Immaturity and Petulance (or, Can't We All Just Grow Up?)
by Bob Hostetler
Two weeks into the war in Iraq, and huge chunks of the American public, media, and markets have displayed an immaturity and petulance that hasn't been seen since Macauley Culkin's film career ended.
The immaturity actually started well before the first shots were fired. The French and Germans played a game of Duck, Duck, Goose in the U.N., promising first to oppose military action against the Iraqi regime without U.N. support, then pledging to veto any new U.N. resolution-a little like crying, "Give diplomacy a chance!" and then locking all the diplomats in a closet.
Some Americans demonstrated that they can be just as childish, however, by petulantly renaming French toast and French fries to "Freedom toast" and "Freedom fries." Not only restaurateurs (pardon my French) but even some legislators joined the act. Take that, Jacques Chirac! No doubt the Danish will think twice before they ever cross us, that's for sure.
Since the onset of the war just over two weeks ago, however, the reactions of the markets and the media have made such pre-war childishness look positively geriatric. Once the war started, prompting impressive fireworks displays on all-news cable networks, the stock market reacted like a five-year-old on a sugar high. A few days later, when it began to look like the enemy might not play by the same rules (and-surprise!-might actually shoot back), investors and traders began acting like a five-year-old throwing a temper tantrum. Which, by the way, brings to mind some protestors of the war who threatened to throw up because things didn't go their way, staging not a sit-in, but a vomit-in, among other things. Now, that's mature.
Of course, markets and protestors are always reactive, subject far more to emotion than to reason. It's the media's behavior the past two weeks that has been striking. From the Centcom briefing room to the White House press corps, from editorial pages to the talking heads, the news media and political pundits have resembled nothing more than a tired tot in the back seat of a station wagon, whining, "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"
From the first moments of the conflict, coalition forces ruled the skies, so dominant that not a single Iraqi pilot attempted to take off. With a mere handful of exceptions, the war plan prevented the torching of Iraq's oil fields and the release of oil into the Persian Gulf. Something must have gone seriously right in western Iraq, too, because not a single scud (or al Samoud) missile was launched at Israel, as happened in 1991. In less than one week, coalition troops had penetrated to Saddam's front yard, a shocking, awesome display of speed and efficiency unparalleled in military history. And, though every casualty is significant, it all happened with a minimum of coalition losses.
Still, reporters wondered if the plan had gone awry. Headlines reported that troops were "bogged down" and proposed the possibility that Iraq was already a "quagmire." Network anchors opined about a "pause" in the war's progress. As if playing a game of "peek-a-boo," print and broadcast media alike betrayed an infantile belief that if they can't see something, it isn't happening. Despite the incredibly rapid progress of troops and the unremitting bombardment of Iraqi forces, communications, and command and control centers-not to mention the necessarily surreptitious activity of special forces-news sources (so-called) fixated on suspicions that the initial war plan (which none of them knew) might actually have required adjustment, adaptation, modification. Shocking.
I'm grateful that the twenty-somethings who are fighting this war and the fifty-somethings who are directing it seem far more mature than the rest of us. They seem to recognize that war takes time. It can be unpredictable and costly. And it is no place for immaturity and petulance.
Since maturity and self-control can exalt a nation as much as an individual, we can only hope that we, the American public-and especially the media-put away our childish attitudes. So let's try to avoid wild mood swings and empty gestures. Let's resist the impulse to panic or throw a tantrum when things don't go our way. Let's not expect instant gratification. Let's stop jumping to conclusions. And let's stop pretending that those who do such things are worthy of our time, trouble, and attention.
![[ Bob Hostetler ]](../images/2003/logo2003.jpg){kind=logo}
