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 Greetings! You are reading an article from The Mudville Gazette. To reach the front page, with all the latest news and views, click the logo above or "main" below. Thanks for stopping by! May 8, 2005 IronyBy GreyhawkYou know why Milbloggers exist? So that someone can counter liars like Garry Trudeau. Great idea. Invent a milblogger and put words in his mouth. You so don't get it... Update: Dadmanly is a real milblogger in Iraq. Here's what he has to say on the matter. Update 2: Assumption of Command picks a different day's strip to pick apart. He's a real MilBlogger in Iraq too, of course.
Posted by Greyhawk / May 8, 2005 4:02 PM | Permalink 3 TrackBacksSeen this Doonesbury cartoon yet? It's grossly inaccurate and lacks comedy. Dadmanly and Mudville Gazette do a good job of pointing that out.... Read More Greyhawk points out the vast difference in view between a real milblogger in Iraq and the strawman milblogger created by liberal "cartoonist" Garry Trudeau in order to spout the left's talking points. I, and others, pointed out how irrelvent to th... Read More 19 Comments |
November 26, 2010America@war [Greyhawk]
I think anyone who's ever pondered the "comment" option - once only available on blogs and bulletin boards, now ubiquitous on almost any web site - will appreciate this:
The so-called faculty of writing is not so much a faculty of writing as it is a faculty of thinking. When a man says, "I have an idea but I can't express it"; that man hasn't an idea but merely a vague feeling. If a man has a feeling of that kind, and will sit down for a half an hour and persistently try to put into writing what he feels, the probabilities are at least 90 percent that he will either be able to record it, or else realize that he has no idea at all. In either case, he will do himself a benefit. That's wisdom from the past, captured for posterity at the US Naval Institute, shared via the web on the institute's 137th anniversary. From their about page:
"The Naval Institute has three core activities," among them, History and Preservation: The Naval Institute also has recently introduced Americans at War, a living history of Americans at war in their own words and from their own experiences. These 90-second vignettes convey powerful stories of inspiration, pride, and patriotism. Take a look at the collection, and you'll see it's not limited to accounts from those who served on ships at sea, members of the other branches are well-represented. I'm fortunate to have met USNI's Mary Ripley, she's responsible for the institute's oral history program (and she's the daughter of the late John Ripley, whose story is told here). She also deserves much credit for their blog. ("We're not the Navy nor any government agency. Blog and comment freely.") We met at a milblog conference - Mary knew (and I would come to realize) that milbloggers are the 21st-century version of exactly what the US Naval Institute is all about. Once that light bulb came on in my head, I mentioned a vague idea for a project to her - milblogs as the 21st century oral history that they are. "Put that in writing," she said (of course - see first paragraph above!) - and here's part of the result. Shortly after the first tent was pitched by the American military in Iraq a wire was connected to a computer therein, and the internet was available to a generation of Americans at war - many of whom had grown up online. From that point on, at any given moment, somewhere in Iraq a Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine was at a keyboard sharing the events of his or her day with the folks back home. While most would simply fire off an email, others took advantage of the (then) relatively new online blogging platforms to post their thoughts and experiences for the entire world to see. The milblog was born - and from that moment to this stories detailing everything from the most mundane aspects of camp life to intense combat action (often described within hours of the event) have been available on the web... And et cetera - but since you're reading this on a milblog, you probably knew that. And you know that milblogs aren't just blogs written by troops at war, that many friends, family members, and supporters likewise documented their story of America at war online in near-real time, as those stories developed. The diversity in membership of that group is broad, the one thing we all have in common is the impulse to make sense of the seemingly senseless, and communicate the tale - for each of us that impulse was strong enough to overcome whatever barriers prevent the vast majority of people from doing the same. Everyone at some point has some vague idea they believe should be shared - we were the people who, from some combination of internal and external urging, found and spent those many half hours persistently trying to write it down. But where will all that be in another 137 years? Or five or ten, for that matter. That's something I've asked myself since at least 2004 - when I wrote this:
Membership in the ghost battalion has grown in the years since, and an ever growing majority of those abandoned-but-still-standing sites are vanishing. Have you checked out Lt Smash's site lately? How about Sgt Hook's? If you're a long-time milblog reader you know the first widely-read milblog from Operation Iraq Freedom and the first widely-read milblog from Afghanistan are both gone from the web. If you're a relative newcomer to this world you may never even have heard of them - or the dozens upon dozens of others who carried forth the standard they set down. If you have a vague notion that something should be done about that, (a notion I've heard expressed more than once...) then you and I and the good folks at the US Naval Institute are in agreement. Preserving the history documented by the milbloggers is just one of the goals of the milblog project, the once-vague idea that we're now making real. And it's a big idea, if I say so myself - too big to explain in one simple blog post, so stand by for more. Likewise, it's too big a task to be accomplished by just one person. So if you're a milblogger (and exactly what is a milblogger? is a topic for much further discussion on its own) I'm asking for your help. All I'll really need is just a little bit (maybe just one or two of those half hours...) of your time, and your willingness to tell the tale. We've already made history, it's time to save it. (More to follow...) Posted 4:02 PM | Permalink |
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The Mudville Gazette is the on-line voice of an American warrior and his wife who stands by him. They prefer to see peaceful change render force of arms unnecessary. Until that day they stand fast with those who struggle for freedom, strike for reason, and pray for a better tomorrow.
