From the WSJ Opinion Archives
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Tet's
Real Lesson
We have long argued that America's mainstream media--because of what they see
as the "lessons of Vietnam"--are actively working to promote American
defeat in Iraq. (We gave this theme a lengthy treatment in a talk last November
at the Hudson Institute, which later became an essay in the February issue of
The
American Spectator.) From CNN comes one of the most striking bits of evidence
yet that this is the case. This promo for a "CNN exclusive" appears
today on the homepage of CNN.com (we've captured it here
for posterity as well):
Almost 2,800 Americans have been killed so far in Iraq and one of the most dangerous insurgent opponents is the sniper. CNN has obtained graphic video from the Islamic Army of Iraq, one of the most active insurgent organizations in Iraq, showing its sniper teams targeting U.S. troops. The Islamist Army says it wants talks with the United States and some Islamist Internet postings call for a P.R. campaign aimed at influencing the American public. The video is disturbing to watch but CNN believes the story, shocking as it is, needs to be told.
By airing this video, CNN is participating in what it acknowledges is "a P.R. campaign aimed at influencing the American public" in ways favorable to America's enemies. And the network does not even seem to realize what a shocking admission this is.
With the midterm elections less than three weeks away, the media are filled with Tet talk. Here's Simon Hooper, in a commentary that also appears today on CNN.com:
For veteran statesmen such as [James] Baker, the parallels with another era-defining American war must also be striking. In the late 1960s the U.S. military found itself fighting an unwinnable conflict, enduring mounting casualties against a growing chorus of dissent at home--in Vietnam.
On Wednesday [President] Bush himself acknowledged parallels between the current situation in Iraq and the 1968 Tet Offensive--widely considered to be the point when American public opinion turned against the war.
As we noted yesterday, Thomas Friedman of the New York Times also drew the analogy in a column whose description of Tet is worth repeating:
Although the Vietcong and Hanoi were badly mauled during Tet, they delivered, through the media, such a psychological blow to U.S. hopes of "winning" in Vietnam that Tet is widely credited with eroding support for President Johnson and driving him to withdraw as a candidate for re-election.
Tet, that is, was a military victory for the U.S. that turned into a propaganda victory for the communists because American journalists presented a false picture of what had happened.
The media today are eager to repeat their "success" in Vietnam--and it was a success inasmuch as the media were hugely influential over the course of events. But from a journalistic standpoint it was a gross failure. The real lesson of Vietnam is that journalists got the story wrong. We are not at all convinced that the American people are about to get fooled again.
Life Imitates the Onion
"Iraqi Leaders Call for Moment of Violence During Ramadan"--headline, Onion, Oct. 17
"U.S.: 22 Pct. More Attacks in Ramadan"--headline, Associated Press, Oct. 19
The
Use and Abuse of Service
"Virginia Democratic Senate candidate James Webb, who was critically wounded
as a Marine in Vietnam, said yesterday that he is uncomfortable talking about
his personal story even if doing so could help him unseat Republican Sen. George
Allen on Nov. 7," the Washington Post reports:
Webb said it is improper to use military service in an overtly political way.
"I don't think it's right to use somebody's service directly for a political reason," Webb said. "When [Allen] talks about the validity of the effort in terms of an individual who was killed in Iraq, I think that's wrong. Too many people have too many different feelings about why they serve."
We agree--but does Webb? This is a man who wrote op-eds defending both John Kerry* and John Murtha when they were shamelessly exploiting their Vietnam service for political purposes.
On a related topic, Homer nods: Kerry spoke on Capitol Hill on behalf of an anti-veteran hate group 1,852 weeks ago, which is more than "a few weeks back" as we said in an item yesterday (since corrected).
Amish
Welfare Queens
We're not sure whether to laugh or cry at this story from Cleveland's WEWS-TV:
Two northeast Ohio counties are being ordered by the state to try to boost the number of Amish receiving food stamps.
Geauga and Holmes counties plan to start advertising campaigns to encourage Amish to enroll in the subsidy program. Holmes may use a billboard to get the message out.
State officials saidt's [sic] important that the Amish know the benefit is available.
But county officials question whether the effort is a waste of time and money. Amish oppose accepting government assistance.
The head of the Geauga Department of Job and Family Services says no matter how much they do, the Amish won't sign up.
Last week Mickey Kaus noted a similar story from the Los Angeles Times:
Though it goes against the conventional wisdom of anti-illegal immigration supporters, those who enroll the poor in the federal food stamp program say they've struggled for years to get immigrant Latino families signed up.
