Clueless media

I'm reading John Stossel's latest tome this week ( and memorizing ANOTHER opera...help!) wherein he laments reporters complete ignorance of much about economics, education, etc. (among alot of other stuff - great book that covers ALOT of stuff). Here's a great example of someone missing the point.

In the article Our enemies aren't drinking lattes - Los Angeles Times, Max Boot describes the many amenities that our soldiers have on the battlefields defending freedom - some have air conditioned dorms! TV's! Access to a swimming pool! and...wait for it....LATTES! duh duh DUUUUUUUH!. His complaint is that our forces are putting too much into logistics and that troops are endangered -

"No one would begrudge a few conveniences to those who have volunteered to defend us. But the military's logistics feats come with a high price tag that goes far beyond the $7.7 billion we spend every month on operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. U.S. troops in those countries consume 882,000 liters of water and 2.4 million gallons of fuel every day, plus tons of other supplies that have to be transported across dangerous war zones. Centcom has more than 3,000 trucks delivering supplies and another 2,400 moving fuel - each one a target that has to be protected."

The dumb reporter has missed the point - that's 5,400 trucks, almost half moving stuff that EXPLODES, that work every day in the war effort and they almost NEVER get hit. Even if one a day were hit, that would still be a very small percentage out of 5400 and not that many get hit. Sure, it's dangerous and great men and women get killed, but think of how many attacks you heard about last week - now multiply 7 by 5400 and you'll find out how "vulnerable" our supply lines are - not very. The award for most ridiculous line from the article - "How many men died for you to get that latte?" My bet is: zero.

Maybe Big Submarine (Max BOOT, get it? ...never mind) doesn't realize it, but deserts are HOT, and there's not alot of entertainment in Muslim countries for Americans. Our folks need every comfort we can provide them for what they do - honestly, after hearing how crappy our soldier's lot is for so long from the MSM, I found the story, though anecdotal (another article altogether) to be encouraging.

The death of even one soldier is a high price tag - but at the same time that's the cost one weighs when going to war, a choice that should never be easy. But reporters should realize that a million Americans have now served in Iraq, and about 2500 out of a million of them were killed. That doesn't sound like we're losing - that sounds like our men and women are doing one hell of a job. True our enemies aren't drinking Latte's - they're starving in dwindling numbers of hideouts while our magnigicent warriors kick back with a Cafe Vanilla Frappucino. That may bug mister Submarine, but I think that's just fine.