Last week your author saw a snippet where NBC morning news talk show host Matt Lauer represented the big corporate brass and stated that for now on out NBC will describe the Iraq War as a civil war. This reminds your author of how the Korean and Vietnam Wars became known as ‘conflicts’. Well ladies and gentleman you have it now, it is official if NBC chose Lauer to state this descriptive then you know it must be true. In between Martha Stewart’s recipe tips and decorating advice, NBC took the matter of Iraq with utter seriousness to inform the viewer of their corporate policy. Your author does not regularly watch NBC’s Today Show but he assumes based on a few previous viewings that the likes of Martha Stewart or something of a human interest material is spliced in between critical items.

Before your author actually goes into what is going on in Iraq, he feels comfortable in stating that neither Lauer or anyone affiliated with corporate level NBC possess the professional experience to define a war as being such as they have stated, let us be reminded that US citizens, media and the internet do not architect foreign and military policies. We have no say except for voting and Constitutionally protected public protest. The ones who do not agree may cast their ballot for the opposition if it suits their liking.

Why would NBC make such a statement? Well it was not simple phonetics or tone, no they are trying to impact our citizenry much the same way Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather did back with the Vietnam War. The big media lovers all but tell you that Cronkite helped end the Vietnam War and Rather with on the ground coverage of bloody images pulled public sentiment to his side. The only thing these two dinosaurs ever did was ensure that America will never be able to effectively engage in a military maneuver without a slew of public relation hurdles in front of them. Once again, your author deems this to be important, less than a year into the Iraq War the big media machine chimed out ‘unpopular war’ so many times that somebody should have copyrighted the statement. And once again there has never been a ‘popular war’ fought, from the Revolutionary War, to our Civil War and even World War II there has always been sentiment to bring our GIs home. So with that said the reader cannot agree that Iraq is unpopular or popular for that matter. It is a war and an awful event, as all wars are bad. Someone who knew a thing about war and the military was Union General William T. Sherman and he even said “war is hell”. Prior to Vietnam the media was given delayed reels of footage, often weeks after an event and were told what they needed to know. If President Truman had lived in our current time he would have faced a media slander campaign of the likes the reader has never seen as it relates to dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

Despite Lauer and NBC, Iraq War Allied Commander John Abizaid has already stated that it is not a civil war. Lauer and his bosses have yet to offer a reason why they referred to it as such. Oh your author knows of the sectarian and tribal violence, although it is contained to only parts of the country and not an across the board blood bucket as the media has implied.

In fact the only thing that the media machine can discuss is the negative and expected violence that occurs when a war does take place. They have no problem with telling the viewer the body count. They have no reservation telling the viewer that the Iraq War has eclipsed World War II insofar as the time spent in engagement. This has no relevancy whatsoever with the events unfolding. The media machine are quick to add that it was Saudis who piloted the jets into the World Trade Center towers in 2001 and not Iraqis, so why not go into an ally nation and invade them? Once again this has nothing to do with stomping out radical Islam. In fact that statement is akin to saying that all drunks are from Irish extraction. And as always the left and their complementary media use blanket statements when it suits them.

Your author has stated in previous posts the long term objective and the reason we went there to Iraq in the first place. Unfortunately too many Americans either see war as we know where our enemies lie in wait and we must go into that geographic location to terminate them. This goes back to World War II when the enemy was Germany and the region was Europe or in the case of the Pacific Front with regards to Japan. The second hampering trait that is plaguing some is that too many are busy watching programs such as American Idol and have ignored events for the past twenty years. In order to free America and thus the world from the very significant threat of Muslim terrorists it must be uprooted from the core.

This is a cultural generational march led by Islamic terrorist to dominate the Western World as we know it. Muslim terrorist cells have been discovered in Canada, Spain, England, The Netherlands and France along with the India, Philippines, Indonesia and Australia to name a few. Is that a global problem? Not a potential problem but a very genuine and legitimate problem. In order to effectively combat this situation, something President Clinton failed to do with the first World Trade attack in 1993, we must stir the hornet’s nest. Unfortunately, your author makes no apologies, the average American is either too complacent, too ignorant or doesn’t care to understand this threat. Your author hopes he is proven wrong with the last statement.

