The Maverick Conservative

It is Memorial Day--time to remember that we are at war now, as well as to honor those who have fought all our wars.

But on this day I can only regard the mainstream media of this country with outrage, and I can only believe they should hang their collective heads in shame.  For the most part they have become collaborators with the enemies of this country.

Remember World War II.  Remember the Bataan death march, and all the Janpanese atrocities.  Remember Pearl Harbor, where a lesser number of people died than on 9/11.  Remember Guadacanal, where many Americans died day after day, for weeks on end, in a battle that appeared to be lost at one point.  Remember that we took Japanese prisoners.  Remember the reports of how we abused those prisoners, and spit on pictures of their revered Emporer and flushed his picture down the toilet in front of prisoners (an Emperor who was basically their God).  Remember the reports of prisoner abuse of Japanese prisoners.  Remember the outraged and continuous reports of how Franklin D. Roosevelt put thousands of  American citizens of Japanese descent into internment camps (gulags, concentration camps), without trial or appeal (over some objection by that great civil libertarian, J. Edgar Hoover).

You say you don't remember continuous news reports of abuse of Japanese prisoners.  You say you don't remember news reports of abuse of images of the Emporer, or of images of Buddha.  You say you don't even remember continuous news reports of how we were more awful than the Japanese because we interred innocent civilians of our own country (an event, of course, which occurred under the direct order of Franklin D. Roosevelt. and represented official policy rather than the loss of control by individual soldiers and/or guards). 

Of course you don't remember the continuous news reports described in the prior paragraph.  THEY DIDN'T HAPPEN.  That is because World War II was a time when the news media had not yet become an enemy of our country.  I am 100 % sure that abuse of Japanese prisoners occurred.  I am even 100 % sure that verbal abuse of, and perhaps abuses of pictures and images of, the Emperor of Japan occurred in the presence of Japanese prisioners.  I am not too sure about abuse of images of Buddha, since I am not sure too many American soldiers had any concept of Buddha.  But I am sure it would have happened if soldiers had thought of it.  And WE KNOW that the internment of civilians of Japanese descent on the West Coast occurred.  Sure, it was reported, but not with the continued drumbeat of the press that it made us an evil nation (even though it clearly was an evil and indefensible act, worse than anything George W. Bush has done, when looked at in isolation).  There may have even been reports of ordinary prisoner abuse (I am sure not many), but hardly in the context that that made us an evil nation.   Our soldiers called their enemies Japs, and surely slant eyed bastards and worse.  It was war.  The press did not make a big deal of it, even if some surely (and properly) pointed out that all Japanese were not evil, and that war did not justify bigotry.  But it was not until the war was safely won that even the internment of American citizens that had done nothing wrong became a big deal.  In fact, it was not until DECADES later that compensation was paid to those families.

Sure, the press should probably have done more about the internment of Japanese civilians in this country.  But, again, you have to understand that this was before elements of the press had become the enemies of the United States of America.  And there was NO EXCUSE then, and NO EXCUSE now to hammer the U.S. military, our President, and our country, day after day, because soldiers are soldiers, and a few are going to act bigoted, and even abusive, against the enemy that is trying to kill them--and has killed thousands of their countrymen (often in horrendous ways).  Minor incidents of that kind ARE NOT NEWS, and they are certainly not major news.  The only reason to report them day after day, as if these non-news incidents of very minor importance were the most important things happening, is because you have an agenda against our military, against this Administration, and against our country (at least under this President).

Yesterday, for example, it was again a featured news item on AOL, for the second consecutive day, that there were "allegations" by Taliban prisoners (IMAGINE a news story in World War II based solely on allegations of an individual Japanese prisoner, or even a few such prisoners, designed to inflame the entire Far East that our country really hated all "yellow people"--it would rightly have been considered treason)--the "allegations" being the same, DISCREDITED AND UNCONFIRMED, allegations that had been previously reported by Newsweek (causing riots and death), and then retracted.  But that didn't stop Matt Kelley, of the AP, from writing another story rehashing the SAME Newsweek allegation that there was ONE incident IN 2002 (although not making this clear in the story) alleged by a terrorist detainee that a guard had flushed the Koran down a toilet.  Matt Kelley's name should go down in infamy for this one story alone (along with all the other journalists doing the same thing).  I guarantee you that in World War II a few soldiers did worse to prisoners than flush the Koran--or equivalent symbol--down the toilet.  Again, though, in World War II the journalists were not enemies of the United States.  Of course, Matt Kelley went on the make a big deal of the fact that the military, in its own investigation had confirmed 5 minor incidents of "mishandling" of the Koran by guards.  SO WHAT.  This is not news.  It should be reported, if at all, in the back pages or end of a newscast, and reported to show that we do investigate complaints and not to allege that the entire United States of America is making war on the Muslim religion.  John McCain would have surely been ecstatic, if angry, if all the abuse he suffered in North Vietnam was a guard or two "mishandling" the Koran.  Instead of reporting it as a minor thing, Matt Kelley used this minor finding of "mishandling" of the Koran to give legitimacy to the non-credible story from one terrorist that a guard had flushed the Koran down the toilet--trying to bootstrap this non-story into a blot on our country similar to the internment by FDR of innocent Japanese-American citizens of this country.  You don't do this kind of stupid reporting of a non-story without an agenda--an agenda of hostility toward your own military and country, at least under this President.

No, Matt Kelley and these other journalists continue to deserve nothing but contempt. They are not journalists, but propagandists against their own country.  I think gradually they are getting contempt, and that the American people are gradually learning to ignore them, to the extent they can, and to despise them to the extent they can't be ignored.

|  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this