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Recent Appearances... Rantburg

-Short Attention Span Theater-
Activist Media Venue up for Sale (Goebbels' Estate)
2007-01-28
The hideaway villa used by Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda chief, to entertain his lovers is to be put up for sale in an attempt to bail out the cash-strapped city of Berlin. The rundown, empty Wald-hof estate, set in woodland 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of the city, has become a financial burden for the Berlin council, which has been contemplating the closure of opera houses and other desperate measures to avert bankruptcy.

Maintenance costs alone amount to €255,000 (£168,000) a year. Now the council has devised a strategy to dispose of one of its most notorious pieces of property and make a profit. “We want to test the interest of the international property market,” Irina Daehne, of the council’s real estate department, said. “It will be announced on the internet and there will be an advertising campaign.” The process will begin in August, usually a good time to dispose of country estates. Estate agents estimate that the house and surrounding land could fetch €2,000,000.

So far the only interest has been expressed by animal breeders and construction companies.

It will be difficult, it seems, to interest international schools or private universities in land quite so tainted as Goebbels’ romantic bolthole. Goebbels took over the place in 1936. A diary entry for November 6 that year records his enthusiasm: “wonderful autumn weather, the wood is so perfect . . . we have to get rid of the Jewish plague. Completely . . . Otherwise, early to bed. One sleeps so well in the woods.”

The propaganda minister, in charge of film-making, built a cinema on the premises and invited a string of film starlets to the house, including his principal mistress Lida Baarová. She enjoyed swimming in the Bogensee lake. Other glamorous visitors included the Third Reich actress-es Zarah Leander and Marika Rökk.

It was not only play for Goebbels. He also wrote his most important speech, calling for Total War, in the study of the house during the winter of 1942-43. “A perfect place for creative thought,” he said.

After the war the estate passed from one dictatorship to another. The Communist Free Youth movement set up a training centre there and it was used by various East German leaders. Nowadays it is used as a barracks for out-of-town riot police who travel to Berlin every year to help control the traditional May Day protests.
As the home of a noted pioneer of activist media, this would be ideal for a museum of activist journalism. The CBS section, for example, could have Walter Cronkite's hairpiece, Dan Rather's old computer printer, Edward R. Murrow's final cigarette butt, and a bottle of the embalming fluid they use to keep Andy Rooney on the air.

A whole wing could be devoted to the BBC, the Guardian and the Independent. This could house Robert Fisk's bloody bandages, a hash pipe from a BBC office party, a Reuters issued keffiyeh, and Robert Pilger's autographed Che Guevara t-shirt.

There would be a multi-media wing with video and audio clips of noted moments in media history: ABC's Don Kladstryp justifying the murder of American sailor Robert Stethem during Nightline in 1985, a full-length presentation of Cronkite's "Tet 68," Ed Bradley plagiarizing the Daily Worker, NBC's Garrick Utley in his wistful, nostalgic recalling of the conquest of Saigon by the Stalinist army on the tenth anniversary.
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Home Front: WoT
"Shallow, self-centered" leftist marks 9/11 anniversary
2006-09-11
by James Taranto, "Best of the Web," Wall Street Journal
(Boldface emphasis added.)

Gerald Ensley, a writer for the Tallahassee (Fla.) Democrat, has an Andy Rooney-esque essay titled "Yes, It Changed the World. But 9/11 Makes Me Angry." Fittingly, it appeared on the fifth anniversary of Sept. 10, 2001:

Soon, I hated 9/11. And as we observe tomorrow's fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks, I still hate it. Just thinking about it makes me angry.

Not the kind of chest-puffing, red-white-and-blue anger about "How dare someone attack my country!" But more of a sullen, frustrated, impotent anger about "Why did someone have to ruin my country?"

I get angry that 9/11 spurred the passage of the Patriot Act. . . . I get angry about 9/11 because it led to overweening security measures at our airports and public buildings. . . . I get angry because 9/11 led us to a war in Iraq. . . . I get angry because 9/11 emboldened and expanded Islamic extremism. . . . I get angry with 9/11 because it hurt our economy. . . . I get angry with 9/11 because it feeds the shallow, self-centered side of me.


Look on the bright side; at least the man is self-aware!

You know what makes us angry? We live on the sixth floor, and the elevator in our apartment building has been broken for two weeks! Granted, that has nothing to do with 9/11, but if Ensley can be shallow and self-centered, so can we.

