posted on May 20, 2004 02:47:23 PM new
Some of you may have received a email about this. I did several days ago & haven't been able to validate the story til now. This is the type of American Hero Kerry could learn from.
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SOMETHING THAT DIDN'T MAKE THE NEWS
Maybe you’d like to hear about something other than idiot Reservists and naked Iraqis.
Maybe you’d like to hear about a real American, somebody who honored the uniform he wears.
Meet Brian Chontosh.
Churchville-Chili Central School class of 1991. Proud graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology. Husband and about-to-be father. First lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps.
And a genuine hero.
The secretary of the Navy said so yesterday.
At 29 Palms in California Brian Chontosh was presented with the Navy Cross, the second highest award for combat bravery the United States can bestow.
That’s a big deal.
pb]But you won’t see it on the network news tonight, and all you read in Brian’s hometown newspaper was two paragraphs of nothing. Instead, it was more blather about some mental defective MPs who acted like animals.[/b]
The odd fact about the American media in this war is that it’s not covering the American military. The most plugged-in nation in the world is receiving virtually no true information about what its warriors are doing.
Oh, sure, there’s a body count. We know how many Americans have fallen. And we see those same casket pictures day in and day out. And we’re almost on a first-name basis with the pukes who abused the Iraqi prisoners. And we know all about improvised explosive devices and how we lost Fallujah and what Arab public-opinion polls say about us and how the world hates us.
We get a non-stop feed of gloom and doom.
But we don’t hear about the heroes.
The incredibly brave GIs who honorably do their duty. The ones our grandparents would have carried on their shoulders down Fifth Avenue.
The ones we completely ignore.
Like Brian Chontosh.
It was a year ago on the march into Baghdad. Brian Chontosh was a platoon leader rolling up Highway 1 in a humvee.
When all hell broke loose.
Ambush city.
The young Marines were being cut to ribbons. Mortars, machine guns, rocket propelled grenades. And the kid out of Churchville was in charge. It was do or die and it was up to him.
So he moved to the side of his column, looking for a way to lead his men to safety. As he tried to poke a hole through the Iraqi line his humvee came under direct enemy machine gun fire.
It was fish in a barrel and the Marines were the fish.
And Brian Chontosh gave the order to attack. He told his driver to floor the humvee directly at the machine gun emplacement that was firing at them. And he had the guy on top with the .50 cal unload on them.
Within moments there were Iraqis slumped across the machine gun and Chontosh was still advancing, ordering his driver now to take the humvee directly into the Iraqi trench that was attacking his Marines. Over into the battlement the humvee went and out the door Brian Chontosh bailed, carrying an M16 and a Beretta and 228 years of Marine Corps pride.
And he ran down the trench.
With its mortars and riflemen, machineguns and grenadiers.
And he killed them all.
He fought with the M16 until it was out of ammo. Then he fought with the Beretta until it was out of ammo. Then he picked up a dead man’s AK47 and fought with that until it was out of ammo. Then he picked up another dead man’s AK47 and fought with that until it was out of ammo.
At one point he even fired a discarded Iraqi RPG into an enemy cluster, sending attackers flying with its grenade explosion.
When he was done Brian Chontosh had cleared 200 yards of entrenched Iraqis from his platoon’s flank. He had killed more than 20 and wounded at least as many more.
But that’s probably not how he would tell it.
He would probably merely say that his Marines were in trouble, and he got them out of trouble. Hoo-ah, and drive on.
“By his outstanding display of decisive leadership, unlimited courage in the face of heavy enemy fire, and utmost devotion to duty, 1st Lt. Chontosh reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service.”
That’s what the citation says.
And that’s what nobody will hear.
That’s what doesn’t seem to be making the evening news. Accounts of American valor are dismissed by the press as propaganda, yet accounts of American difficulties are heralded as objectivity. It makes you wonder if the role of the media is to inform, or to depress – to report or to deride. To tell the truth, or to feed us lies.
