America, you have been invited to the dance of the headless chicken by the self-appointed sheepherders of the mass media and their helpers. These talking heads are producing an ever-increasing abundance of innuendo, suppositions and baseless – but scary sounding – comparisons followed by disingenuous suggestions put forth to “protect us.”
Take for instance one of the most enduring suppositions of the past three decades: “It will be another Vietnam.” Thus the speaker is now free to theorize, free from any appropriate intellectual restraint, on how we will fail in some manner or another. Some may recall how this favorite point of comparison of the media was trotted out prior to Desert Shield-Desert Storm and, now, here it is again. All to the same purpose: to create news where there is none. It matters little if it is highly negative – for that simply starts “the buzz” and that, as is well known can take on a life of its own.
The other point in question is what are these disingenuous solutions pointing to and from where do they come? Especially in the case of the media’s paid talking heads, they always come from the assumptions (and prejudices) of the composer. Consider just a short two weeks ago, what were the biases and assumptions of the liberal media. One was that military training was made unnecessarily hard so it could exclude their darlings of the moment from participation. How else did the reporter from the Washington Post come up with her declaration of why Special Operations Forces were short of NCOs? Perhaps the largest and most dangerous assumption/prejudice of the media is that it is by (more restrictive) legislation and regulation that the putative ills of the their moment will be cured.
The buzz these days all points to the need to keep the terrorists from gaining access to this, that or the other thing – and just how do you do this? By legislation and regulation, of course. What will be the focus of these restrictions? What you may do, say or how and when you may travel and especially, the availability of weapons in society. Box cutters are not the likely targets of this particular round of hand wringing and recrimination however.
Take, for instance, the knee-jerk reaction of liberal officialdom in response to the Columbine shootings in my area. A bevy of overly imperious soccer moms posted at all the main Cherry Creek school entrances (not the unlocked side entrances, mind you) stopping all the adults (only) and vigorously questioning them as to why they were coming to pick up their child and having them use their specially designed, protective sign-in sheets. Don’t think this kind of imbecility will happen again? Are you sure? I am utterly convinced that it will, if we allow it.
But what are we supposed to do, turn off the television? Not a practical suggestion for the average citizen, but perhaps a short break for thought is what is needed to carefully consider what is being said, and why. To think on the words of Benjamin Franklin who long ago told us, “If we trade civil liberties for security, we will wind up with neither.” What are the soccer moms doing in your town?
Tom Marzullo was a Special Forces soldier during Vietnam serving both on an A-Team and in MACVSOG. He completed his career in the U.S. Navy aboard submarines and was assigned to submarine special operations. He resides in Denver, Colorado with his bride of 21 years and their daughter.
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