Santorum Insults Americans

You gotta hand it to Sen. Santorum; he manages to keep his name in the news for one reason or another. He might consider being a little more careful though or risk alienating the media that keeps giving him all that press. Last week, at Valley Forge Military Academy and College outside Philadelphia, Santorum went off the deep end and attacked the media for drawing the public's attention to the deaths of American servicemen and women in Iraq. According to Santorum’s logic, to focus attention on the "tragic consequences" of the war was "helping Islamic fascism win the battle."

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette didn’t take kindly to Santorum’s criticism and published this response:

We would answer Sen. Santorum in two ways. First of all, the Post-Gazette's coverage of the Iraq war seeks to be as broad and as comprehensive as space permits. We write factually about the progress of the war, including full coverage of the elections there; efforts to form a democratic, inclusive government of the different Iraqi political and religious factions; and American cooperation with Iraqi police and military units that is meant to establish the level of security that will permit U.S. troops to be withdrawn.

We write about the speeches of President Bush and other members of his administration that seek to provide a positive interpretation of what is occurring in Iraq, alongside interpretative evaluation of developments there.

For Sen. Santorum to suggest that we and other American media should not report about the tragic loss of American lives -- a death toll that now stands above 2,200 -- is to sell our readers short and to suggest that they do not need to know, nor do they want to know, how many brave Americans are dying there.

It is to say that they are either immature -- fragile souls who need to be protected from such information -- or that they don't care, which everyone knows is not the case. For Sen. Santorum to cite national security and the claim that knowledge of U.S. losses might encourage America's enemies, as reasons for not telling the public the truth, is insulting to the American people.

Their response was great, but I'd like to add one more thing: American citizens need to be protected all right; we need to be protected from politicians like Santorum who seek to whitewash the atrocities of war – a war based on lies. Talk about your “tragic consequences.”

UPDATE: My favorite Aussie and expatriate, Acoustic Dad, has a response to Santorum on his website that I recommend you read. His opinion reflects mine and those of many other Americans that Santorum "is hardly indicative of somone who cherishes Democracy, honesty, integrity and ethicality. The American people don't deserve this and particularly not the families of servicepeople overseas."