AMERICAN CITIZEN SOLDIER

Perhaps the press should be kicked out of the Green Zone and be forced to live where ever they can find shelter and therefore fend for themselves.

They don't deserve your protection if all they are doing or intend to do is defame and demoralize all of you, thereby aiding the enemy.

I love the 'close up'...LOL!!!... makes option #3 look pretty damn good!

Hey Buck Sargent,
Thank you not just for your views and opinions, but for the service you are doing the world. It's easier to believe that someone who has volunteered repeatedly for three years might believe in what he is doing, than to hear some reporter talk about the demoralized soldiers.
Years ago people trusted the papers and radio and the media didn't abuse that trust. Do they wonder why the circulation and ratings are dropping?
Thank all of you military bloggers for getting the stories out that we aren't getting from our 'trusted' heroes.
I dream of the day when the New York Times is on the magazine racks at the supermarkets right next to the National Enquirer. (Maybe they should be on display in the toilet tissue aisle?)
Keep up the great job you are doing and keep yourselves safe.
We've got your back!

I have never read or heard anyone tell it better. What a sad commentary that our troops have to defend our country, fight for freedom and peace where ever needed and then have to chronicle their own nightmare because we have a gutless, spinless msm that is too cowardly to get off its lazy, pious a$$ and do their job.

I love you guys Sarge. When I look at all you menand women do it humbles me to think of all you risk and sacrifice. God Bless you all. Keep telling it like it is. It needs to be said.

Semper Fi, Sir!

GOOD POST! Thanks for all you do. We appreciate you and are proud of you!

Well said. The press takes every opportunity possible, even creating opportunities, to take nasty swipes at our honorable military. It's a constant source of irritation with me and a large segment of the military community. I often wonder where we would be without milbloggers, who largely blog to blunt the damage done by the mainstream media.

Thank you for your service and your parallel fight to get the truth out. As devildog says, it's shameful that you have to fight on more than one front, but we're all grateful that you do.

Here, here! :) Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a rational argument/righteous rant.

The skewing of the media agenda and the paradigm they have created for their stories about the news from Iraq is sickening.

I talk about military blogs ALL THE TIME, especially in my classes so that young people can start moving past the "MSM-only" idea and begin looking for a better picture of the truth.

Thanks for the great blog. I do have a question: Are there any journalists that are getting in right? I'm thinking specifically of Robert D. Kaplan.

So, what do you really feel about the MSM?

I'm now in PR, but started out in journalism (small papers in NW Ohio). Typically, "news" is out of the ordinary. And, out of the ordinary is typically negative or bad.

That said, there is responsibility in journalism to report all sides. The good, bad and the ugly.

One main purpose of journalism (at least, how I worked) is to give a thorough view of a meeting, person, event, etc. for those who are not there. And, that means covering the violence, the errors as well as the school openings and the other good the Coalition Forces and Iraqi people are doing.

It seems like that approach is not being practiced by the MSM.

This is my first time here, and will be checking back. (I found your site via
http://youbetchaimapam.blogspot.com/.)

Mike

P.S.
Your videos are awesome. Saw the one that Yankeemom had on her site, and brought tears to my eyes.
Mike

Jon,
"How could the greatest Army in the world be demoralized by the chattering class?"

It's not so much the actual chattering by the media -- it's who the media reach with their "chattering." In many cases, the media do a great job. In some cases, not so much. Typically, I think media members are in a no-win situation no matter how they report.

If it's too critical or too positive, someone will say they are biased. Since reporters are human, they do have biases, and a lot of the criticisms of the media are justified.
Mike

A masterpiece Buck Sargent. You are both inspired and inspiring. We will never give up thanks to receiving the truth from you and Michael Yon and other bloggers. The truth shall make you free!!

What a brilliant piece of writing Buck Sargent. And the videos are amazing. I've been following Milbloggers since "My War: Fear and Loathing in Iraq" and have never ceased to be amazed at the tremendous writing talent found on the sites of American Soldiers such as yourself at the pointy end of the stick. My respect for American Soldiers just continues to climb. Thank you for your service from a former Canadian Soldier who believes in your mission 100%. Godspeed

From one Buck Sgt to another, I salute you. No wait we work for a living, lol. Seriously, I do salute you. For your mission, your willingness to sacrifice, willingly, of yourselves. The posts that you have made along with the videos are straight forward and concise, no bloviating, just facts.

