EDITOR’S NOTE: I know it’s not “tech” but I thought I’d throw this Op-Ed I wrote your way as food for thought before I post some techy stuff later today. Hope you like the new layout!
It was a shockingly inaccurate statement that discredited an accomplished columnist. No matter where you stand on The New York Times editorialist Maureen Dowd’s political bent, it’s hard to deny her reach and talent.
But in the reactionary defense of her anointed one — President Obama — on last weekend’s Times op-ed page, she strayed far from reality and embraced a mythology made soft by the facts.
Yes, the president’s Oct. 29 trip to Dover Air Force base in the dark of night to greet a C-17 carrying fallen Americans killed in Afghanistan was a vivid example of the reality of that war and should pause to those who call for increased commitment there. And it was honorable of Obama to see for himself the human cost of his decisions — as every commander and chief should.
But to reflexively defend the photo op engineered to create news about the president’s “sobering reminder” by claiming that the man who got us into Afghanistan in the first place never faced them is just plain bunk.
I had the honor to speak with nearly a dozen families of Marines killed in Iraq and Afghanistan a few years ago as part of a project with the Military Times newspapers. We wrote a wide-ranging investigative piece on the conduct of the services during the killed-in-action notification process and the support they provided along the way.
It was an intimidating assignment, but one I cherish to this day. For, unlike Dowd, who I doubt has ever spoken with the family of a fallen servicemember, I was forced to confront the world I obliquely reported from afar — to hear the quavering voices of mothers whose sons had been obliterated by roadside bombs.
And you know who else did that very same thing dozens of times in his eight years as president? The same man Dowd falsely accuses of declining to confront the reality of his war dead.
In my conversations with those who sacrificed a son, a husband, a brother, or a boyfriend, all were universally grateful for George W. Bush’s sincere — and private — conversations with them either before or directly after an event or speech at a military base. As a routine, Bush would meet behind closed doors with family members who’d lost loved ones as part of his stop at military installations.
These were not simply pro-war, anti-war, pro-Bush or anti-Bush families — they were all of the above. Some were against the Iraq war; others were steadfast, despite their unimaginable sacrifice, for victory there. But to a man and women, these grieving Americans appreciated the president’s heartfelt compassion and deep understanding of their sacrifice — and of the weight of the decision to send potentially more of America’s young to their deaths.
So, to pull a quote from a “Good Morning America” interview of a grieving parent to make her case, Dowd winds up doing the reverse.
“Unless we can see the images and look into the eyes and the faces of those that are sacrificing, we forget,” said the mother of Army Spec. Dale Griffin who was honored by Obama in the Dover show and used as an example of Bush’s callous denial of war’s price.
But Bush looked deep into the eyes of women like Mrs. Griffin many, many times without the glare of cameras showcasing their grief for tomorrow’s front page. And in them he saw the cost of war.
Their words, not mine.
So what if Bush never solemnly saluted the caskets at Dover with the White House press corps in tow. How is it relevant that he didn’t attend one family’s private funeral of their child killed in America’s war? Talk to the parents of the dead who witnessed the former president’s remorse first hand. They’ll tell Dowd just how offensively wrong she is.
– Christian
no small amount of vitriol today’s post.…
I note the reflexive contrast (below) between those desiring ‘victory’ in Iraq, as opposed to those against the war — clearly desirous of something other than ‘victory’.……perhaps ‘defeat’?
“These were not simply pro-war, anti-war, pro-Bush or anti-Bush families — they were all of the above. Some were against the Iraq war; others were steadfast, despite their unimaginable sacrifice, for victory there.”
It is time to drop this tired, false dichotomy into the same bin as the ‘Global War on Terror’.
Wow, kinda sensitive there DCDC…I don’t get it — my statement makes perfect sense. You can be “against the war” and want to pull out and you can be pro-Iraq war and stay in despite the cost…how is that a “false dichotomy”?
First of all, I love the new layout.…..
What Christian wrote is not only the truth, but, I am kinda offended the way Obama did this. The first thing that came to my mind looking at this image was 1) “Damn, another man down…” 2) I wonder who trained Obama to attempt to stand at attention? You just KNOW he had a lesson. < I think a better lesson would be to gear him up and drop him in AGAO. Ok, ok, yeah he can have a rifle, what the heck, we might all get lucky, eh? hehe : ) RocketMan
Hearing posts like this realy make me sad.….how far we’ve come (fallen) when US citizens hope and dream of the death of our democratically elected President.….really sad state of affairs.