It was often said at the time that 9/11 changed everything. That turns out to have been an exaggeration. One thing it did not change is elite liberal opinion--as represented by the press, academia and the Democratic Party--which has fallen back on the adversarial attitudes it developed in the late Cold War era, which is to say the era of Vietnam, Watergate and their aftermath.

Partly, we suppose, this is a matter of intellectual laziness. But partly it is because of an illusory similarity between the Cold War and the war on terror. If you assume 9/11 was a one-off, then the terrorist threat is a distant, abstract one, easy to move to the back of your mind while arguing about such trivia as the infringement of terrorists' civil liberties.

Thus Los Angeles Times TV critic Samantha Bonar can sneer, in reviewing ABC's flawed Miniseries "The Path to 9/11," that "according to 'The Path,' the Clinton administration was too concerned with such trifles as respecting international laws and treaties, protecting civil liberties, following diplomatic protocol, displaying cultural sensitivity and pursuing larger goals (like Mideast peace) to bring down the bad guys." Which is an entirely accurate description of the Clinton administration, even if the picture takes liberties with the facts.

The italicized clause in the paragraph before the preceding one is what the experts call "a big if." Our enemies, of course, did not intend 9/11 to be a one-off; if it is, it is only because the government--that is to say, the Bush administration--has thus far succeeded in preventing another attack on U.S. soil. Liberals' blasé approach to the terror threat will be wholly unsustainable in the event of another attack. Thus, paradoxically, opposition to the antiterror effort remains alive only because of that effort's success.
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Fifth Column
Moonbats Remember 9/11
2006-09-11
by James Joyner, "Outside the Beltway"

Earlier, I collected a series of 9/11 anniversary reflections from the press and the blogosphere. Many of them were moving but none were particularly novel. By that, I mean that everyone pretty much agreed that the day was horrible, changed a lot of things about the world, and reflected on people who were murdered that day.

There’s a different view out there, though, and it’s not just held by Muslim fanatics and our enemies across the globe but by some prominent lefties with large soapboxes.

Andy Rooney explains why the tragedy was really our fault:

The disaster on September 11th wasn’t like any of those. It was manmade. Death by design. Some people who hated Americans set out to kill a lot of us and they succeeded

Americans are puzzled over why so many people in the world hate us. We seem so nice to ourselves. They do hate us though. We know that and we’re trying to protect ourselves with more weapons.

We have to do it I suppose but it might be better if we figured out how to behave as a nation in a way that wouldn’t make so many people in the world want to kill us.

Duncan “Atrios” Black, meanwhile, does his best Kos imitation:

But, anyway, just a big hearty fuck you to the White House and the news media who have decided this day is largely a personal narrative about George Bush, a man who was almost entirely absent on that day then had a big giggle before falling asleep early. It isn’t about him, and unless you were in New York or Washington or were close to people who were directly affected, it’s probably not about you either.

Kos himself echoes much the same sentiment, although in the context of personal reflection:

It’s not about me, and it’s certainly not about Bush, who after his famous Pet Goat moment cowardly fled and hid out in Nebraska in fear — the same kind of abject fear they’d spend the next five years selling to the American people.

For me, the worst part of the day was telling my mother, who had called me singing “happy birthday”, to please stop and go turn on the television. It was a jarring moment. She thought I was telling her to stop because I felt too old at 30. In reality, I felt like throwing up because the world was changing overnight, and not for the best.

Aside from the fact that the media views most commemorations of solemn events through the lens of the presidency, given that that officeholder is the de facto Head of State, I know of no one who thinks today is about President Bush. Unless it’s lefties who want to use the occasion to remind is that Osama bin Laden is still on the loose.

This isn’t just the radical fringe of the Angry Left, either. . . .

There's lots more links at the link.
Link


Home Front: Politix
New Yorkers go easy succumb to mass delusion on Dan
2004-09-22
New Yorkers were generally forgiving of Dan Rather's running a story based on unproven documents that attacked President Bush.
I personally subscribe to the theory that the water supply in NY has been poisoned by massive amounts of stupid pills. However, it could be that aliens have taken control of the bodies of a number of NY'ers, too.

# "Rather made a mistake and he was man enough to admit it." - Kaiseem Felder, 49, Xerox technician, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
Kaiseem, you might check your timeline there, buddy. It was after Rainman and Andy Rooney figured it out.

