Does The Media Exclude Themselves From The Reflections They Create?

What is the cost of freedom?

If indeed there is a vital necessity for America, the land of freedom- home of the brave, our media is the vital conduit of the freedom we enjoy, a virtual mirror if you will.

Under president Bashar Al-Asaad, Syria was a mess
long before ISIS came to take over.

The value of the American media is its relentless pursuit of the truth.  Even at the risk of death, western media culture- lead by the red, white and blue, is the watchdog to the world at large. In essence, freedoms hope stands at the listening side of the interview microphone.

Yet, on the other end of the recording stands a human being with all the natural frailty that every human experiences.  Most people simply see the mic or camera as an opportunity to connect others or to connect ourselves with our world, but a sacred few recognize them as the mantle in which more wrong than right is likely when not handled with care.When any modern political leader finds them self at the wrong end of the microphone, the challenge of prudent rhetoric comes to fore.

Why Should We Share A Plan?

The most wise and lucid response to the matter called radical Islamic terrorism came when the man in tan said, "we don't have a plan..... yet".  In reality, we still do not know the plan for what will become of Syria even as we fight to help the good guys of Iraq maintain all of the hard work we did when removing Sadaam Hussein. Longstanding unrest in Syria has opened the doors to ISIS fighters anxious to enact their Islamic social engineering plan on any middle eastern soil that they can acquire. Any plan for Syria will take years and multiple presidents to play out and will be dictated by the long-term will of those desperate for an Islamic state, not those hopeful to stop it.  Millions of Muslims actually support the caliphate mission of ISIS (including 16% of citizens in France) even if they despise their methods of achieving it.

Syrian president Bashar Al-Asaad is a failed leader of a dangerous nation, but many other nations of the middle east came into existence with similar sectarian violence- Syria is just the poster child of such disarray. The fact that the face of radical terror found Syria suitable for caliphate building should have been quite predictable.

Can WE ever remove the stick?

America can (and should) find a way to encourage Iraq into accepting our long-term assistance against the forces of ISIS and against sectarian violence as a whole, lest they become an exact reflection of Syria. What that demands is a military presence that mirrors our presence in Germany, in which roughly 100,000 soldiers maintain a strong security prop, a prop that could increase given the unrest between Ukraine and Russia.  New and evolving strategic locations in the world demand a necessary presence that America will simply have to come to grips with. Worldwide unrest demands an ongoing US presence in every strategic location that we can assume without inciting the kind of growth in radical response that will outweigh the value of our presence.   Call it occupation or protecting our best interest if you must.  The necessity of supporting the fight against terror may not force American boots to the ground, but it will force America to become the backbone of whatever boots  assume the job. In other words, propped up armies must never have the stick pulled out too quickly.

President Obama has essentially sent this kind of American boots on the ground leadership to Iraq already, but he can't publicly emphasize their role or their clear and present danger if he hopes to remain the president who also brought our men home from Iraq. Even Afghanistan has a residual force (9,800 troops) left behind that most Americans are oblivious to. Two years remaining in office will be way too long  to think that air strikes alone will allow this president to delay detailed actions in Iraq and Syria, so Obama must recognize that the microphones  and cameras are circling around him, and a more specified plan must materialize.

What are you going to do about the beheading's?  What about that burned pilot?  How are you going to supplant ISIS and Asaad all at the same time? Why did you wear a tan suit to a press conference?

Does the media pressure politicians into
compromising America's security?

The right answer is often, "I don't know" or "we are still formulating a plan" because  world problems and their questions evolve faster than solutions ever will.  When WE become cursed by the need to find the one who has the answers, WE end up with a bunch of plan-less people who talk in circles until WE forget the original question.  There may never be a publicly shared Syrian Plan because there are no good options that are pleasing to the ears, only several bad ones.  Not one military general or political leader has a reasonable answer about Syria that won't send America right back into a REAL war again.

Maybe real war is the right answer (despite our war fatigue)?
Whether real war, fake (airstrike) war or NFL football, having a plan and telling your plan are prehistoric philosophies that only help to inform  and incite an enemy that does not deserve advance notice.  Since critics will criticize regardless of the detailed plan, detailing a plan only helps politicians to appear as if they have a plan to begin with.  Once you actually accomplish your goals, the successful plan will reveal itself  anyway, so detailing a plan often opens it up to criticism and failure.  Thanks to the western media, whether its in our best interest or not WE say too damn much!

Strategic ignorance is calculated brilliance in disguise and can produce dividends in areas beyond a Superbowl pursuit.  Marshawn Lynch and Bill Belichick can't be the only two people in the world smart enough to proceed carefully when in the presence of media, but modern politicians seem confused by the lessons of these grid iron greats. Politicians once wrote the book on how to be functionally vague, but its beginning to seem as though they've never read it.  In a nation in which the next campaign begins when the last one ends, the once reasonable hope for international affairs free of political posturing is becoming a distant memory as unprepared politicians open their mouths to give answers long before they have even thought about the questions.

Christians who've closely read Gen 1:26-27 have had to
reconcile a connection between  evolution and creation.

Politicians like Scott Walker (Gov. WIS) have traveled across the globe recently in an effort to convince voters in England to give a preliminary thumbs up to the next president of the United States of America, because they think step one for walking into the white house is acquiring the consent of the royals.  More often than not, those rebellious royals are forcing would be presidents to fumble footballs slick with oil.  Political football has always been a slick game in which the smart politician pre-cleans the balls and maintains a keen view of the sidelines to avoid running out of bounds.  If Scott Walker had already prepared his nuanced view of evolution instead of convincing himself that a pro-God Governor of Wisconsin was being touted for his business acumen, he would have never needed to punt the 'evolution' football or to later rebutt and retweet a nuanced view.  Being vague is okay, but today's media no longer allows political leaders to get away with punting the football, so you had better avoid or prepare yourself for the microphone and camera, mirrors that reflect regardless of pretense or punt.

Let Us Make Man In Our Own Image  -Genesis 1:26

Humans are a reflection of our divine creation- of each other, and of society as a whole. Within the success and failures of this society that we've created for ourselves lies the hope for tomorrow.  Sometimes life beats you down until your last best hope comes from another persons failure. By shoving microphones and cameras in the face of another, we can be entertained by their unlikely success or revel in the bruises that they get while tripping and falling on tape.  Some of the players in this performance are on the quest for power while others actually derive power from the pain of someone else.  Public disclosure does allow your pain to be my business, but at what point do WE compromise the quality of our existence for the right to be empowered?  As we seek to expose and heal the depths of our own depravity, the cameras and mics have become a caustic mirror that WE are using to replay and continuously expose unhealed wounds.

Mirrors Are Good?

Mirrors are healthy for healthy people, but the sickest of human beings typically shun the mirror or destroy them altogether. WE should never stop using mirrors just because some people can't stand reflections, but we have to recognize that the faces the media hopes to expose with their mirrors are never totally someone else.

In the end, the only people WE can actually fix reside on the other side of the mirror.