The Experts
Then, there are the experts. Again, with the tool of hindsight, a true expert can look at what the players in a historical development were trying to do, how they succeeded or why they failed. But in real time, I find it laughable that "Professor I Don't Speak Arabic" and "Colonel I Haven't Been In The Army Since Vietnam" know more about what to do than the command of the Israeli Army. Think about it, the people who run the institution of the army have spent their whole lives doing this, they have been selected as the small group who has advanced to leadership, they have all of the up to date intelligence that can be had, they know their own capabilities and weaknesses, and they game out the scenarios for a living. Yet somehow, all of the media gurus know better.
Then, there are the experts. Again, with the tool of hindsight, a true expert can look at what the players in a historical development were trying to do, how they succeeded or why they failed. But in real time, I find it laughable that "Professor I Don't Speak Arabic" and "Colonel I Haven't Been In The Army Since Vietnam" know more about what to do than the command of the Israeli Army. Think about it, the people who run the institution of the army have spent their whole lives doing this, they have been selected as the small group who has advanced to leadership, they have all of the up to date intelligence that can be had, they know their own capabilities and weaknesses, and they game out the scenarios for a living. Yet somehow, all of the media gurus know better.
posted by Jeffrey at 5:15 AM
1 Comments:
We emerged from 9/11/01 with the usual feelings of loss from the death of a loved one: Sorrow, Shame, Guilt, Fear, et. al. In our need to distance ourselves from the agony of that day yet still remain "vigilant", we have surrendered our better judgment to the Bill O'Reilly's, Anderson Coopers and Sean Hannity's out there. We study the news crawl like brokers watching a ticker, hoping that by being "on top" of the news we can somehow forestall another seismic event like 9/11. We have allowed a cottage (a rather large cottage) industry to mushroom all over our televisions, giving retired third level military apparatchiks six figure salaries as they prognosticate about events and regions in which they have virtually no relevant information or perspective. If we use America's current news viewing habits and its implicit faith in CNN, FOX and other news outlets as the gold standard for information and history then indeed, the terrorists have won. We are devolving into an angrier and less informed populace, which as our extremist Islamist enemies demonstrates all too well, can make for a dangerous climate in which to live.
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