# "All I could think of was this is what he will be remembered for after such a successful career. But mistakes happen all the time in the news." - Jane Marie Giustra, 24, sales assistant, Hoboken, N.J.
Jane...Mistakes happen. Denial, coverups, lies, collusion, unethical behavior all on the same story don't.

# "Everything they said about Bush is true; they just haven't found the evidence yet." - Dale Channer, 34, florist, the Bronx.
That's a religious statement if I ever heard one. Dale...whatever you do, don't confuse yourself with the facts.

# "He screwed up and ought to be held accountable. He should not be fired but he should apologize formally to the President." - Jim Oldham, 42, salesclerk, Weehawken, N.J.
Occasionaly a sane person slips through the hands of aliens...or drinks bottled water.

# "I feel bad for Dan Rather because he is such a respected person. CBS should take more time to research and look at who was giving them the information." - Nichole Anderson, 34, event planner, North Brunswick, N.J.
Nichole...You should feel bad that Dan Rather doesn't have enough wisdom to recognize and check his bias at the front door. And...he was respected.

# "He should have gotten the facts right, but it's not uncommon what he did." - Eddie Tallarine, 37, electrician, Massapequa, L.I.
Eddie...Do you commonly lie to your supervisors about the quality of work that you do? Do you coverup shoddy and dangerous electrical work? That's what you are really saying.

# "CBS should have checked the information before they came out with it, but the reputation of CBS is good. ... It was one mistake." - Fernando Monte, 30, consultant, Yonkers.
Earth to Fernando, come in Fernando. You need a short history lesson, son.

# "I view him as an anchorperson, not the person really out gathering the information. I don't think he should resign over this." - Cynthia Lazzari, 44, health-care information manager, Philadelphia.
Does he gather the "facts". No. Does he (along with the producer) develop the story and vouch, no guarantee the authenticity based on unimpeachable sources? Cynthia...look back and see when the DNC started using this information almost word for word. It's spelled c-o-l-l-u-s-i-o-n.
Link


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Registration Still Required
2004-08-11
At last someone is addressing my pet hate.
Pardon me while I engage in an Andy Rooney-esque rant, but I'm deeply unhappy. Over a year ago, I noted the growing tendency of newspaper websites to require registration, and offered some suggestions on how they might avoid irritating their readers, along with a warning:

"Make it easy: Don't present people with long lists of questions. If you do, they'll just lie anyway. (Take a look at those lists of information you collect: how many people have given their email as 'nobody@biteme.com', and do you have an implausibly large number of 97-year-old black women living in Alaska as readers? I'll bet you do.) People don't mind a little of this kind of thing -- they appreciate that you're giving your product away. But they do mind when it goes beyond 'a little' -- and their idea of "a little" is 'really, only a little.'"

