Troops say U.S. should leave Iraq, poll shows

[michaeledward]

Check post #24 on this thread, I indicated I'd post a link to an article by a retired military guy. FYI, I trust retired career officers opinions on conflict conditions substantially more than those hard hitting, only the facts, no liberal bias guys from the NY Times and Boston Globe.

Thank you for the reference. It seems curious to trust a soldier to do news reporting. Kinda like asking a reporter to do soldiering. Although the one military reported I did like was David Hackworth ... I always felt I got the straight skinny from him. His agenda was always clear ... the men who wore the Combat Infantry Badge.


The Boston Globe has closed its operations in Iraq. It has not been staffed in months.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002073187

Although, this is a sampling of the reports I have been reading and hearing about for months.

The Camden Conference
| NPR correspondent Amos details Iraq assignments
| By Christine Parrish
|
|
| CAMDEN (Feb 28): "We are too restricted. We cannot go out
| and be reporters in Iraq anymore and it is a big problem."
| -- Deborah Amos, foreign correspondent for National Public
| Radio
|
| National Public Radio foreign correspondent Deborah Amos,
| who has reported from Iraq off and on since the
| Iraq-American war started two years ago, said Iraq has
| become the most dangerous assignment in the world and one
| of the most difficult places to do accurate and balanced
| reporting.
|
| Amos, who addressed and audience of more than 500 on
| Saturday, Feb. 26 at the 2005 Camden Conference on the
| Middle East, said the full story of what is happening in
| Iraq is not being reported for two reasons: the dangerous
| situation in the country severely restricts movement, and
| the U.S. military restricts media access.
|
| "In May, 2003 I left for Iraq with a flak jacket, a
| satellite phone and $5,000 in cash from NPR," said Amos.
| "It was a 12-hour journey by car from the Jordanian capital
| to Baghdad. In the spring of 2003, all of Iraq was open to
| us and the Iraqis couldn't shut up. We took the best
| interpreters away from the U.S. military, where they were
| being paid $5 a day, by offering them more money and we
| were able to report on the insurgency from the beginning."
|
| Growing danger and restrictions on certain areas began to
| limit reporting. The NPR reporters moved from a bed and
| breakfast to a residential neighborhood. Female reporters
| started wearing black "abayas," a type of Islamic clothing,
| and the men grew beards and dyed their hair to blend in
| with the general population.
|
| In 2005, reporters are relying on interpreters to gather
| the news they are no longer able to get and Amos said
| freelancers aren't attempting to cover Iraq because the
| risks are too high without organizational backing. She said
| most NPR reporters are holed up in a compound on a hilltop
| that resembles a base for a Colombian drug lord. The
| guarded compound has a vault that journalists can step into
| if "they" come to get them.
|
| Because of the risk, it is also expensive for news agencies
| to put reporters in Iraq, and Amos questioned whether some
| organizations will continue to do so.
|
| "When you read a news report, look at the second line,"
| said Amos. "More and more you will find it reads:
| 'according to the U.S. military' or 'according to
| officials.'

 

[Mark L]

It isn't curious to me at all, he was a soldier, now he's a journalist. If you were his boss would you have him cover an area where he has experience and expertise, or maybe send him to review the theater?

What I thirst for is opinion representing more than a single viewpoint, I won't get that from The Globe or NPR. A few posts back you dismissed the seriousness of Hannity and O'Reilly as journalists. Personally I think O'Reilly is a bore, but he does offer considered opinion. I quoted Jay Severin a week ago and you jumped all over his credibility. What if I point to opinions of Michael Graham, Laura Ingraham, or dare I say Pat Buchanan? I don't understand why you, at least in my view, dismiss virtually all sources of information contrary to your position.

 

[michaeledward]

. I quoted Jay Severin a week ago and you jumped all over his credibility.

Did Jay Severin lie about receiving a prestigious award or not?

Did Jay Severin make the statement that he received a Pulitzer Prize on the air? (The answer to this rhetorical question is yes. I heard him make this claim on a Monday afternoon.)

How is that 'jumping all over his credibility'. He's a ****ing liar!

 

[Mark L]

Did Jay Severin lie about receiving a prestigious award or not?

As I stated before, I have not heard him make the claim. That doesn't mean he didn't, but I haven't heard it.

Did Jay Severin make the statement that he received a Pulitzer Prize on the air? (The answer to this rhetorical question is yes. I heard him make this claim on a Monday afternoon.)

Where did you hear it? I haven't heard him since he left drive time radio last year. Now he is on at 7 PM EST, so help me out with the source of the statement so I can ask him about it (he used to actively solicit email dialogue).

How is that 'jumping all over his credibility'. He's a ****ing liar!