I do appreciate your uncanny way of "explaining" what the other side isn't.

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

Buck Sargent...BRILLIANT,ARTICULATE, HONEST! Semper Fi!

To the first "Anonymous" who asked if there are any journalists getting right other than Robert Kaplan, I have two words:

Michael Yon.

Google him! He isn't a journalist in the true sense of the word - he isn't beholding to any media at all.

He is an well informed independant writer and observer of the war, who is financially supported by his blog fans. And, he has chosen to go back to Iraq.

Jon:

RE: when GIs fight a battle and then the military makes the claim that "the Iraqi Army fought the battle today with the light support of U.S. forces" and this gets in the media-- this appears annoy the soldiers as it should.

I speak to 100's of deployed Marines and soldiers weekly and have since 2004...and I've never heard any one of them tell me they are "annoyed" when the Iraqi army is credited with taking the lead in a battle with the light support of US forces". Perhaps its because you are new to the world of Milbloggers, but there are many who write about how they train the Iraqi army to do just that 'Take the lead in battle with light support from the US forces.' This is one of the goals of our troops..to train the Iraqi forces to take the lead in battles and to provide security for their own country.
When they are able to do so, our troops can stand down and come home.

So I cannot imagine why any soldier would be upset by that truth.

The problem with the media is that they aid and abett our enemy with their pro jihadist, pro mass murderers, pro terrorist, pro dictators agenda, fueled by their incomprehensible hatred for Pres.Bush, and their overt distai for the Military. Oh Hell...distain is too nice..they despise our military..like most liberals....throwbacks to the Viet nam era. They may claim to be supportive of our deployed troops, but only a fool would believe that load of crap. The MSM as a collective unit considers our troops to be misguided fools and puppets.
And their biased reporting of this war, emboldens our enemies, and provides them with a pulpit to spread their message of hate deliberately and all this feeds into into left wing liberals mindset that OUR troops are baby killers, and the cause of the strife in Iraq, and now Afghanistan.
Apparently Saddam Hussein was never to blame for all the strife in Iraq..and the horrors he committed. Imagine liberals who support abortion calling OUR TROOPS baby killers...imagine them doing so after witnessing the terrorists deliberately target children and women!

You may not be able to understand how all the negative biased media reporting demoralizes our troops, but thats irrelevant and speaks to your naivite - suffice to say...it does! Milblogger after milblogger after milblogger, and the 100's of troops I speak to weekly are demoralized and fed up with the media. Now don't get me wrong, they don't spend hours dwelling in a state of demoralization...but they remain angry and frustrated.

Winning a war relies on more than just military might. Any one that has read Sun Tzu's Art of War understands that if you can't physically defeat the enemy - then you defeat his will!

When the will of the country is defeated...the battle between good and evil is lost to our enemy.

Our men and women are committed to the war on terror regardless of what the media vomits out, regardless of what lies liberals spew out, but it becomes a greater struggle to win this war on terror when you cannot win the hearts and minds of the Arab community, and the European Community.

If the only "truth" the media puts forth is negative in nature, if none of the accomplishments, the successes, the victories of our troops, are talked about, or when their importance is demeaned or denied, then our enemies WIN...and if you don't think that demoralizes our troops, think again!

