BlackFive

"Do not fear the enemy, for your enemy can only take your life. It is far better that you fear the media for they will steal your honor." - Bobby McBride, Crew Chief, 128th Assault Helicopter Company, RVN 1969-1970

Over five months ago, the Vox Day column at WorldNetDaily clearly identified the difference between Military Blogs and much of the Main Stream Media and the left wing:

...The Left has never had any regard for the individual, no respect for his rights or his life. The supremacy of the collective is the heart of their creed, so what are the lives of a thousand soldiers, of their 10,000 grief-stricken friends and families, except cannon fodder in the Left's long march toward lethal socialist utopia?

The difference between the legacy reporting on military casualties – where it's little more than a numbers game – and the milblogs is significant. Whereas the legacy stories almost always attempt to spin the families' grief into a political weapon, those recounted at sites like Blackfive's focus on the individual himself, his life and what he meant to those who loved him. And the loss of these fine young men is all the more heart-breaking when you see the pictures of them with their little boys and girls.

Unlike the legacy media, the milblogs also regularly devote time and space to the casualties who are not fatalities, chronicling the painful recoveries of those who have survived but suffer from what are all-too-often permanent injuries. They don't just wallow in the pathos either, but they encourage their readers to act and ensure that these wounded warriors are not forgotten in their convalescence.

To be sure, one need only visit a milblog to see that much of their material is derived from the small local papers that still take note of the soldiers in their midst. But those humble purveyors of community news are not the journalistic elite that considers itself more loyal to the United Nations than to America and regard America's defenders as the enemy...

To this day, only a few writers other than Vox have nailed this concept so accurately (thanks, Vox).  The proof is not only in the reporting and editorials from elite media sources like the NYTimes but is also clearly evident on the left side of the blogosphere.  Seeking to marginalize the accomplishments of military men and women and the sacrifices that they have made, the left hopes to change this war into Iraqetnam.  Here's just one proposal from dataguy at the Daily Kos:

...3. We should use the word "useless" frequently.  The death of her son is a useless sacrifise, done for the vanity of the ruler.

4. We should not use the name of her son.  Her son is a symbol of all sons who have been sacrificed for this useless and criminal war.
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6. The right will try to INDIVIDUALIZE and SPECIALIZE her complaint.  We must try to make her cry the UNIVERSAL and ETERNAL cry of all mothers whose children have died at the whim of the tyrannical and dictatorial ruler, who has made the decision to push children to the front of the army for his own, useless purposes.  We must seek to make this like funeral vigils over all time.  This is not Mother Sheehan's vigil, this is a vigil over the dead son, killed by the ruler for his own selfish reasons...

To be sure, there are spikes in support for the war.  The left-wing elite see to that.  They capitalize on the recent deaths of the Marines in Iraq - protesting the war, making speeches in Congress about armor, and using the mother of a hero to further their ends.

Do they really care about the men and women "Over There"?

Ask yourself, "Where were the protests and the speeches on Capitol Hill when we lost an entire SEAL squad and one of the best helicopter crews in the Army during combat in Afghanistan?"

Ask Dick Durbin THAT the next time you hear him spout off about our losses in Iraq.

The answer is obvious - they are using us, our friends and our families to make political hay.  It's disgusting and, since I'm not afraid at offending them with this well-deserved title, un-Patriotic.

So what's really different now, in sharing the war experience, bewteen the War on Terror and Vietnam?

The Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines have the same tools as the media elite and the limosine leftwing.

And we won't let them steal their honor.

And, dataguy, his NAME IS CASEY SHEEHAN AND HE DIED TRYING TO SAVE HIS BROTHERS IN A FIGHT THAT HE THOUGHT WORTHY OF FIGHTING, YOU SANCTIMONIOUS SONOFABITCH!