The Media Debates Rain Before A Hurricane

I have to admit something. I don't get a newspaper delivered to my house. From the time I get home in the evening until I go to bed, I have on either Fox News or CNN, but I never really pay all too much attention to them. Most of the news I get comes from various Internet sources, where I can immediately go and check out anything I disagree with. But every once in a while, it's good to go back and read the local paper, in this case the Orlando Sentinel.

One of the nice things about the Sentinel is that is has some very good op-ed writers. They always have a way of making you think. One of the writers I like best is Kathleen Parker. Today she had an interesting essay on the PR side of the current fight. As she usually does, she got me to thinking, but not about PR.

Towards the end of her column she starts to discuss the various reasons why she believes that Saddam is unreasonable. Her reasons are all the usual and reliable suspects. There really isn't anything new there, but I feel like she is missing one big point.

America expects to fight a clean, moral, above-the-belt fight. And we expect our opponent to so the same. But Saddam isn't a reasonable man. He is a madman. And George W. is all but Andrew Jackson reincarnate. The Jacksonian side of America is about to come out again (curious as to what this statement is about? Go here.)

To use a metaphor, think of Saddam as looking to the south and seeing the storm clouds on the horizon. He knows a storm is coming and he knows it will be bad.

But right now, it's only a thunderstorm.

As soon as Saddam breaks the rules of civil warfare (there's an oxymoron), that thunderstorm will become an American Hurricane, packing more power and violence than any other force known to man. To put it in redneck terms, a Jacksonian Dubya would be openin' up a big ol' can of whoop-ass of Saddam.

As I read essays like Parker's or various news articles they all seem to talk about an American invasion in clinical terms, "shock & awe," "overwhelming," or "relentless." They never seem to bring home the magnitude of the offensive being planned. They never talk about the tremendous violence to be unleashed. They make it sound like it's just an exercise. It's not. People will die; it's unfortunate, but they will.

The media seems to be overlooking the importance of Bush's Jacksonian tendencies. We seem to be talking about the coming fight in terms of how it relates to what Clinton did. Clinton was not a Jacksonian President. What is about to come is going to be beyond the scope of comprehension for a Clintonite. If the media wants to have a debate about the war, they need to spend more time learning about the Presidents and less time trying to "learn" them.