But I guess it doesn’t matter.
We’re going to turn out all right.
As long as men like Brian Chontosh wear our uniform.
"The Secret Service has announced it is doubling its protection for John Kerry. You can understand why — with two positions on every issue, he has twice as many people mad at him." —Jay Leno
posted on May 20, 2004 05:43:04 PM new
Bear - i think the story is wonderful and the young man is certainly someone to be proud of.
The sad thing is that if this yong man were to someday run for office as a democrat - you would be trying to find a way to to invalidate that same medal that you just posted in celebration of
. Why is his medal worth more or moore valid than Kerry's? You can't hoist the heroism of one man awarded a military medal after spending the past month of questioning the validity of other medals awarded by the same system.
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on May 20, 2004 10:13:42 PM new
bear - What a GREAT story - thanks for sharing it. Thank God we have men like Brian Chontosh serving our country.....brave men - true HEROS.
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There's quite a bit of 'things' that don't make the news. I was reading a blog yesterday of the good things that are going on over there. Maybe if all the left leaning press weren't only pointing out all the negative....letting more people hear/learn about the good that is being done in Iraq they might be more supportive of their own country's actions. But that, sadly, isn't their agenda or goal....
posted on May 21, 2004 12:03:08 AM new
Linda_K, what's stopping you from reporting all the good news from Iraq? I've hardly seen you mention any good stories about the conditions there and since you've been so gung ho about the war right from the start I figure you'd be the one to tell us all the great things happening over there that are making it a better place for all. So now is your perfect opportunity, maybe share the blogs with us.
I really don't think the "left leaning press" is the only one that reports news worldwide. BTW, there is good news and there is truth. Could it be that the truth overshadows the good news?
posted on May 21, 2004 06:12:33 AM new
The truth is that the situation in Iraq is a miserable failure -- a fact that nobody can reasonably deny. Almost one year after military occupation, there is no security in Iraq. In the quise of bringing Democracy, the Bush administration has violated International law, human rights and the Geneva Convention.
Today, there are more pictures and accounts by the Iraqi detainies revealing even more evidence of abject torture.
The war in Iraq is spiraling out of control with no resolution in sight.
posted on May 21, 2004 06:25:46 AM new
So you're saying we've lost the war because of a dozen or less misbehaving security guards? Get over it, it's just not that big of a deal. The guilty will be punished and an investigation will end the mistreatment.
You really want to abandon millions of desperate Iraqis over this foolishness? Get your priorities straight people!!!
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We do not stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing -- Anonymous
The new pictures and videos go beyond the photos previously released to the public in several ways, amplifying the overt violence against detainees and displaying a variety of abusive techniques previously unseen. They show a group of apparently cavalier soldiers assaulting prisoners, forcing detainees to masturbate, and standing over a naked prisoner while holding a shotgun.
posted on May 21, 2004 07:36:23 AM new
The Press Can't Let The Abuse Story Go:
By Jennifer Harper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
5-21-04
Accounts and graphic photos of Iraqi prisoner abuse persist in the press despite the fact that the story has run its course.
The world already knows salient details of the prisoner humiliation and nudity, the causes of the abuse are under official investigation, and the courts-martial have begun. Yet, the caterwaul in the press against the American military and the war in Iraq continue.
"U.S. faces growing fear of failure," noted one recent Washington Post headline.
ABC was the first to air yet another set of photos ? these showing two U.S. soldiers grinning next to the body of an Iraqi at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. Al Arabiya, an Arabic broadcaster, also aired the photos of Army Spc. Charles A. Graner and Spc. Sabrina D. Harman ? both facing a court-martial for prisoner abuse.
As usual, the source of the photos remained unidentified. ABC billed them as "an exclusive" and noted that the soldiers were "posing over the body of a detainee who was allegedly beaten to death by CIA or civilian interrogators in the prison's showers."
