NOTES OF CONCERN…
…Jack Blair
VARIOUS
I watched The White House Correspondents’ Dinner last night and couldn’t help but think how much better the country would be if these people could get along that way all the time.
There were jokes about everyone important and everyone seemed to take it all in their stride. People who don’t speak to one another during office hours (the President, the Senators, the Representatives, the Governors, etc) seemed to be having a jolly time.
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From party talk to drone talk. Lots of folks are upset that an American prisoner and an Italian prisoner were killed by an American drone whose target was a gang of Al Qaida terrorists. Let me begin by saying I have sympathy for the families of the innocents. But I also know they made decisions to go into war torn countries, countries known to take hostages and keep them for years, so they made an up front decision that their work, which I understand was humanitarian in nature, would place them at risk.
To have failed to bring down a large number of acknowledged murderers, perhaps men who murder innocents multiple times a week, would not have been a proper decision in war time. Two good men were lost but we have to keep in mind that hundreds of good people may have been saved by this drone strike.
We discovered terrorists. We knew they murdered innocents. They were in our sights. They will murder no more.
The whole idea of embedding reporters with troops during the Iraq war was foolish. Trained soldiers have to worry about reporters crawling around distracting them from their work. Is it so important that those of us sitting at home actually see an enemy shot right when it happens or could we wait for the morning paper?
As a government I do not think we should encourage, or make the path easy, for our citizens to place themselves as well as our troops in harms way during military activities.
I recall when President Reagan invaded a small country to rescue Americans being held at a medical school. Do you remember? His first order was “not one reporter.” No coverage. When the work is finished they can go over in droves and interview anyone they want.
They are in the newspaper business. We are in the business of conducting an invasion. No distractions. None.
When President Truman ended the war in the far east by dropping not one but two atomic bombs there was collateral damage everywhere. But when the numbers were added the report was that had he not dropped those bombs and the war had gone on for months a great many more lives would have been lost.
He reminded reporters then that he was the “American” president and it was his duty to protect “American” lives. And I think he might have thrown in a little reminder of Pearl Harbor.
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Last topic for this column this week is the devastation that mother nature has brought on the little nation of Nepal. As of the date I am writing this column over 2000 people have died. By the time you are reading the column I am sure the number will be greater. You cannot guard against these acts of nature other than through strong building codes, decisions on where to site your structures, and have in place quick emergency responses. And of course, count on the people of the world to come to your aid. We as people of this world are at our best when we gather together and to help one another and at our worst when our goal is to harm others.
