Here is how the media would cover D-Day today
2004-06-13
by John Carlson

Every day I receive letters from soldiers in Iraq reporting many, many positive things that people don't hear about because the national news media only seems to spotlight what's going wrong. Contrast that with the commemoration last week of the 60th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy to drive fascism from Europe. I wonder how the media would cover D-Day if it happened today instead of six decades ago. Probably something like this....

Americans Far from United on European Invasion

High death toll stuns allies; quagmire is feared

While President Roosevelt enjoys an election-year bounce in overnight polls from the Allied invasion of Normandy, the first day toll of 6,603 American casualties has triggered a reassessment of the risky invasion among prominent opinion leaders.

``Are we going to save France by destroying it?'' asked a spokesman for the anti-war group MoveBack. ``What's worse, German troops marching down Parisian streets or American bombs destroying French farms and villages?''

It appears that American military planners badly underestimated the difficulty of the task and the tenacity of German fighters. Several retired American generals now embedded in television studios as military analysts have told network audiences that the invasion should never have been launched in such hazardous conditions, resulting in many troops drowning near soldiers who were ordered to ignore their cries for help and hit the beaches.

``Let me say for the record,'' declared former Brig. General Victor Veeshee on CNN, ``that while we saw immense bravery on the beaches among the troops, we saw callous disregard for their safety from their superiors up the chain of command. Gen. Eisenhower, President Roosevelt and Churchill have spent too much time chained to a desk. Land invasions should not begin with scaling cliffs into machine gun fire.''

The staggering casualty count together with stiff German resistance and the slow pace of progress suggest that America may be entangled in a European quagmire.

``Why are we invading France when there are only small pockets of French resistance there?'' Asked Sen. Robert Byrd on NBC `` We're stuck, spinning our wheels while the president tells us that attacking Germans in France will help win the global war against tyranny. We weren't attacked by Germany! We were attacked by Japan!''

Senator Byrd was not the only angry legislator on Capitol Hill. According to a page-one New York Times story, leaked military documents reveal that some troops from the 101st Airborne have been implicated by military authorities in several instances of looting, assault and rape. Photos of several victims and their injuries were displayed in newspapers around the world and across America, bringing an angry Ted Kennedy to the Senate floor:

``Unfortunately, the practice of terrorizing civilians by Nazis in France is now taking place under new management by American paratroopers,'' he said. Kennedy has rallied other anti-war members of Congress to demand an investigation into how high up the chain of command these atrocities were known about and perhaps encouraged.

Compounding the embarrassment were allegations from the independent, Poland-based news service Al Germaina claiming that German prisoners have been summarily executed by American prison guards, in contravention of the Geneva convention. ``What did Gen. Eisenhower know and when did he know it?'' asked House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. She said congressional hearings would be scheduled soon.

And more bad news came this morning for Gen. Eisenhower, already under fire for his high risk strategy in Normandy. The anti tobacco group ``Smoke Free War Zone'' announced that Congress will also hold hearings on the high number of news photos showing soldiers with cigarettes in their mouths, which they claimed sends the wrong message about tobacco to young people.

``You would think that the tobacco industry itself was publishing these photos,'' groused Congressman Henry Waxman to Katie Couric on `The Today Show.' ``Our national security is not enhanced by soldiers getting cancer.''

He expressed anger that some platoon leaders are telling soldiers to ``smoke 'em if you got 'em,'' and cited his continuing frustration with General Eisenhower -- a smoker himself -- for not returning his phone calls. ``Like most members of this administration, he appears to have his priorities out of order,'' Waxman said

The general was later seen fleeing into a British bunker under the protection of Winston Churchill to escape the American media, interest groups and politicians.

``I'd like to focus my attention on winning this World War, if that's OK,'' he reportedly said before disappearing underground.

(Part of this article was adapted by a piece written a decade ago. Alas, the Iraq war makes the topic more timely than ever).

John Carlson is founder of Washington Policy Center and can be heard daily from 3-6 p.m. on radio station KVI-570. His column appears every other Sunday. Readers can contact him via e-mail at jcarlson@fisherradio.com.