Criticism During Wartime

Yesterday, VP Cheney responded to the recent mounting accusations of intelligence manipulation by the Bush administration to justify the war. Tell it like it is, Dick! (Hat tip to Lorie Byrd, guest blogging for Michelle Malkin.)

Today, I received an e-mail from my mother on this same topic, so I thought I'd share it here:

I saw a program on the History Channel a few weeks ago … ‘Dogfights: The Greatest Air Battles’. I was spellbound for the entire two hours, watching the archival films, personal recollections of fighter pilots from World War II, Korea and Vietnam, and beautiful computer graphics of air battles that were not captured on film. Rickenbacker’s contributions during the air battles of World War I were also discussed, but of course there were no films to back up the commentary.

I found myself literally holding my breath as the World War II pilots described some of the dogfights they survived – in such great detail, and with such passion (yet with great humility), as if those air battles had occurred just yesterday. Capt. Bud Anderson, especially, (a Triple Ace, with 16 enemy aircraft downings), who flew the P-51 Mustang, was mesmerizing as he described his engagement with an ME-109. I had to remind myself to breathe as he re-created his strategies and the responses and offensive and defensive maneuvers of the German pilot.

When the credits rolled, I couldn’t help but reflect on the dramatic changes that have taken place in the American psyche in the sixty years since Bud Anderson and his compatriots performed their heroics, with little thought of personal safety, and a stubborn focus on bringing the enemies of liberty to their knees.

That is not to say that the American military is any less courageous or any less focused on the defense of our people and our homeland than was Anderson. The difference lies in our political leadership, and in the public’s ignorance of the techniques of modern propaganda, and their general thirst for instant gratification.

During World War II, few if any in national leadership positions would have ever considered openly criticizing the administration in power during wartime … or sabotaging our own military personnel by accusing them of barbaric behavior toward the enemy … or denigrating their stunning victories … or questioning the reasons for
their sacrifice.

During the Civil War, the public was horrified by the Matthew Brady photographs of the aftermath of historically unprecedented bloody battles – especially Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. Brady depicted, as no one ever before, the ravages of war on both man and landscape.

Mostly as a result of the powerful effect of Brady’s photos on the populace, from World War I through the Korean War, the American media, in co-operation with our national leadership, made it a point to avoid focusing on visual images of casualties, so as not to diminish or undermine public support for the war effort.

And during World War II, the citizenry was busy doing their part at home to support the war effort. They would never have considered whining about the duration of the war, or demanding that an end to hostilities be publicized before it was safe to withdraw from the conflict.

Not so in 2005.

We now live in an era in which we expect our food to be prepared in five minutes. We believe that time-saving is often more valuable than depth or quality. We prefer sound-bites to in-depth analysis. Indeed, we much prefer to have others do our thinking for us, because spending time in weighing pros and cons, or engaging in personal study, would waste precious time that could be better spent watching reality TV or getting our nails done.

It is sad when instant gratification, and lack of appreciation for the things that matter, permeate the national psyche of what was once the greatest civilization in the history of mankind. But now that same need for instant gratification, and lack of a spirit of
thanksgiving, threaten to erode our national unity in a time when the black evil that we face is obsessed with destroying all that is, and ever has been, good about America.

Now, when we need national unity and resolve perhaps more than ever before, we are allowing the leftists among us (in politics, the media and academia) to attempt to demoralize our troops who are courageously standing in harm’s way in order to preserve the American way of life, by minimizing their accomplishments and victories, criticizing the strength of their resolve, and demanding that they perform miracles in the relative blink of an eye … or we will declare as counterfeit (at best), or corrupt (at worst), the reasons for their sacrifice.

Such is the hallmark of an emotionally immature, self-absorbed society, drowning in superficiality – without an appreciation of heritage, ancestry, and the sacrifices of more than two centuries of patriots who did not measure the breadth of victories and achievements in nano-seconds … and whose countrymen honored them for carrying a selfless, open-ended vision of liberty and goodness into battle … rather than a vulgar, carping stop-watch.