Fox News financial news anchor Neil Cavuto took on his fellow journalists for their pessimism regarding the war.
I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. No sooner had we encountered some tough fighting in Iraq, than our generals encountered tough questions at briefings.
Is this another Vietnam? Did we get too cocky? Are we in too deep? And here’s the one that killed me, were the French right?
I don’t know about you, but I don’t remember one of our guys saying it would be a cakewalk taking out their guys.
They didn’t call it a “video game war.” Journalists did. They didn’t say Baghdad would be gone in days. Journalists did. They didn’t underestimate the power of stubborn Republican Guard troops. Journalists did. And they didn’t set themselves up to fail. Journalists did.
Let’s be clear: war is hell. We owe it to our men and women to appreciate the difference between a high tech war that looks good on TV screens and a very real war that’s often too horrible to put on any screen.
We know the difference. And I can tell you our soldiers know the difference.
Now some French newspapers have the gall to say, “We told you so.” No, all you told us was you didn’t want anything to do with rescuing an abused people. But you want everything to do with sharing in the bounty from that rescue.
You were phony worms then—you’re even phonier worms now.
It’s become commonplace to see journalists try to hold up others to the standards they themselves have set. The media’s analysts said it would be easy, so when it doesn’t seem to be as easy as they thought, they complain. This is certain: there is much more going on than even the media knows. Remember in Gulf War I, Stormin’ Norman’s feint and left hook? We didn’t see it coming and neither did the Iraqis. I’m positive that in this war, there is another left hook coming. Don’t be surprised when you see it.
You don’t tell your enemy every move you make, and telling the media would be the same thing. It’s early in the war and, as the president says, the outcome is certain.
