CannonFodder1971 said:
Ray,
The decapitators, female genital mutilators and other fundamentalists are not readers of the New York Times or the Washington Post. The insurgency would exist regardless of the media coverage. What is important is that basis upon which the insurgency draws support is undermined, and that's not strictly a military one. It is unfair to the soldiers in OIF or OEF to frame it in terms of military successes or failures. That certainly didn't help in Viet Nam.
However, I can empathise with the irritating tendency for the media to direct criticism of the war via criticism of the warriors - every event becomes a My Lai according to some of those commentators. However, it should be remembered that this is not something that's ever going to be resolved in a toy soldier forum. The new Viet Nam sets look good, and are far superior to what's on offer at present from other manufacturers, which isn't a lot: Ozmade have a few Aussies, and the Russian-painted Andrea and Verlinden pieces are too expensive.
You're right, it won't be resolved here, BUT!
Sorry, Couldn't disagree with you more, with every image on TV the terrorist garner strength, they are patient to the extreme( they still refer to incidence during the crusades for god sake) and there only hope of defeating us is if we quit. Hence everytime the media plays up the rediculious liteny fo "bad American" garbage, they draw hope and believe they can out last us.
The media IS the reason we left Veitnam, certainly not the Viet cong. The Tet offensive was a complete military disaster for the cong from which they were forever destroyed as a fighting force. However unrelenting totally Negative press coverage raised the pressure on americans to get out. In 1973 the congress gave in and stopped funding the war BECAUSE OF PRESSURE.
The Media is trying there damnest to do the same in Iraq, they never cover anything positive thats happened in the country, they do't give a **** about the people of Iraq, how women are equal citizens under the new constitution and half the population is freed from total slavery, how kids are going to schools for the first time and getting vaccinations, how electrical service is far wider than at any time in the past and the same is true for clean water and plenty of food to eat and the best medical treatment they've ever had, Where's all this covered?!!!
In the end the fight against evil is eternal, evil never goes away, it's like a black fog that dissapaites and reconstitues itself somewhere else.
By showing a constat flood of negative and weak behavior they are strengthened.
Ray