Brad Wardell's views about technology, politics, religion, world affairs, and all sorts of politically incorrect topics.
Quagmire in Northern France
Published on September 30, 2003 By Draginol In History

Imagine if World War II were covered like Iraq is being covered.

Most people today seem to think that after D-Day the Americans just stormed into Germany and the war was over.  Far from it. Instead, for the first couple of months the Americans and British got stuck in "Hedgerow" country in northern France. A stalemate was largely the result as it took considerable time for the Americans to break out.

But imagine if CNN were covering that. You'd have interviews with nominal Axis allies. No doubt the Vichy French would have weighed in on the "unilateralism of the Americans, British, and Canadians". Words like Quagmire, Stalemate, mounting losses would have no doubt been sprinkled in for good measure.

By December 1944, 6 months later, the Western allies were making good progress. Of course, that's when the battle of the bulge occurred. I don't even want to contemplate how CNN and its ilk would have covered that.

 


Comments
on Sep 30, 2003
I'm not too good at history, but when did they declare major fighting over in Europe for WW2 ? I thought it was way into 1945 ...
And I'm sure that the media were naming resistants "terrorists" then, unless that term was not coined yet.

Do not get me wrong: I think the Americans, the British, and the Russians did an amazing sacrifice when they took the war to Europe, then to Germany. I am thankful for this, even though I am way too young to have known any of it (my closest connection to the war is my grand-father who was taken to a camp in Germany (he lived in eastern France) and managed to escape, but he would seldom talk about it). And I despise the actions of Vichy, not only because they were collaborating with a country that had invaded France, but mainly because they knew of the concentration camps and chose to ignore it.

What I fail to see is the connection to Iraq. Both are wars, but at completely different scales and for completely different purposes. Nobody is comparing the number of civilian death in Iraq to the number of civilian death due to the 9/11 attacks, for instance, and that is because there is nothing to compare (except the sad loss of life). And I fail to see how can one compare Iraq2 to WW2.
on Oct 04, 2003
I do think I get the point.

Yes 2 different wars but 50 years ago news was just that news.

Not a TV show just out for ratings.

Not something that is time aver time biased to the left.

Not to say the news was not biased of course it was but CNN in occupied
France would be more interested in interviewing the locals.