I suggest you read my latest post " The Art Of War: Using The Media Elites".
Then head over to TF Boggs blog comment section where he has stated who he feels.about what I wrote....and you can bet he speaks for most of our troops

Buck,
Great post. I would like to see anyone from the media write a response to you and have it be half as well reasoned, articulated, and plain out good reading. I admire your writing and hope one day to be half the writer that you are when I am that old;)
I am starting to believe that the media is getting the story wrong for two reasons. The first and most obvious reason is that they have an agenda. Whether that agenda is specifically spelled out or not does not concern me. The main point is that they have a severe dislike for the current administration and want to see it fail at all costs. They made the Clinton years seem like a success, why can’t they make the Bush years look like a failure?
The second and less obvious reason is that they are ignorant of military matters and the bigger picture. I went to a college that was ranked in the top 5 in journalism programs. While there I met many of the kids in the journalism program and they could all read a teleprompter. A smaller fraction of them could write their own stories and still yet a smaller fraction of them could somewhat respond to my non-journalist columns about their obvious lack of any real experience and inadequacy in reporting the news. These same students are the new crop of journalists and mirror the journalists now in power. They are regular people who more often then not do not even know someone in the military let alone have any military experience themselves. They carry their ignorance into their professions and then seek to inform the world about military matters. I see a small problem there.
So our job as milbloggers is to fill in the gaps, or rather, craters that the media leaves. I’ll do my part and don’t stop doing yours because you are too good.
So when is the book coming?

Because I am able to understand Arab newspapers,and also have the privilege of friends and family who can understand the subtext of what is being put forth in their media, and what is, by fiat, filtering down to the average arab on the street, it serves to frustrate me that I can't always articulate that knowledge to a larger American audience.

Today, I would encourage everyone to read this insightful, well written, piece by Amir Tahari, in The Wall Street Journal, especially if one wants to gain a clear understanding of the mindset and gameplan of Arab political leaders. This piece also serves to authenticate the reason why millions of us are furious with the media's biased coverage of our efforts to help mitigate the very real Islamic threat against democracy and the West.

Not only is the MSM biased in its coverage, its also dead wrong when it comes to understanding the American mood.

"The enemies that America is now facing in the jihadist archipelago, however, are dedicated to the destruction of the U.S. as the world knows it today.

Those who have based their strategy on waiting Mr. Bush out may find to their cost that they have, once again, misread not only American politics but the realities of a world far more complex than it was even a decade ago. Mr. Bush may be a uniquely decisive, some might say reckless, leader. But a visitor to the U.S. soon finds out that he represents the American mood much more than the polls suggest."

You can find the piece entitled "The Last Helicopter" at http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110008154
(you'll have to copy this addy into your browser)

Hey - just discovered your blog thanks to Hugh Hewitt. Awesome. You really hit the nail on the head about our crappy MSM. I still just don't understand how they want us to lose - I just don't get it. They just don't care about the people at the core of the story.

Thanks for what you do. God Bless

Well, Buck Sargent, I am a day late and a dollar short, so DITTO to all that's been said above, especially T.F.'s post.

As if the media hasn't already been exposed as pro-jihadist, they couldn't seem to air the loop of Jill Carroll saying how well she was treated by her kidnappers enough yesterday. Then this morning, I actually heard a news anchor declare, "Finally, some good news out of Iraq", at the end of an interview with someone from the Christian Science Monitor, referring to Carroll's release. "FINALLY"..."GOOD NEWS"...Are you kidding me?????

Funny, I don't remember the heroic story of Paul Ray Smith being looped at all. Matter of fact, if it weren't for the milblogs, I doubt I would have ever even heard his story. Stories like his are too numerous to count, yet never spoken of. The MSM never celebrates our military successes, they never celebrate the selflessness and heroism of the thousands like Paul. It is so pathetic, yet once again, proof beyond a reasonable doubt that our MSM has an anti-Bush, pro-terrorist, defeatist agenda.

Congratulations, too, Buck, to you and all the milboggers who, once and for all, have dispelled the long-running myth that our men and women in uniform are too stupid to think for themselves and put two words together. You have proven quite the contrary--you are actually more intellignet, well read, well spoken, and have more passion than most who are "Professional Journalists". Roger that!

Keep up the great job...

Over 500,000 people were killed during the civil war in America....So by your moronic standard of measuring success and failure America was and perhaps still is a massive failure.

All countries have experienced civil war.

Over 1,ooo,ooo people were murdered under Saddam.

Moving from a dictatorship to a full fledged democracy takes time..and there will be many challenges.. it took decades before blacks were free, and women weren't allowed to vote until 1920..and can you remember what year in recent history blacks were given the right to vote?

