Saturday.....War On Terror.....What A Difference A Day Makes

I want to reflect a little bit here on the personal and talk radio conversations I have been in and heard over the years on the war in Iraq and also the various editorials, op/ed pieces and political comments I have read on the subject. There seemed to be a steady stream of concern for civilian casualties and anger over the danger our military personal were in, and added to that can be the outrage over incidents such as Abu Ghraib. General McChrystal and his black ops were a deep concern of Senator Barack Obama. The effect that this overall concern on Iraq had was to put the President of the United States under constant pressure to answer the charges against him even as he had a full plate in front of him in directing the war. What a difference a day makes, November 4th, 2008, as the tone and topics seemed to have changed drastically. I have heard no concern over civilian deaths in personal conversations since the inauguration in January even though there has been a significant increase in these last few months. General McChrystal has been promoted to military commander in Afghanistan by President Obama. In fact, the war that tormented so many, is rarely mentioned. The media,which had perfected innuendo, frowns, scowls and a keen sense of finding any and every mistake the United States had made, sounds more like Walter Cronkite in the early days of the Vietnam War. I won't generalize here for surely there are those who have remained consistent but they are not nearly in the majority. The current mission by marines in Afghanistan would be extremely hazardous under any American president. In 1953 the French sent a large military force into an isolated city of Vietnam named Dien Bien Phu. After they did, General Giap seemed to bring in every fighter from around the country to that tiny piece of landscape. He had a few surprises for the French in the artillery they were able to transport to the area and in the tactic of encirclement rather than a head on confrontation. The result was a military defeat with thousands of French soldiers dead or captured, the end of the French in Vietnam, and consequently our beginning. The constant criticism of President Bush served to embolden our enemies. I personally would like to see a constant concern for the ongoing conflicts today and also for the rapid departure of our military from many areas in Iraq.