posted on August 12, 2005 08:16:09 AM new
More truth of what's going on in Iraq from those that are actually there. I guess these people are Un-American in the eyes of those on the right because some are speaking out against the war.
BAGHDAD - There were no reporters riding shotgun on the highway north of Baghdad when a roadside bomb sent Sgt. Elizabeth Le Bel's Humvee lurching into a concrete barrier. The Army released a three-sentence statement about the incident in which her driver, a fellow soldier, was killed. Most news stories that day noted it briefly.
But a vivid account of the attack appeared on the Internet within hours of the crash last Dec. 4. Unable to sleep after arriving at the hospital, Le Bel hobbled to a computer and typed 1,000 words of what she called "my little war story" into her Web log, or blog, titled "Life in this Girl's Army," at http://www.sgtlizzie.blogspot.com.
"I started to scream bloody murder, and one of the other females on the convoy came over, grabbed my hand and started to calm me down. She held onto me, allowing me to place my leg on her shoulder as it was hanging free," Le Bel wrote. "I thought that my face had been blown off, so I made the remark that I wouldn't be pretty again LOL. Of course the medics all rushed with reassurance which was quite amusing as I know what I look like now and I don't even want to think about what I looked like then."
Since the 1850s, when a London Times reporter was sent to chronicle the Crimean War, journalists have generally provided the most immediate, first-hand depictions of major conflicts. But in Iraq, service members themselves are delivering real-time dispatches -- in their own words -- often to an audience of thousands through postings to their blogs.
"I was able to jot a few lines in every day, and it just grew from there," Le Bel, 24, of Haverhill, Mass., said in an e-mail. Her Web site has received about 45,000 hits since she started it a year ago.
At least 200 active-duty soldiers currently keep blogs. Only about a dozen blogs were in existence two years ago when the U.S. invaded Iraq, according to "The Mudville Gazette" ( http://www.mudvillegazette.com ), a clearinghouse of information on military blogging administered by an Army veteran who goes by the screen name Greyhawk.
Written in the casual, sometimes profane language of the barracks, they give readers an unfiltered perspective on combat largely unavailable elsewhere. But they are also drawing new scrutiny and regulation from commanders concerned they could compromise security
In April, Lt. Gen. John R. Vines, the top tactical commander in Iraq, published the military's first policy memorandum on Web sites maintained by soldiers, requiring that all blogs maintained by service members in Iraq be registered. The policy also barred bloggers from publishing classified information, revealing the names of service members killed or wounded before their families could be notified and providing accounts of incidents still under investigation.
‘Give away the farm’
"We don't have a problem with most of what they write, but we don't want to give away the farm," said Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, a military spokesman in Baghdad, who said such guidelines are nearly identical to those required of news organizations that cover the military.
Enforcement of the policy was left to the discretion of unit commanders. In late July, Arizona National Guard Spc. Leonard Clark became the first soldier found to have violated the new policy. He was fined $1,640 and demoted to private first-class for posting what the military said was classified material on his blog.
His site has since been shut down, although much of the content has been posted elsewhere on the Internet. He did not return e-mail messages seeking comment.
His postings -- which included long entries detailing attacks against American patrols and convoys -- described his company's captain as "a glory seeker" and the battalion sergeant major as "an inhuman monster." In at least one entry, Clark, who has run for political office in Arizona several times and was widely expected to run for Senate in 2006, suggested that his fellow soldiers were becoming opposed to the U.S. mission in Iraq.
"A growing number of men here are starting to wonder why we should continue to risk our lives for this whole mess when we know that the government will probably pull out of here," he wrote on April 11.
Other soldiers have said they decided to take down their Web sites after warnings from superiors. Last December, after an explosion in a soldiers' mess hall near the northern city of Mosul killed 22 people, including 14 U.S. soldiers, Maj. Michael Cohen, the doctor on duty at the nearest medical facility, wrote about the carnage on his blog http://www.67cshdocs.com :
"As I stepped outside, I couldn't believe what was going on. There had to be at least 30 patients on the ground waiting for medical care. We divided and conquered, going from patient to patient trying to determine who had the worst wounds and who needed to be treated first," he wrote. "We identified several patients with femur fractures as well as two humerus fractures. We also had two patients who were paralyzed from the waste [sic] down, another with some bleeding in the brain, and two more with eye injuries."