I'd say Iraq, which gave women the right to to vote within one year of becoming a democracy, is doing far better than America during its fledging years of democracy.

The death tolls due to gang violence,senseless murders, and drunk driving accidents is exceedingly high in America....so by your standards of measure, America is a failure!

As the partnership between the Iraqi army and coalition forces grows each day, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has invested more than $3.5 million into the local Iraqi community to open a renovated Iraqi army theater Jan. 28 and is getting ready to open two renovated health clinics within the next couple of weeks.

About 250 reconstruction contracts worth more than $250 million have been awarded to women-owned businesses in Iraq over the past eight months.

The entire northern part of Iraq, home to the Kurdish, has little violence, a strong successful infrastructure, and a good workforce; the South of Iraq remains relatively calm and stable.

And thats just the tip of the iceberg..so yeah..I'd say Iraq is far more of a success story than a failure.

Amen, Huntress! As for Mark hating to see failure, I can't help but find that to be a bit of a non-truth. If Mark is anything like the rest of his lefty cohorts with their abject hatred of Pres. Bush and the U.S. as a whole, I'd say that he'd love nothing more than to see failure. Pretty sick if you ask me.

~Em Green~

Most of these questions I recently answered in an interview with The Real Ugly American website. Look for it soon at:

http://therealuglyamerican.com

Thanks to T.F. Boggs for setting that up. Nice work, son.

(Sorry, but I've always wanted to call someone that. Now that I'm thirty, I think I can finally get away with it.)

jon garfunkle (any relation to art?),

Paul Ray Smith was a just one of many acts of bravery and valor displayed throughout the war so far. The man earned the Medal of Honor and even he is essentially ignored. True, it ran a couple times, but contrast that to the sharkfest feeding frenzy of Abu Ghraib or any of the other "kick the military while it's down" stories that have played and replayed ad nauseum over the last three years.

If someone ever takes the time on Lexus Nexus to compile a totality of positive to negative stories, believe me the ratio will be so one-sided it'll be sickening. I recall someone doing that for one random day last year and the results were unbelievable. If that is not a concerted effort to browbeat the public into submission, I don't know what is.

And I'm certainly not going to hold my breath for any heroic Iraq War movies from Hollywood anytime soon. I'm only shocked they haven't already rushed Oliver Stone's ABU GHRAIB into production yet. Maybe it was a TNT movie of the week and I already missed it.

Where is John Wayne when you need him? According to our cultural gatekeepers, there are no heroes in American life anymore. Only victims and villains. And soldiers are painted as both at the same time.

I don't write for the benefit of the media. I could give a damn whether they're reading me or not, because I know it wouldn't get past their "conservative filters" anyway. ERROR: PAGE 404 NOT FOUND

My intended audience are the everyday people they're poisoning with their daily bull****. Almost everything originates from the NYT and the AP wire and then it just circulates around the horn like a big echo chamber circle jerk.

You can criticize me for not doing more "on the ground" reporting, but guess what? THAT'S NOT MY JOB. My job is not to hold a camera and a microphone and walk around interviewing people. I do what I can in my spare time because I think it's important, and I espouse a strong opinion that likely no one would take seriously if I wasn't actually over here. How many of you have been flamed as "chickenhawks" by shrill lefties on other comment sections or message boards? I see it on almost every site I read. If the soldiers are the only ones who can support the war, then it would follow that we're the only ones that can badmouth the war, right? Oh no! I've wandered into the Logic Zone! Help, I can't get out...

Quick plug of a friend before I forget:

This is the future of movie reviews. It's a blog by one of my old paratrooper buddies from Afghanistan who'd still in Alaska and getting ready to come over here to Iraq soon with our old unit.

He wrote a screenplay sequel to the Trolls movies called Burn Nilbog Burn while we were deployed. I read it. It was awesome.

His reviews are killer, but don't read them unless you want him to spoil every single plot point in them. Cause he tends to do that sometimes.

http://wayoftheshirey.blogspot.com/

If you visit Paul, tell him I said hi and that he really needs to get over his Keira Knightley obsession. It's sooo 2005.

