UPDATE: I just saw this on Pat Dollard's website. President Bush is Mr. 29% no more! His approval rating is now at 39%, "up three percentage points from the ratings before the President’s press conference last Thursday and four points above the June average". Loves it.
Michael Yon delivers another amazing news story from Iraq. His latest dispatch from the war-torn country paints a detailed picture of what the troops go through when their Strykers get hit by multiple IEDs, and how the mainstream media reports exactly the opposite for their war-weary audience. For example, while the crew survived the blast, Jihadist propaganda portrayed it differently; instead, they said that four soldiers were killed. The mainstream media, known for injecting commentary into their reports rather than facts, would then tell their audience that, yes, indeed four soldiers were killed on that particular day. Little do they know that those soldiers were back on duty soon after.
"As the bomb detonated beneath it, the General Lee arced like a dolphin from the sea of Hell. LT Brad Krauss can be seen flying out like Superman, if you look closely and imagine real hard. PFC Devon Hoch can clearly be seen standing in the back hatch. And that was it. Our guys’ lives seemed to be reduced to propaganda. The terrorists published reports that the soldiers were killed.
The story might have ended in the American press:
Four Soldiers Killed by Roadside Bomb Northwest of Baghdad
Four U.S. soldiers were killed today northwest of Baghdad when their Stryker vehicle was destroyed by a roadside bomb. Names of the service members are being withheld until notification of next of kin. The controversial Stryker vehicle is increasingly under fire by critics who claim that its armor is insufficient to protect troops in Iraq. Elsewhere, Iraqi and U.S. forces killed at least 50 people in Baghdad after three days of fighting in the area around Haifa street. About 130 people have been killed since Saturday. Separately, 27 bodies thought to be Shia were found shot. . . .
But that’s not exactly how it turned out.....
....Walwark stepped out, seeing that Krauss was not crushed, grabbed Krauss’ M-4 rifle, and that’s when he recalls Krauss, who was rolling on the ground, and half out-of-it started yelling, “I’m invincible! I’m invincible!”
Walwark yelled, “No you’re F*&%’ing not! You’re F*&%’ing lucky!”"
What I really like about Michael Yon is that he humanizes the soldiers/Marines. He does not portray them as killing machines or cold professionals (though they truly are professionals!!) or, hell, perfect saints. They are human beings, just like the rest of us, but with the burdensome task of creating history- a task that is being carried out, as I type this, in a very dangerous and hostile environment. And that is why I truly admire them. They bleed like the rest of us but when they do, it is for a greater purpose, something bigger than themselves. While the so-called college intellectuals stomp around their campuses with badly-drawn signs for the sake of their idiotic and selfish cause, the troops move into action to change the world and leave a legacy of democracy and freedom for future generations of heavily oppressed countries. And I guess that's why those who are so anti-military are... well, so anti-military. All they can do is complain about the troops on magazines and newspapers, and still change nothing. The troops, on the other hand, with true warrior-like journalists like Michael Yon (who is willing to face danger in order to tell the truth about the war), have the power and the tools to shape the destiny of a conflicted region that otherwise could never be achieved by high-paid reporters, liberal cartoonists (For fuck's sake!), "journalists", or anti-war protesters. Sure, they can protest all they want with signs and misleading commentaries written on numerous publications... and although words are powerful, they are simply not powerful enough against the troops, their Strykers and their guns.
And of course, their Michael Yon.
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