Sunday, March 05, 2006

Writing War History



Kevin Drum links to a historical comment by Instapundit, one of the big wingnuttia blog boys:

STAB IN THE BACK....Instapundit today:

The press had better hope we win this war, because if we don't, a lot of people will blame the media.

The war he talks about is the Iraq war, the one that Bush declared won when he was wearing the flightsuit with the codpiece. It's a little confusing that the war wasn't won then, and hasn't been won yet, but pay not attention to that. Instead, pay attention to the media who are not adequately equipped or armored or provided with good weapons, so that is why we are losing the war. Or rather, we are losing this war because the media is not giving enough positive news about schools getting painted in Iraq. If we had more of those and fewer news of hundreds of people being blown to smithereens or being shot in the back of the head or having their heads cut off altogether, well, then we would win. Because our battle spirits would be higher here in Murka.

That Instapundit has decided to blame the messenger for the message shows how desperate the wingnuts are. When I was a very naive goddess about political issues I took discussions like this one seriously and assumed that I should actually write a response, like the one in the previous paragraph. I assumed that the assertion was serious, you know. Now I know better, but I still can't control that automatic reflex of addressing the issue. Still, the idea is never to admit that you have made a mistake, never to accept that you have lost, never. And no, this is not infantile behavior and the refusal to grow up: this is how politics is done, it seems.

That's why the media lost the war.
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Link via Eschaton.