The newspaper world, unaccountably, didn't follow my advice, and now you can count me among the irritated. And I'm not alone, judging by what Adam Penenberg writes in Wired News: "I have a confession. I'm not always who or what I appear to be. Depending on my mood, I'm a 92-year-old spinster from Topeka whose hobbies include snowboarding, macraméé and cryptology; the CEO of a successful high- tech firm in Bumblebutt, New York, whose company has a market capitalization of four cents; or an Alaskan mango grower. What magazines do I read? Soldier of Fortune, Modern Bride, Granta and High Times. Date of birth? Dec. 7, 1941. July 4, 1976. Jan. 1, 1901. My name? Jed Clampett, Mustang Sally or Freddy Fudbuster.
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Fifth Column
Andy Rooney Is a Lying Jerk
2004-06-01
The following is a weekly 60 Minutes commentary by CBS News Correspondent Andy Rooney.
EFL and relevance. My first ever RB post!
It’s hard to know how much time to spend remembering. Memories are more often sad than happy. The word "memorial" itself has a sad sound to it. Those to whom we are close die, and we want to remember them. We die, and we want to be remembered, but no amount of longing can bring anyone back, so there is a limit to the value of grief.
"Memories are more often sad than happy"? Perhaps it's only a certain mindset that treasures the sad over the happy. My most treasured memories are my happy ones — my Dad teaching me to ride a bike; fishing at the dam with my friend when I was eight years old; walking home on a cool night with an exceptionally pretty girl, slightly inebriated, singing "Buffalo Gals" for no particular reason. I can tell stories of red mud and misery and the smell of bodies rotting in the hot sun, but those aren't the memories I keep closest. But I guess Andy does.
We think of this war now in Iraq as terrible because every day we get the news that three or seven more Americans have been killed.
This is his first big lie. If three Americans were killed each day, the death toll would be well over 1000; if it were seven each day, the toll would be nearly 3000 (that’s about how many were killed on 9/11).
He's doing the imagery thing. Facts aren't important when you're doing imagery. Not being of the same bent as Andy, I'm proud of the fact that we've thrown really, really bad guys out of control of two countries at a cost to date of less than a thousand men. Things will probably get worse in the future, but we're pretty economical of lives.
In the Civil War, 365,000 Northern soldiers were killed, and 133,000 soldiers from the South died. In World War I, 116,000 American soldiers were killed. In World War II, 407,000 died, 54,000 died in Korea, 58,000 in Vietnam. More than a million Americans have died in our wars, each one much loved by someone.
That's why war's hell, Andy. Those were wars where men's lives were sacrificed for a purpose. Does the fact that a half million died in the Civil War make it not worth fighting? Did the outcome justify the sacrifice? How about WWII? Did the expenditure of 407,000 Americans keep even more Americans — and Brits and Frenchies and Russers and Danes and Norwegians and Poles — from suffering and dying? War is society's way of defending itself and preserving itself.
There are men in every country on earth - mostly men - who spend full time devising new ways for us to kill each other. In the United States alone, we spend seven times as much on war as on education.
I didn’t bother to look this up, but this has got to be another lie. We may spend 7 times as much on DEFENSE as on education, but not much of our defense spending is on "war."
I think he's probably talking about the government office concerned with education, part of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Without defending the nation our kiddies could be educated in other subjects than modern dance and Womyns' Studies. They could be studying the Koran. Or they could be studying Marx more assiduously than they are. Or they could be writing commentaries on Mein Kampf, at least the white, blond ones could...
There’s something wrong there. On this Memorial Day, we should certainly honor those who have died at war, but we should dedicate this day, not so much to their memory, but to the search for a way to end the idiocy of the wars that killed them.
So Rooney thinks that World War II was idiotic? I guess that doesn’t surprise me. BTW, this last comment ignited a fierce family "debate" during which I feared that might very slightly pro-war wife would slap my anti-war mother.
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Europe
Defiant hostage's killing outrages Italians
2004-04-16
The Italian hostage executed in Iraq tried to tear off his hood seconds before he was shot dead and screamed: "Now I'll show you how an Italian dies."

Details of the final moments of Fabrizio Quattrocchi deepened Italy's shock and outrage at the hostage crisis as it awaited further news of the three other men seized with him on Monday. The Italian foreign minister, Franco Frattini, yesterday hailed as a hero Mr Quattrocchi, 36, a former baker. The killers filmed the murder and Mr Frattini revealed details after Italy's ambassador to Qatar was shown the footage by the Arab television station Al-Jazeera, which has not broadcast the video.
That's because it shows Quattrocchi was a man, and the creatures who killed him were animals. Bad for Arab morale, y'know. And for Andy Rooney's...
"I have been authorised by the [victim's] family . . . to reveal the final words of this boy who died what I would call a courageous death, I would say like a hero," Mr Frattini said. "When his assassins were pointing a gun at him, this boy tried to remove the hood and shouted: 'Now I'll show you how an Italian dies.' And they killed him." Mr Quattrocchi's abductors shot him in the neck at close range. Al-Jazeera said that he had been forced to dig his own grave. Millions of Italians, including the victim's family in Genoa, learned of his death while watching a chat show on Wednesday night.

Relatives of the other hostages were in the audience. They had an agonising wait to discover which man had died after hearing that a hostage had been killed before the programme was aired. Although Mr Frattini was among the programme's guests, it was the show's host, Bruno Vespa, who made the announcement at midnight. Then Mr Frattini confirmed the grim news of Mr Quattrocchi's death. Francesco Cupertino, the brother of one of the other hostages, asked the foreign minister: "What will happen now?" Mr Frattini replied: "We have to work hard to bring them out." He said Italy would do "what is possible and impossible". But he underlined that it would not negotiate with the kidnappers, who call themselves the Green Brigade of the Prophet.