Positive human-interest accounts about the armed forces are rare. The press tends to ignore battlefield vignettes from military news services, which could offer an expanded perspective to the public.
For example, 30 U.S. airmen and soldiers delivered school supplies and toys ? gifts from American children ? to an Iraqi village on Monday.
Yesterday, Air Force medical teams airlifted a critically ill Iraqi infant and her mother to an Ohio hospital for treatment.
The news focus is elsewhere.
Earlier this week, Reuters news service announced that three of its "journalists" ? actually two Iraqi cameramen and a driver under contract ? had been beaten and taunted by Army paratroopers in January.
But an Army investigation released yesterday cleared the soldiers of charges and categorized the incident as "a closed case."
The report noted that "the soldiers clearly believed that these same Iraqis had attacked them previously" and pronounced that the charges of humiliation made by the Iraqis against the soldiers "are not credible."
Tim Graham of the Media Research Center (MRC) noted yesterday that the "gay marriage story" overtook the prisoner abuse story in the press, but only for a day.
"This abuse story is just not going away. It's still the first topic on most network news," Mr. Graham said. "And there's strong focus on the court-martials, on the bad apples ? it's as if those troops represent the military at large, as far as the media is concerned.
That is very discouraging."
The center has been following "the bias problem" among broadcasters who use the abuse story to build a case against the war in Iraq and the Bush administration.
As a sample, the group tracked abuse stories from April 29 through May 11 on NBC and found that the network aired 58 stories on the abuse in that period.
The MRC also found, however, that in the past year, NBC had aired only five stories on mass graves found in Iraq from the Saddam Hussein era.
posted on May 21, 2004 09:32:36 AM newNBC had aired only five stories on mass graves found in Iraq from the Saddam Hussein era.
The reason for this is that it is not "news", and it may be "news" that Bush doesn't want reported. So far it can not be discerned if these bodies were Iraqi victims of Saddam or bodies of the dead from the Iran Iraq war - in which we supported Iraq. Iran lost 1 million people in the war.
So what happens when the bodies turn out to be Iranians that were gassed during the war using gas and chemicals that we gave Iraq ?
I suppose the Bush supporters would then complain about the reporting of the mass graves.
posted on May 21, 2004 11:49:48 AM new
So it Wasn't Jailhouse Rock at Abu Ghraib, But...
Posted by Jack Engelhard
Thursday, May 20, 2004
About that prison abuse scandal, we keep being reminded that sex is taboo among Arab/Muslim men. Even bees do it, but these men demur and don't do it unless it's proper, meaning, between husbands and wives. They are so virtuous. That's the story and the news media are sticking to it in this war of images--which we're losing, by the way. We're getting to be as bad as the Israelis at hasbarah, public relations.
Of Abu Ghraib, one alleged victim kept telling us over all our networks, in approximately these words, ''The Americans made me stand naked in front of other men, and women. I would rather they had killed me. Yes, this is worse. There is nothing more terrible for a Muslim than sexual humiliation.''
Really.
If you believe that the act of procreation is so sanctified among Muslim men, then you missed that segment on CBS' ''60 Minutes,'' which showed behavior of another kind. Right outside Paris, in enclaves that house a massive and disgruntled Muslim population, it is not safe being a woman. The men swagger, the women hide, as much as they can, for all women are fodder for rape. An attempt every hour on the hour seems to be about the average weekdays, weekends, and holidays.
For the CRIME and SHAME of being raped, by the way, a woman is either ostracized by her kin--or murdered. In one scene from the ''60 Minutes'' program, a rapist was cheered from the windows and balconies of his neighborhood as if he were Charles Lindbergh getting the ticker tape treatment on Broadway. The rapist.
Christiane Amanpour, who filed the report, made a strange comparison when she alleged that the (lowly) conditions of Muslims in Paris corresponded to blacks in America. Some (include me) might consider this a terrible insult to African Americans. I do not think that rape binges are part of the African American legacy. Nor are honor killings.
