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April 14, 2009

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Making Legends

By Greyhawk

Over in Hot Air's new Green Room, Jim treacher: Staged Military Photo Ops Suddenly Awesome

Funny stuff - on the unprovable Urban Legend level. The basis is an email from "a sergeant that was there" who says "Take a look at the picture at AP and notice all the cameras are the same models? Coincidence? I think not."

But it is a coincidence, because coincidentally in spite of what you might hear about "obscene amenities" the PX in Baghdad has a very limited selection of cameras, and this one is probably the cheapest (or only) model. If I was going to Victory Palace I'd take my camera - it's the sort of place you take a camera to. Mine was always in my pocket - digital cameras are about as common as combat patches among the troops in Iraq, the idea you'd have to distribute them for this or any event is a bit of a stretch.

By the way, here's a milblog report from SFC Burke - a guy in Baghdad with a name and a rank:


We all jumped at once. I grabbed my personal camera, my cover, and my weapon. "No weapons, leave them with me!" said 1SG.
Note the order of things he grabbed. (And have fun with that "no weapons" quote if you want.)

But the anonymous story could have happened, too - and that's what makes urban legends popular. And that (I believe) is Jim Treacher's point. The Bush with plastic turkey story was embraced as fact by the New York Times (and other 'legitimate' news sources) and is repeated as fact to this day. This tale? Not so much.

But it has been embraced, linked, quoted, and endorsed throughout the blogosphere. And Treacher's post has unsurprisingly drawn ringing endorsement in its comment section. Like equally significant stories about whether troops cheered louder for Bush or Obama or whether the President broke sacred and irrevocable protocol by shaking hands with a Marine it reinforces a concept that appeals to a large segment of the population: Obama isn't liked by the troops. (Some among that same segment will likely be outraged by reports of government suspicion of disgruntled combat veterans - suspicion that would be somewhat validated if their concurrent beliefs were true - but that's another story...)

*****

Last week on Hot Air, Ed Morrisey ran a Mudville story as "Obamateurism of the Day" Ed "gets" the story: "one might have expected Obama to have at least worked on memorizing the different units under his command in a war zone, especially since there were only four" - and even gets in a zinger: "In Obama's defense, I think he was hoping that they wouldn't be there at all when he took office."

The 40 second long video isn't an urban legend, it isn't "an email from a guy at microsoft" or "a sergeant that was there". But what I suppose both Ed and I failed to make clear is that it is, in fact, a de-bunking of a media-fueled urban legend - Obama as military commander, making decisions on strategy, and literally calling the shots (See this week's iteration, examined here). The guy in this video is, in fact, a guy who needs a note card to recite the names of the military commands in Iraq. Multi-National Force-Iraq is not a bit player. It's the top level of command in the theater. It was recently commanded by a guy named Petraeus and is now commanded by this Odierno dude - both of whom have had their name in the papers a few times. If details like the full names of MNF-I or MNSTC-I (you know, the non-combat dudes who are working with and training our Iraqi partners to turn things over to them?) are hard to pronounce tongue twisters unfamiliar to the average American that's okay. The average American isn't nominally in charge of the operation. Whoever is in charge of developing their strategy and issuing their orders (aka "a plan for Iraq") knows who they are. The President of the United States (until he gets to his well-rehearsed and headline making talking points) needs a notecard.

I say Ed and I failed to make that clear because commenters on his post quickly took Ed to task: "Give him a pass on this one. He obviously didn't want to screw up. This is minor." "To me he was being respectful to the troops. We have plenty to criticise him on. This was not it." "Ease up on the guy." "This is nothing to ping him on, imho." The best: "There is indeed lots to criticize Obama on. To jump on him for minutiae like this is to behave in EXACTLY THE SAME WAY as liberals we used to refer to as "deranged" and "unhinged"."

To be fair, many disagreed - though most did so because "what if Bush had done something like this?" - the answer being that it would have been front page news (and it would). And you'd have read about it here, too. But I suspect that the folks quoted above want to give Obama a break on this so that next time he shakes hands with a Marine they can rip him a new one and still be seen as "fair".

The entire point of the "Obamateurism of the Day" series, of course, is a response to Slate's long running "Bushism of the Day" series. It's serious to a point, but it was probably a mistake to include something in it that actually isn't remotely funny. (Last week's reader-voted Obamateurism of the week, Austrian is a language? - is funny.)

Funny has its place. Laughs - or even chuckles - are great. But until a significant number of folks start paying attention to things that are serious, too, no one's really going to take them seriously.


Posted by Greyhawk / April 14, 2009 2:03 PM | Permalink

1 TrackBack

Update: mystery 90% solved, see below. That headline above (another version "Subject: The Behind the Scenes News on the Gulf of Aden Pirate Take-Down") is the subject line from an email that's making the rounds. So yes - I've seen it. If you haven't se... Read More

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November 26, 2010


America@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 shall remain

INDEPENDENT - A non-profit member association, with no government support, that does not lobby for special interests;

NON-PARTISAN - An independent, professional military association with a mission, goals and objectives that transcend political affiliations; and shall encourage

IDEAS - Through its respected journals Proceedings and Naval History, its conferences, its books and its online content, in support of those who serve.

"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:

Closing Blogs is nothing new. So many site's owners just give up on their own. They come and go, you know, these MilBloggers do. Like any other sort of blogger. Many post in the lonely down hours far from home, spill their guts for the world, then abandon their spots when the tour of duty is up. They have lives again somewhere in the world, and no need to share the details. So it goes.

Many are truly gone - no site left at all. "The page cannot be found." Other blogs remain, like abandoned defensive positions in shifting desert sands.

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 | Comments (0) |

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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.
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The Mudville Gazette is written and produced by Greyhawk, who recently retired from 24 years of active duty in the US military, but will maintain this disclaimer: Unless otherwise credited, the opinions expressed are those of the author, and nothing here is to be taken as representing the official position of or endorsement by the United States Department of Defense or any of its subordinate components.

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

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*****

Tending Distant
Fires


Far from hearth and home, watching
Cold alone but not alone
On distant shore and only wanting
Safe return and little more

What tales we'll tell
When that time comes
When tales can be told

When things grim
Seem far away
When other fires go cold

Some distant sunset, vision fading
Memories remain
And tired eyes gaze 'pon folded flags
While distant drums beat their refrain

Saluting fallen friends whose names
And youth will never fade
Here's to those on other shores,
for them live well, the price is paid

- Greyhawk,
Baghdad,
December 2004