The Koppel special

I posted the following at Jeff Goldstein's blog:

You know, this show has been done before, on the Vietnam Memorial which is essentially a vast gravestone. Koppel seems to think he is being dramatic and noble, but it rings as phony and manipulative as Richard Clarke's apology. It's based on the assumption that if we look at the photos and listen to the names, we'll realize that each of these people was a person, each had a life and loved ones. The problem is that most of us knew that already. Anybody who lived through the Vietnam period and its aftermath has heard that meme. It's no longer powerful because it's a cliche.

That doesn't mean the point isn't true, it's just that it assumes that those who support this war haven't considered it. It's an old, truly bankrupt argument. It's been made and answered.

The fault with it is that it focuses only on the troops who died, not on what they accomplished, and what they and others like them have done for the ordinary people of Afghanistan and Iraq, and what they are still doing. By dramatizing the costs and ignoring the goals, it seeks to convince us that the policy is wrong. It's dishonest and as old as the arguments against military preparedness have always been. That's why it offends me so much. Koppel seems to think he's being insightful and powerful, but he just doesn't have anything new to say. So he waves the bloody shirt, manipulates his audience in the most pompous and cynical way and congratulates himself and basks in the adulation of the idiot left.