Buck Sargent, I recently found your site and love it! I will do my best to get it to as many folks as I can, I'm long passed tired of the MSM!
Thank You for your service and please pass that along to all you serve with! You guys are AWESOME!

PS The close up photo is great!

ditto on the photo at the end!

I absolutely love your writing. Please keep 'em coming.

Been reading all your past blogs. You are really good. Wish you and your screenwriter friend, Paul, and people like Mike Yon would get together and start producing some real films for the country and the world to see. Do you think I am a dreamer? Nahh, I just got inspired reading all the stuff you write. Thanks Buck Sargent.

"Anyone old enough to recall Mogadishu, Haiti, Bosnia, or Kosovo would be hard pressed to recall a similar level of vitriol in the press or the public for those prior haphazard military engagements that were far less relevant to the national interest than our current Middle Eastern campaigns."

I'm even older than that and I have never seen such a level of vitriol in the press. I should add though that the quality of the journalists themselves has been declining for many years. Partisanship and ideology drive their stories (and the ones they don't do) more than facts do.

BTW, an excellent post. And thank you very much for your service.

Buck I had no idea you knew the Paul - I stumbled across his blog a while back.

His recent review My Vendetta Against V is hilariously brilliant.

"Can you spell
L I B E R A L F A N T A S Y! "

*ROFLMSFAO* ( Rolling on floor laughing my sweet f***king ass off).

Paul and I share a common love for Superman and by fiat "Smallville", and since I know key people involved with the "Smallville" ...well lets just say his blog is now on Hollywood's radar.
The guy is very funny!

Jon:

Dan Bout is a dear friend of mine, and I can assure you that Nothing prevented the MSM from picking up excerpts from his blog that as you say "Cut to the action".

And your theory that the MSM reads mibloggers tirades against them and then stops reading them so thats why they never use them as sources for good action stories is BOGUS.

Dan was featured in Wired Magazine along with many other milbloggers, and he was mentioned in some other small media stories. But the liberal MSM never gain him or Neal the same attention they gave Colby.
Colby Buzzell's blog was talked about all over LIBERAL MSM because he was a rebellious anti hero who hated the military and didn't want to be fighting in Iraq! The MSM was ALL OVER THAT.
And once his blog was ordered shut down..he ran to NPR to offer up his story so that he could remain in the spotlite!

Hell he got a book deal out of it!

Since I know you to be new to this world you do not know the history of whats happened, so you put forth this erroneous idea that the MSM ingores milbloggers that as you put it "bash" the media, because the media is interested in 'Cut to the action" stories! BULLSHIT!

99% of Dan Bout's blog entries were the types of "cut to the action" stories you seem to want so desperately to believe the MSM is interested in, and yet they never mentioned them!


However what the MSM media fixated on with regards to Dan Bout and The Nightstalkers for two months was a story surrounding 10 soldiers in the Nightstalkers who were under investigation for acts of wrongdoing!
The LA TIMES was ALL over that story!

The media painted a bleak picture of an alleged untrained, miserable, National Guard unit without so much as talking to any of the actual members of the Unit...they vilified this ENTIRE UNIT without so much as being in Iraq or taking any time to find out the truth, nor do find out about this unit, and their many accomplishments and successes. In the end only a few people were jailed for what had occured and the unit is now nominated with the rest of the brigade for a Valorous Unit Award.

Yet the MSM never mentions that story!

You may want to believe that the MSM is interested in the action stories written by Dan and Neil and many other milbloggers...but they aren't.

Why are you resistant to the truth - that the MSM coverage of the war is BIASED and based on fulfilling their agenda which opposes the war on terror, hates Pres Bush, dispises the Military in general. Because the MSM and most liberals/democrats want to see this President fail, the MSM are determined to undermine the war on terror by being mouthpieces for the terrorists and providing one sided coverage that includes body counts, terrorist successes and little or no mention of the thousands of successful missions our soldiers engage in, the 1000s of terrorists they capture and gain crucial information from, the many attacks they prevent, and the rebuilding of schools, hospitals, bridges, oil pipelines that the terrorists relentlessly destroy or try to destroy. You don't hear about the allocation of reconstruction dollars to women owned businesses, the relative calm in northern and Southern Iraq, nor do they highlight the humanitarian efforts that our soldiers undertake voluntarily above any mission dictates...such as collecting and distributing shoes, clothes, toys, medicine, wheelchairs, educational supplies, to Iraqi kids and their families.

