In a post imagining what the media response would have looked like had those captured sailors been US Navy personnel, Greg Djerejian puts together one of the best paragraphs I've read in a long, long time on the pathetic state of our media:
Who would have had a freak-out and totally lost it first, one wonders: Bill O'Reilly? Glenn Beck? Lou Dobbs, off the Tom Tancredo-ish nativist brew for a second or two? Anderson Cooper, of course, would have started broadcasting live from a British frigate near the Shatt al-Arab waterway--explaining to us what it must have 'felt' like to get nabbed in disputed waters (though, in fairness to him, his reporting, if breathless, would have been more nuanced than any of the above personages). And, just a couple hours before, Wolf Blitzer's Situation Room would have been rife with buzzing electronic maps, on which frantic, 'John Madden Meets Sun Tzu' magic marker scribblings would have feverishly charted the possible invasion paths into Iran to mount the daring rescue.
And in the blogosphere? Well, Glenn Reynolds would have recycled some horse-dung along the lines that bayonets ain't for sittin', and it's time to roll ( 'more rubble, less trouble!'). Meantime, Charles Johnson would have passed out on his keyboard, after a series of post-cycling conniptions (coming on the heels of the "headscarf threat", it would all have been too much). Oh, and Michael Ledeen? Be afraid, be very afraid. Think frothing, at the mouth, rabidly.
OK, so that's two paragraphs. But I couldn't resist. His take on Instapundit is priceless.
Snarkiness aside, you really do have to wonder what happened to the right that has made them so war happy. I've said this before on numerous occasions, but I really do think a large part of the problem can be blamed on the fact that for more than a generation we have relied entirely on an all volunteer military force. If neither you nor anyone you know bears the hardships of war, it becomes much, much easier to call for aggressive military action.
I know it isn't terribly likely to happen, but I really do hope that one day we move to a system where national service becomes mandatory. It doesn't have to be military service - community or religious service would also be fine with me. But for 2 years, from age 18 to 20, every citizen should be required to work full time doing some form of national community service. And yes, college can wait. Based on what I see here at BU, those two years spent out in the real world would make sure that many - maybe even a majority - of students come better prepared to both learn and grow.
I seem to recall Bill Richardson talking about this idea quite a bit at one point, but I haven't heard anything about it from him lately. Too bad, really.
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