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| Troop Talk
| Soldiers on Iraq.
| by Robert Alt
| National Review
| July 22, 2004
| http://www.nationalreview.com/alt/alt200407220834.asp
|
| TUZ, IRAQ - As I walked into the barracks, Sgt. Kevin Porter, a 23-year-
| old trooper in the Ohio National Guard serving south of Kirkuk, Iraq,
| called me over. He had just received a package from his family in
| Bellaire, Ohio, which included a then-weeks-old copy of his local
| newspaper. The op-ed page featured a column by Andy Rooney opining
| about the character and morale of servicemen in Iraq. Rooney offered
| five questions that he wished a reporter would ask the soldiers, a
| group he dubbed "victims" rather than "heroes." Although Sgt. Porter is
| not someone who frequently talked politics or current events, Rooney's
| article struck a nerve with him and his fellow troopers. He asked if I
| would assist him and the others in responding to Rooney's questions.
|
| Some rightly may wonder why ink should be spilt on what is necessarily
| a belated response to Rooney, whose banal "did you ever notice"
| segments on 60 Minutes have come to epitomize journalistic navel
| gazing. It is worth noting that Rooney was not always a curmudgeonly
| caricature. During WWII, his combat reporting for Stars and Stripes
| earned him the Bronze Star. Because of his admirable service, many
| Americans still lend their ears to what he has to say about our
| soldiers.
|
| Unfortunately, Mr. Rooney seems to have joined the ranks of journalists
| whose political disagreements with the current president and open
| disdain for the war in Iraq cloud their already questionable judgment.
| In this way, Rooney's tirades about and condescension toward the
| soldiers are typical of a sizable segment of today's journalists, who
| according to a recent Pew Center survey are as a whole more liberal
| than the public for whom they report. And so, after being told for the
| past year - by those who are not fighting - how the war and
| reconstruction are going and how the troops are faring, it's past time
| the troops had their say.
|
| Many of Rooney's questions are skewed in a naked attempt to elicit his
| desired response. To the extent that he was not simply trying to score
| rhetorical points in his column, this reflects a belief that the
| soldiers can be easily led by the nose to tout a particular line. I do
| not share this opinion, and therefore I let Rooney's questions stand in
| an attempt to show his calculation wrong. I did not color his
| questions, but assured they were asked verbatim by requesting that the
| servicemen read Rooney's written questions before answering. To the
| extent possible, I interviewed the troopers separately, so that they
| would not be influenced by another's response, and I made efforts to
| ensure that the most "pro-Rooney" responses I found for each question
| were included here. (In the era of Dowd, I should also note that any
| ellipses are not offered to alter the content, but for the traditional
| reasons of conciseness, grammar, and to show pauses.)
|
| Rooney's first question was "Do you think your country did the right
| thing sending you into Iraq?" Cpl. Caleb Clark of Cuyahoga Falls
| offered an emphatic response: "Absolutely. I think that what we are
| doing over here has a direct effect on international terrorism. And I
| think the government should continue to send soldiers over here until
| the job is done. I feel that we would be cheating the soldiers who went
| before us if we didn't finish the job." Sgt. Porter shared the view of
| many soldiers who looked at the impact for future generations: "I think
| we did the right thing for the simple fact that if we didn't, then our
| sons or grandchildren would have to come over here and do the same
| thing." Spc. David James of North Royalton offered his usual
| candor: "Yeah, I think as a whole, I'm glad we're over here; and me,
| I'm glad to be part of that whole.... If we didn't step up, who the
| hell would?" Spc. Daniel Richmond of Akron saw the benefits for both
| countries: "[T]he country needed our help. And we needed to come over
| here for our own safety: to help our country deal with the terrorism.
| And to help them set themselves up with a better government, so that
| things like terrorism...[don't] happen." For Gulf War veteran Sgt.
| Joseph Black of Massillon, the only complaint was that we waited this
| long. "Saddam should have been removed a long time ago, either by the
| United States or by the surrounding Arab states for the crimes he
| committed against his people." As you would expect, however, there was
| not unanimity on the question. Spc. Dickens thought "there were other
| places that needed attention first" but said, "[N]ow that we are here,
| we need to finish the job."
|
| Rooney's second question was: "Are you doing what America set out to do
| to make Iraq a democracy, or have we failed so badly that we should
| pack up and get out before more of you are killed?" This question drew
| a unanimous and emphatic response from every trooper I spoke to. Spc.
| Dickens explained, "[w]e're doing exactly what we set out to do." As
| for pulling out, he took the prospect quite personally: "We've told the
| people that we are here to help. If they pull us out now, they would
| make me into a liar." Spc. Richmond recognized a simple fact which too
| many armchair analysts in the states overlook: "We are doing what is
| necessary to make Iraq a democracy - it takes time." Sgt. Black echoed
| this sentiment, saying "[a]nyone who thinks that we could undo 35 years
| of brutality with a band-aid is sorely mistaken." Black emphasized the
| work being done by his troop - including training the Iraqi National
| Guard and digging wells for local villages - as evidence of the good
| that is being done on a daily basis by the military in Iraq. Sgt.
