Euphoric Reality

Little local story for you. I love how Wausau and Milwaukee want to take the state Attorney General to task over the shootings in Crandon.

Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen last week said law enforcers would not answer questions about the case in the city where it took place, and he relayed a request that Crandon residents ignore reporters asking questions. He then left the podium without taking questions.

A week after the shooting, authorities have released little or no information on autopsy findings, certain 911 calls made during a manhunt and crime-scene evidence. The crime is one state’s biggest homicide cases, and in addition to being a deputy, the shooter was also a part-time officer on the Crandon police force.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said in an editorial Thursday that among the questions left unanswered is whether there was a problem with the police response, and whether psychological screening is needed for police recruits.

“The news media must give the survivors room to grieve in private,” the editorial said. “But they must also do their job — report on a matter of great importance to the state. Unfortunately, Van Hollen has signaled that he may make the media’s job harder.”

I understand this. I’m from that area. My sister and brother-in-law live in Crandon, where Jon is a teacher. The kids who were killed were people he knew well. I know how people are up in the Northwoods. They don’t want the national attention. They don’t want to be interviewed. They want to be left alone, to grieve and come to terms with something that just doesn’t happen there. Shootings happen in Milwaukee and Madison and Eau Claire. Not in Crandon. Not in the pristine Northwoods where the biggest news of the month is probably that the DNR is giving out extra doe tags this year, or how the Blombergs got a new truck and the sawmill is laying off people again.

Leave people alone. If they don’t want the cannibalistic media up their butts, more power to them. I’m sure the big-city papers can find something else to report on.

By now you’ve probably heard about the ruckus this week in Iraq, when U.S. forces killed 25 in an airstrike on a town north of Baghdad.  The NY Times can barely contain its glee, with headlines like “Accounts Differ Sharply on U.S. Attack in Iraq.”  Don’t you just love that?  “U.S. Attack.”  If you read the actual account of what happened, it was hardly an “attack.”  More like a stomping out of a bunch of holed-up terrorists who were using everything from RPGs to automatic weapons and even an anti-aircraft missile.  They were advancing on U.S. troops.  What exactly do these idiots in our country expect our guys to do?

Yes, it sounds like civilians were killed.  But let’s stop and think for a moment.  Which insurgents aren’t civilians?  In fact, I challenge you to find me any of the enemy over there wearing uniforms.  That means that yes, every time U.S. soldiers take a life, that life–however worthless and savage it is–is a civilian.  There is no military enemy.  How many times do we need to go over this?  And yes, children die in war.  I’ll tell you what.  When liberals stop advocating that it’s okay to murder their OWN unborn children, I’ll stop telling them to shut the f— up about the children of terrorist sympathizers.

And let’s take a look at the Times’ article.   Written by Alissa J. Rubin, an American reporter who resides in France and recently moved from the LA Times to the NY Times, the article has all the hallmarks of a typical liberal media offering.  In fact, some cursory research into Rubin’s writings on the Middle East show not only a distinct anti-American bias, but her work is posted at several militant anti-war group websites, including Why War?  Not only that, but the contributors to the article include Khalid al-Ansary and Qais Mizher from Baghdad, and “an Iraqi employee of The New York Times from Diyala Province.”  Wow.  I wonder where their allegiance is.  And this “employee…?”  Can you say “terrorist sympathizer stringer?” I sure can.

So.  Let’s get out the list of things you need to start the now-all-too-familiar media frenzy:

- Large photo showing dead body and grieving Iraqi, that may or may not actually be from the incident in question…check.

- Headline that characterizes the incident as an “attack” and breathlessly insinuates that U.S. troops lied about the events…check.

- Mention of plural “witnesses” that may be terrorists themselves…check.

- Article structure that paints the military as trying to cover its six after making a huge tactical error…check.

Well, I guess we have all the elements in place.   All we need now is a member of Congress to denounce the troops, more media to pick it up, and we’ll have another Haditha–another group of our finest warriors and defenders, dragged under the bus of political expediency and appeasement until their lives and honor are gone, and all that’s left is a tarnished name and the bitter knowledge that they were innocent.

Well, over my dead body.