 
 
 Furthermore, I will occasionally use satire or parody herein. The bottom line: it's my house. I like having visitors to my house. I hope you are entertained. I fight for your right to free speech, and am thrilled when you exercise said rights here. Comments and e-mails are welcome, but all such communication is to be assumed to be 1)the original work of any who initiate said communication and 2)the property of the Mudville Gazette, with free use granted thereto for publication in electronic or written form. If you do NOT wish to have your message posted, write "CONFIDENTIAL" in the subject line of your email. Original content copyright © 2003 - 2011 by Greyhawk. Fair, not-for-profit use of said material by others is encouraged, as long as acknowledgement and credit is given, to include the url of the original source post. Other arrangements can be made as needed. Contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com  Tending Distant Far from hearth and home, watching What tales we'll tell When things grim Some distant sunset, vision fading Saluting fallen friends whose names - Greyhawk, Baghdad, December 2004 |
I used to read Doonesbury every week without fail. Now I can't even bear to look at it, he's become so blatantly anti-American.
I used to read Doonesbury...then it stopped being funny.
Anyway, Garry could go visit Red2Alpha's blog if he wants to learn what a real milblogger bitches about and how he does it.
Thanks for the link to Dadmanly's post. Trudeau does, in fact, suck.
and "Pimp my ride" ? someone spends way to much time watching MTV!!
Sounds like, based on Dadmanly's post, that we should CUT the military budget. No problem with Armor and we "waste more supplies than the Army has". I am all for that. Lets start by stopping the latest waste of money - $80bl to the war effort. Lets apply that to the SCHOOLS in the US rather than fixing what we destroyed.
He used a pickup to pimp his ride with Bronco parts. A Bronco pickup? Did they ever exist? How many years has it been since Ford made Broncos? Has Trudeau ever been west of the Hudson? I'm just asking.
You guys are over-reacting. Trudeau is about the only guy on the left-side of the political spectrum who is spending any time treating soldiers like they are actual people, and not the mindless assholes that we are potrayed as in places like "DailyKOS".
I also think the recent recruiting storyline is actually challenging some of the liberal status-quo.
How about instead of calling him an asshole, you email him and politely tell him what you think.
Kevin: Ah, I see you just pasted the comment you made on Dadmanly's blog here. Does this mean one should post Dadmanly's shredding of your remark here as well?
Yeah Kevin just what this country needs more money wasted on schools!Earth to kevin the problem with our schools is not money,it is the garbage they 're teaching our kids is the problem.When will you left wingers start to face reality that all these schemes you all had going did not work.You teach revisionist history about this country.The constitution is not taught;kids don't even know what it says.Kids don't know geography can't locate a foreign country on a map.But boy you can get em' to a protest really fast!!You teach them destructive and degenrate bahavior in schools in kindergarten and first grade but they can't do a math problem,can't spell,not old or mature enough to hold a job but you nitwits say they can get an abortion at 12 and 13!How in the hell did you all come to such a dumb conclusion as this?!What I just mentioned in this post is the truth.Take it or leave it!At least with the military the American people know they are for the most part getting their money's worth.Sadly,that can't be said about our public schools.
I love it...all the people who said how they used to 'read Doonesbury without fail' even though neither his humor or politics have changed in 35 years. Spare me.
He actually puts soldiers in his comic (probably the only strip to consistently do so other than Beetle Bailey) and the right-wing still thinks he's a jerk. Whatever you say about him, his leftie audience still reads his strip and - gasp - might actually think about the soldiers in Iraq for one second of their hippy day.
But, whatever, it's more fun to attack him. It's very productive and positive.
Ummm... Ed, the minor problem with your complaint is that it's soldiers in Iraq who are responding - it ain't about a wing.
They don't need any has-been cartoonist to speak for them.
It's a few soldiers in Iraq responding...not ALL the soldiers. I'm sure there are more than a few who like the Doonesbury cartoons as well.
And, yes they DO need somebody to speak for them...not even a tiny percentage of Americans go to the milblogs, and many read the comics in the paper, while their eyes glaze over at the news. Any venue that tells about of soldiers in Iraq is a postitive.