So Obama’s really in a no-win position then. If he shows up to pay his respects, you put him down for performing a cheap political stunt. If he doesn’t show up, you put him down for being callous and uncaring towards the troops. If he renders a sharp salute, you put him down for receiving a lesson in rendering a sharp salute. If he renders a sloppy salute, you put him down for not knowing anything about military customs and protocols. So no matter what the guy does or doesn’t do, you’ve already condemned him. And then you hope he gets “dropped in AGAO”, so “we might all get lucky”? “Hehe”, indeed.
Wow amazing. How can you wish Death on the president because you don’t like his policies? Don’t you think that sounds a little extreme if not treasonous?
I for one DIG these Op-Ed’s. Christian, I hope you continue to post these.
I don’t read anything from the NYT. But I did hear about Dowds post. I couldn’t believe she made that claim either, being so obviously false. But hey, it IS the Times right?
Maybe what she meant was that GW never went there in the middle of the night and made a photo-op out of it? LOL doubt it. Dowd, like most of the MSM sycophants is a complete hack.
I think the columnist was referring to the fact that no one (even Sen. Biden with constituent family) besides family was allowed to meet returning fallen at Dover. And no one did, including POTUS. The policy dated back to the network broadcast of Bush 41 in inappropriate character @ a live function juxtaposed next to (split screen) video of returning fallen to Dover from invasion of Panama during his ’89-’93 term. Obama’s visit was newsworthy only in that sense.
Weak sauce here, Christian. Your entire argument is a straw man that doesn’t oppose the real point of Dowd’s piece; that Bush did not properly weigh the costs of war versus the benefits of war. This is especially true in Iraq, which I believe history will judge to be one of America’s worst actions. This is not to diminish the service and many lives given to the fight. The bravery and capability of our fighting forces are unmatched in the world. Frankly, I am most saddened that we have again employed our military to fight an invisible enemy (hearts and minds). That’s a task they were not, and still are not, trained and equipped to execute. But I digress…
You need to use Dowd’s piece as a springboard to make some larger point. Simply calling out her piece as inaccurate (even if it is) does not really advance your perspective much, does it?
Christian, are you intentionally trying to restructure who visits this site, and what we talk about in the comments?
Your admittedly not talking about tech, how does this even AT ALL touch on anything tech related, AT ALL.
Your using a soap box, and this is not what that box was for when they hired you… Or perhaps it was… who knows. Maybe a contingency of professional and non political posters was not what they wanted this site to be.
What i do know is that soon your going to have new readers, with opinions much like your own, as you will have alienated many people who have been coming here for years… I always looked forward to the comments more than the posts for the VALUABLE information that was shared, not opinion or politics.
This post is totally unneeded and lame, it has nothing to do with defense TECH… just change the name of the site if this is what we have to look forward to from here on in with your new, lame 2.0 redesign.
Its not just the shutters that have been repainted, that much is obvious.
Agree with you wholeheartedly Boogy…these slanted, politically biased posts are really piss poor and disheartening not to mention have nothing to do with Tech.….
+1 boogy, this site is getting worst and worst. Its good to see that there are still people who have opinions of there own, and can come to their own conclusions.
Yeah Ed, to justify Dowd you reall do need to “springboard” into some far dimension. But if you call a fish a fish then Christians point is solid.
Ouch BoogyMan! You’re making me tear up…
As editor of Defense Tech, this IS my soap box, actually. So if I want to highlight an op-ed I wrote for Military.com in this space, I can if I darn well want to. Look high and low, BoogyMan, you’ll see the “tech” posts outnumber the “opinion” posts 10:1…and I see them all as “valuable”…
Thanks for the note.
Nice job responding to a comment with unnecessary sarcasm and sass. If you don’t respect the readers, why should be read your blog?
Christian, I don’t want to get into your opinions, you have a right to them. However, I am very irritated on how much the site has changed. It was much better when it tried to stayed politically neutral. Right now, it’s turned into the Glenn Beck fan club and I long for the old days of staying out of it.
I agree. I come here to read about DEFENSE TECH. Keep it like the title says, and move the
Well, actually, you’re a wholely-owned subsidiary of monster.com. Which is a publicly-owned company. And stockholders–at least this one–don’t really care for where this branch of the company is going.
This is the kind of attitude that will insure your job for a long time to come i am sure.
Keeping your installed user base would seem a no brainier with so many other sites out there to go get the tech/war fix, but if you want to play to the red states only, with no balance, then go for yours boss man.
People who have been loyal followers of this site for YEARS seem to all enjoy that this was a politics free zone… say whatever you want about Ratio of politics to tech, one post is too much when your sites about development and deployment of new tech, not biased views using yellow dog journalism.
