PBS has this interesting piece about the season premiere of its Frontline program, "an hour-long look at the now eight-year-old war in Afghanistan that carried the controversial title, 'Obama's War.'"
Author Michael Getler explores some of the uproar about the documentary, which includes, among other things, "footage of the fatal wounding of 20-year-old Marine Lance Cpl. Charles S. Sharp early in July while on patrol with his company in Helmand Province, a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan that is one of the most dangerous areas in the country."
Getler goes on to examine the furor surrounding that portion of the documentary and the journalistic decision-making process that PBS went through in determining to use the footage over the objections of Marine Corps officials (though not of Sharp's family members themselves).
PBS president and CEO Paula Kerger responded to the Marine Corps, in part, thusly:
"On October 13, Rick Sharp, Lance Cpl. Sharp's father, appeared on 'The Takeaway,' a Public Radio International program, and said he did not object to this footage being shown. When asked why, he answered, 'Just so the story could be seen of what our men and women are having to do to give us our freedom, the stuff that we take for granted every day, that it's not an easy job that they're having to do.'"In telling its story of the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, 'Obama's War' is meant to honor all the men and women who are risking their lives each day and to give the American public a sense of their exceptional courage. I greatly appreciate your sharing your concerns with me, and I thank you for your service to our nation."
Having dispensed with this controversy, Getler turns to controvery over the name of the documentary: "Obama's War."
It seems that a lot of people think it should be titled, "George W. Bush's War."
You know, as I was reading those last couple of graphs about this moniker dust-up, I was reminded of that old saying about missing the forest for the trees.
Does the name Marine Lance Cpl. Charles S. Sharp ring a bell?
It was his valiant death on the battlefield that Getler was just discussing. It was his father who plainly, yet eloquently, spoke of why the fallen soldier's family supported the documentary.
Sharp didn't give his life for President Bush, or President Obama, or anyone else who might sit, might have sat or might yet sit behind the desk in the Oval Office as commander-in-chief.
He gave it for the country he served.
Afghanistan, then, is as every other war is in which American sons and daughters die: It is not characterized by a political distinction -- i.e., "Obama's War," "Bush's War," etc.
It is America's War.
For the immeasurable sacrifice of these fallen thousands and the ones they left behind, it must be nothing less.
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