Slandering Soldiers

Matthew Rothschild, editor of The Progressive was on the Dave Glover show Wednesday, commenting on the President's speech and press conference. Being "progressive" and all, he expressed grave concerns about the notion that Bush had "…directed our military commanders to make every preparation to use decisive force, if necessary, to maintain order and to protect our troops." In his online editorial, Rothschild characterized this as a "signal for slaughter".

As luck would have it, through the miracle of cellular technology, I was the first caller to challenge Rothschild on the air. I asked how he from the President's remarks that he was sanctioning a Mai Lai massacres. Rothschild quoted that 600 civilians had been killed, mostly women and children.

I had read an AP report the previous morning that there were A) 700 Iraqi casualties, and B) local hospitals were reporting that 600 of them were women and children. Presuming that Rothschild was quoting the same source I challenged his credulity.

Did he really think that U.S. Marines would engage people when only one in seven were armed, or that six out of seven were women and children? I think it is slanderous to presume that our soldiers would do such a thing. More likely, AP reporters were themselves just reporting whatever information a local authority offered, without regard to its dubious nature. Considering that dozens of soldiers quite properly went to jail for killing far fewer numbers in Vietnam, I can't believe an AP reporter would pass up on a Pulitzer-prize winning story on how American forces committed an atrocity of this magnitude.

The Left posits that Iraq is George Bush's Vietnam, and they all seem to want in on the sweet anti-war, stick it to the establishment action no matter how different Iraq is from the campaign in Indochina.

There are a number of principled arguments against the war in Iraq. However, I smell the stench of blame-the-soldier in Rothschild's comments. By credulously parroting the AP's report, he plants a flag of doubt not only in the wisdom of the war, but now the integrity and humanity of the military chain of command right down to the infantryman who aims his rifle into a field of fire.

In America in Vietnam, a well regarded and clear eyed look at America's worst war I found an extensive chapter detailing how the will of the American people was sapped by fraudulent testimonies of war crimes. Old-fashioned reporters would say "if your mama says she loves you, check it out" but that sort of flinty skepticism disappeared as the notion that war crimes were commonplace became the accepted wisdom, propelled by a media that thoughtlessly promulgated lies that would have collapsed under responsible fact-checking.

Instead of making leftists willing to lie and slander for their cause the story, they turned ordinary soldiers into villains, a scandal that wounds to this day. I hope their irrational hatred of GWB will not tempt journalists and pundits to begin sullying our troops.

Tim McNabb