How about some honest debate?

Hugh Hewitt has been on CNN the last couple of days arguing that the media coverage of the war in Iraq is too negative. And a lot of people agree with him, including Christopher Hitchens, Mark Steyn, James Lileks, Mickey Kaus, Glenn Reynolds and just about everybody who thinks terrorism is a dangerous problem. A returned soldier's wife in a townhall meeting with President Bush in West Virginia made that point and the crowd gave her a standing ovation. The only ones who don't seem to notice it are the people who see this war as a disaster. They don't seem to remember how the media covered WWII, only Vietnam.

They think their job requires them to continually focus on whether we should have launched this war. Why? The war has started. If they really considered what the pertinent issues are now? I don't think so. They can't get past their fixation on whether we were misled into war, whether Bush sent in enough troops, and whether its a quagmire. In focusing so much on those issues they provide the opponents of the war encouragement to constantly carp about everything from the death rate (exceptionally low) at one moment and not having enough boots on the ground. I think it's a legitimate issue as to whether all the whining and second guessing is helping us win or encouraging the people who are killing our soldiers and marines, not to mention their fellow Muslims. If they discussed that more on some of the pundit shows, people might realize that we can't just walk away without seriously hurting ourselves in the ongoing struggle to rid the world of terrorism. Or how about the responsibility of voting to authorize the war and then trying to cut it off at the knees? That's a legitimate subject to discuss, along with the silly claim that Bush went to war simply because Iraq was trying to buy yellowcake in Niger and that he intentionally lied about that. How about a serious discussion of how much sense that makes? The fact that commentators and "thinkers" would seriously make that claim puts their objectivity in question, not to mention their honesty.

We need to have these public debates, but those who control the public discourse have avoided it, and resorted to shoutfests instead.