Mr Quattrocchi was born in Sicily and moved to Genoa with his family. He had become a bodyguard after doing a stint as a nightclub bouncer then signed up to work in Iraq. He was said to have accepted a job as a security guard working in Iraq for an American company, to earn enough for a home in Italy and to get married. "Fabrizio was a wonderful man, a man of iron but who had never hurt a fly," his fiancee, Alice, told Italian television yesterday. "He was supposed to come back to me and we were to be married. "The only consolation is that he died with honour."
Not a concept his killers have quite grasped, despite the amount of time they spend yapping about it...
But relatives of one of the other hostages, Salvatore Stefio, 34, reacted with despondency and despair. "He may have died a hero but he is still dead," said Mr Stefio's younger brother Christian. Mr Stefio's wife Emanuala, said: "With the murder of Fabrizio Quattrocchi, part of us has also died." Mr Stefio's father Angelo called on Italians to "take to the streets in order to stop all this". He appealed for the peacekeeping coalition to try to broker an exchange to secure the remaining hostages' release.

Al-Jazeera said a statement sent with the video had given a warning that three other Italians who were working for an American company and were kidnapped with Mr Quattrocchi near Fallujah would be killed "one by one". Most Italian politicians closed ranks around Silvio Berlusconi, the centre-Right prime minister, who has said he will not be bullied into withdrawing 3,000 Italian troops from Iraq. "They have cut short a life," Mr Berlusconi said. "They have not damaged our values and commitment to peace."

However, Mr Quattrocchi's family said he might have lived if Mr Berlusconi had not made "rash" comments after the kidnappings. "Before making declarations of force, the government would have done better to have opened talks with the kidnappers," the family said. "There is the feeling that the government wanted to make a show of strength by playing with the lives of those [Italians] in Iraq." Colleagues of Mr Quattrocchi said he had been captured while accompanying a group of clients on the road to Amman in Jordan.
Link


Iraq-Jordan
A Wrong Turn, Chaos and a Rescue -- Marines fight heavy in Fallujah
2004-04-15
Since I think, the WaPost is a registration site, here’s the article -- Marines refuse to leave any behind, but find 50 - 100 enemy. Protrays a highly orgainzed enemy
It began as a routine supply mission to the front lines, in a volatile but largely becalmed city. It ended as a fiery and chaotic rescue mission, with a small force of Marine tanks, Humvees and ground troops surrounded and attacked as they fought their way through a hostile neighborhood to save the crew of a burning armored personnel carrier. Marine officials said the three-hour battle that erupted at dusk Tuesday on the streets of Fallujah, and was recounted Wednesday by several of the key officers involved, exemplified the bravery and resourcefulness that Marines are known for, even when surprised and surrounded by a host of enemy fighters on alien urban turf. By the end of the tumultuous encounter, the charred personnel carrier had been towed to safety by a tank and most of its 17 crew members -- several of them wounded -- had been rescued from a house where they had taken shelter.

But the incident also revealed some startling facts about the insurgency that the Marines are facing here, officers said. More dramatically than any armed confrontation since U.S. forces surrounded Fallujah nine days ago, it showed the tenacity, coordination, firepower and surprisingly large numbers of anti-American guerrillas who still dominate much of the city. "We definitely stumbled into a wasps’ nest. They were definitely a lot more organized than we thought," said Capt. Jason Smith, 30, commander of the company whose armored supply vehicle made a wrong turn into insurgent territory and was immediately inundated by gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades from all sides.

Marine officials here said offensive operations in Fallujah would remain suspended, extending a pause that was ordered Friday to allow civilians to leave the city and let political leaders in Fallujah and Baghdad attempt to negotiate a solution to the conflict. Just before dawn Wednesday, however, AC-130 Spectre gunships launched a devastating punitive raid over a six-block area around the spot where the convoy was attacked, firing dozens of artillery shells that shook the city and lit up the sky. Marine officials said the area was virtually destroyed and that no further insurgent activity had been seen there.

According to accounts by Smith and two other officers, a supply convoy of Humvees was heading toward a command post at the edge of a Marine-controlled industrial zone around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday when it came under small-arms fire. The convoy backtracked, and its cargo was shifted to two Marine amphibious assault vehicles, which resumed the mission. Those carriers were hit by rocket-propelled grenades, known as RPGs. One turned back toward friendly territory, but the other caught fire and the driver lost his way in the unfamiliar neighborhood. Suddenly, the crew encountered a large number of armed men milling in the streets. Within minutes, they were being attacked from all sides. "They started taking RPG fire and tried to get out of the area, but we lost communication with them," Smith said. "Their engine was on fire and they were heading away from our zone. . . . I saw a huge plume of smoke and I knew something was very wrong."

