I listened to a recording of the President's speech this afternoon. I thought it was a good one. But when I heard him start to draw Vietnam comparisons, I knew that would be the headliner for the evening news.
The Vietnam analogy is irresistably seductive to the left-wing media. It represents our last great military failure--so it must be worked in at every opportunity. And here, President Bush was handing it to them on a platter. The context in which he made a Vietnam comparison--specifically, the carnage that followed our withdrawal--was completely ignored. The MSM equation is: Iraq + Bush = Vietnam. As in math, there can be only one conclusion: disaster.
Also predictably omitted from MSM coverage was the president's reference to the number of Al Qaeda killed and captured since January--1,500 per month. Let's do a different equation, one that wasn't on the Nightly News: 1,500/month x 7 = 10,500. As in math, there can be only one conclusion: success.
It's up to individual Americans to choose which equation is more applicable to reality. For the sake of our kids, I want to see our country win this long and terrible war. I choose my news sources with that hope in mind.