But all that said your getting 100 comments for this kind of stuff, so i guess its just about stats for you, not offering the best content you can.
You might be the man at the face of this site, but i wonder how your boss would feel if he knew that some of the best posters you had will soon hit eject on your lame resentful copy.
Christian,
I will agree that Bush paid his dues with the families. I will agree that Obama is doing something more than a photo op.
But listening to Maureen Dowd is like listening to Rush Limbaugh, they are just on opposite sides of the spectrum.
Want to know my answer to this situation. Round up the Rush’s, Beck’s, Dowd’s, Huffingtons, and Moore’s of this great country. Put a big fence around Wyoming (or North Dakota if you want), and send them all there. That way the people the care about this country and not an agenda/party can actually make sure all of us as a Nation succeed.
Nice new look. Now can we get back to what it was meant for again?
DC2 (not affiliated in any way with DCDC)
WTF is going on a Ft. Hood??!!????
DC2 has the right idea.
12 dead, 41 wounded at Fort Hood Texas, three Us soldiers one dead, two in custody
12 dead, 31 wounded, my mistake. can we get info on this? New psot please?
I like your idea DC2 but wyoming? why waste a perfectly good state. I say do it but in california.
What christan wrote has been agreed with by Many mil bloggers. Obama’s being there was turned into a stab at bush etc ( you know those people who’s fault all bad things are for a certain unhinged section of america) when it might not have had anything to do with it at all.
The person at fault here isnt Obama or christain but Dowd’s who used the deaths of service men to further her own agenda.
And dont tell me yall dont remember the warings this wouldnt happen.
The extremeist on both right and left will use anything to further there agenda’s.
The only difference is the far left will use soft power. (lying, cheating, basicaly the most underhanded tactics as long as they dont leave a trail back to them to much) And the far right will attack head on with well.……insane Beckish type tactics and ron paul rallies.
Can anyone out there say its not time for a new centrist party?
DC2 is dead on.…people that are interested in rational discourse and solutions can start to solve some of the big problems facing our nation today and we can do it together as Americans regardless of party affiliation. Stop listening to the talking heads telling you what to think.…read and make up your own mind.
This Kiwi blogger appreciates your comments re GWB, and has stated in many postings that his legacy will survive as caution to the cavemen of Islam.
A knee jerk left wing reaction to everything he stood for is hampering his successor today.
Cavemen?
I happen to have from New Zealand as well as Muslim friends. I don’t see any difference.
Are you a caveman, or just a bigot?
editorializing somewhere else.
I agree Christian, just like the botched Presidential New York city overfly photo shoot, this just backfired in Obama’s face. He is so out of touch with reality.
I still can’t believe that he sold out Poland for an atta boy with Russia. I guess that’s what our nation gets for electing an inexperienced person into the presidency.
Unfortunately we have to put up with him and his mistakes for 3 more years. Hopefully their will be a sovereign nation left when he is done.…
You are just going through randomly criticizing things you obviously don’t understand. In the first place try staying on topic. In the second place, how is it his fault the media took a picture of him. Was it the medias fault when the filmed Bush sitting still after we got attacked?
Please get a life.
Who is clueless, all staged photo ops my brother.…
And I did stay on topic, it’s just one screw up after another.… Welcome to the Obamination.…
God I love it when you talk though Christian, ( and throw in some jargon to make yourself sound a little bit more legit like you do in some of your articles ) and get all the arm chair warriors wannabe’s all fired up. But then I remember you never spent a day in uniform… So stick to writing stories about new hardware, polices etc. Because when you talk this BS it just shows you for the poseur you are.…
So, uh, only people who served can voice their opinions on policies? LOL That doesn’t sound fascist at all.….…
Nice list of guesses and suppositions. Sounds a lot like “what’s this button do?” of partisan politics. At least you’re trying, Christian, I know your heart’s at least in the right place even if your logic isn’t.
While I agree that the event is worthy of coverage, for whatever reason, this site’s op-ed criticism of The President of the United States of America strikes me as in very poor taste. POTUS is an office to which all due respect is due.
Moreover, I would have assumed that a site run by staff so intimately aquainted with the stresses and strains and foibles of officials during wartime, would have granted the holder of this esteemed office the benefit of the doubt, and not jump on a bandwagon of castigation. It is certain that The President has several very difficult decisions ahead of him, not all related to the GWOT. I doubt he is getting much sleep!