Wait until you see a documentary produced by the soldiers themselves who were stationed in Iraq for year-it includes footage and conversations with Iraqi's including children, and it highlights the humanitarian efforts of our troops.

I'll be highlighting this documentary and the men behind it in my next post on my blog. You can BET the MSM will ignore this..like they ignore any story that has to do with success in Iraq and that places our the men and women of our military in any kind of positive light.

And you just NOW stumbled on the Pentagon Site!?? Its been there for years - yet few if any of those stories are ever carried by the MSM.

Why not?

Repeat after me: Because it dosent fit in with their "anti military, pro-insurgency, pro- terrorist, we wanna see Pres.Bush fail" agenda.

And let me assure you that each media outlet has people scouring milblogs to read what's being said not just by the milbloggers but by the milblog audience....yet few of these outlets will print any of their positive stories...in fact ..they will often print disparaging stories because these outlets are losing audiences to milbloggers, and bloggers, in general.

You might want to read the ludicrous piece written by James Rainey about Michael Yon. Google it! He was condescending and clearly jealous of Mike, his success, and the honesty of his dispatches. James has never set foot in Iraq, yet that didn't stop him from being condescending about Mike Yon - who risked his life going on daily missions with the troops, and travelling across Iraq with a CSM in an open vehicle, and who travelled across Iraq at great risk to himself and talked to average Iraqi citizens, all while being funded soley by donations from his blog fan base.

When given the opportunity to do a deep intelligent story on Mike, to engage him in honest conversation about the situation in Iraq, James Rainey and The LA Times, chose to write a piece steeped in jealous condescending mistruths.

This is an example of HOW the MSM reacts to a successful blogger who provide the kinds of stories and war coverage from Iraq that attracts huge audiences, but, instead, motivated by jealousy and by a liberal military hating Bush bashing terrorist supporting agenda- the LA Times chose to simply ignore the veracity of stories, or worse,in an act of pure jealousy, tried to invalidate the stories by discrediting Mike Yon.

It didn't work-in fact it backfired big time and served to once again lay bare the true agenda and ugliness of the LA Times and by fiat, most of liberal MSM!

ut if the Pentagon *is* producing stories for the media, and these aren't being picked up, that's what I'll look out for.

DUHHH...they aren't being picked up!
Have you seen any of these stories appear anywhere with any consistency?
If they were being picked up...do you think we'd all be engaged in debates over the biased war coverage by the MSM?

Do you think Hugh Hewitt would be so pissed off if these stories were being told along side the usual body counts.

No one is asking that only the positive upbeat stories get told. What we want is fair and balanced coverage.
The American Media is getting Americans killed! FULL STOP!

As Hugh said: We don't care to hear the "insurgents" point of view. THEY ARE TERRORISTS. We don't care to understand what the Baathist or rejectionists believe. They are people who kill civilians and the innocent. We don't give a damn what Zarqawi thinks because he is a cold blooded killer.

This is what you don't see to get Jon..but more importantly this is the message that the media does not get!fzb

Jon,

Really...
"But most of the milblogs are written for an insider club rather than trying to explain it to outsiders".

Buck Sargent told you how he feels, now I'd like to add my two cents.

It is true that you will mostly find like-minded people reading these milgblogs. However, as Buck said he himself does, the milbloggers are mainly writing these blogs to argue their side to the masses who are not exposed to it through the MSM. The problem here is that many anti-war crusaders (which includes many members of the MSM) are too close-minded, and, maybe too lazy, to take the time to actually use their brains and read what these brave men and women have to say. It is so easy to base one's opinions on the "news" one gets from listening to 30 second sound bites over and over and over. However, it requires some modicum of brain power to read through the thousands of words written by said milbloggers to form a well-rounded opinion. That's just too difficult for many who are on the opposing side.