| Porter pointed out that his troop is "helping the Kurds and the Arabs
| to work together" - something I witnessed in a contract which the
| platoon helped negotiate between two villages, one Kurdish and one
| Arab, which had previous harbored distrust toward each other. And
| again, the irrepressible Spc. James offered candor: "Who the hell is
| saying we failed?" He conceded, "it's tough over here, but you expect
| that. . . . This is a war against terrorism; this is about winning the
| peace. That doesn't mean that there isn't going to be any fighting."
|
| Rooney's third question was: "Do the orders you get handed down from
| one headquarters to another, all far removed from the fighting, seem
| sensible, or do you think our highest command is out of touch with the
| reality of your situation?" Cpt. Trampes Crow, a civil-affairs officer
| from Alabama, gave a response typical of the troops: "Every soldier
| thinks that headquarters is out of touch.... What kind of question is
| that? Of course he is going to get the kind of answer he wants." Sgt.
| Black agreed: "I think that is just a bogus question and a waste of
| ink. I think that every soldier going back to the days of spears and
| slingshots thought that their leaders were out of touch.... But with
| modern communication, they are probably more in touch." Sgt. Porter
| thought that the "highest command has some sense of what's going on,
| but they don't know exactly what's going on. But then, we don't know
| what's going on in headquarters, and if we did, [the orders] might make
| more sense." Spc. Richmond had his doubts, suggesting that "a lot of
| the commands they give us are out of touch with reality, even if they
| are for our safety." And 1st Lt. Barry Naum of Chardon, Ohio, offered
| some historical perspective: "[The orders] seem more sensible than if
| someone told me to get on a boat and charge on a beach filled with
| German machine guns. When have orders ever 'made sense' to a soldier?"
|
| Mr. Rooney's fourth question descended into rhetorical absurdity: If
| you could have a medal or a trip home, which would you take? Not
| surprisingly, all of the guys said they would prefer to be at home,
| something Spc. James expressed poignantly in saying, "[g]etting to see
| your family is better than any medal out there." But Cpt. Crow got to
| the larger issue, and addressed what seemed to be the motivation behind
| Rooney's simplistic question: "Who wouldn't want a trip home? If he is
| getting at the bigger question of whether we should be here or whether
| we should go home, then we need to stay here to finish the job." Sgt.
| Porter said: "Who doesn't want to come home? But it's not like you
| hear 'We want to go home! We want to go home.'"
|
| 5. "Are you encouraged by all the talk back home about how brave you
| are and how everyone supports you?" A lot of the guys had problems with
| the use of terms like brave or hero. Sgt. Porter's response is
| representative: "Encouraged, yes. It's good to hear that people are
| remembering you. But brave isn't really a term we use. It's just doing
| your job." Sgt. Black said: "Absolutely, I'm encouraged by the words of
| support back home. Am I brave? No. I'm just a guy; I'm just a soldier.
| But I'm very happy to have the support of my nation. I was blessed to
| have the support of the nation in the two wars that I have been in."
| Spc. James explained how much the support means: "Oh yeah, it's a big
| motivator. Puts a smile on my face. You got kids from school writing
| you letters, and you've got family and friends. It's a big help.... A
| lot of people, they look up to you. I'm sure when I get home and I put
| on that uniform.... it's truly an honor to wear the uniform. You get
| treated better when you wear the uniform." Finally, Lt. Naum
| opined: "Yeah. It's more encouraging than what the press is saying....
| It's more encouraging than him telling me that I'm a victim. I've never
| been a victim."
|
| Lt. Naum was referring to Mr. Rooney's assertion later in the article
| that the National Guard members are predominantly serving for the
| money, and didn't think they would be called up. Rooney says they are
| therefore victims, not heroes. Sgt. Porter protested, "We're not
| victims. We signed up for this. Many of us re-enlisted." Addressing the
| idea that National Guard members didn't know what they were getting
| into, Lt. Naum said the vast majority of the soldiers who are E-4 and
| below enlisted after 9/11 - after we were at war, and thus with the
| knowledge that they were likely to be called up. Sgt. Black explained
| that many of the men not only volunteered once to join the National
| Guard, but volunteered a second time to come to Iraq. Indeed, a number
| of the men in this very platoon either transferred into the platoon to
| serve in Iraq or specifically volunteered to be deployed.
|
| I wish Rooney's patronizing column was an isolated occurrence, but his
| style of imputing negative morale and treating the troops as simpletons
| who don't know what they're doing is reflective of the current mode of
| journalism. Because quasi-journalists like Rooney did not agree with
| the war and believed it was not justified to their standards, they
| extrapolate that the men involved in it must not have a sense of
| purpose. But as the soldiers' responses to these questions demonstrate,
| Rooney and his colleagues are sorely mistaken.