Officers dispatched a quick-reaction squad whose members had already been in battle earlier Tuesday. While guarding the site of a helicopter crash in a marshy area southeast of the city that morning, the outfit was ambushed by insurgents. The rescue squad rushed four tanks and six Humvees to the area, where they fought their way through several blocks to reach the burning carrier. Surrounded by 25 Marine riflemen on foot, the armored vehicles advanced, firing machine guns from their turrets. Overhead, Air Force attack planes repeatedly strafed the area. Marine officials here said at least 20 insurgents were shot dead during the fighting. "Within the first 500 meters, we were shooting 360 degrees," said Lt. Joshua Glover, 25, who commanded the rescue force. "When we finally saw the [armored personnel carrier], it was a piece of burning metal."

The carrier’s crew had managed to escape and had taken shelter in the nearest house, where they were pummeled with gunfire from the surrounding houses. Under covering fire from U.S. tanks and planes, Glover’s team was able to get the crew into Humvees and race off to safety. "People were tossing grenades from the houses on either side," Glover said. "I could hear small-arms fire, and I even saw people running across the street to try and enter the house." He and Smith said they saw only armed men in the area.

Senior Marine officials here, who plan to seek commendations for valor for four men involved the rescue mission, said the most important aspect of the incident was the courage that the Marines displayed in battling their way through heavy fire to reach the disabled carrier and rescue its crew. "This is a story about heroes. It shows the tenacity of the Marines and their fierce loyalty to each other," said Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne, commander of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. "They were absolutely unwilling to leave their brother Marines behind."
Take that, Andy Rooney, you old fart.
At the Marine base in Fallujah and at command posts along the front lines Wednesday, troops recounted the rescue story to one another, relishing every detail and braced by the display of fighting spirit during what, for many Marines, has been a period of frustration and inactivity since Friday, when offensive operations were halted. But Smith and other officers said the incident also offered sobering insights into the sophistication and size of the insurgent force, which the Marines have characterized as a combination of Iraqis loyal to toppled president Saddam Hussein, foreign Islamic guerrillas and local criminals. In the past several days, Marines have also recovered hundreds of weapons, including rocket launchers, machine guns, sniper rifles and explosive belts for suicide bombers, while searching the deserted industrial zone. Many of the weapons were wrapped in plastic and buried under sand piles or other debris, suggesting they had been hidden some time ago for use in battle. Until Tuesday’s firefight, moreover, the Marines here had never been attacked by more than five or six insurgents at once, Smith said. This time, when the personnel carrier strayed just a few blocks into enemy territory, "there were 50 to 100 guys. It took a great deal of fire for us to get there, and I saw much more coordination than anything I seen before," he said. "They’ve been preparing for this the whole time."
Link


