Negativity nothing new

"Never has American prestige in Europe been lower. People never tire of telling you of the ignorance and rowdy-ism of American troops, of our misunderstanding of ... conditions.... They blame us for the corruption and disorganization.... They tell us that our ... policy ... is producing results opposite to those we planned. “Have you no statesmen in America?” they ask." The preceding statements were taken from a national magazine article.  Just one more criticism of the situation in Iraq and the Bush administration.  Right?  Wrong.  The above came from the "LIFE" magazine of January 7, 1946.  The article was titled "Americans Are Losing The Victory In Europe".

I used that quote just to point out that nothing ever really changes.  Sideline criticisms and Monday morning quarterbacking are older than "sidelines" and "quarterbacks".  Students of history will recall that as late as 1864, newspapers throughout the North were calling for Abraham Lincoln's head on a platter.  George McClellan, a general relieved of command earlier in the Civil War by Lincoln mounted a serious challenge to defeat the President, before finally being defeated badly.

This year, the Democrats and the mainstream media are basing their entire campaign against George W. Bush on disillusioned hindsight.  The Left wants to attach blame for the September 11 attacks, not on the Islamists, but on the Bush administration.  They want to blame him and his team for not connecting dots, when it was the Democrats who had worked hard since the 1970s to build walls to keep the intelligence gathered by the CIA from ever connecting with investigations by the FBI.

They want to make the false assertion that Bush lied in order to justify the war in Iraq.  Of course, they hope you will forget that everyone, including France, believed that Saddam had WMDs, and evidence is coming out showing that he had not complied with disarmament resolutions. 

We've already come in contact with artillery shells with Sarin and other nerve agents.  Don't let the Bush haters tell you that it's only a few shells.  Saddam was not supposed to have a single one.  A recent UN report that must have been sent to the American media in invisible ink states that Saddam transported his banned weapons systems out of the country immediately before and during Operation Iraqi Freedom.  Addtionally, information keeps popping up about contacts between Saddam's operatives and Al Qaeda operatives.  Of course, you don't get information like that trumpeted on page one of most papers or proclaimed by Peter Jennings.  Yet, we are supposed to believe the mainstream media doesn't have an agenda.

If you listened to the Democrats and their media supporters, you would believe that the abuses at Abu Ghraib are the worst things that have happened since the Bataan Death March.  Nick Berg's beheading and the mutilated bodies of Americans hanging in Iraq pale by comparison.  In 1946, the atrocity du jour was the rape of German women by American soldiers. 

Additionally, the media wants to see how many times they can use the word "quagmire" when talking about Iraq.  Of course, "Halliburton" runs a close second in number of uses by the media "without an agenda".  The moves toward a successful transition of power to the Iraqi people get downplayed.  A new UN Security Council resolution dealing with Iraq, once thought impossible, gets only limited mention.

The way all of this is reported is with an eye to diminish the accomplishments of George W. Bush.  Things aren't perfect, but the successes definitely outweigh the failures.  Yet the Democrats and the media don't want you to know that.  Why?  Look at John Kerry. 

There is no way they can elevate John Kerry, except by repeating the mantra that he is a war hero, over and over again.  He is incapable of inspiring passion.  He is incapable of projecting himself in a positive way.  Therefore, his only shot is to make W look as bad as possible. 

So far, it seems to be working.  Bush's poll numbers are dropping.  However, Kerry's aren't exactly going through the roof.  Even Michael Dukakis had a big lead in July of 1988.  But that's a discussion for another day.