This attempt to connect Muslim civil disobedience to African American Civil Rights was a sorry move at grandstanding to the left.
Otherwise, though, the ''60 Minutes'' report was quite unblinking. But while we'll always have Paris to remember the sensitivity of Muslim men toward their women, there are other spots within that world where women are cattle, rape is everywhere and prurience is the lifestyle. Not universally so, to be sure, as we must assume that within Islam there is a true and honorable Silent Majority.
But too Silent. From our side as well.
We have yet to hear any voice mention the paradox of what a handful of us did to them, against what they do to their own as carnally and as casually as lighting up a cigarette.
Sorry, wrong parallel, as smoking is prohibited.
But in all this geshrei over Abu Ghraib, you'd think we're facing a generation of Philadelphia Main Line Country Club pansies and prudes.
Not quite so.
On a visit to a Navy base in Haifa some time back, I got to talking with a captain who had served in one Arab/Israeli war after another. He let me have it when, in my stupidity, I said, ''But after all, they are Muslims, religious people.'' We were on the topic of Arafat and his PLO (or DFLP) terrorists, who had made themselves a home in Lebanon (the famous ''state within a state'') so that they'd be close enough to Israeli kindergartens.
''Religious?'' said this IDF captain. ''Let me tell you about religious.''
He told me about a special raid into one camp where Arafat and his Merry Men had made themselves comfy. Particulars escape me, as it's been a while, but maybe my captain was referring to the Litani Operation that was launched by Israel in response to repeated terrorist forays from Lebanon. The terrorists had darted in and out of Israel, guns blazing, but now, with the IDF close behind.
''We went into the village,'' said my soldier friend, ''and the enemy had mostly dispersed. We entered all their huts and what we found was not the Koran, my dear friend. What we found was disgusting. There was pornography all over the place. Every wall was plastered with pictures of women in the most disgraceful poses. Then we went around to secure the town and found that all the female inhabitants--Lebanese women--were pregnant. They had all been raped.''
Then: ''Religious people? Please.''
Yes, there's that part of the world beyond Abu Ghraib that appears to have escaped our attention. True, the events at that Iraqi prison were not quite Elvis at Jailhouse Rock.
But let's keep it all in proportion.
Not that bringing up their lopsided transgressions will stop the ''gotcha'' gang from using Abu Ghraib as a means to slacken our resolve. One of our TV commentators kept shouting, ''We must never forget what we did to them!'' We? What You Mean We, Kimosabe? We're dealing with hardly a dozen misfits that did that to them...and which doesn't compare to THEIR actions upon us before, during and after 9/11.
Those 9/11 panelists, by the way…every time I check into their hearings I keep thinking ''Hollywood Squares,'' as in, ''Weren't these faces well-known 14 years ago?'' So now these bygone stars, who keep disproving F. Scott Fitzgerald, are also going after our president (at least half of them are) as if George W. Bush, or any other president, could guess what was coming literally from over the horizon.
Even 21st Century wisdom and technology are not enough when the Seventh Century dusts itself off and starts all over again.
They know it in the outskirts of Paris. They know it in the streets of Jerusalem. They know that if it's humiliation you want, there's a big world outside Abu Ghraib.
Fact is the Iraqi people were better off under Saddam's rule;
NOT
Good news from Iraq - bet you didn't know there was any?
Prisoner abuse, Shia uprising, prisoner abuse, Fallujah, prisoner abuse, lost heart and minds, prisoner abuse... Oh, did I mention prisoner abuse?
The news from Iraq has been consistently bad for two month now, with one "quagmire" after another cheering up the media, the left and the "Arab street", and depressing the hell out of most conservatives.