Home Front: Culture Wars
Andy Rooney denigrates troops as he attacks Bush
2004-04-12
Heroes don't come wholesale
By Andy Rooney
Most of the reporting from Iraq is about death and destruction. We don't learn much about what our soldiers in Iraq are thinking or doing. There's no Ernie Pyle to tell us and, if there were, the military would make it difficult or impossible for him to let us know.
I'm not too sure about that, Andy. The idea of embedded reporters goes back to Ernie Pyle. But since the action's not been hot and heavy until lately, they're gone. Now we're stuck mostly with the same old hacks sitting around the bar in hotels and retyping press releases. I don't think the fault lies with the military...
It would be interesting to have a reporter ask a group of our soldiers in Iraq to answer five questions and see the results:
1. Do you think your country did the right thing sending you into Iraq?
Probably there's a range of opinion on this, but my guess is that the majority would say "yes."
2. Are you doing what America set out to do to make Iraq a democracy, or have we failed so badly that we should pack up and get out before more of you are killed?
We can't pack up and get out. If we do, Iraq becomes a stew, with corpse counts higher than anything we've seen to date, and eventually breaks down into at least three separate countries that don't like each other. There's no liberal democracy introduced into the Arab world, and there's no progress made in the war on terror. Further, we'll have demonstrated that we can be counted on to cut and run — like you want to do, Andy — and can therefore be dismissed as an influence in the international arena.
3. Do the orders you get handed down from one headquarters to another, all far removed from the fighting, seem sensible, or do you think our highest command is out of touch with the reality of your situation?
There's always a disconnect between orders "from on high" and orders as interpreted in the field. That's a problem that was a lot more pronounced back in your day, though, Andy. Even by my day, it had improved, and today's internet-ready forces make the front end-back end coordination much more coherent. So I think that horse is dead. Now, does the guy in the saddle in the turret see the strategic picture? Probably not. Does the military continue to hurry up and wait? Absolutely. The mechanics of moving large numbers of men and machines, keeping them supplied, and attending to their physical needs is all pretty complicated and it can't be accomplished gracefully. On the other hand, the military handles it a lot better than your friendly neighborhood local government in most cases. If you don't believe that, go get in line to get medical assistance for an aged parent... Oh. Sorry. I forgot. You are an aged parent.
4. If you could have a medal or a trip home, which would you take?
Probably the trip home. If I could have a medal or get laid, I'd rather get laid. If I could have a medal or a cup of coffee, I'd take the cup of coffee. But if I could have all three and a medal, too, I'd take the medal. How about you?
5. Are you encouraged by all the talk back home about how brave you are and how everyone supports you?
If I was still in the military, I'd probably be ignoring most of that and concentrating on what I was doing. I think that's what most people in uniform actually do.
Treating soldiers fighting their war as brave heroes is an old civilian trick designed to keep the soldiers at it. But you can be sure our soldiers in Iraq are not all brave heroes gladly risking their lives for us sitting comfortably back here at home.
Probably not, though most are on to the tricks of old civilians by now. Only dumbasses gladly risk their lives. Lives are precious to us non-turban wearers. In some instances it's a necessary thing, though. Without the guys potting turbans in Fallujah, we stand a chance of losing this war, which is as serious as any we've ever fought. Not being 185 years old, like you, Andy, I worry about my children's and grandchildren's future. I don't want them to have to bow down toward Mecca five times a day. I don't want mullahs telling them what position to pee in. I don't want them to adopt Arab culture and forget all the magnificent civilization we've inherited from Europe, who often act like they don't need it anymore. It's not a matter of "glad." It's a matter of "must." Is your memory starting to go, Andy? Have you forgotten that the guys 60 years ago weren't "glad" to be blown to shreds at Anzio or Tarawa? They "had" to do it, so, being men, they did it. Being men (and today, women) our troops in Iraq are doing it, continuing the tradition of the men of 60 years ago.
Our soldiers in Iraq are people, young men and women, and they behave like people — sometimes good and sometimes bad, sometimes brave, sometimes fearful. It's disingenuous of the rest of us to encourage them to fight this war by idolizing them. We pin medals on their chests to keep them going.
Medals are signs of recognition for achievement. What've you got against medals, Andy? It doesn't hurt you for a young man or woman to be recognized for bravery or accomplishment or, in the case of the Purple Heart, for wounds received.
We speak of them as if they volunteered to risk their lives to save ours but there isn't much voluntary about what most of them have done. A relatively small number are professional soldiers. During the last few years, when millions of jobs disappeared, many young people, desperate for some income, enlisted in the Army.
They enlisted to do a job. When I enlisted, 40 years ago, I enlisted to do a job. I went into the Army for two reasons: I couldn't afford to go to college, and I wanted to serve my country. Which was the greater driver? I still can't tell you. I suspect, though, that if I'd been able to afford to go to college, I'd have gone, then gone into the Army. You're assuming that the people who join up aren't doing it because they want to serve their country, and the Army (and other services, of course) is assuming they are.
About 40 percent of our soldiers in Iraq enlisted in the National Guard or the Army Reserve to pick up some extra money and never thought they'd be called on to fight. They want to come home.
When my Dad was at St. Lo, during the Battle of the Bulge, he wanted to come home, too. In my travels around Vietnam, there were lots of times when I wanted to come home. There were times when I wanted a cold beer, too. But adults wait until the things they want are available.
One indication that not all soldiers in Iraq are happy warriors is the report recently released by the Army showing that 23 of them committed suicide there last year. This is a dismaying figure.
It's also actually lower than the per capita national suicide rate...
If 22 young men and one woman killed themselves because they couldn't take it, think how many more are desperately unhappy but unwilling to die. We must support our soldiers in Iraq because it's our fault they're risking their lives there. However, we should not bestow the mantle of heroism on all of them for simply being where we sent them. Most are victims, not heroes.
I don't confuse the quiet heroism of men and women doing what must be done, whether they feel like doing it or not, with movie heroics, though I've seen actions by young men who were scared pissless that rival things I've seen in the movies. I bestow the mantle of heroism on anybody who goes into the military — as long as they adhere to the contract. Whether infantry or artillery, signals or rear-area pencil pushers, wearing the uniform makes you part of the Army, or the Marines, or the Air Force or the Navy. I have orders of magnitude more respect for the young men and women in uniform than I do for the tough guys strutting around the malls on Friday nights. Are there some deserving of more admiration than others? You betcha. The infantry, ready to go kick the snot out of the Bad Guys, up close and personal, is top of the list, followed closely by the guys in the tanks and the artillerymen — 105 shells are heavy. The sigs guys, up there laying line and setting up antennas in support of the combat arms, the combat engineers, the ordnance disposal guys, the truck drivers who bring the fuel and the ammo to the grunts up front, the rotorheads flying support — I really resent having you denigrate their efforts, Andy. What the hell right do you have to question their motives? Because they're human and they get scared? Because they overcome it and get on with what they signed up to do?
America's intentions are honorable. I believe that and we must find a way of making the rest of the world believe it. We want to do the right thing. We care about the rest of the world. President Bush's intentions were honorable when he took us into Iraq. They were not well thought out but honorable.
It's my opinion, which is just as valid as yours, that Mr. Bush's plans were well thought out before we went in. It's my opinion that much of the thinking and planning that's gone into the war on terror has been brilliant. It's also my opinion that we're at war with a vicious and tenacious enemy, that'll do everything it can to keep us from achieving our objectives, which include a better life for Arabs and Muslims as a side benefit of protecting and preserving our own civilization, culture, and heritage.
President Bush's determination to make the evidence fit the action he took, which it does not, has made things look worse. We pay lip service to the virtues of openness and honesty, but for some reason we too often act as though there was a better way of handling a bad situation than by being absolutely open and honest.
I've been pretty open and honest in interpreting the truth as I see it, Andy. Can you handle it?
Old civilian trick, eh? Yet one more reason not to watch 60 Minutes.
Link


