...And a letter to the editor
By AcademicElephant Posted in Spotlight Blogs | War — Comments (3) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
(A postscript to yesterday's Two briefings and an editorial)
It seems I was not alone in seeing a disconnect between the New York Times editorial "Trying to contain the Iraq disaster" that appeared in yesterday's paper and the statements being made by senior DoD officials and commanders. The Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, Dorrance Smith, wrote a letter to the Times questioning the factual basis of the editorial and requesting a retraction. The Times declined to publish the letter, but it is available with additional supporting documentation, at the For The Record page on DefenseLink.
As I said yesterday, it is a free country and the New York Times is welcome to its opinion. But it is an amazing thing when a paper can go to bed at midnight with an editorial that demands the Secretary of Defense be summarily fired in the middle of a war because he has misjudged troop levels as a consequence of his refusal to "listen to his generals," have the top general in the theater appear on live television seven hours later saying "If I want more troops I will ask for them and I will get them"--and to have said paper not consider this a topic worthy of correction, or at the very least of discussion.
Imagine that.
is apparently circunscribed. Certain rights are absolute, others are optional, the platform for free speech is a shaky one. So the Times has decreed, but they better enjoy themselves before their readership declines to the three figure range.
What's amazing is that dogs probably don't have any trouble sleeping at night.
"a man's admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him". Tocqueville
is that someone as bright and intelligent as you can find this amazing :-)
John
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Democratic civilization is the first in history to blame itself because another power is trying to destroy it.
... Jean-François Revel