Soon after, however, he posted this message:
"Levels above me have ordered me to shut down this website. They cite that the information contained in these pages violates several Army Regulations. I have made a decision to turn off the site."
‘Therapeutic’
At least one former military blogger, however, is channeling the publicity his blog earned in Iraq into a new career. Colby Buzzell, a soldier who during his 12-month tour of duty started a blog called "My War" ( http://www.cbftw.blogspot.com , which stands for his initials plus an antiwar epithet), was eight months into his deployment when he read a magazine article about blogs and decided to give it a try. Within weeks, he said, his blog was receiving thousands of hits per day, and literary agents began peddling their services.
"It all happened at an alarming rate, basically overnight, after I wrote about a firefight. I have no idea how the heck people found out about it, they just did," said Buzzell, who got out of the military six months ago.
His book about his time in Iraq comes out in October. He has also written two articles for Esquire magazine. Now 29 and living in Los Angeles, he called blogging from the war zone "therapeutic."
"You go out on a mission or patrol, come back and sit down at a computer, and it was kind of a release," he said in a telephone interview. "I wasn't writing for a book deal, I was writing for myself. It was a way to deal with the madness and made the days go by a little faster."
Soldiers' Web sites vary from multimedia presentations of digital photos and videos to simple text written in journal form. Many bloggers say they do it to keep friends and family up to date or to counter what they consider the biases of the mainstream media.
Many entries are deeply personal. Battered but still able to perform her duties, Le Bel returned to her unit a few days after the roadside bomb attack. She attended the memorial service for her driver, whom she never named, and shared her thoughts with the readers in a Dec. 7 posting:
"I am now deathly afraid of the nightmares I have already seen bits and pieces of. I can see them in my mind when I close my eyes, I see the truck slamming into the wall and it scares me all over again. Why did I walk away from a wreck that killed a comrade and friend?"
Absolute faith has been shown, consistently, to breed intolerance. And intolerance, history teaches us, again and again, begets violence.
----------------------------------
President George Bush: "Over time the truth will come out."
President George Bush: "Our people are going to find out the truth, and the truth will say that this intelligence was good intelligence. There's no doubt in my mind."
Bush was right. The truth did come out and the facts are he misled Congress and the American people about the reasons we should go to war in Iraq.
posted on August 12, 2005 08:55:26 AM new
There has ALWAYS been dissension among troops. The current military is no exception. Only, the dissentors are the exception in this war because their comments are promoted by liberals and the main stream media.
If the other 99% (non dessentors) were given equal air time by the liberal main stream media, you libs would be bitchin about that.
"Why, it appears that we appointed all of our worst generals to command the armies and we appointed all of our best generals to edit the newspapers. I mean, I found by reading a newspaper that these editor generals saw all of the defects plainly from the start but didn't tell me until it was too late. I'm willing to yield my place to these best generals and I'll do my best for the cause by editing a newspaper." --Robert E. Lee
posted on August 12, 2005 09:03:37 AM new
Regardless of that Bear, those on the right especially a few here keep calling those that do not support the war Un-American.
There is a double standard by you and your people. Some of the troops can speak out against the war and you and your people do not say a word. Yet when anyone else does you are quick to call them Un-American, Un-Patriotic. There is no difference in the action of speaking out against the war.
Either those troops who speak out against the war are Un-American for voicing their opinion or no one is.
I don't expect an answer from you or your people because you won't dare call the troops who are against the war Un-American.
Absolute faith has been shown, consistently, to breed intolerance. And intolerance, history teaches us, again and again, begets violence.
----------------------------------
President George Bush: "Over time the truth will come out."
President George Bush: "Our people are going to find out the truth, and the truth will say that this intelligence was good intelligence. There's no doubt in my mind."
Bush was right. The truth did come out and the facts are he misled Congress and the American people about the reasons we should go to war in Iraq.
posted on August 12, 2005 09:34:03 AM newThere is a double standard by you and your people.
