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Military Counterattack on Spin: Whose Flag Is It?
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by Jordan Yerman | April 25, 2007 at 08:13 am
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Flag at half-Staff, photo by 2nd Lt. Courtney Kippenberger
uploaded by Jordan Yerman
Perhaps American troops have had enough. More and more we are seeing military personnel going against the official party line, which repeats the mantra of "everything's fine, we're winning, support our troops". However, the troops themselves are beginnning to publicly question who is supporting whom. Most recently, we have the Pat Tillman probe and Jessica Lynch's testimony, in which she refutes military officials' spin on the events surrounding her capture and rescue:
[q
url="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/25/earlyshow/main2725423.shtml"]Tillman,
a former professional football player who joined the Army Rangers after
Sept. 11, was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan. At first the
military said he was killed by enemy fire and even posthumously awarded
him the Silver Star.
Lynch was badly injured when her convoy was ambushed in Iraq in
2003. She was later rescued by American troops from an Iraqi hospital,
but the tale of her ambush was changed into a story of heroism on her
part.
"It meant a lot, really, it did, especially to come out for the
Tillman family," Lynch told The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith. "They
really need answers. And, you know, they have tons and tons of
questions that are just unanswered. And they need that."
At the hearing, the chairman of the House panel, Henry Waxman,
accused the government of inventing "sensational details and stories"
about Tillman's death and Lynch rescue. After she arrived home, Lynch
set the record straight in a book called "I Am a Soldier, Too."
"At first I didn't even realize … the stories that were being told,"
she said. "It was quite a while afterwards, and then I found out. It
was a little disappointing. And I knew that I had to get the truth out
there because, one, I wouldn't be able to live with myself ... knowing
that these stories were portraying me to do something that I didn't."
[/q]
Also in the news is a sergeant's writing regarding the half-staff flags, and their conspicuous absence in the presence of ongoing military deaths in the Middle East:
An Army sergeant
complained in a rare opinion article that the U.S. flag flew at
half-staff last week at the largest U.S. base in Afghanistan for those
killed at Virginia Tech but the same honor is not given to fallen U.S.
troops here and in Iraq.In the article issued Monday by the public affairs office at Bagram
military base north of Kabul, Sgt. Jim Wilt lamented that his comrades’
deaths have become a mere blip on the TV screen, lacking the “shock
factor” to be honored by the Stars and Stripes as the deaths at
Virginia Tech were.“I find it ironic that the flags were flown at half-staff for the
young men and women who were killed at VT, yet it is never lowered for
the death of a U.S. service member,” Wilt wrote.
What's happening here? Is the White House's house of cards, based on false pretenses, finally starting to teeter?
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (3)
at 09:13 on April 25th, 2007
When they stopped showing the coffins returning from Iraq I knew there was trouble. Canada's not doing much better, but we still show our dead returning home, an important and sobering sight. No lowered flag, no coffins, and yet these stories of "heroics" are plastered everywhere...sooner or later the imbalance will begin to shift.
at 13:57 on April 25th, 2007
This just in from a friend of mine, an ex-sniper with the US Army who fought in Gulf War Part One:
------
I remember from the outset in Basic Training it felt like propaganda training. They took us to a building in what is called a “cattle truck” unloaded us. We went inside what looked like a warehouse where we started chanting Army marching songs which got our voices soaring. At some point they brought a man dressed in a Cuban military outfit who started yelling at us about how he hates Americans. Being the observer that I am and also the occasional mind-f**k artist I noticed what they were up to instantly but the young kids weren’t getting in to it as much because they just didn’t understand; some didn’t even know what a Commie was. So I started yelling to some of them that these “Commies” were coming to kill their mommies and rape their sisters. (I was such a bastard and I knew it…but what the hell). This of course started a riot and the dressed up “Commie” that was on a sort of stage in front of us started getting nervous. The boys suddenly became killers.
Shoot forward 18 years hence and the Army has since changed its tactic; now they are targeting smarter more aware kids who can handle the new technology and also follow orders. Well they got what they asked for and soldiers are leaving the services after their contract is up. Their retention level is in the toilet and has been for years. Soldiers are entering the Army not out of a sense of duty, a few maybe but certainly not the vast majority. Most either need college money like I did, running away from something (home life, jail time etc… me again), or have no other option where they come from i.e. an inordinate amount are from the heartland where jobs and prospects in civil life are limited to cow-tipping, racing beat up cars or renewing membership in the local KKK chapter. (Ummm… let’s just say stage make-up can work miracles).
