Ever wanted to cite just one example of how the LSM is slanting it's stories about the war zones?
GO HERE for the story as it was relayed to the public by one of the esteemed members of the 4th Estate (you know, those guys that have the multi-layered system of fact-checking editors?).
As Odysseus says in the post where I learned of this piece of journalistic crap, "Bob Kerr, writing in the Providence Journal, took a story from a mother whose son asked for canned tuna and other snacks, added up 2+2 and came up with 7."
Now GO HERE and see the response to the story by the young Marine whom Mr. Kerr wrote so eloquently about as "The last thing he should have to worry about is an empty stomach.".
After CPL. Andoscia sent his response, this is how Mr. Kerr responded:
"I talked with Karen Boucher-Andoscia, Nick Andoscia's mother, about her son's appeal for food and the conditions that had prompted it. I had no reason to doubt her or her son, then or now. I also heard from Marines from all over the country who took issue with the column and assured me that Andoscia would be contacted about it. Apparently he was."
In other words, either:
A. "The story is false but the situation is true"
OR
B. "obviously the Marines leaned on this poor starving servicemember to make him recant the truth or face disciplinary/retaliatory action".
It can be forgiven that a mother worried about her son being in a combat zone can misconstrue and/or inflate the facts, but that one of the professional journalist class can write such an obviously slanted piece in direct contravention of facts easily ascertained by a RESPONSIBLE scion of the journalistic class, (much less the battallion of fact checkers supposedly guarding against such shoddy work) only leads us to the question, what ELSE are they misreporting?
And that response is what one would expect of a smug person (sitting in a safe newsroom) who obviously KNOWS better than the person he wrote about on the subject, because, after all, HE is a journalist, and Cpl. Andoscia is merely a misguided/misinformed tool of the military/industrial complex run by BushCheneyHaliburton Enterprises Inc. that has been scared to recant the truth in the face of power.
I have two nephews and several friends in the A.O.O. that I have sent "care" packages to with items that they had requested, and it WASN'T because they were starving or ill equipped, it's just that, in a war zone, sometimes the smallest things can be a "taste of home" that makes the duty just a little more bearable.
When I was stationed in Germany, under MUCH less hazerdous conditions, I used to ask my mother to send me some food items and other little things that were not availible to me incountry, just to remind me of why I was there; to safeguard the security of HOME, and all the people I cared for.
I certainly wasn't starving, and the conditions I worked under, while strenuous and often primative, were certainly not as taxing as in a live combat zone, but I can tell you that those "little tastes of home" certainly meant the world to me and other members of my platoon.
They were a reminder that we were not forgotten and that we were missed by our loved ones as much as we missed them. I can just imagine just how much more they would mean to those that are in extreme peril of their lives 24/7/365!
UPDATE: from this earlier story:
These days the most dangerous spot on the base might be one of its four mess halls. As at other U.S. installations, the food at Balad is both good and abundant, a major change from the early days of the U.S. presence here.
Dinner on the night of Friday, Jan. 27 offered entrees of baked salmon, roast turkey, grilled pork chops, fried crab bites, breaded scallops and fried rice. The smiling servers standing behind those dishes were from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India and Nepal.
Soldiers who were still hungry could hit the two salad bars, the sandwich line or a short-order stand for a cheeseburger, hot dog or grilled cheese sandwich. There were also two soup offerings and a dessert stand near the exit with chocolate mint and vanilla ice cream, banana pudding, pumpkin pie, cherry pie and yellow cake.
For those bored with the mess halls, there are a Subway, a Pizza Hut, a Popeye's, an ersatz Starbucks called "Green Beans" that serves up triple lattes, and a 24-hour Burger King.
Yes, I realize that this base is in "The Zone", and the menu/amenities aren't as extensive in most areas, but as an admittedly limited guide, it sure doesn't seem that our guys are starving to the point where they "need to ask Iraqi families for food".....
Posted by Delftsman3 at May 23, 2006 06:35 PM | TrackBack