The Media Aren't the Enemy in Iraq

[Culpeper]

marct

No, you're not sounding like a leftie. Sedition as described in the Sedition Act of 1918 is not illegal today. But in my mind, it is a distinction or a line in the sand where dissent should end and something else should begin. This something else is not healthy for any democracy fighting any sort of armed conflict whether it is a declared war or not. It is an opportunity cost of a democracy. I don't advocate sending people to prison because they continually cross this invisible line of dissent. But it should be labeled accordingly. Sedition today and starting back about the time of the escalation of the Vietnam Conflict has always been labeled as simple dissension. As for counterinsurgency warfare, the free press and others unknowingly aid the opposition by exploiting our freedoms while at the same time the opposition controls their own media. Freedom of expression is a double edged sword for a democracy at war. Poor Abraham Lincoln got blistered by the press during one of the worst periods of America's history. There were times where the Union's chances of victory literally laid in the balance largely due to a press that was unwittingly buying time for the Confederacy. The opportunity cost being a prolonged conflict with unnecessary casualties, illness, and so forth in the field.

As for the Sedition Act of 1918. My grandfather served as an infantryman with the 44th Infantry Division in France during 1918. He was gassed and suffered pulmonary disease for the rest of his life. But he never had a bad word to say about Woodrow Wilson or America. He was grateful that Wilson was able to get America into the fight and back home as soon as possible with a victory. He never had a good thing to say about war. Something he rarely spoke about. The Sedition Act of 1918 was a tool that allowed the President to get the job done as soon as possible. The war may have been prolonged had dissent not been curtailed during that war and there is a good possibility that I would have never been born.

Please excuse my poor grammar. I'm waiting to hear from the vet. I may have to put down my best friend today and I'm trying to stay busy. The ol' girl appears to have suffered cardiac failure yesterday while protecting her yard from a squirrel. It doesn't look good.