The Boo Radleys (IV)

(This story began here. Previous installment here.)

"Behold with what companions I walked the streets of Babylon, and wallowed in the mire thereof..."

I was ashamed among other youths that my viciousness was less than theirs: I heard them boasting of their exploits...not only for the pleasure of the act but for the pleasure of the boasting....and when I lacked opportunity to equal others in vice, I invented things I had not done, lest I might be held cowardly for being innocent, or contemptible for being chaste.

-- The Confessions of St. Augustine

Greyhawk,

I thought you might be interested in this link.

(Rev.) Paul McNellis, S.J.
Philosophy Dept.
Boston College

{9} What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. {10} Is there anything of which one can say, "Look! This is something new"? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.
-- Ecclesiastes 1:9, 1:10

A comment to a previous installment in this series:

The current issue of The Nation features interviews with fifty Iraqi veterans who describe what they're ordered to do on a daily basis in Iraq and how they feel that there actions constitute terrorism. They describe home invasion raids where they burst into family homes in the middle of the night while the occupants are asleep and drag them out of bed. They hold them terrorized at gunpoint while they turn everything in their house upside-down. Many times the wife is exposed in ways that is humiliating and degrading for her because the weather is very hot with no electricity to run the AC. She ends up standing naked or barely covered in front of her family and the U.S. soldiers.

Then some people are taken away and other innocent people are sometimes shot and killed in the confusion. I've seen footage of some of these home invasion raids and the people are genuinely terrorized. I can't imagine that happening to me, but I'm sure Republicans will think it sounds fun and the people of Iraq should thank the U.S. soldiers for the exciting surprise entertainment in the middle of the night.

If you want to read these accounts buy a copy of the current issue of The Nation.

Posted by X_Tonian at August 16, 2007 12:46 AM

To find veterans willing to speak on the record about their experiences in Iraq, we sent queries to organizations dedicated to US troops and their families, including Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, the antiwar groups Military Families Speak Out, Veterans for Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War and the prowar group Vets for Freedom. The leaders of IVAW and Paul Rieckhoff, the founder of IAVA, were especially helpful in putting us in touch with Iraq War veterans.

I was right. As I was compiling a second piece on the IVAW members who'd participated (many of whom had appeared on Mudville previously), I received an email from the very same Paul Rieckhoff who the Nation claimed was “especially helpful in putting us in touch with Iraq War veterans".

Greyhawk,

Great blog. I am a regular reader.

I wanted to contact you ASAP to let you know that we agree with you about The Nation piece 100%. It was a total hit job. We do not approve of or support this piece of trash in any way. We responded immediately here.

Of course the Nation buried our letter, and gave the authors a chance to respond before it was posted--a courtesy they didn't give us.

"The Other War: Iraq Veterans Bear Witness," by Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian, paints a horribly inaccurate picture of civilian deaths in Iraq and the experiences of many veterans interviewed for this article.

That innocent Iraqi civilians are caught in the conflict's crossfire is a great tragedy, one felt deeply by American service members. Difficult, and sometimes questionable, decisions are made in the fog of war. However, this article does the US military and The Nation's readership a disservice with its sensationalistic and unethical reporting methods.

The Nation violated the trust of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and many of the service members interviewed. Reporters told our members that the focus of this piece was their experience in Iraq generally, not civilian casualties specifically. Many of the veterans involved spent hours talking to Ms. Al-Arian and shared deeply personal recollections on a variety of subjects, only to have their experiences misrepresented and/or isolated. The most graphic recollections were removed from context and used to bolster a preconceived conclusion by the authors about the patterns and frequency of civilian deaths. Critical facts were obscured or omitted entirely. This entire piece is a glaring example of the type of low-quality journalism that has been all too common in the coverage of the war in Iraq since it began.

The reporting tactics employed by Ms. Al-Arian were consistently questionable and even nefarious. One of our members wrote, "I did a two-hour interview with Laila [Al-Arian] and she cherry-picked one tiny anecdote for the piece. I felt used by the whole process." Another interviewee repeatedly asked the interviewer to clarify the definition of Iraqi "civilian." The reporter's refusal to provide that clarification led to a complete misrepresentation of the circumstances they discussed.