Thats the pot calling the kettle black
I wouldn't expect you to know or have experience in this area, but those troops that are dissentors, lower the moral of ALL the other troops they are around. When moral decreases it effects their performance & INCREASES their risk of injury. They dont pay attention to their jobs and training. This is a job where attention to detail, reaction and responce to a situation is what keeps them alive. If you are thinking and/or listening to the bitchin of another troop, you cant give your job the 110% it demands.
"Why, it appears that we appointed all of our worst generals to command the armies and we appointed all of our best generals to edit the newspapers. I mean, I found by reading a newspaper that these editor generals saw all of the defects plainly from the start but didn't tell me until it was too late. I'm willing to yield my place to these best generals and I'll do my best for the cause by editing a newspaper." --Robert E. Lee
posted on August 12, 2005 10:31:40 AM new
Besides what bear has already stated....because the soldiers write about what they're going through...or their personal injuries....doesn't mean ALL are saying this war is wrong.
And with your reading skills, logansdad, I'm sure you're not noticing that fact.
War is hell....doesn't surprise me that the liberals use our soldiers for their own agenda....and don't read or hear about all our brave soldiers who also have been injuried...saying exactly the opposite of what the desenters are saying.
But at least they're over there....serving their country. Brave men and women that you'd personally have no guts to do what they're doing. You have the easy job....whining and complaining while it total safely.
"Whenever the nation is under attack, from within or without, liberals side with the enemy. This is their essence." --Ann Coulter
And why the American Voters chose to RE-elect President Bush to four more years. YES!!!
posted on August 12, 2005 10:41:04 AM new
LindaTwelveK,"War is hell....doesn't surprise me that the liberals use our soldiers for their own agenda""
And what did Bush & co. use them for ?
""....and don't read or hear about all our brave soldiers who also have been injuried""
Yes, WE mention the "injuried" all the time.
""""...saying exactly the opposite of what the desenters are saying. ""
Dissenters
"""But at least they're over there....serving their country. Brave men and women that you'd personally have no guts to do what they're doing. You have the easy job....whining and complaining while it total safely""
And YOU promote war and bloodshed while YOU are "it total safely"
posted on August 12, 2005 10:52:54 AM newAnd what did Bush & co. use them for ?
Lets see which other President "USED" American troops. Well there was, Lincoln in the Civil War, McKinley in the Spanish American War, Woodrow Wilson in WWI, Roosevelt & Truman in WWII, Truman again in Korea, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson & Nixon in Vietnam, Bush in the 1st Gulf War, clinton is Kosovo & Mogadishu and now Bush in Iraq & Afghanistan.
ALL American Presidents involved in world conflicts have used and LOST troops in battle. It is inevitable that lives will be lost.
Only in a perfect demoncratic Utopian world will there ever be no armed conflicts.
There is a right place and a wrong place for dissension in the military. It isn't appropriate in the middle of a battlefield to voice dissension, IT COST LIVES.
"Why, it appears that we appointed all of our worst generals to command the armies and we appointed all of our best generals to edit the newspapers. I mean, I found by reading a newspaper that these editor generals saw all of the defects plainly from the start but didn't tell me until it was too late. I'm willing to yield my place to these best generals and I'll do my best for the cause by editing a newspaper." --Robert E. Lee
[ edited by Bear1949 on Aug 12, 2005 11:00 AM ]
posted on August 12, 2005 04:57:03 PM new"War is hell....doesn't surprise me that the liberals use our soldiers for their own agenda""
That is exactly what you are doing Linda, so don't say it is just the Liberals.
Bush is using the soldiers to fight his war.
You are using the soldiers as an excuse to blame everyone who does not support the same views as you do.
You are such a hyprocrite.
Absolute faith has been shown, consistently, to breed intolerance. And intolerance, history teaches us, again and again, begets violence.
----------------------------------
President George Bush: "Over time the truth will come out."
President George Bush: "Our people are going to find out the truth, and the truth will say that this intelligence was good intelligence. There's no doubt in my mind."
Bush was right. The truth did come out and the facts are he misled Congress and the American people about the reasons we should go to war in Iraq.
