Here's an unsolicited link received from a Washington Post reporter. It is to an opinion piece titled "Morals in A Combat Zone" by a major in the U.S. Army appearing in today's Washington Post. The Washington Post takes much criticism for liberal bias in reporting on the Global War on Terror. It is also one of the best sources for stories that give an accurate picture of military life in a war zone.
In the past two years, I've written back and forth with many reporters and columnists. I will never forget holding my breath as I linked to a headline on Drudge that announced an American reporter was killed in Basra[h]. Or watching a reporter who had become an online friend having to appear on TV to fight back the skepticism that arose after reporter Jill Carroll was released in Iraq. Or not being able to control my tears at church while thinking of an Iraqi journalist and singing an African spiritual song "O Healing River" with the following lyrics:
O healing river,
send down your waters,
And wash the blood
from off the sand.
The reporters have a tough job. They possess the same human frailties as we all do...and as the troops do.
Now, can't we all just get along?
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2 comments:
Joseph Heller, Catch 22
"Let someone else get killed!" "Suppose everyone on our side felt that way?" "Well then I'd certainly be a damned fool to feel any other way, wouldn't I?" "Englishmen are dying for England, American's are dying for America, Germans are dying for Germany, Russians are dying for Russia. There are now fifty or sixty countries fighting in this war. Surely so many countries can all be worth dying for?" "Anything worth living for," said Nately, "is worth dying for." "And anything worth dying for," answered the old man, "is certainly worth living for."
The flag, the Nation, the Patriotism, for the young warrior is important, but upon the battlefield the fight is for the survival of his friends to his left and to his right and for his own survival. War does not make men murderers but it does not make them saints nor policemen either.
Papa Ray
you got that right papa Ray. It always boils down to being able to go home when the tour of duty is done. All notions of patiotism and the flag and mom and pop and apple pie back home go away in the first fire fight.
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