But I digress. POTUS is and office to which respect is due, and people under considerable strain make mistakes. I believe that the cameras should not have been present at the event; however it is almost inevitable that wherever POTUS goes, cameras, official or otherwise are nearby.
Christian, you gave the previous President FAR more slack than this. There wasnt a mention of George Bush’s infamous “Mission Accomplished” event on this Defense Tech in the days after the event, which quickly gained far more noteriety and criticism than this event, from both sides of the political spectrum.
Wow Christian, I have been a loyal follower for years, not so loyal any longer though. I used to look forward to your posts, on defense related tech, but that has all but stopped alate. Even when the article is related to defense, you still use the article to jab at the president. Yes you have the freedom of speech and your perspective, but you are so arrogant to the posters who disagree with these type of posts. For a man so involved with the military, you seem very unpatriotic of late.
Liberals just slay me… The liberal news networks have bashed President Bush at every opportunity. Fox says a few things that don’t paint Obama as a god and the white house tries to black list them.
It is the same here, if Christian said anything negative about Bush, it would just be blown off, but here you guys are giving Christian a ration of MRE beans for raising some concerns about a few of Obamas many mistakes.
Christian is very patriotic for bringing this up. Obama is a president along of the lines of Carter, who was willing to let our guys rot in Iran over fear of public opinion. If we don’t raise a huge stink about these issues the “great” one will continue on his current track and more of our brothers will die.
All of you need to watch Fall of The Republic by Alex Jones, Google it. Left, Right, Republican, Democrat, Socialist, Fascist.…..it’s all rubbish. Wake up!
Well, you’re HALF right. Forget that opportunistic hack, Jones. Go read Gibbons’ “Decline and Fall of Rome” If you want to understand how republics really come apart.
Unmitigated immigration, moral decay, “Give Us Bread and Circuses!“
You may walk away feeling very troubled at the parallels to America over the last 100 years.…..
I had no idea Bush did that. Thanks for bringing it to our attention. My opinion of him has improved.
It had been a while since I came by the site– and now I remeber why I stopped. This used to be a straight forward site about war fighting tech– and yeah it had a right wing bent– no problem there. But this site has seriously lost its way. Someone up post mentioned a Glen Beck fan club — I couldn’t agree more. Your response was a true definition of a straw man argument– you may have well said — well– anything, because you missed the bigger picture.
I will check back in a month– sure most of your readers will still long for the days of GWB’s victory in Iraq and bemoan the horrible mess BHO has made of it– but I hope much better from you Christian.
LOL Still all this pissing an moaning about the editorial edition to the site. This seems pretty simple to solve. Just add an editorial inlk to all the others on the left hand site of the Web site. simple enough. they get front page like everything else when they’re new, then they get archived in the editorial section. If you don’t like it, you can always click only on the tech stuff FFS.
Editorial “addition” is maybe what you meant to say?
Listen, if you don’t fall in and support the CIC you are anti-American and pro-terrorist!
Or does that only apply to Republican presidents?
(that was a test– if you answered yes– you are a bona fide moron and hypocrit).
Thank you– come again!
This is why bring politics is bad
LOL Pointing out a grammatical error is a sure sign that you have absolutely nothing of value to add. Funny thing, the rest of your post was a perfect example of that.
Tank you-get lost
“So what if Bush never solemnly saluted the caskets at Dover with the White House press corps in tow.”
He never solemnly saluted the caskets, period.
A question of protocol: Is it even appropriate for someone not in uniform to salute?
As to Dowd, she is a complete pratt who writes about the issues of the day as if she were a high school freshman dissing another girl’s shoes.
Dim is correct in flagging the policy as one driven by politics, specifically the split screen of the bodies arriving, and Bush I joking with the press, but Clinton was there for the repatriation of bodies, including military personnel, from the plane crash that killed Ron Brown.
During his presidency, George W Bush made a stop in Lebanon, Ohio, to give a speech in front of the Golden Lamb regarding the 9/11 attacks and the war on terror. No cameras nor press entourage accompanied him. During this stop he met several local individuals. When he was told the teenage girl whose hand he was shaking had lost her mother in the WTC Attack, he immediately gathered her into a long, firm hug. During which he shed more than one tear, and spoke with both her and her father for several minutes. Her father took a picture of this. The only one taken. I have seen this picture. It was not staged for the political benefit of the President as Obama’s was. It was an impromptu display of genuine caring by a CIC that DID care. That DID understand the consequences of his actions, and DID feel each and every sacrifice personally. Say what you want about Bush and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but i have seen how Bush cared. And yet I have only seen Obama’s arrogance and nihilistic personality on display.