So President Bush had to do something to rally America’s support because the likes of Matt Lauer or Katie Couric cannot begin to explain how a weak opponent had to be taken out and hopefully the plans of Democracy would forever change the birthplace of this violent doctrine. Instead President Bush used the weapons of mass destruction theme because something had to jumpstart our citizenry. The big media machine won’t say this eloquently as it does not generate ratings, not like the constant reminder of the death toll or violence. Not once did The New York Times come out and express appreciation that Iraqi women were able to vote for the first time nor did any major news outlet tell the world on the successes of the revived Baghdad stock exchange. Not one of the mainstream news companies told the viewer how Iraq was experiencing power outages because of the sudden rise in installing televisions equipped with satellites and add computers to their homes, luxuries not previously allowed and evidence of their taste for Western materialism. There was little mention of the missiles, cache of high powered weapons or entire jets found hidden in Iraq. Why should the media machine tell the viewer or reader? They lose footing or at least think they lose it in your everyday life. What does that mean the reader may ask? It means that if you are comfortable and assured that the War in Iraq, which is as bad as any war we have ever fought and may be the most important to date, is making significant progress in saving Western society, the media can’t grab you. This idea of their importance is rooted in their own selfish arrogance. How does your author know this? He cites Dan Rather and his 60 Minutes faux pas where he used forged documents to question President Bush’s military record. Rather has refused to apologize to the President and the viewing public, instead slinking away and hopefully never to return again. Another citation that was of recent is when former Vice President and failed 2000 Democrat Presidential candidate Al Gore got chummy with Lauer on the Today Show. Gore made no bones about it, Iraq is an “utter disaster”, well there you have it, if a former lifelong politician who took tobacco farmer campaign contributions as a Senator and later came out against their industry says it; well it must be fact. Gore of course went on to pitch his film now on DVD, An Inconvenient Truth.

Readers the war on terror is being won as this is being published. Lebanon is questioning the merits of Hezbollah, the role of Syria and the influence of Iran. The Lebanese would rather die than become a strategically located area for conflicts involving Hezbollah, Syria, Iran and Israel converging together, leaving the country in tatters. Does the reader remember when Hezbollah decided to test Israel in July of this year? The big media machine pushed the idea that Hezbollah was a legitimate political party that helped fund daycare, healthcare and everything else under the social program sun. Yes and Hitler made Germany giddy with plenty of fringe benefits too. Hezbollah also overran a country and called the shots with Iran’s funding. Yet the big media machine refused to honestly give the readers the facts. Well as of this day, with current demonstrations in an area that a protestor may lose their life, NBC, The New York Times, TIME Magazine and all the other players in this ill-informed, ratings grabbing industry got it wrong when it came to the Lebanese.

Another event as it relates to foreign coverage and serious threats to our livelihood just happened when the United Nations failed to address sanctions against Iran. Remember the UN? This was a gaggle of do-nothings as it relates to grave situations that the left and the big media wanted to bring to the table with Iraq. Iran has publicly stated their intentions but yet this supposed important organization cannot get it together and levy some type of punishment. Where is the media? Yet this same bunch that fail in giving a clear picture will allow UN General Kofi Annan a platform to criticize the War in Iraq but yet is given a pass as it relates to his own organization’s inabilities?

One other issue that has nothing to do with the war on terror but certainly shows how dysfunctional the big media machine has become with international events is Darfur. This spec on the Africa continent has drummed up many in the media and another one of their darling groups-Hollywood. If your author reads anymore stories where actor George Clooney, who makes a living playing in fantasyland, states the grim conditions and the immediate need to address the situation, he may jump out a window. In Darfur, a place that is experiencing a civil war, the UN has evacuated their staff. The chaos in Darfur has not been stifled since the UN showed up and your author could only hope that Clooney would pick up arms and rush to the battlefield. The same song and dance, the media won’t discuss the failures in Darfur and just how the UN is losing whatever cause they are promoting.

And finally proof some intelligent life form exists as it relates to a pseudo-media figure, a staff member for former President Jimmy Carter has quit. Kenneth Stein, who served as the executive director for the Carter Center, resigned following the release of Carter’s book entitled Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid. Mr. Stein was quoted as saying that the book is filled with errors, contains pro-Arab slant and is one-sided. Former President Carter has been gaining air time for the past several years, primarily due to his criticism of the Bush administration and is desperately attempting to shore up his dismal legacy.