Now a Spanish-language news report and television ad campaign have spurred thousands of immigrants in Orange County over the last several weeks to contact a nonprofit organization that offers a Spanish-language class called "Food Stamps in Four Hours."
The stream of immigrants contrasts sharply with what was going on just a few months ago when only a handful of immigrants would attend the free course. . . .
"The Mexican man is macho. He doesn't want to come to this country and beg," said Alfonso Chavez, the Community Action Partnership's outreach coordinator. "I tell them this is a program that will help the children. The kids are American-born, and they have a right to this program."
So here we have two strikingly different communities, Amish and Latino, that stubbornly cling to self-reliance--which is a profoundly American virtue; and a government and a nonprofit organization are struggling to turn them into wards of the state. Something is wrong with this picture.
A
Jewish Jerry Falwell
Remember when Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson attributed 9/11 to America's sexual
immorality? YnetNews.com reports that an Israeli rabbi is making a similar argument:
Thousands of ultra-Orthodox protested at Jerusalem's Sabbath Square Wednesday against the holding of the 2006 Gay Pride Parade in the city, with most of them linking the parade to the recent war in Lebanon. . . .
Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch, the head of the Eda Haredit rabbinic court, said during the rally, "We did not succeed in Lebanon due to the obscenity and promiscuity in the Holy Land."
The rabbi quoted Rabbi Wasserman, who said during the Holocaust that "Zionism has destroyed the Land of Israel's sanctity; this is how the troubles of the Shoah began, and this is why we must act to wend the promiscuity.
"There is no greater disturbance than the disgraceful parade," Rabbi Sternbuch said.
Surprisingly, Andrew Sullivan has yet to make note of this story. We're just wondering if he is going to call Sternbuch a "Jewist."
'Web
Rage'
"An internet user has been found guilty of what police said was Britain's
first 'web-rage' attack," the BBC reports:
Paul Gibbons, 47, tracked down John Jones using details obtained online after the pair exchanged insults in an internet chatroom, a court heard.
He travelled 70 miles to Mr Jones' home in Clacton, Essex, and beat him up with a pickaxe handle in December 2005. . . .
Gibbons, a man with a violent past, traced Mr Jones to his home using personal details about himself that he had put online.
Gibbons arrived at Mr Jones' home armed and accompanied by another man carrying a machete, the court heard.
Mr Jones, whose partner and three children were in the house, opened the door holding a knife for protection, said Mr Adebayo.
A fight broke out during which Mr Jones was disarmed and beaten with the pickaxe handle and cut with the knife.
One intriguing detail of the story, however, is never developed:
The pair met in an internet chatroom called Yahoo, Islam 10 as both had an interest in the Muslim faith, the Old Bailey was told.
Suppose they had met in a conservative Christian chat room or a neo-Nazi one. In that case, would the Beeb have reported the story as a generic case of "Web rage" with the subject matter at issue mentioned only in passing?
The
World's Smallest Violin
Jeffrey Lundgren,
a cult leader, is on Ohio's death row for the murders of a couple, 49-year-old
Dennis and 46-year-old Cheryl Avery, and their three daughters, Trina, 15; Rebecca,
13; and Karen, 7, in 1989. CNN describes what happened:
Lundgren formed a cult after he was dismissed in 1987 as a lay minister of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, now known as the Community of Christ.
He said passages in the Bible told him to kill the family. Several witnesses said the family was not as enthusiastic about the cult as Lundgren would have liked.
Gee, we wonder why. Anyway, CNN also reports that a federal judge has delayed Lundgren's execution, scheduled for next week, because of a lawsuit challenging the use of lethal injection. "Lundgren, 56, said he is at even greater risk of experiencing pain and suffering during the procedure than other inmates because he is overweight and diabetic."
The poor man is overweight, have a little sympathy! Of course Dennis, Cheryl, Trina, Rebecca and Karen don't have that problem. Thanks to Jeffrey Lundgren, there's probably not much left of them but their bones.
From
Now On, It's Called Singlemint
"Twin Ends Up Dead in Chewing Gum Spat"--headline, KATU-TV Web site
(Portland, Ore.), Oct. 18
Breaking
News From 1861
"U.S. May Have Weeks, Not Months, to Avert Civil War, Adviser Warns"--headline,
San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 18
Whereas
Ken Lay Was Posthumously Exonerated
"Ex-Officer Is Being Retried in Death"--headline, Richmond Times-Dispatch,
Oct. 18
What
Would Police Do Without Experts?
