really in a position to judge the actions of
that Marine. Carrying a camera or a notebook or viewing television
images in the safety of one’s home does not convey the
insight or expertise to judge what constitutes an appropriate
response in combat or what constitutes a violation of the Geneva
Conventions.
We are after all,
fighting an enemy who employs suicide bombers, uses women and
children as combatants, tortures prisoners, practices
beheadings in the name of religion and rigs corpses with booby
traps. This enemy couldn’t care less about the Geneva Conventions,
the rules of war or western concepts of justice. Yet, we hear
endless prattling from opponents of the war about treating prisoners
with respect and dignity and bringing terrorists “to justice”.
Since March 2003,
we have lost almost one thousand American combatants in Iraq.
If only one of these heroes died because
he hesitated for too long before taking down a potential enemy,
that’s one too many. Hesitation gets you killed in battle.
The desired outcome, Gen. George Patton reminded his troops,
is not to give your life for your country but to cause the enemy
to give his. In hand-to-hand combat, it matters less how you
play the game than whether or not you win.
Combat is a young
man’s business. Diplomacy, on the other
hand, is conducted largely by old men. When their diplomacy fails,
as it often does, we send in the cream of our youth to fight
the wars that ensue. The Marines fighting our battles in Fallujah
were mostly 18-to-20-year-olds, recently out of high school.
They are among the finest, bravest, most dedicated and capable
young adults that America has to offer. We sent them into a den
of terrorists to engage in street-by-street, house-to-house,
room-by-room fighting of the most dangerous kind where death
lurks around every corner.
Most of us could
not even summon the courage to volunteer to put our lives on
the line like that. Most Americans wouldn’t
even make it through the training even if they had the courage
or inclination to join the service. We send these young patriots
overseas to fight a war on our behalf so that hopefully we won’t
have to fight one on our own streets. The very least that we
can do for them is to refrain from second-guessing them from
the comfort and security of our newsrooms and living rooms. tOR
copyright
2004 J. F. Kelly, Jr.
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