History does not long Entrust the care of Freedom, to the Weak or Timid!!!!! Dwight D. Eisenhower ~
Going along with your hypothetical, if it were a war well supported then this sort of thing wouldn't be damaging to morale. It would be considered a loss, certainly, but a loss in terms of an overall noble goal and the price one must pay for victory. We agree that if you go to war you go to win, but IMO hiding the death toll does more harm than good.
Really, I think most Americans don't pay attention to these stories - Kim Kardashian gets more airtime - and I doubt it even makes the national nightly news except in terms of periodic updates on death tallies.
Yet we then report such when taking down the heads of AQ and other terrorists. Or report that we have killed so many and usually with an exact number. My point would be if you can use such to boost the morale of a nation, and especially those that would seek to keep us engaged and the money/politics that chooses to do so. Then you can't have.....just one side of the coin.
History does not long Entrust the care of Freedom, to the Weak or Timid!!!!! Dwight D. Eisenhower ~
True. If the government keeps a lid on our casualties coming out that IMO that will probably lead to more general outrage and people being much more aware of the true cost of war. As it is these stories come out all the time and the masses have become numb to them. When was the last time we heard of an anti-war protest? Even as Obama expanded into Libya and moves toward Iran.
Hiding the death toll and reporting on it daily are two different things and I do think dwelling on death and the true cost of war (e.g. mutilated bodies etc.) is extremely harmful to public morale especially over time regardless of how committed we are as a society to the war effort. That's why it was not done before Vietnam and the end result of that kind of reporting was defeat in Vietnam. Back in the 1940s, it was recognized as something you simply don't want to do. Thankfully, they didn't.
True. I doubt many people are really paying attention but your average person's impression of the war will be colored by those nightly newscasts. "More Americans killed in Iraq today..."
Whoever criticizes capitalism, while approving immigration, whose working class is its first victim, had better shut up. Whoever criticizes immigration, while remaining silent about capitalism, should do the same.
~Alain de Benoist
Whoever criticizes capitalism, while approving immigration, whose working class is its first victim, had better shut up. Whoever criticizes immigration, while remaining silent about capitalism, should do the same.
~Alain de Benoist
Whoever criticizes capitalism, while approving immigration, whose working class is its first victim, had better shut up. Whoever criticizes immigration, while remaining silent about capitalism, should do the same.
~Alain de Benoist
I will go with Walter Cronkite stated.....
"The point is that in any war situation, this is the most intimate commitment that the American government can make of its people. This is our war, our troops, our boys, our girls. We need to know every detail about how they are performing in our name, both when they perform well and when they perform badly. It's most important when they perform badly, as a matter of fact. So war should be covered intimately. Correspondents should be there reporting on it. Their dispatches should go through a censorship procedure so that no military secrets are given to the enemy. But there is the report; it is there for history. It may not be released by censorship immediately, maybe not the next day, maybe not the next month, but it'll be there next year. It'll be there ten years from now.
Today we have no independent film of the [1991] Persian Gulf War — none — because our correspondents, our film crews, were not permitted to go out on the front with the troops. They should have been. The tape they shot should have been sent back to censorship. If it couldn't be released immediately, at least it would be held for eventual release and for history. We don't have that history now. That history is lost to us. It's a crime against the democracy".....snip~
http://www.pbs.org/weta/reportingame...ensorship.html
I don't mind certain censorship in war just like Cronkite. Things that don't really give the enemy an advantage over us. With these conflicts now. We have lost history! Although, I don't say democracy I say the The Republic!
History does not long Entrust the care of Freedom, to the Weak or Timid!!!!! Dwight D. Eisenhower ~
Conley (01-08-2012)
That would have been incredible footage to see.
The Truth may not set you free.....but none can say. One is not standing on righteous ground!
History does not long Entrust the care of Freedom, to the Weak or Timid!!!!! Dwight D. Eisenhower ~