Seize The Moment
By Oliver North
August 3, 2007
"We're in a generation-long battle against terrorism, against Al Qaeda-inspired terrorism, and this is a battle for which we can give no quarter. It's a battle that's got to be fought in military, diplomatic, intelligence, security, policing and ideological terms."
That's pretty strong stuff -- and because those remarks were made this week at Camp David, one might think they were uttered by President Bush. However, they were spoken by Britain's new prime minister, Gordon Brown, who the international media believe has reservations about the war in Iraq. But on the substance of the big question, it seems as if the U.S./British "special relationship" is still solid. "He gets it," President Bush said of the prime minister's stance on terrorism. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the masters of the media.
For nearly two years, the potentates of the press have been slavishly following liberal dogma and telling us that the war in Iraq is all but lost, that the region will never embrace democracy and that young Americans serving there are dying needlessly. Even before the troop surge was underway, they were telling us that it wouldn't work. And since the final contingent of 28,500 additional troops arrived in theater two months ago, most members of the Fourth Estate have tried to persuade us that it has failed. Some of them may even believe it, but that doesn't make it true.
From my experience in eight trips to Iraq for FOX News Channel since March 2003, reality in Iraq is rarely found on the front pages of our newspapers or in the lead stories on most broadcast news programs. There are but two principal reasons for the paucity of reality in what we're seeing in print and on the air:
-- First, there is enormous antipathy in U.S. and European newsrooms toward George W. Bush and his administration. It's been that way since his first term, and it isn't going to go away. This predisposition -- and the media's congenital animus toward the American military -- colors reporting on everything the president does or says to include the war coverage. Opposition politicians have taken advantage of this bias and its effect on the polls to reap political advantage. They saw the efficacy of this stratagem in the past two congressional elections, and they intend to pursue it to capture the White House regardless of the damage done to our national security.
-- Second, despite the importance of the war to the American people, there are relatively few Western -- particularly American -- journalists outside Baghdad's "Green Zone." Much of what we see on television is videotape bought from Arab cameramen, many of whom spend most of their time with their favorite Al Qaeda terror cell or Shia militia unit. My media colleagues then cut this tape -- usually the aftermath of a heinous terror act -- stand on the balcony of an air-conditioned hotel room and tell us the "latest news" from the war. Lead stories rarely mention the courage and perseverance of American troops or their Iraqi counterparts, how many new schools, hospitals and police stations have been opened, or the clean water and sanitation that's now available to the people of Mesopotamia.
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