While catching up on podcasts today I came across the January 28th episode of "Face The Nation". In his final words Bob Schieffer said something the really got me thinking.
"During the court martial scene in the movie "A Few Good Men," young Navy prosecutor Tom Cruise put Marine Colonel Jack Nicholson on the stand and demanded the truth.
Nicholson replied, "The truth? You can't handle the truth!"
A memorable line, but we are left to as: Has the government concluded Nicholson's character was right, that Americans can't handle the truth?
As the war has grown worse, we have heard government spokesmen from the top on down tell us "Stuff happens," "Mission accomplished," "Enormous progress," "The good news is not reported."
We can't even get a straight story on how our troops die.
Last week, the Pentagon first reported that four Americans were killed in Iraq while repelling an enemy attack. Then on Friday we were told they had actually been kidnapped during a shootout and executed, two of them handcuffed and shot in the head.
In the hours after the killings, reporters who had pieced together the real story were told their version was inaccurate. The new Secretary of Defense claimed he was unaware of the new information an hour before it was announced.
The government argues that public criticism hurts the war effort, but it is being damaged much more by its own loss of credibility brought on by such incidents.
Truth is the foundation of democracy and Americans can handle the truth — they demand it. History shows that when they fail to get it, they no longer follow their leaders, no matter the cause. They are more likely to just change leaders."
The first thought that entered my head after hearing this was are we really getting the truth from the American Press or only part of it? I am inclined to believe that we are only getting a portion of it. We only get what they want us to hear. We never hear of any successes, or if we do it is a very short snip-it while they finish the story with everything that went wrong. While they are telling the truth (we hope, I can't prove they are or they aren't), they aren't telling the whole truth. While war is never good, some good may come of it, and I refuse to believe that the Americans that are over seas fighting for their country are not doing good things for the people in the nations we currently occupy. They are our sons, brothers, husbands and fathers. They have too much good in them, and I know that they are doing good things, and I often wonder why we aren't hearing any of that. While I don't disagree with Mr. Schieffer's statement, I don't think the whole truth is what we get from the press. Unless it is the whole truth it only serves to cloud judgment further.
Another thought crossed my mind shortly after the first. Can American's really handle the truth? In my opinion, based on the polls that everyone else takes, I don't think half of us can. The truth is, we are a nation at war. The polls show that half of us can't handle that. The truth is that our men and women are making enormous sacrifices to better the lives of others, and share the gift of democracy that we have. Half of this nation can't handle that. The truth is that war is ugly, and half of us can't handle that. Half of us haven't learned the age old lesson that it usually gets worse before it gets better. This applies to war more than anything. That is a truth that half of us can't handle. I am just not sure that some Americans can handle the truth.
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