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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! April 15, 2006 Home of the BraveBy GreyhawkCheck out the Publisher's Weekly review of Home of the Brave : Honoring the Unsung Heroes in the War on Terror U.S. soldiers are fighting for our nation's survival, yet too many Americans couldn't care less, according to former secretary of defense Weinberger and Hall (coauthor with Richard Wirthlin of The Greatest Communicator: What Ronald Reagan Taught Me About Politics, Leadership, and Life). The fault lies with the liberal media, they add, which denigrates the military's valor and disparages America's war on terrorism. The authors aim to counter this misinformation with stories of 19 soldiers decorated for actions (rescuing endangered comrades or killing large numbers of the enemy) in Iraq and Afghanistan. Weinberger and Hall detail these accounts in breathless, overheated prose ("Rafael Peralta was not born in America, but he died defending her") and quote many fervent patriotic declarations plus expressions of love for democracy, commanders, wives, parents and God. These 19 soldiers—and the authors—believe absolutely that America's cause ("defending freedom") is just. Each chapter concludes with the official written citation that accompanied the soldier's medal. Readers searching for a deeper understanding of the war will end up no wiser."The fault lies with the liberal media, they add..." The New York Times has acknowledged the same shortfall in coverage. (And it's only fair to note that local papers do a wonderful job of covering the stories of heroes - and aren't afraid to call them heroes.) But the review above brings an entirely different tone to the debate - sneering at the "breathless prose" used to describe those who "believe absolutely that America's cause ("defending freedom") is just". "Readers searching for a deeper understanding of the war will end up no wiser" - true, if "deeper understanding" is code for validation of their own misconceptions. This is exactly the sort of book that people seeking a full understanding of the war should read - along with many others that deal with other specifics - and I'm curious as to why Publisher's Weekly seems so frightened by the prospect that they might. It's no surprise that the media will fixate on their own brief mention in this book, but those who actually read it will discover it's about heroes - not reporters. Posted by Greyhawk / April 15, 2006 6:25 PM | Permalink 10 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 |
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Readers searching for an uplifting story of Honor and Heroism and Courage, will be greatly rewarded.
Traits JFK found sorely lacking in public life when he wrote profiles in courage.
as if "defending freedom" were an illogical action or unattainable goal or mythical like a unicorn... odd. I thought defending freedom was what it is ALL about.
Why does the fault have to be with the media?
Why can it not be with Americans themselves? There are over 37 million Americans of military service age. Less than 400,000 raise their hands to serve in a given year. There is no program of national service which requires young men to fufill their obligations as a man. There are no aditional taxes to help pay for the war, there are no bond drives, recycling efforts, or anything to rally the people. CEO's still are allowed to make 175 million dollars on stock sales, and baseball players use steriods and make obscene salaries.
People are not being challenged to show better support so they don't. They put a yellow ribbon on their car and feel like they have done their bit.
"The fault dear Brutus is not in our stars; its with outselves".
"Why does the fault have to be with the media?"
Duh. Isn't the media the group that supplies the general public with news and information? If they are leaving out something because of their own agenda, I'd say that is their fault. I've seen more stories on Casey Sheehan's mother than stories on all of the war heroes combined. Whose fault is that?
"CEO's still are allowed to make 175 million dollars on stock sales, and baseball players use steriods and make obscene salaries."
Free market, supply and demand, etc., etc. That's irrelevant to the point of the post and the book.
If there were a mono-lithic thing as the media it might be true. There is not. There are just as many conservative media outlets as there are liberal ones.
We get what we demand and what we pay for. And its still true that on the home front, folks are not having to sacrifice for the good of the war effort.
When Americans demand better coverage, or give it themselves as is done here, you'll see more stories. As long as American Idol rules the ratings....well we get what we pay for.
Skippy-san - What are these conservative media outlets which you talk about that are equal in number to ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, etc? The only "conservative" media that I know of and follow each day are Rush Limbaugh, conservative blogs, milblogs, Washington Times, and the New York Post. If you can point me to any mainstream conservative media outlets on primetime TV, that would be great. Otherwise, I know of no primetime TV conservative news outlet. They are all liberal, anti-Iraq, anti-Bush, anti-Republican, anti-conservative and anti-military. As such, unless average Americans tune in to Rush Limbaugh or read conservative blogs or milblogs, they have no idea about the heroes, success and progress in the War on Terror.
Skippy-san ... some of your suggestions would actually be counterproductive in terms of supporting the war effort:
There is no program of national service which requires young men to fufill their obligations as a man.
Are you suggesting a draft? The military doesn't want it ... not just because draftees are less motivated than volunteers as a whole, but are often less qualified for doing the job.
However, because they are drafted, the Army can't turn them away they way they can volunteers who wouldn't be an asset; with the politicians demanding the higher numbers a draft is supposed to bring, turning away the unqualified means expanding the draft to replace them, which erodes support for both the draft and the military itself.
We recently had the usual trolls screeching about "lowered standards" ... a draft is the ultimate lowering of standards. Of course, other trolls want a draft, because they believe they can use it to shape public opinion a la Vietnam, and hobble the "evil imperialist Administration" in its quest for world domination BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
There are no aditional taxes to help pay for the war,
Thank God ... or else we wouldn't be able to pay for it!
Can't y'all get it through your heads that there is an optimum level of taxation for maximizing government revenue ... and that increasing taxes can actually cut revenues. Don't laugh off the Laffer curve ... its roots are as old as marginal revenue vs. marginal cost in Econ 101.
there are no bond drives, recycling efforts, or anything to rally the people.
And they wouldn't have more than a symbolic effect on the war effort, because the resources needed for today's war are cast as much in silicon and brainpower as they are in steel and muscle.
I'd much rather have them support this war effort from a basis of reality ... but first I have to cut through 40 years of Utopian egalitarianism, moral equivalence, and self-doubt to get them to the reality that you can't live with evil ... evil must be confronted, as quickly as it appears ... decisively, and with resolve ... to minimize the loss in blood and treasure.
Getting people to see that is more important than the symbolic "sacrifices" described above ... and real economic sacrifice, again, could be counterproductive to the war effort by hobbling the economy that fuels it.
CEO's still are allowed to make 175 million dollars on stock sales, and baseball players use steriods and make obscene salaries.
So? Joe Kennedy kept his (allegedly ill-gotten) fortune during WWII ... as did Howard Hughes, and many others. I didn't hear any complaints about them ... and we had the resolve to win that war, despite all that "profligacy".
Now, I will give you this -- FOX News is conservative ... an island of conservatism in a sea of Leftists who believe that they are "normal" and those who live in Flyover Country are "abnormal"; i.e. ignorant hicks.
As a redneck in a blue state, I do resent the arrogance and condension of those who hold that view.
Excuse me ... condesension.
If I was perfect, they couldn't afford to pay me ...
OK ... condescension
As Popeye would say, "this is embarraksin ..."
Your blog was recommended to me by Cassandra over at Villainous community. I'm a writer and I would just like to point out that literary critics generally care less about substance and more about style. Reviewers will point out "breathless overheated prose" in any work whether it's nonfiction, romance, science fiction, or anything else (Trust me, I know from personal experience). It's not the intentions or the aims of the work that are judged, its the writing style.
Now whether you should trust literary critics judgement of taste is another matter.