Get the Story Straight

The hottest new story making the rounds is the saga of "reporter-blogger" Scott Thomas Beauchamp, an Army private, who wrote gut-wrenching tales of abuse in Iraq. He had the readers of New Republic up in arms over stories of our soldiers ridiculing women disfigured by war, animal abuse and disrespecting ancient bones. Not that it takes much to get the ultra-left readers of New Republic up in arms anyway. But, there was one, teeny, tiny problem with Beachamp's reporting. It was lies. He admitted that he made it all up, or most of it anyway.

Using the Ratherian proposition, lefties excused the outright lies by saying that the kind of abuse that Beauchamp wrote about " and worse," is "probably happening in Iraq every day." You have to admire people who don't let a little thing like the truth get between them and their irrational beliefs. New Republic is upset that the Army is "short circuiting" its own attempts to get at the truth. Tsk tsk, what a shame, the US Army will not stand aside and let the editors of the New Republic check the story they have gotten wrong from the beginning.

The most important point of this story is not whether Beauchamp lied or didn't lie, and it is not even whether bad things are happening in Iraq. They probably are. They always do in war. The point is FOCUS. Those who are rabidly hoping for a major American defeat in Iraq, and the editors and writers of New Republic are among them, are using this kind of story to assist in the effort to lose.

Of course bad things are going to happen in war. Bad things happen every day on the streets of New York, Los Angeles, Dayton, OH and Chicken Bristle, KY. What the mainstream media does is to focus on these small events, and using Political Correctness and feel-good politics, get us to anguish over them. And, we do. I hate to be crass, but the whole Abu Ghraib incident should have been on the back of Section B once, not on the front page of Section A every day for weeks. When maniacal suicide bombers send themselves to Paradise, the Arabic word for "Hell," and take dozens of innocent lives with them, our friends at the New York Times and other radical papers, blame it on George Bush. You have also admire people who don't let logic interfere with their firmly held convictions.

All of this journalistic manipulation of the truth and putting agenda over fact, is for the simple purpose of changing the dialog. The big point here is, when you send brave and dedicated people out on a mission, risking their lives, you watch from afar, and stay focused on winning the war, not micromanaging their every move.

The New Republic piece was just this sort of story, designed to divert the American public's attention away from the real story, how the forces of freedom and liberty are slowly, but surely, overcoming decades, and centuries, of abusive, oppressive rule by blood thirsty tyrants in Iraq. It's very simple, win in Iraq, and a new way of life for Muslims in the Mideast ensues; lose in Iraq and new way of life for Americans may well ensue. One we will not like at all.

A Challenge to my Muslim Brothers

I often hear Muslims declare that "Christianity is no different than Islam" in its intolerance. Worse, some misguided atheists and leftists try to represent that Christianity is actually worse than Islam, and that Christian fundamentalists are more dangerous than Islamic jihadists. They cite some of the extreme statements by a few Christian sects and splinter groups to bolster their fantastic claims.

I agree that that modern Christianity is intolerant, intolerant of religious violence and terrorist tactics. How many terror attacks have been made in the name of Christianity? How many religious wars are being fought to spread Christianity? How many legitimate Christian clergymen are asking for Christians to kill in the name of their religion?
None that I am aware of, however, there is always the possibility that some fanatic somewhere will do something awful in the name of their religion.

So, here is my challenge to my Muslim brothers.

I disavow all violent acts in the name of Christianity, and I renounce anyone who commits, encourages, or abets such acts.

Muslim Brothers, will you do the same?