It's Iraq, not I-rak.

Show of hands, who here is sick and tired of hearing about the war? I, for one, am annoyed on a daily basis by the reports of civilians accidentally getting themselves killed, terrorists being blown to pieces by their own devices, and soldiers being attacked like they're helpless little girls. I mean no disrespect, I think what the armed forces of Canada are doing is great, and I fully support the war on terrorism, but it's the media that has twisted it into a ratings frenzy and biased journalism.

A week or so ago, I was watching TV when an ad for an upcoming segment on Global National came up, to promote what they called, "Are we winning the war?" It's a title, meant to grab your attention and draw you in. Since I'm bombarded (pun intended) with titles, segments, and headlines like these three or four times a day (at least), I was very put off by the bluntness of that statement. Can we be winning a war on terrorism? Is that even possible? I would like to think so, but that makes for a very black-and-white answer. However, in reality, I don't think we're winning. In fact, I don't think it's even possible to "win" as they put it. How can we "win a war" when the enemy can be anybody? We would have to dictate the actions and behaviour of everyone on the planet to ensure that the war on terror is over. Granted, not every single human being on this planet is a terrorist, but to effectively "win the war," this is what would be necessary.

Getting back to my original point, the media has created a very biased form of journalism, which is a bit of a redundant statement since journalism is inherently biased. It seems to me that many of Canada's national journalism centres are very liberal in the way that they report the news. In most cases, this is fine, but when it comes to the war on terror, they are increasingly biased against the war. Daily we hear reports of soldiers dying, and then sound bites from the friends going, "they shouldn't have had to die for a war we don't want." Now is that fair? Last time I checked, Canada didn't employ conscription laws. There is no draft, participation in the armed forces of Canada is voluntary. So if these people are volunteering to be soldiers, does it not follow that they are volunteering their lives for the country? No one forced them to be soldiers in the first place, they chose that path. It bothers me that the media has been taking soldiers' choices and twisting them to serve a goal that doesn't necessarily align with that of the armed forces. It's no wonder Harper has disallowed the media from being a part of the arrivals (of the fallen soldiers) and funerals since most of the footage and coverage is negative.

My point here is this: people sign-up for the war. They're not forced into it, they enter by choice. The media has taken our view of our soldiers and made them seem like helpless little girls, unable to defend themselves. Our armed forces know what the hell they're doing. We need to have a little faith and trust that the military will do what is both necessary and what is right. These people are putting their lives on the line for us, the least we can do is not use them as fodder to be launched at politicians and policies we don't like.