"Experts Say Police Work Takes Time"--headline, Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune,
Oct. 15
Editor:
Police Not Speak Good English
"Police: Man Arrested Not Carry Bomb"--headline, Arizona Republic,
Oct. 18
'Dude,
I Just Had a Senior Moment!'
"More Evidence Suggests Marijuana Slows Alzheimer's"--headline, LiveScience.com,
Oct. 18
Fried
Onion Tie Optional
"Cousins Feud in Philly Cheesesteak Suit"--headline, Associated Press,
Oct. 18
Bottom Stories of the Day
- "British Judge Says Rock Singer Pete Doherthy's Drug Rehab Not as Successful
as Expected"--headline, Associated
Press, Oct. 18
- "One in Three Workers Write Down Computer Passwords, Study Says"--headline,
FoxNews.com,
Oct. 18
- " 'Bridget Jones' Underwear Remains Unsold"--headline, United
Press International, Oct. 17
- "Kinneret Unchanged in the Past Day"--headline, Arutz
Sheva (Israel), Oct. 19
- "Granville Council Takes No Action on Official"--headline, Granville (Ohio) Sentinel, Oct. 19
Don't
Be So Possessive!
The Legal Times has a droll commentary on syntax:
As one of its final acts last term, the U.S. Supreme Court issued Kansas v. Marsh, a case involving the constitutionality of a state death-penalty statute. The 5-4 decision exposed the deep divide that exists among the nation's intellectual elite regarding one of society's most troubling issues--namely, whether the possessive form of a singular noun ending with the letter "s" requires an additional "s" after the apostrophe.
The issue reached a crescendo in Marsh primarily because of two circumstances. First, the statute in question originated from a state with a name ending in "s." Second, the majority opinion was written by a justice whose last name ends in "s." Given the confluence of these factors, it was inevitable that the justices' philosophical differences on matters of American usage would be thrust into the spotlight.
Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the Court (and joined by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Justices Samuel Alito Jr., Anthony Kennedy and Antonin Scalia), concluded that the Kansas statute was not unconstitutional. In reaching this conclusion, Thomas repeatedly referred to the relevant law as Kansas' statute.
In response, Justice David Souter wrote a dissent that was joined by Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and John Paul Stevens. The dissent revealed Souter's bitter disagreement with both the substantive conclusion of the majority and the grammatical philosophy of the opinion's author. Whereas Thomas apparently believes that whenever a singular noun ends in "s," an additional "s" should never be placed after the apostrophe, Souter has made equally clear his conviction that an "s" should always be added after the apostrophe when forming a singular possessive, regardless of whether the nonpossessive form already ends in "s."
The Wall Street Journal's position on the possessive of Kansas is the same as Justice Thomas's: It should be Kansas', with no additional "s." But our rule is complicated enough that Thomas's isn't an error. From the Journal stylebook:
SINGULAR NAMES ENDING IN S: Ordinarily, add 's whether the name's final s is sounded or not: Jules's computer, Mr. Jones's neighborhood, Dickens's novels, Illinois's capital, Arkansas's governor.
Use only an apostrophe in these cases: ancient classical names: Euripides' dramas, Socrates' life, Achilles' heel; names of more than one syllable when the last syllable starts as well as ends with an s or s sound and when that last syllable is unaccented: Kansas' law, Moses' journey, Jesus' teachings, Texas' cowboys.
Meanwhile, London's Daily Telegraph reports (hat tip: Daniel Freedman) that "a secret guide that has helped generations of BBC newsreaders pronounce difficult words and odd-sounding names is to be made public for the first time":
The training manual offers advice on words such as schedule, controversy and kilo-metre, as well as troublesome modern names including al-Qa'eda and J K Rowling.
We don't know what a "kilo-metre" is, but if "schedule" and "controversy" are difficult words, the British really have trouble speaking English!
(Carol Muller helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Chris Scibelli, Dan O'Shea, Alden Stradling, Christian Dallman, Tim Graham, Eric Garcia, Mike Bubb, Rosanne Klass, Scott Yates, Mark Van Der Molen, David Englet, Lewis Chilton, Keith Cummings, Joseph Tully, Jeff Gilbert, Dave Smith, Mark Murray, Kevin Mullaney, Michael Guzman, Michael Hornback, Danny Carlton, Shabtai Atlow and Justin Lodge. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)
Today on OpinionJournal:
- John Yoo: Congress to courts: Get out of the war on terror.
- Jason Riley: Ohio's Kenneth Blackwell is the right candidate in the wrong year.
- Tunku Varadarajan: Most of Gen. Pervez Musharraf's new book cannot be believed.