Andy Rooney: Mel Gibson’s a ’Wacko’
2004-02-24
Andy Rooney set the phone and e-mail lines at CBS buzzing over his commentary — in which he said God was speaking through him — calling Mel Gibson and the Rev. Pat Robertson "wackos."
Translation: If you don’t agree with the snarks at CBS you are insane (heh)
CBS said Monday it received its heaviest audience response to a "60 Minutes" report since Rooney’s commentaries on the Iraq war last spring.
I’ll bet it did
The network wouldn’t specify how many calls or e-mails were received. "60 Minutes" spokesman Kevin Tedesco said it was "several times the normal feedback."
Quick! Turn off the phone bank!
On Sunday’s broadcast, Rooney commented on Robertson’s January statement that he believes God has told him that President Bush would be re-elected in a "blowout" in November. Rooney said God had spoken to him, saying, "I wish you’d tell your viewers that both Pat Robertson and Mel Gibson strike me as wackos. They’re crazy as bedbugs, another earthly expression. I created bedbugs. I tell you, they’re no crazier than people."
Well Andy I created senile dementia myself....
Rooney showed clips of Gibson talking to ABC’s Diane Sawyer about Gibson’s film "The Passion of the Christ." Robertson didn’t seem too upset about the commentary on Monday. "Mel Gibson has, without a doubt, created the finest motion picture on the life of Christ of all time," he said. "I am very happy to be linked by Andy Rooney to a talented genius of the order of Mel Gibson."
That was a relatively witty and restrained response. Good -- no need to fight senile with senile.

I have little patience with Robertson, myself — a clichÚ oily preacher with a practiced smile and a liking for other people's wallets. Gibson is, in my uninformed opinion, very talented, a lot moreso than is Andy Rooney, who only makes it to being occasionally amusing.
Link


Home Front
Rooney to retract stupid criticism
2001-10-05
  • Media Reseach Center
    Sunday night on 60 Minutes Andy Rooney will retract his attack on President Bush as "not too smart" when it was Rooney who wasn't very smart himself. USA Today's Peter Johnson reported Thursday that Rooney "will apologize for noting in his commentary two weeks ago that President Bush didn't sound too swift when he said that America's enemies in Afghanistan think their 'harbors are safe. But they won't be safe forever.'" On the September 23 60 Minutes Rooney had countered: "Afghanistan is landlocked. It doesn't have a harbor." Johnson relayed the content of some of the letters Rooney received: "'If you didn't know the meaning of 'safe harbor' you probably thought the 'underground railroad' had tracks.' Said another writer: 'If he really thought Bush meant seaports, Andy must think 'wildlife preserves' are breakfast jams.'"
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