This and that
Lots of hoopla over Sarah Palin’s speech to the gathering of the Tea Party in Nashville last week including the notes to herself written on her hand. That doesn’t bother me and I think her critics made a mountain out of a molehill over it. I’m much more bothered that the media gives so much publicity to a woman who is no longer in politics, who keeps playing coy about whether she will run for prez in 2012 and who is undoubtedly the most unqualified person to run for president or vice president of the many fine men and women in the Republican Party who would make good leaders.
I read an interesting article over the weekend in The Guardian, a prominent newspaper in the U.K. In it, the writer says “Sarah Palin may not know that Africa is a continent, but if there is knowledge that she is not lacking, it’s a canny ability to spot, and seize, any opportunity that will propel her into the spotlight.”
The writer goes on to say, “in the age of the 24-hour news cycle and the Internet, all Palin has to do is produce some great soundbites. Palin’s suggestion on Fox News that she may run for election in 2012 if it is “the right thing to do for our country and for the Palin family” created yet more fodder for consumption. Whether or not she actually runs doesn’t really matter. The mere fact that she has hinted at it now guarantees her increased attention.”
The article ends with “I don’t know if Palin is in it for the people or the publicity. But if there’s one thing you can be sure of, it’s that when opportunity knocks, Sarah Palin goes running. Is this the type of future “leadership” that America wants or needs?”
Most of the media has been sucked in by this cutesy, folksy, gun-totin’ hockey mom and that would make for a segment on the Today show, but to hang on her every word as if it was coming down from the Mount, is more than a bit ludicrous. But then, hasn’t much of the media become a joke?
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The push by American and Afghan forces to rid the city of Marjah, a stronghold of the Taliban, has come under fire because of the deaths of 12 people mistakenly killed by U.S. missiles on Sunday. Today, another five civilians were killed. In the case of Sunday’s attack, it was reported that Taliban fighters were in the homes of the victims.
This is just another ugly part of war and an unavoidable one, especially when the enemy mingles with the civilian populace. To all the do-gooders and weak-kneed politicians who want to restrict the way our soldiers do battle against an enemy who wants to kill them, I say you must never have fought in a ground war or you’d be keeping your mouths shut.
War is ugly. War is brutal. And often, war is unnecessary, as I believe the Afghanistan war is, but seeing that we are in it, we must do all we can to win it and quickly. In the meantime, our troops need our support and our prayers, not criticism by those who have never walked in their shoes.