Media questions

Seems I get more e-mails when I don't add an entry for a while. I know the writing isn't so interesting so it must be curiosity about whether I'm still alive. I am.

In my continuing effort to spur questions therefore giving me topics for discussion I have been asked about how well the media is doing reporting the truth. This is a bit of a tricky question that requires a great deal of tact. I am forbidden to talk to the media and under that clause I don't feel it is my place to comment publicly about certain subjects. Operational security demands that I not give out certain info that I may be privy to also.

I watch the news when I am in the D-Fac; the AFN varies between CNN, Fox, MSN/NBC, etc. I also hit several different websites throughout the day including some Arab sites. I think that you get a pretty decent picture if you check out several different sites, but there's still a lot of info that doesn't seem to make it out. Overall, they downplay or neglect the good things that are going on in favor of reporting death and destruction.

If you really want to read some funny news, check out some of the Arab news. They like to call the US an "occupying force" and then talk about them as a "guerilla force" that conducts hit and run operations in the next sentence. So which is is guys- either we've overrun the country and have superior forces in most towns (we do) or we're hiding in the outskirts just to swoop in and kill people. Some of the these same newspapers talk about how the US has killed 750,000 children through UN sanctions, destruction of water purification plants and other infrastructure, and direct action. They then compare this to how the former regime only killed maybe 25,000 children. Never mind that is the US military and contractors that are trying like hell to get electrical and water plants back on line- a daunting job when you are talking about old, worn out, third rate equipment in a lot of cases.

One of the other problems is the media's reports of over 1000 deaths in Iraq. Yes, there have been a lot of deaths, but you need to look at how many of these are actual combat deaths. I don't have the specific numbers, but the last info I saw had less than half of those as combat deaths, the rest were training accidents, etc. Flipping your Humvee over while engaged in a firefight is not the same as flipping your Humvee over while driving too fast. A suicide is not a combat death. Getting crushed by a piece of falling equipment is not a combat death. Training accidents occur within the military system all over the world every year- it's a dangerous job. There are over 125,000 troops here in a rugged country- accidents are going to occur. Think about how many people die every day in Anytown, USA from natural causes, car accidents, etc. Any American death is tragic, but it's going to happen.

Do I still think that we are justified in being over here? I would have to say yes. I think that at least some of the people protesting would change their minds if they actually had the guts to come over here and see what's going on for themselves. It's pretty disgusting to to see musicians and others blindly decrying something that they know so little about. It's worse to see America's young people jumping on the bandwagon without gathering enough information to make a reasonable choice; each blathering the same uninformed rhetoric. All of our reasons may not have been noble, but I think that this country will benefit greatly in the long run if they will take charge of their own destiny and stop the radical element from destroying everyone else's future.