Half the Story

Bing West was a Marine officer in Vietnam, a former assistant secretary of defense under Reagan, and co-author (with former Marine Major General Ray Smith) of The March Up, which is one of the essential histories of the Iraq War so far.

He and his son Owen - who served in Force Recon during the war - wrote this challenge to the media's conventional wisdom on war reporting in the NRO.

The media has devalued the heroism of the soldier since Vietnam, focusing instead on criminal and victims.

It wasn't always this way:

In World War II, the press were cheerleaders who shared a symbiotic relationship with the military. Gutsy warriors like Audie Murphy and "Pappy" Boyington were famous for their high kill totals. In Vietnam, the press soured on the effort, tied the troops to the policymakers and refused to laud aggressive soldiers. Instead, victims were accentuated. American prisoners of war — who were certainly brave — were the only acclaimed heroes. Rugged commando-types - just as brave - were ignored.

This was reflected in the wave of Vietnam movies that proliferated in the 1980s. In the four most popular movies - Rambo: First Blood Part II, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, and Casualties of War - two themes emerged: soldier as victim and soldier as criminal.

In Iraq, the most famous soldiers to emerge are PFC Jessica Lynch and PFC Lynndie England, a victim and criminal, respectively. Their public images are the offspring of Vietnam. Celebrity and cynicism have trumped achievement.

This should surprise nobody. The chattering class has been straining to find comparisons with Vietnam since the before the war began.

The Wests have some numbers:

A nation's selection of its heroes is a reflection of its values. Jihadists like Zarqawi are not idealistic agrarian reformers. We are not a nation of victims. The press ought to make a real effort to show the tough guys who fight for us.

They don't have to look far. One hundred and forty squads fought house to house in Fallujah last November. In the course of two weeks, on three separate occasions the average squad shot jihadists hiding in rooms waiting to kill an American and die. The average 19-year-old searched dozens of houses each day, knowing with certainty that he would open a door and someone would shoot at him, not once, but on three separate occasions. Fewer than one SWAT team in a hundred encounters determined suicidal shooters barricaded in a room. Our SWAT teams are dedicated and courageous and we have seen many deserved depictions of their bravery.

Let's be straight about this: we see many more depictions of such than there are actual incidents.

Surely the media can do more to bring alive for all of us the nature of the sacrifices, courage, and, yes, ferocious aggression of our troops. The strength of our martial might is in our warriors more than in our weapons. It is time we understood why they are so feared. Our riflemen are not victims; they're hunters. Audie Murphy would be proud of Carlos Gomez-Perez, Brent Morel, and Paul Ray Smith.

The whole thing is worth a read.

Posted by Mitch at April 8, 2005 05:14 AM | TrackBack