And c'mon, Trudeau's not a has-been. He's in hundreds and hundreds of papers, has dozens of books out. It's like when the left wing calls Rush L. a fatbody. Like it or not, Trudeau is not a has-been, and Rush isn't fat (anymore). Saying it doesn't make it so.
Ed
If Trudeau wants to get the words of the MilBloggers in Iraq out to the public he can do so by pasting their url's into his strips. He's not - he's fabricating an imaginary MilBlogger who conveys Trudeau's view of the war to the public. I'll stand corected on the 'has-been' comment, his idealogy is 'has-been' but his syndication seems strong. So yes, every day thousands of his readers are thinking about soldiers - imaginary ones.
This should clarify the point of the title and the very first line in the post above. Milbloggers exist because we're tired of the Garry Trudeau's of this world 'speaking for us'.
Enter "From the Front" in the search window here and get to know a few more of them. I link all I find, regardless of ideology, etc.
Good points...still, imaginary soldiers or not, his strips bring the subject of soldiers in Iraq to the table, and that's important.
Any curious reader of his strip is likely to actually do five minutes of research and maybe find a real Milblog or two, that - without seeing the strip in the first place - they never would have otherwise been motivated enough to find. Then, they can read the 'other side' as well.
I think Ed's right on this.
Greyhawk, did you bother to email your idea about mil blogs URLs? I think you're being reactionary instead of using your position to actually influence something. Quit playing to the base, and reach out to people.
Hey Kris,
Thanks for sending readers from the Doonesbury site, even if it was only 40 visitors.
Make that 41.
Hey guys, interesting discussion you've got going on here. I just wanted to make a quick point: Trudeau actually did spend a fair amount of time in Iraq and Kuwait during the first Gulf War, much of that hanging out with- and producing cartoons about- US soldiers in the field. He gave the war and its soldiers extensive coverage, and even at one point gave over the space his strip occupies in hundreds of newspapers around the world to strips about the war by a young GI he'd met there.
I haven't heard of him going back this time, or we might have seen some real milblogs on the strip, but he does have experiences of the last war to his credit. Props to all you guys over there, sorry if you don't feel like you're being represented. I think most of us don't, most of the time. T'was ever thus.
For the most part, I think kudos to Trundeau for giving Iraqi soldiers any exposure at all, although he probably does have a serious left slant on them.
For Lisa's edification, most American schools do teach the use of spaces between sentences.
Lisa,
I'm always confused when people launch into generalized attacks on the public schools. Some public schools are bad, some are good. Some students are bad, some are good. Personally, I went to a stellar public school in one of the most liberal regions of the country (Walt Whitman HS in Bethesda MD). You'll be pleased to know that I am well aware that the phrase "separation of church and state" is not in the constitution, that the bill of rights originally did not apply to the states (but can you name the case that said so? Hint: It's initials are B v. B), and that the 10th amendment does, indeed exist. You'll probably be less pleased to know that I also know that the 2nd amendment talks in the context of a "well-regulated militia," that nowhere in the constitution is the phrase "original intent/meaning/understanding" present, and that the 14th amendment, by its terms, applies its protections to all PERSONS under the jurisdiction of the US, not just citizens (in other words, the suspected "enemy combatants" we have in custody count). I also can find Iraq on a map, and name its capital; I can do the same for most countries in the Middle East. I believe the war in Iraq was right and just, and I believe that President Bush royally screwed it up. I vote Democrat, and I hate Michael Moore. In short, I learned facts, yes, and also to become a critical thinker (don't think its easy to be a Democrat supporting the Iraq war in a 70% liberal school!). Part of being a critical thinker means challenging accepted modes of thinking and analyzing and critiquing pre-existing institutions--actions you'd probably group under "revisionist history" or "destructive and degenerate behavior," but which are vital to an informed citizenry and an engaged populace. Or at least, so I was taught.
Such was my education; it got me into one of the finest colleges in the country. And virtually all of that knowledge was either learned in the class, researched for school-sponsored extra-curriculars (IE, debate), or inspired by one of the several wonderful teachers I had the privilege of studying under.
We all can find our horror stories, and we can all find our explanations for them. You say X public school is bad, I say that its in an awful neighbor where kids are getting shot daily, what do you expect? I say that the military needs to come to terms with the abuses committed under its name, you say its just a few pranksters. The point remains the same: we should fix problems, not attach labels. I got a wonderful education at an incredible public school. Rather than throwing out talking points, why don't we concentrate on making more students' experiences like mine?
Yours,
David Schraub
Walt Whitman '04
Carleton College '08
The Debate Link: http://dsadevil.blogspot.com