"So my point is, I can understand the media not caring to read the milblogs if the milblogs aren't being written with the media in mind".

Maybe I am slow, but I just don't get that. It's the media's JOB to read everything. It's their JOB to get information from ALL ANGLES. It's their JOB to be OBJECTIVE, despite having their personal opinions, which they are very entitled to. It's not Buck Sargent's JOB to cow-tow to them. It's not any milbloggers JOB to make the press feel loved and welcomed. If any journalists are truncating their perusal of said milblogs because they are offended by the tirades against them, boo-hoo for them. Now they know what it feels like to have people jump on a bandwagon of negativity aimed towards them. Maybe they should consider this the next time they want to run "new" pictures of Abu Ghraib, or disclose more of our military's "mistreatment" of the Koran. For far too long, the media has been given a blind trust by the citizens in this country, with no one ever suspecting that the press would ever actually LIE, or only report facts that support their left-leaning bias. Hell, my 92-year-old grandmother STILL takes every "fact" reported on TV as truth, despite being presented with other information AND having a grandson in Iraq. She still regards the press as the all-knowing, truth-telling medium she grew up with. Bullpuckey!



Keeping all our troops in my thoughts and prayers today and every day...

Buck Sargeant,
I honor your service...I won't call you sir, you work for a living! Be safe and God Bless, Sargeant, we're not all lefty peacenicks! I might hate war, but sometimes it's necessary and I will always honor those who "Stand the Watch"!

Outstanding content and phrasing: "a half-empty three-day-old coffee with half a dozen cigarette floatees" priceless! I read this after my daily ration of the "Gotham City Times" and immediately though of the chapter from Hugh Hewitt's newest book -- the chapter titled "The Democratic Left and the MSM Have Declared War on the Military. Again."

I fully concur that the MSM is playing this war to win at home by losing in Iraq. However, the same set were playing to lose the Cold War and were confounded by the Great Communicator. I remember punk rockers demonizing "Ronnie Ray-Gun" and the howls of imminent nuclear destruction precipitated by the cowboy in the White House, who somehow managed to be both a dunce and a fiendishly clever manipulator, all according to the MSM and the cultural elite. And the image of the American military? Apocalypse Now, The Deer Hunter, Casualties Of War, Full Metal Jacket.

The difference between then and now is the ability and will of the Communicator in Chief, the individual who has had personal responsibility since Teddy Roosevelt to stand his post in the lead of the information campaign. Very few have the presence and verbal skills of President Reagan, or FDR, or Churchill, and I understand the desire to be the anti-Clinton, but as a wise major told me in Iraq 2003, "if you don't blow your own horn, someone else will use it for a funnel."

Good on you and other "imperial grunts" for standing your own post and also taking watches in the strategic information campaign. Continued mission success and a safe redeployment for you and your soldiers!

The interview I did with The Real Ugly American is up now on his site:

http://therealuglyamerican.com/2006/04/03/blog-of-the-month-american-citizen-soldier/

Excellent interview at The Real Ugly American!

I appreciated the way that concern for/ awareness of information operations permeated your thoughts, from the street-level public diplomacy of your interaction with Iraqis to the recognition of the shortfalls at the strategic level that you and other milbloggers are volunteering to partially cover. You comment on how internet and media savvy the enemy is, in contrast to their military tactical incompetence. We are fortunate that you and other American servicemembers are exceptionally competent on both the military tactical level and on the information tactical to strategic levels, which blur in every visual-media-feeding event.

I failed to master the comment system last time and ended up "anonymous" on 3 April.

man nuff said i could not agree more about your comments vis a vi the press. i wonder how they would fare if they did get out with you all rather than hang in the Green Zone hotel of the hour.

How many lives have been lost because of the divisions in our country that the lamestream media actively supports?

Our troops have died, and more Americans are at risk because the lamestream does everything it can to undermine VICTORY!

Chickenhawk Heaven.

Everyone I know should read this! Keep writing Paul. We don't get to see this kind of intelligence enough.