My last rock post

Thanks to many of you, a Gold Star Mother was able to dedicate a rock garden in memory of her fallen son yesterday. Rocks from all fifty states were sent to Marcia Kincaid, almost one-third of which came from milbloggers and our readers. Thank you.

I'll soon have photos, and possibly video, of the dedication ceremony.

Today at 4:00 EST, Gold Star Parents Robert Stokely and Marcia Kincaid will appear on the Andrea Shea-King Show. Tune in here at 4:00 EST to listen to Andrea's interview with these amazing parents, and to join the chat room.

Re: Ware UPDATED

Ware responds.

Update: Was Drudge wrong?

Fed Up and Fighting Back

MY FRIEND MARC DANZIGER IS FED UP.

I'm a liberal Democrat (pro-gay marriage, pro-choice, pro-progressive taxation, pro-equal rights, pro-environmental regulation, pro-public schools) who supported and supports the war in Iraq. As I tell my liberal friends "Did I miss the part where it was progressive not to fight medieval religious fascists?"

But instead of complaining, he's doing something about it. You can help.

Re: Zbig making the rounds

Since Brzezinski is no longer a senior government official (and hasn't been one for almost three decades, thank God!), I'm guessing that the UCMJ no longer precludes me from calling him a highly educated moron. An academic stuffed shirt. A total nimcompoop.

He was a disaster as Carter's National Security Advisor, and continues to embarass himself to this day.

There, that feels much better!

Re: Re: Ware

The first rule of being "our man" somewhere...is that if you take a vacation...someone else will be sitting in your chair.

How many nights did "CBS News with Dan Blather" not have Dan Blather?

BTW...if anyone sees Dan...ask him whether he can identify the difference between Taif and the Afghan/Pakistan Border?

Re: We-ah

Well, that's how *I* like to say his name.

Re: What to Make of This

Seriously, there is only one answer.

A Chat with General David Petraeus

Hey, who has an exclusive interview with General Petraeus posted??

Yeah that's right. OPFOR.

God, we rule. Seriously, we do.

Re: What to Make of This?

I think C-Cpan is a fairly low budget operation. Covering two events simulatneously is probably beyond their capability. They were probably also quite surprised by the turnout of "Gathering of Eagles".
So the problem with not covering "Gathering of Eagles" was that there were already commited to covering yet another Media Benjamim "Communists 'R Us" production.

I 've watched Brian Lamb for ages...decent enough guy...tries to stay neutral.

I'd like to see someone debate Media Benjamim on C-Span...I nominate Grim, or maybe we can get one of the Fadhil Brothers from Iraq to debate that Totalitarian Apologist.

Re: Ware

Ware has a bit of a history of splitting hairs.

That said, he has very much "been there". One can read that linked account with various interpretations, of course - especially in light of Buck's comments and this one at PowerLine's forum (on assumption it is authentic).

Inarguably, it seems to me he very much needs a vacation.

But has anyone seen an actual transcript (or video) of what went on in Baghdad between Ware and McCain? I'm aware of the Drudge interpretation - I'm looking for the real deal.

(Disclaimer: I'm on record.)

Re: Michael Ware(ing) Thin

Blast from the past alert: Just over one year ago I sent the following email from Mosul to Hugh Hewitt upon seeing an Anderson Cooper satellite feed segment featuring Ware, Hewitt, and Mike Yon on CNN. At the time, Ware seemed particularly in love with himself for being allowed to hang out with the jihadists without being beheaded. Hmmm, I wonder why they found keeping him alive had more utility for them them videotaping his execution?

I heard the interview on CNN with Mike Yon and yourself and that irritating Aussie. (All I can think of when I hear him is Robert Downey Jr.'s "Wayne Gale" portrayal in Natural Born Killers).Let me just say Cooper's argument that troops only "hide out on their bases" and don't see the "full picture" like those brave embeds do is total nonsense. They embeds are the ones never leaving the bases, and they are left to interview the support soldiers that never leave the wire either.

The infantry platoons spend more time out in the streets than any normal Iraqi would, and we spend up to 12 hours a day patrolling throughout the city and actually seeking out trouble wherever it may be. And we keep this pace up for a year straight. What Iraqi or reporter can make that claim? So to say we don't know what's going on is preposterous.

Journalists like Michael Ware are glory hounds (you can hear it in his voice) that come to Iraq to make a name for themselves as "war correspondents", and the only way they can do that is if all they do is cover nothing but blood and guts and gore. It's not exactly great copy to file a report that says, "I spent eight hours on patrol and absolutely nothing remarkable happened and I was bored stiff." That would be the truth on the majority of patrols, but it's not exciting and no one wants to read that so it's not going to get filed.

What to Make of This?

C-SPAN declined to cover the Gathering of Eagles a couple of weeks ago, but they did cover "the other side." Many people complained about this decision. Suddenly, C-SPAN seems very interested in pro-troop events.

C-SPAN sent me an e-mail last night asking, "Are there plans for any upcoming pro-troop events?"

After I finished laughing, I replied that the Gathering of Eagles are working on a rally with Rolling Thunder on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, but that we are not ready to make a formal announcement. (We still aren't, FYI.)

This morning, C-SPAN called me and asked me if I knew of any support the troops rallies happening soon anywhere in the country.

Powerline is right...

...about what's wrong with Michael Ware.

Maybe Ware was drunk; that would be consistent with his own description of how he spends his time in Baghdad. But he is an extreme manifestation of an all too common phenomenon--the journalist as advocate rather than neutral observer. One of the many problems with a reporter who becomes an activist, agitating for a particular side of a public issue, is that he loses any hope of objectivity. Having publicly committed himself to the proposition that everything that happens in Iraq is a disaster, having publicly ridiculed those who pointed to optimistic developments, how can anyone trust that Ware's future reporting is giving us anything like the straight story from Iraq? And what does his conduct say about his employer, CNN? How much confidence can we have in their reporting from Baghdad, or anywhere else?

Not much, I would argue.