NEWSWEEK, known for its political correctness and left of center philosophy, is not a publication that I would normally buy. However, my wife saw it in the market with a picture of a soldier on the front and a title of “War Stories,” and she thought I might enjoy reading it. I read it but I did not like it.
The first article was called “War and Remembrance” and it wasn’t that bad. It had a few good thoughts like: “Americans are not very good at remembering. Our endless capacity to focus on the future rather than the past is one of our greatest national virtues – and one of our great national vices.”
The next one was a typical bleeding heart liberal view about war called “Combat High.” Here the author tried to identify how ground combat soldiers and Marines get off on killing the enemy. His remarks were not only stupid but also insulting: “Combat was a game that the United States had asked Second Platoon…” Then there was: “As for a sense of purpose, combat is it – the only game in town.” His whole article was what he thought was the essence of men in combat – a drug like high.
I kept reading to see just how far the idiots of this magazine and its publishers would go to denigrate our U.S. fighting men and women. It got worse.
The article that won first prize for inaccuracy and hyperbole was by Steve Kroft from the TV show “60 Minutes” – another source well known for slanting stories to fit their philosophy. Kroft was said to have served in the “U.S. Army in Vietnam as a correspondent and photographer for ‘Stars and Stripes’” – an unofficial military news paper but with plenty of censorship.
Here is his take on majors and lieutenant colonels: “…obsessed with body counts and regulation haircuts care more about their next promotion than the welfare of their troops.”
One of the major inaccuracies was what Kroft wrote on a character from a book was said to be a Marine officer fresh from “Ivy League and Officer Training School.” Marines do not have Officer Training School. It’s called Officer Candidate School.
Ralph Peters, noted author and columnist, once wrote to me: “History is no longer about facts. It’s about re-interpreting events (or ignoring them) to make a pre-determined ideological point.”
Boy did Ralph get that right.
