The Problem With One-Sided Stories
I have absolutely no doubt this reporter is accurately quoting the three soldiers who are the stories subjects. I have absolutely no doubt that there are soldiers who do not see the mission as being successful. It is a statistical certainty. I have no doubt that losing comrades in war can have a negative effect on morale in a unit. But this front page Washington Post article presents three soldiers viewpoints. One cannot paint a generalized picture with that material. Yet the reporter tries to do so.
BAGHDAD, July 26 Army Staff Sgt. Jose Sixtos considered the simple question about morale for more than an hour. But not until his convoy of armored Humvees had finally rumbled back into the Baghdad military base, and the soldiers emptied the ammunition from their machine guns, and passed off the bomb-detecting robot to another patrol, did he turn around in his seat and give his answer.
"Think of what you hate most about your job. Then think of doing what you hate most for five straight hours, every single day, sometimes twice a day, in 120-degree heat," he said. "Then ask how morale is."
Frustrated? "You have no idea," he said.
I will not make light of the problems over there. My own source tells me things outside of Baghdad are not going badly in most places. Baghdad right now is very challenging. However, there are other things going on over there other than the attempt at painting a bleak picture as this reporter is doing.
This, this, this , this, this and this just today alone. And reports like this are coming out all the time here, you just never seem to see them in the MSM.
The one thing the WaPo kind of blows right past is this quote from one of the three soldiers:
"We're trained as an Army to fight and destroy the enemy and then take over," added Dugger, 26, of Reno, Nev. "But I don't think we're trained enough to push along a country, and that's what we're actually doing out here."
"It's frustrating, but we are definitely a help to these people," he said. "I'm out here with the guys that I know so well, and I couldn't picture myself being anywhere else."
And that describes the situation as I have heard it directly. American soldiers are making a positive difference and the majority believe it is vital to finish the mission.
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Flopping Aces — Thursday, 27 July , 2006 @ 3:44 pm
By diva, Thursday, 27 July , 2006 @ 11:01 pm
I talked to my husband about this and he reminded me that the group they interviewed are not representative of the Army or Marines in Iraq. I’ve lost count of how many times he has told me about soldiers he knows that would rather be in Iraq than somewhere else - that doesn’t mean that Iraq is a vacation paradise - it’s obviously a horrible place and I’d venture to add unsafe at this point in time but despite the less than cheery circumstances these soldiers want to be where the action is. Not because as the left would have you believe -that they are warmongers and “baby killers” but because they know what the mission is and they want to see it to completion.
Having said that I can’t fault anybody over there for complaining - life in Iraq is difficult and dangerous but complaining doesn’t mean that they think the mission is not important - as the writer of this article would have you believe.