LAT And The Troops: Knock 'Em Down, Then Kick 'Em

I can't get the image out of my mind: a hyena bloody-mouthed with a kill it chased and chased until the animal fell in exhaustion. The hyena in my image is American MSM, which has been chasing and howling at our mission in Iraq for three years. The fallen prey is troop morale.

The woman writing today's LATimes story on troop morale, Louise Roug, gets to the point in just a few graphs:

In conversations with troops in the tense cities of Baghdad, Mosul and Tikrit during the last four weeks, morale seemed a fragile thing, especially among those in the line of fire, shot through with a sense of dread.

She goes right on in the next sentence to say this is only a part of what she saw.

Many expressed pride in their mission, and the hope that the budding political process would eventually destroy the insurgency. But others ...

Missing in the article is the word "re-enlistment," yet re-enlistments are up. The article, as is the case in all mainstream journalism, also doesn't include the questions. Once can see Louise tenaciously hunting down her story: Do you ever get angry? Does it ever seem like it's not worthwhile? Is it tough? Would you rather be back home?

She's no different than Tokyo Rose, there to drag down troop morale, then write about it so the few hundred thousand who still read the LAT will be demoralized as well. It's a skill she's good at. Some earlier stories by the depressing Ms. Roug:

• Troops Have a Nervous Ride to Nighttime Raid -- One California National Guard company has lost four men in barely a week to roadside bombs. Now its members take helicopters to missions.
• U.S. Reports Sharp Rise in Iraq Roadside Bombings -- Warning of even more violence before December elections, a U.S. military official in Baghdad released figures Thursday showing roadside bomb attacks have risen sharply since the spring, with nearly 2,100 such blasts in the last two months alone.
• Pentagon Announces 2,000th U.S. Military Death In Iraq -- The fatality toll among Americans serving in the 2 1/2-year Iraq war has reached 2,000, the military reported Tuesday as it announced the death of a soldier who had been wounded by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad.
• Bombs Kill 105; U.S. Toll Grows -- A series of coordinated bombings killed 95 people in the Iraqi city of Balad on Thursday as U.S. military leaders in Washington downgraded their estimate of the number of Iraqi troops at the highest state of readiness.
• Food Shortages Gnaw at Iraqis' Stomachs, Morale -- Shrinking subsidized rations are blamed on corruption, security problems or the U.S. One struggling family finds 'hope is small.'
• More Than 90 People Die in Iraq Assaults -- A suicide attack killed 60 people in the northern Kurdish city of Irbil and assaults in the capital claimed at least 31 more lives Wednesday and today, in the bloodiest 24-hour period in Iraq in more than two months.
• Trust Becomes an Issue on Base -- After last week's deadly attack near Mosul, troops are on guard as they watch Iraqis working with them at U.S. military camps.

Do you see the pattern? Not one positive story of reconstruction, of Iraqi-American friendship, of soldiers who like their work. Just dread and death, dread and death, dread and death. Doesn't objectivity demand a balanced bibliography?

Keep your eye on Louise Roug. She's got what it takes to be a success in journalism ... and a failure as a human being.