So, for a change, here's some good news from Iraq that you might have missed (I don't know how that could have happened):
DEMOCRACY TAKES ROOT: Democracy is spreading - from the ground up, as it should: "In the province of Dhi Qar, about 230 miles southeast of Baghdad and a backwater even by Iraq's standards, residents voting as families will have elected city councils in 16 of the 20 biggest cities by next month."
And in Baghdad, "American authorities created nine district councils... with representatives sent by 88 neighborhood advisory councils. The district councils, in turn, sent representatives to the Baghdad City Advisory Council to work with the American administration." "Every day the evidence is a little stronger that the council members understand the benefits of this system, and we even see signs out in the community of it catching on."
Meanwhile, a Western PR firm, with Arab partners, tackles the world's toughest ad campaign - selling democracy to Iraqis accustomed to life under a dictatorship.
HEALTHIER, WEALTHIER AND WISER: "[M]y salary was about 17 US$ before the war. Shortly after the war it was raised to 120 US$. Three months after that, they made it 150 US$. Two months later it became 200$... [and] from the next month... [it] will be around 300 US$" - read the whole extensive piece on salaries, unemployment, and the standard of living. It makes a fascinating living.
And there's also good news for retired government employees, who are finally getting decent pensions. And the 80,000 needy families, who are being taken care of by the Iraqi Minister of Labour and Public Affairs (with 300,000 more by the year's end). According to the Minister, Sami Azara Al Majoon: "We have rehabilitated the orphanages, the centres for the handicapped and special needs institutions in Iraq, as well as the institutions for the deaf and blind. Work is on to accommodate all the homeless and orphaned children and ensure the needs of the handicapped. In addition, we have opened 28 offices for the ministry in different parts of the country to accept applications of Iraqi citizens in search of employment and job training."
Meanwhile, on the education front, "more than five million Iraqi students are back in school and more than 51 million new Ba'ath-free textbooks are in circulation." And Iraqi universities are experiencing a brain drain in reverse, as many of the thousands of academics forced into exile under Saddam are coming back to teach the next generation of students.
And in health, "some 100,000 healthcare professionals working in 240 re-opened hospitals and 1,200 clinics." The health system has to be rebuilt almost from scratch: "[it] was 'already badly run down' due to previous wars, sanctions, drastically reduced spending - some estimates suggest the Iraqi health budget was cut by 90 per cent during the 1990s - as well as an inequitable health treatment policy."
SPIRITS REVIVE: "In a stunning upset victory, the Iraq national football team defeated Saudi Arabia tonight 3 to 1 to earn a trip to the 2004 Olympic Summer games in Athens." It's the first time in Iraq's history that Iraqi football team will compete in the Olympics. Better still, the soccer stadium in Baghdad won't be used by Saddam anymore as an outdoor torture chamber, and Iraqi soccer player know that if they fail in the future they won't be tortured by Uday Hussein.
Other areas of life previously suppressed are experiencing cultural revival - like traditional Kurdish music. "Before, Arab music was the most popular, but now even the latest albums aren't selling... Many more people are buying Kurdish music," says Niyaz Zangana, who runs the popular Zang record store in Arbil.
Not just Kurds, but also Marsh Arabs, whose homeland was destroyed by Saddam as collective punishment for rebellion, are reviving. With the marshes being reflooded and ecosystem restored, the ancient culture is returning to the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
THE RECONSTRUCTION: "Iraqi crude oil sales since last year's U.S.-led invasion hit more than $9 billion... The Coalition Provisional Authority had deposited a total of $9.28 billion in its Development Fund for Iraq."
"Some 20,000 contractors are doing business in the country with relatively few security problems... Most are sharing in the $18.4 billion that has been allocated by the U.S. government to rebuild roads, public utilities, schools, housing and other parts of the Iraq economy."
