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October 18, 2004
Errors mar my war blogging!
This monstrosity of a story is a perfect example of why I am not now, and never will be, a "war blogger." Today's Philadelphia Inquirer features a huge headline, "Errors mar military win in Iraq" -- underneath of which are two different stories -- one about the "mutiny" (which turns out to be a refusal to drive supply trucks), and the other about.... Well, what is this about? 1992 or 2003? Errors mar military win in IraqIs this about Bremer's incompetence? Or broken promises in 1992? Authors Galloway, Landay, Strobel & Walcott never quite make it clear. Perhaps they want the readers to make the tie-in themselves without having to really commit to the story. Must be tough to have four authors write one article. I can't imagine having to do that in this blog; while there are now three contributors, each one of us writes independently. More streamlined that way; it helps avoid the kind of editorial and stylistic quagmire which Inquirer readers are forced to slog through. Bremer may well have been incompetent, but he's out of there. Beyond that, I have no idea what to make of the story. (It doesn't have anything to do with the election in two weeks, does it?) As to the supply trucks, there seems to be a problem with armoring them, and with getting the soldiers to obey orders. BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. Army Reserve soldiers who refused orders to drive a dangerous route were members of one of a few supply units whose trucks are still unarmored, their commanding general said Sunday.What with Michael Moore orchestrating the shipment of thousands of Fahrenheit 9/11 DVDs to the troops, it's a wonder that any of them will do anything. And considering what I've read about the commanding general, one Brigadier General James E. Chambers, it's understandable why he'd be losing the PR war to Michael Moore: Then there's Brig. Gen. James E. Chambers, the commanding general of 13th COSCOM in Balad, Iraq, where morale is lower than clam dung. Chambers’ latest exercise in non-leadership was to have a unit in his command reschedule a memorial service for a dead soldier originally set for Aug. 13. The reported reason: The superstitious general was not about to incur bad luck by flying on the 13th.But what do I know? There's also Chambers' official biography here, with a picture. He was a schoolteacher from Oklahoma, and now he's a supply officer who can't get his trucks armored but lives in a fortress, then complains when his men stage a "mutiny" for Dan Rather. Look, all I know is I want the war to be won. The job of the military is to figure out how to do that. This is turning into a PR war, and I am at a serious disadvantage, because I am not there, and I am forced to rely on incomplete, constantly changing stories from people with varying degrees of bias. And anything I write is only as reliable as the sources on which I have to rely. I'd rather wait till the victory. posted by Eric on 10.18.04 at 08:22 AM |
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