Sunshine Patriots?
By Kieran Michael Lalor
Posted On June 16, 2005

“The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman." -Thomas Paine

Millions of dollars poured into the Bush re-election campaign and funded powerful advertisements supporting the president’s re-election. Many of these pro-Bush spots touted the president’s handling of the War on Terror. Clearly, the advertisements rallied support for the president, improved the electorate’s impression of him and played an important role in Bush’s successful re-election campaign.

The elections are over but the War on Terror continues, and privately funded ads could be used to rally support, improve the country’s understanding of the hard-fought progress being made and ultimately help achieve a total victory over the terrorist enemy.

This week a $2,500 per plate dinner featuring a speech by the President put $23 million into the National Republican Congressional Committee’s war chest for an election still 16 months away. Why not hold similar events to help win back support for an actual war that is taking place right now? All of the campaign cash in the world is not going to help the Republicans in Congress if a drop in popular support prompts a premature withdrawal from a war they supported and that was led by their party’s president.

Seven months after Election Day, polls say that support for the War on Terror has begun to wane. A much touted Washington Post-ABC News Poll indicates that 6 in 10 Americans believe the war in Iraq is not worth fighting. Meanwhile, the Pentagon has also begun to miss recruiting goals.

An openly leftist, reflexively anti-military media nostalgic for the Vietnam era is the major source of the skewed and increasingly negative public perception of the war. This affects recruiting, which directly harms the war effort.

The New York Times editorial page is typical of this bias. Since March 2004 the Times has published 90 thundering editorials on detainee “abuse.” By contrast, from March 2001 to the present the Times has written only eight tepid editorial pieces on terrorist beheadings. This astonishing under-coverage is despite the gruesome, high-profile murder of one of their fellow journalists, Daniel Pearl. Thus, on average the Times criticizes the treatment of terrorists captured on the battlefield once per week and condemns the severing of innocent heads less than twice a year, a ratio of twenty five to one. It is not difficult to discern where their sympathies lie.

Complaining about how the liberal media is aiding, abetting, and openly sympathizing with our enemies may help the pro-war community blow off steam but does nothing to counter this pernicious brand of media bias. The way to overcome the unfair reporting of the War on Terror is to utilize the fundraising and advertising machine that defeated Moveon.org and the well-funded anti-American left last fall. We must create and produce commercials explaining again why this war is so important and what is being done to win it.

Inspirational stories of the heroism, sacrifice and humanitarianism of our troops are abundant, and need simply to be broadcast to the nation. Recall the powerful effect Joe Rosenthal’s Iwo Jima photo had on support for that war effort. The 7th War Bond drive featuring an artist’s rendition of the flag raising put $24 billion into the US Treasury, when the total US budget in 1946 was $56 billion. This type of imagery is a powerful way of garnering support for a war.

The ad campaign I am suggesting is not even asking the average American to open their wallets. It seeks only to open the citizenry up to facts that the media refuses to report on in a significant way.

So what if 60 Minutes wants to talk about Abu Ghraib ad nauseam? After thirty seconds about the heroic deeds of Sgt. Rafael Peralta, who dove on a grenade to save the lives of his fellow Marines, will anyone care about what Ed Bradley has to say?

If Ted Koppel gets his jollies from reading the names of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, run an ad recounting in detail the thousands of terrorists killed and captured because of those sacrifices.
When the media tells us the Iraqi people hate us, shoot back with images of smiling kids getting school supplies that the American people donated and U.S. troops delivered. I took dozens of heartwarming pictures like that on my tour of duty in Iraq.

If the press wants to dwell on a dip in recruiting, tell the nation of Staff Sgt. Robert D. Oehler who said upon re-enlisting earlier this month while serving in Ramadi, Iraq, “We are writing ourselves in the history books for freeing a country and saving it from attrition."

Many of those who stood with the President during his reelection did so because they believed his
prosecution of the war on terror was making us safer. They cannot now, in this crisis, shrink from the service of the country. Was the Bush reelection machine funded by summer soldiers and sunshine patriots? If the big donors don’t “roger up” soon one would have to conclude the answer is yes. But if they stand now to show America what the media will not, they can play a vital role in the American victory just as Joe Rosenthal and his camera did 60 years ago.

Mr. Lalor, a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, is the founder and executive director of the Eternal Vigilance Society.

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