Through a glass darkly 8/5

I read many opinion columns through the week, trying to get a sense of others' take on things. One I never miss is Jimmy Breslin, who writes in Newsday. Breslin writes with grace and an evident love of the language that shines through in each sentence he pens. Unfortunately he all too often wastes that talent on the most outrageous bunkum. I love his use of imagery and there is no denying he can bring a scene to life with his words. The scenes he chooses to illuminate however are part of the problem I have with him. In a recent column Breslin highlighted the life, and death, of Pfc. Raheen Heighter. It's a moving account and Breslin does a master's job of sketching Heighter's life. Where he goes wrong is his portrayal of the military, the way they recruit and why they serve. He either doesn't understand the military and the role it plays in our culture or he deliberately misrepresents it and the motivations of those who serve in it. For example, he paints recruiters as offering a deal with the devil to young, impressionable youth. "Out there in the high school halls and the gym and the football field were the military recruiters with their dark bargains. You put your body up and if nothing happens you get college paid for." As in all "good" lies, lies that minimally, on the surface, may be true, Breslin takes a kernel of truth and with a few well chosen words spins a web of deceit that hides the truth instead of revealing it. Do military recruiters have a presence in high schools across this country? Yes, of course. Is there anything at all sinister about this? Not in the least. The military offers a chance for young people who have little chance of higher education to get it. This affords them the opportunity of having a very different, and better, future post-service than they would ever have been able to achieve without serving. There is nothing sinister in this. America needs young people to serve in the various branches of the armed forces and it offers them rewards for service. The dangers are known to the potential service member before they sign up. Only a moron, and they aren't eligible to serve, would be unaware of the dangers implicit in service. Breslin saves his best, and most heinous lie for the end of his column: "Do they know why they're there?" they were asked. "No. They don't know. They're there for their country. That's what they know," the soldier's mother said. "Do you know?" one aunt was asked. "Oil." "Oil," Cathy Heighter said, softly and so sadly." This implies that these women, women mourning the loss of a son and nephew, would know the full extent of the reason we are in Iraq and that the reason is merely to stuff the pockets of oil companies with filthy lucre, money tainted with the blood of innocents. What errant nonsense. The reasons we are in Iraq go far deeper than oil company profits and Breslin knows this, he just chooses to ignore the truth and spread lies instead. Iraq posed a real, if unquantifiable, danger to the United States. Whether there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq doesn't matter. There used to be, international weapons inspectors and even liberal Democrats have said so, and the United Nations called on Saddam Hussein to prove he destroyed them. He provided nothing. Resolution 1441 gave us all the reason we needed to go in and destroy Husseins regime. There are other reasons. Hussein supported terror in many ways; he paid murder bombers' families blood money for their deeds, he harbored terrorists in his country and he provided training assistance to terrorists. Hussein attacked three of his neighboring countries in the 20 plus years Iraq was under his control and tried to involve Israel by showering that country with missiles during the Gulf War. The list goes on, and Breslin knows it. You would never know any of the reasons for putting our young American men and women in harm's way if Breslin had his way, trying to wave a red flag in front of our eyes, implying oil companies were behind the war, while hiding the truth by ignoring it. It's a good technique if you don't consider the morality of it. Breslin evidently took a page from Paul Joeseph Goebbles, Hitler's propaganda minister. Propagandists like Goebbles knew that truth didn't count for much in trying to sway people. "Propaganda has only one object -- to conquer the masses. Every means that furthers this aim is good; every means that hinders it is bad."