John Roberts, a contracting officer with the Army Corps of Engineers, says: "Saddam Hussein used power as a reward and punishment... Power's important to us (Americans) because we see power as relating to the people." While the Army Corps of Engineers has been mostly restoring oil infrastructure, it is also "creating and improving ports, airports, roads, bridges, schools and health clinics. The corps has replaced more than 700 electrical towers throughout Iraq, Roberts said. The goal is to restore 6,000 megawatts to the national grid by June 1. About 4,500 megawatts are currently on the national grid."
In fact, overall "about 2,200 different [reconstruction] projects worth around US$2.5 billion were under way, with 18,000 already completed. Targets had been met with oil production, which was back to 2.3 million barrels a day, clean drinking water and power."
Meanwhile, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce welcomes the establishment of an American Chamber of Commerce in Iraq -- "AmCham for short."
And while the big guys work on the big stuff, a lot of private charity work is going on under the radar, be it donations of toys for Iraqi children, helping with supplies and equipment for Iraqi schools, or this latest appeal: "In response to a request from the U.S. 1st Marine Division, Spirit of America donated 10,000 school supply kits, 3 tons of medical supplies and 2 tons of Frisbees printed with 'Friendship' in English and Arabic. These items will be given to Iraqis by the Marines as gifts of friendship from the American people."
THE SECURITY SITUATION: Fallujah is revolting and al-Sadr is stirring trouble in the Shia south, but the Kurd-controlled areas are going so well that you never hear anything about them: "American soldiers based here don't have to call in air strikes against foreign fighters or exchange gunfire with Baathist loyalists. Nor do they live in mortal fear of deadly IEDs, or improvised explosive devices, along the roadsides. In fact, says one soldier who travels in this area, 'I always see the thumbs up, and little kids offer us candies'."
Speaking of Fallujah, the US-appointed retired major-general, Mohammed Abdul-Latif, seems to be having a calming effect on the locals: "We can make [the US] use their rifles against us or we can make them build our country, it's your choice," he has told "a gathering of more than 40 sheikhs, city council members and imams in an eastern Fallujah suburb... As he spoke, many sheikhs nodded in approval and listened with reverence. Later, they clasped his hands and patted him on the back."
Elsewhere, "Accused of being collaborators with American occupation forces, Iraqi policemen, guards, and soldiers have endured ridicule, threats, and targeted violence that have left hundreds dead over the past year. But there are signs that hard-nosed attitudes toward the country's embattled, US-trained security forces are beginning to soften."
THE REAL PRISONER ABUSE: The story of nine Iraqis sent to Abu Ghraib prison on flimsy charges, tortured, mutilated and filmed for amusement. By Saddam Hussein. The nine men in question had their hands chopped off; now Americans are giving them new ones.
THE MIDDLE EASTERN DOMINOES: "We went to the Arab countries and said, 'Look, you need to come together with a blueprint for Arab reform. If you do not articulate such a blueprint, one may be forced upon you.' We in Jordan are in the clear: We have our plans and are not using regional problems as an excuse. We are moving forward, as are some of the other moderate countries. But the rest of you, 'Wake up!' The Middle East is changing. If you don't get that process going, one will be forced on you." - King Abdullah of Jordan in an interview with "Washington Post".
Had enough? Now back to prisoner abuse, al-Sadr, terrorism, prisoner abuse...
"The Secret Service has announced it is doubling its protection for John Kerry. You can understand why — with two positions on every issue, he has twice as many people mad at him." —Jay Leno
posted on May 21, 2004 12:53:13 PM new"You may read statements by the detainees...Sworn Statements by Abu Ghraib Detainees"
“Important Point:
All the guards excluding Grainer and Davis are very good with the prisoners and the prisoners like them and respect them and are very happy with them. They give a good image of the United States and they prove by their good treatment the big difference the Baath Party and the United States.”
- last paragraph of the TRANSLATION OF STATEMENT PROVIDED BY Mustafa Jassim MUSTAFA, Detainee # 150542, 1610/17 JAN 04
ubb edit
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"The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work." - Richard Bach
[ edited by wgm on May 21, 2004 12:53 PM ]