It is jumping all over his credilbilty because you have not offered proof of his claim, it is heresay without it. Follow up with where and when he made the claim and I will follow up with him. If you can't, I'll ask anyway, but I'd prefer the specifics.

What about he others, including Mr. Peters? Tell me why I shouldn't give credence to their opinions? Is it simply because they contradict your own?

I'm editing this 20 minutes later ...

I poked around and found references to the reputed false claim, see www.jayseverin.org and follow the links to the Pulitzer stuff. Major embellishment, to which he might not have even been a party. He is a ****ing liar!

Still, what about the others, specifically Mr. Peters?

 

[michaeledward]

As I stated before, I have not heard him make the claim. That doesn't mean he didn't, but I haven't heard it.

Where did you hear it? I haven't heard him since he left drive time radio last year. Now he is on at 7 PM EST, so help me out with the source of the statement so I can ask him about it (he used to actively solicit email dialogue).
It is jumping all over his credilbilty because you have not offered proof of his claim, it is heresay without it. Follow up with where and when he made the claim and I will follow up with him. If you can't, I'll ask anyway, but I'd prefer the specifics.

I'm editing this 20 minutes later ...

I poked around and found references to the reputed false claim, see www.jayseverin.org and follow the links to the Pulitzer stuff. Major embellishment, to which he might not have even been a party. He is a ****ing liar!

Look to the articles in the local newspapers. I am quite certain I linked to the original article.

I heard him make the claim on the WTKK radio on a Monday afternoon ... between 4 and 5, if I recall correctly. It was in the fall, late September, early October.

Here is my take on what he did.

He had previously hinted at, without directly claiming, an award winning journalism career during his tenure at MSNBC. But, knowing he was soon to be leaving WTKK for a Nationally syndicated program, he knew that any publicity is good publicity (ask Lindsey Lohan). So, by coming right out and making an outrageously, demonstrably false claim, and then disappearing for three months. He would generate publicity. There was a big hue and cry last fall ... "Where's Jay?"

So, he pissed in his listeners coffee, and came back to top it off three months later. Now he is serving it up across the entire country.

Here's something even more scary ... I travel by car a lot in my job. I work in Eastern Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire. I spent a lot of time listening to Severin over the past 3 years. Severin is correct when he refers to the current conflict as 'Iraqnam'. Just about everything else he talks about is bull ****. But on that point, he is right.

As for Savage ... I do my best to avoid him ... as we hear more, I'll say more.

As for Ingraham ... she plays for the joke, rather than a real opinion, which is why she is second fiddle to Coulter. I do my best to avoid her too, but not so much that I can't call out her bull **** when she's hip deep in it too.

As for Buchanan ... he is principled and thoughtful. I disagree with him on many topics, but I like the way he thinks and argues. He is quite different from most of the others with whom he is often associated in that: he won't say **** if he has a mouthful. I heard someone make the point that Mr. Buchanan would never say an unkind word toward anyone, and as I reflected on that thought, it seemed to be true. Quite possibly his good Catholic upbringing. Again, I think he is wrong on many issues. But I would thoroughly enjoy debating him, or having dinner with him.

As for Mr. Peters ... the link you posted is the first article with his byline I have read. So, I am basing my skepticism of his reporting on several items:

• he claims to freely be moving through Iraq - this contradicts many other articles I have heard and read.
• he is ex-military, so is he functioning as an embedded reporter? the article does not state this. As he claims to be moving freely where other journalists claim that is an impossibility, it would seem so. The hindsight view of embedded journalism is that it paints an incomplete picture of what occurs on the ground.
• as an ex-Army officer, does he have a 'Nobody reports the good things our troops are accomplishing' agenda. This is a common theme heard from military people. Even if it is true, a car bomb in a police station trumps the opening of a new soccer field, every time. That's how the news works.
• he is reporting for a Newscorp property. Unfortunately, this 'news' organization (NY Post) has been about supporting President Bush's agenda with very little question. President Bush has enabled Rupert Murdoch's empire to get bigger and wealthier. If you look to Fox News, you don't see much news, but you do see an awful lot of opinion. I don't regularly read the Post, but it seems to be very similar in its output.

Now, if there were other journalists reporting how wonderfully safe the streets in Iraq are ... say from news.bbc.co.uk, or even aljazeera.net ... it might cause me to look closer. But, those aren't the stories we are seeing. So for the moment, Mr. Peters article is the odd-man-out. I hope he's correct, but I doubt it. The preponderence of evidence points to a different truth ....

There was a daylight curfew in place, again, today (Friday) except for prayers from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM in Iraq. If it is so safe, why do you think that was?