Yes. Yours is a Good point. And I can certainly appreciate it. What do you think about the idea that, while it is true that all wars are ugly, they are made to appear however the major media influence chooses color them? The idea that the First World War was a war to end all wars was not an invention of the public. The image of a war, like the image of a political ideology is largely marketing. Whoever controls the media has the political advantage. The problem with marketing politics is that reality becomes obscured and only images or shadows are presented. The truth has to be extracted by objective analysis, divorced from the persuasion of passion. Before WWI, US president Woodrow Wilson ran on the platform "He kept us out of war." The mass media supported that platform. The Wilsonian approach was to let the Europeans fight it out and sell arms and supplies to them. But, when the Germans sent the famous "Zimmerman Telegram" describing an invasion from Mexico, the press rallied the nation to support a war in spite of the Wilson Administration's position. The old adage that "The pen is mightier than the sword" still has meaning even though the pen may be of a different sort. I am persuaded that most people, given the choice, would rather know the truth behind the political mask. However, it is often difficult to remove the mask. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joe McCauley" To: "'Microcontroller discussion list - Public.'" Sent: Friday, September 29, 2006 4:52 AM Subject: RE: [OT] 9/11 live: the NORAD tapes > Well it can be argued that all war is an unnecessary waste. & one side or > another will often be unprepared for tactics used by the other side. I > guess > my point was that (in my view) Vietnam got 'near live' coverage in colour > which was beamed directly into peoples homes for the first time. The > average > person had very little left to the imagination & less of an excuse for not > knowing that when the guns come out its not only your enemies that get > hurt. > > > Can anyone seriously say, now that the historians have sorted out much of > the propaganda from the facts, that the bombing in Europe during WWII was > not an ugly thing? What about the war on the Russian front? The partisan > war > behind the Russian front? The island hopping campaign in the Pacific? > Yugoslavia? Chechnya? > > I'm not saying there is no such thing as a 'just war' (YMMV), just making > the point that there really is no such thing as a 'good war'. Its always > been ugly. The troops always knew that (at least after a short exposure at > the sharp end) With Vietnam the people away from the front knew it too. So > while that war indeed had a reputation as an ugly one compared to others, > that may have been as a result of people being better informed while it > was > still a live issue. (just my theory) > > It is apparantly the case that the various militaries these days don't > give > reporters as much freedom to move about as in Vietnam. Is this true? I > wonder does the practice of embedding reporters with military units have > any > effect on the quality of the reporting we get now? > > Enough of this - back to work! > > Joe > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu >> [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf Of Alan B. Pearce >> Sent: 28 September 2006 15:51 >> To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public. >> Subject: Re: [OT] 9/11 live: the NORAD tapes >> >> >> >Possibly one of the reasons is that media coverage was >> >much more extensive in Vietnam than in WWII & much of >> >the coverage was in colour? >> > >> >> I wonder how Nam got that image of being the ugliest war ever. It >> >> seems the troops in Europe two decades earlier had a much uglier >> >> time. >> >> Possibly, but I think there is also a perception that it was >> an unnecessary waste, partly caused by an unpreparedness for >> a war against guerrilla tactics, and partly because the US >> went to war without anyone attacking them directly. >> >> -- >> http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive >> View/change your membership options at >> http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist >> > > > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > > > -- > Internal Virus Database is out-of-date. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.1.405 / Virus Database: 268.12.6/453 - Release Date: 9/20/2006 > -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist