European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 5, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday april 5 2007 stars and stripes Page 19 democrats plan to end War irresponsible Washington this town has always been full of bad ideas but none worse than congressional democrats determination to impose a firm Date for the n withdrawal uan in Masson of us troops from Iraq even if there were enough votes in both houses to override a presidential veto of the funding Bill in which this nonsense is included and there a mandate is ridiculously irresponsible in the end after the political Cha Rade has played out the troops will get their funds because no lawmaker wants to be accused of denying them but the inevitable delay has the potential of truly harming those carrying out our military mis Sion telling the beleaguered iraqi government and its enemies that there is a definite Date when All support and Security for it will end merely compounds the major mis takes already made in this War furthermore it forces the iraqi leaders to begin looking at political alliances that Are not Only threaten ing to american interests but also could result in a widening of the violence for instance the Power vacuum in the entire Region Likely would be filled by Iran All this has been argued along the Way As lawmakers still Friendly to president Bush have tried to con Vince democratic leaders that there Are other ways of sending an Antiwar message to the White House but the democrats Are increasingly in a confrontational mood they firmly believe their tiny majority for the first time in 12 years resulted from voter angst Over Iraq and Afghanistan and that their fragile control of the con Gress would be fleeting if they ignored that they clearly Are determined to take advantage of a Lam Duck president whose approval rating is in the Low 30s and who is so Crip pled that he is being openly defied by those who supported his reelection there seems to be Little Hope therefore that when the lawmakers return from their easter recess that constituents will have con Vinced Many of them to take another course in fact a recent poll shows that 60 percent of Ameri cans favor a deadline for withdraw Al the House and Senate versions of the military funding proposal in clude different 2008 withdrawal dates the Senate Bill sets March 282008 As a goal for ending Mili tary support while the House establishes a firm deadline of aug 31 of next year for us troops to be on the Way Home it will take some time to hash out the differences meanwhile the commanders in the Field Are apparently supposed to keep their crossed that the men and Materiel needed to accomplish their assignment will be forthcoming before the Pinch is re ally Felt by Early summer it is quite obvious to everyone that Iraq was itself a bad idea in fact it vies with Vietnam As the most ill advised expedition in american history but nearly every military and diplomatic expert on both sides of the political Fence has warned that to Force a yep were turning this King around going Home turning arouh3now turning precipitous withdrawal and to Tele graph when that would occur would increase the magnitude of this disaster exponentially the Gap that would leave and the chaos that Likely would ensue would make what has gone before look could any of this been avoided probably not altogether but Leav ing the balance of the iraqi army intact after the fall of Saddam Hus Sein and preserving the baath party political infrastructure would have made the coalition task of rebuilding the country much less traumatic but that is All Hindsight and does nothing to move us toward the finality most americans and obviously the rest of the world want the democrats have any num Ber of other ways to pressure the president imposing questionably constitutional deadlines by using the threat of withholding Neces sary funding for men and women in harms Way int a viable one Dan Thomasson is former editor of Scripps Howard news service Are we at the saturation Point on Tillman Story a provocative letter from a us officer serving in the us appeared recently in stars and stripes he was upset with the number of headlines hed seen about Pat Tillman coverage ombudsman May h 3h enough already maj Jeff Snyder wrote uhf this were me or any num Ber of thousands of oth ers not a Peep would be said on the big Media stage does our service and Sacri fice mean less if we Are lost i think not certainly not All David Mazzare iia such losses Are regret table and the major was right to note that the Tillman Case has received a ton of coverage in stripes alone there have been 45 stories about the Tillman Case since december 2005 three within a single week at the end of last month three years after he was killed in Afghanistan Ever since there have been newspapers and radio and television there have been questions about Why some people get More publicity than others Many noted that the murder of Little Jon Benet Ramsey in 1996 was covered and nausea by the Media while the killings of other youngsters from poorer backgrounds went unnoticed and we wont even talk about the Paris Hilton phenomenon still the Tillman Case had plenty of unusual elements first he was a highly paid professional football player who volunteered to join the army and fight in the ant terror War on top of that he was killed doing so on top of that it turned out that he died from Friendly fire on top of that High ranking officers were singled out for punishment be cause of alleged mishandling of the Case that was quite a remarkable set of events at the same time the writers frustration is understandable repetition can be deadly there were a lot of stories on the same topic the alleged coverup of the circumstances of tin mans death at the end of March As to the underlying question of who gets the most Ink or airtime that will be asked for All time editors will continue to make decisions based on what they think the Public is most curious about when a person is involved especially when tragedy strikes that hinges most often on his or her Public standing gained through either gossip or and Regretta Bly when bad things happen to Rich Little White kids As Jon Benet there will be More publicity than when they happen to poor Little kids of color the Good news is that there is More sensitivity to these inequalities on the part of Edi tors now than before and the internet Cul Ture with opinions flying fast and furious from people at All Levels of society May act As a great leveler greatly influencing whose Story gets played up for All to see different fakes on Iraq report but both missed key Points r tired Gen Barry Mccaffrey re cent report on the situation in Iraq set off an Exchange that was a real classic a True washing ton moment a Washington Post writer Tho Mas Ricks seized on the report As an exam ple of How badly things were going in the War he called it a dire assessment Quot ing from passages that described the Popula Tion As in despair the iraqi government As ineffectual and the insurgency As stub born beyond expectations in the White House that set off a slow Burn or actually a fast one within hours after the Post Story hit the streets the press office sent out an email Shotgun style titled the rest of the Story Gen Mcclaf freys Iraq report includes optimism it ripped Ricks for focusing it said on just one of four sections of the generals re port it said the posts reporter minimizes or ignores much More hopeful comments in the other sections they included since Gen David Petraeus arrived the situation on the ground has clearly and measurably improved a stable Iraq at peace with its neigh Bors can still be achieved the iraqis Security forces have steadily improved Ricks article did mention some of these Points but Only in two paragraphs out of 14 the whole thrust was decidedly pessimistic the White houses version swung wildly in the other direction it didst mention any of Mccaffrey critical comments while both sides could find plenty of am munition in the report to support their views predetermined or the truth is that there were important parts that both largely ignored while saying the War was winnable Mccaffrey cautioned that there probably was a window of Only 36 months in which to reach a Good conclusion the Angle stripes played up in its own coverage of the report several Days Mccaffrey also went into great detail on precisely How Many us helicopters c130 Hercules air planes and Light a Mored vehicles As Well As other Materiel the iraqis needed to be successful none of that made either the Post article or the White houses broadside the news sometimes is what you want it to be As i said it was a typical Washington quarrel though rarely has the contrast in interpretation been so Stark for anyone who wants to go to the source the Mccaffrey report can be seen at got a question or suggestion for the ombudsman on what appears or should appear in stars and stripes Send an email to or phone 2027610945 in the states prickly City by Scott Stantis