As bloggers, we do what we do because we love this mode of expression. I’m betting that many die-hard bloggers were, years ago, the same folks who were hitting the chat boards.

But the problem with chat boards is that you can’t really get into a topic the way you’d like. Unless you are a moderator, which takes tons of time, the conversation can wander in any direction, and the topic itself can be shut down at any time.

But blogging lets us set whatever tone we wish. And we can post topics at whatever pace works for us.

I’m willing to bet that most of us are hoping to get “discovered” as bloggers. That is, we’ll suddenly be noted by someone in the MSM, on talk radio, or by other blogs.

I’ll admit, I would love for that to happen. But what happened on February 14, when my latest post, “Bloglust?,” was noted by CNN, was NOT what I had hoped or imagined.

Why?

Because CNN did what I thought noone would ever do (more a lack of imagination than anything) to my posts… They took one particular sentence of the post, and used it to make it look as if I was condemning other conservative bloggers for engaging in a swarm over Eason Jordan’s idiotic comments regarding our troops in Iraq.

Granted, I wanted my post to be provocative. With that said, I didn’t want to slam my fellow conservatives either. Rather, I wanted to initiate a conversation on the issue of swarming in the blogosphere and call out what one day might become a problem with the desire to go after people, “just because we can.” I did not believe, and stated so in my original post, that the Easongate issue was an example of that, but I did use that issue to frame my point.

So, on one level, my post was appropriate. But I have regrets as well.

In the first place, the blogs who took on Eason Jordan were doing so because Jordan, as I mentioned above, slandered troops serving over in Iraq. He accused them of targeting the media, not because he had any proof, but because he is against the war in Iraq.

I would guess that, like so many liberals in the MSM, he was hoping that Iraq would become another Viet Nam. The fact that it has not, and will not, be another Viet Nam has them all in a tizzy.

If you look at what our troops have accomplished just in the past few years, you can’t help but be impressed. In late 2004 and early 2005 alone, two new democracies were born; one in Afghanistan, and one in Iraq. And the US military played midwife for the birth of both those new democracies.

I’ve said from the very beginning of the Iraq campaign, and I believe it now more than ever, that a free and democratic Iraq and Afghanistan is a knife-blow to the heart of international terrorism. More than that, we now see that Iraq and Afghanistan are already serving to push the status quo in the Middle East right out the window.

If you are a liberal, just think about this.

President George H.W. Bush has often been accused of propping up Saddam in the early 80’s. If you believe this too, then you should be thrilled with President George W. Bush.

After all, President Bush has turned our foreign policy on its ear. For decades, the US government has shown a willingness to support dictatorial governments if it seemed in our best interest as a nation to do so. But President Bush has said, in no uncertain terms, that this was the wrong thing to do, and he has determined that we will begin the move towards a policy that chooses democracy over stability.

In a sense, it was a very liberal thing to do, reject the status quo and embark upon something new, something that favors freedom over all else. And the President’s policy is already paying dividends in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and even Saudi Arabia.

But I digress…

The fact is, accusing our troops of targeting the media is just stupid. Even worse, after Jordan realized how badly he looked, he tried to lamely backtrack and cover himself. He set himself up for the fall. Bloggers did not orchestrate a campaign against him, they just demanded accountability for his words.

I’m glad that Jordan resigned. He should have been fired, but if CNN had done that, Jordan might have decided to say too much about how things really work inside CNN. I would still love to see the tape of him making the comments, though.

Also, I was encouraged by the fact that those who were targeted by CNN, using my quote, were very gracious in their messages to me. We exchanged emails, they listened to my perspective, and that was that.

Were they, at the very least, disappointed in some of what I said? Yes they were; and I don’t blame them.

The fact is, we must always back our troops, especially during a time of war. But, some of what I put in my post, intended to provoke a debate, were used to defend a man who sees our troops much the way al Qaeda sees them. That thought thoroughly depresses me.

There’s no defense for Jordan, and certainly no excuse. The only way to describe the blogger swarm which forced Jordan to resign is “a job well done.”

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com