In the interviews, veterans described thoughts and responses that were specific to particular circumstances on the battlefield. In the article, those sentiments were portrayed as being the norm. As a result of this selective representation of the facts, egregious practices by service members in Iraq are described in the article as common. For instance, the use of the term "haji" is mentioned in the piece, but the reporters never state that the military banned the use of the term once its use in a derogatory manner became widespread. One of our members explained that to the reporter, but that detail, like so many other relevant ones, did not make it into the published piece.

Our organization was shocked and extremely disappointed by the tactics and low standards demonstrated by The Nation in the writing of this article. The men and women quoted in this article bravely spoke out precisely because they were concerned about the war and its effects on all people in Iraq--military or civilian. Like honorable military service, solid journalism requires an extremely high level of integrity and professionalism. This article is journalism at its worst. The veterans quoted trusted The Nation, and that trust was betrayed. Our members put themselves and their families at tremendous risk by choosing to participate in this article. But that is for each of them to worry about now. And The Nation has a sensational story that is sure to gain significant attention and sell numerous copies.

After this experience, it is unlikely that Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America will choose to work with The Nation in the future. And we strongly recommend that all 1.6 million veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan exercise the same reservation and caution in any dealings with this magazine.

Other quoted veterans were also outraged. Excerpts from their letters to The Nation:

While I haven't always agreed with The Nation, I have long valued its writing, and in fact, was a subscriber while I was serving in Iraq. This makes it all the more disappointing that the lengthy interviews I gave to Laila Al-Arian for your recent article, "The Other War: Iraq Vets Bear Witness" resulted in my quotes being taken way out of context. These mistakes reflect poorly on me personally and lead me to question whether Ms. Al-Arian and co-author Chris Hedges are guilty of poor analysis or of using my quotes to their own ends. I know this comes several weeks after the article was published, however I have been overseas most of this time conducting conflict resolution workshops and so it has been difficult to respond promptly.

One example of my problems with this article are that I am quoted saying, "I mean, you physically could not do an investigation every time a civilian was wounded or killed because it just happens a lot and you'd spend all your time doing that."

Your article's premise that unjustified shootings of civilians were rampant and that these were almost never investigated is not the question I was responding to when I made the above statement. The overwhelming majority of civilians wounded or killed I was referring to were not from shootings, let alone American shootings outside of full-scale fire-fights. They were mostly from IEDs, or shootings by insurgents.
<...>
I commend The Nation for interviewing fifty service members about their experiences in Iraq and for trying to tell stories that other media outlets miss. However, by taking my experiences severely out of context, you have disserved your readers overall as well as me personally.

Jonathan Morgenstein
Captain, United States Marine Corps Reserves
Arlington, VA

I, too, was a contributor to this piece. I respect the position of the other contributors and don't deny that in war bad things do happen. But in an effort to disclose all truths the below should also be known to readers.

I was personally outraged, appalled and horrified while reading this article and not due to the alleged findings...the alleged truths that this article supposedly uncovered. I was in complete disbelief at how inaccurately my statements were portrayed and how conveniently they were selected to support the thesis of the authors. I suspect that I'm not the only veteran of the fifty interviewed who shares these sentiments. I'm sickened and ashamed to be, in any way, associated with this article.

Megan O'Connor

Venice, CA

The Sun Also Rises is considered the first significant novel by Ernest Hemingway. Published in 1926, the plot centers on a group of expatriate Americans in Europe during the 1920s. The book's title, selected by Hemingway (at the recommendation of his publisher) is taken from Ecclesiastes 1:5...

The novel is a powerful insight into the lives and values of the so-called "Lost Generation", chronicling the experiences of Jake Barnes and several acquaintances on their pilgrimage to Pamplona for the annual fiesta and bull fights. Barnes suffered an injury during World War I which makes him unable to consummate a sexual relationship with Brett Ashley, who was widowed when her husband was killed during the war. The story follows Jake and his various companions across France and Spain. Initially, Jake seeks peace away from Brett by taking a fishing trip deep within the Spanish hills with companion Bill Gorton, another veteran of the war. The fiesta in Pamplona is the setting for the eventual meeting of all the characters, who play out their various desires and anxieties, alongside a great deal of drinking.

"You know it makes one feel rather good deciding not to be a bitch."
- Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

Story continues here