My point is this; soldiers are indoctrinated from the beginning that they are the last line of defense for the U.S. and also that their country will take care of them no matter what. The truth of the matter is that most soldiers live as second class citizens, given their pay scale, living conditions and the amount of work they have to do to earn it. Hanging their soldiers out to dry is not new for the military (ask any Vietnam War veteran), but this is a new era for the Army where their soldiers are emerging from behind the cloud of propaganda and having a mind of their own. They aren’t mindless kids who will just say “yessir” and then drive on. They are speaking up and speaking out and this could potentially unravel the system of indoctrination and loyalty that has been in place since George Washington and in some minds retribution will be encouraged to get folks back in line.
I heard Sen. Barack Obama say “the U.S. is a force for good in this globalized world: “no other nation on earth has a greater capacity to shape that global system,” to “expand the zones of freedom, personal safety, and economic well-being”. We have always seen ourselves as the good guys; the caretakers of our own and the world. To this I quote Pogo by saying “We have seen the enemy and he is us”
at 19:39 on April 26th, 2007
From the beginning, basic training IS propaganda training, but most of us are not that stupid that we believed everything we were taught. Most people who have never been in the military have a hard time understanding what it is to be a military man/woman. People watch "Full Metal Jacket" and other movies like it and see only mindless robotic brutes who can't think for themselves. If you were worked that hard and screamed at with no rest, bad food, and little sleep for months on end there is not a person alive who would not behave exactly the same way. Prolonged very hard physical stress puts one on a very basic survival "kill or be killed" mode.
I went from being a college honour student with no money to being a US Army "killer" for economic reasons, and also because of a little bit of that boyhood dream of "being a soldier". I liked the idea of serving my country for the good of my country. I never for a moment believed that the United States was the prime example of what every country wants or should be, or even that (like that movie says) "In every commie there is an American trying to get out."
Now I get to my point. First - if you are an American, and even more importantly, if you are not an American - DO NOT BELIEVE A THING ABOUT WHAT YOU SEE IN AMERICAN MEDIA. The media has become nothing more than a political party fingerpointing tool. My experiences in the military, and those of my family (one going in to his third Iraq tour/one a full colonel) and the stories on the news about the same incident were usually so contrary that it was almost laughable, had it not been for the seriousness of the situation. Here is the reason and a lot of people know it. - GOOD NEWS IS NOT GOOD NEWS. Just like a car wreck, people will strain their necks to see a disaster, but positive change is never as interesting. (Positive news also makes someone else look bad - think about it!)
Of course it is frustrating to be in the military and not trust your commanders. I never trusted mine, and I think it's been the same since prehistory. Here is the thing most non-military people don't get. In the military you don't have civil rights. You sign them away when you enlist. You don't get the option of complaining about being treated poorly. You do what you are told. We all knew what we signed up for. To fight and kill. Period. I understood it and I was OK with it.
I don't like the fact that the media is focusing on these whining, slobbering military mistakes that go public and tell tearful stories about how they were mistreated. Back in the old days, this wouldn't have ever happened. I think it is EXTREMELY IRRESPONSIBLE of the media to portray the weak as ordinary personel and write these stories that further confuse the situation by sensationalism to create a sort of movement against the military in a time of war. I was never for the war and I was very vocal about why we shouldn't be there in the first place but I could be - I was out of the military and had the right to voice my opinion again.
There is a very important quote - History repeats itself. This is exactly what is happening here. Does anyone remember Viet Nam? Are the politicians wearing camoflage and getting shot at? No. Are the politicians in the military? (Besides the commander-in chief as head) No. There is a huge conflict of interest which lies at the heart of this matter. Politicians are getting rich off of this war and American soldiers are dying from it. It is happening now and always has in any war since man has walked the earth.
So in conclusion I would urge people to really think about what they are seeing and hearing. Turn up the volume on your BS detectors. Why is this being said? Is there a motive? What is other international media saying about the same story? A little cross-reference goes a long way.