1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Active duty troops tell their war story in NYT op-ed

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Fenian_Bastard, Aug 19, 2007.

  1. These guys don't fly in for the guided tour.
    They know.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/opinion/19jayamaha.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3
     
  2. jgmacg

    jgmacg Guest

    Re: The Clusterf**k, Part Whatever

    Another astringent bite of harshmellow for those who'd like to keep reality from intruding on our dark national fairy tale.
     
  3. ondeadline

    ondeadline Well-Known Member

    Re: The Clusterf**k, Part Whatever

    Unless you click on the link, others have no idea what this thread is about. It's not hard to guess it's political, but still ...
     
  4. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    Re: The Clusterf**k, Part Whatever

    Yeah, Fens... could you be a little less cryptic when you post these links?
    It told me to login, which I;m not. But even if I went to the NYT home page, I have no idea what story to look for.
    Maybe a graf or two or three with it? Please?
     
  5. SockPuppet

    SockPuppet Active Member

    Re: The Clusterf**k, Part Whatever

    Great ender. Our troops on the ground should be highly commended for their sacrifice and loyalty in the face of a true SNAFU.

    Seems to me there's a common thread in the situations for journalists. The reporters and editors, the people in the trenches, know what's going on in our business. The publishers and CEOs are like the current administration ... totally fucking clueless. At least we're not getting our heads blown off.

    God bless our troops.
     
  6. Johnny Dangerously

    Johnny Dangerously Well-Known Member

    Re: The Clusterf**k, Part Whatever

    A telling op-ed piece from Baghdad, written and signed by the following:

    Buddhika Jayamaha is an Army specialist. Wesley D. Smith is a sergeant. Jeremy Roebuck is a sergeant. Omar Mora is a sergeant. Edward Sandmeier is a sergeant. Yance T. Gray is a staff sergeant. Jeremy A. Murphy is a staff sergeant.

    The War as We Saw It
    By BUDDHIKA JAYAMAHA, WESLEY D. SMITH, JEREMY ROEBUCK, OMAR MORA, EDWARD SANDMEIER, YANCE T. GRAY and JEREMY A. MURPHY

    Baghdad

    VIEWED from Iraq at the tail end of a 15-month deployment, the political debate in Washington is indeed surreal. Counterinsurgency is, by definition, a competition between insurgents and counterinsurgents for the control and support of a population. To believe that Americans, with an occupying force that long ago outlived its reluctant welcome, can win over a recalcitrant local population and win this counterinsurgency is far-fetched. As responsible infantrymen and noncommissioned officers with the 82nd Airborne Division soon heading back home, we are skeptical of recent press coverage portraying the conflict as increasingly manageable and feel it has neglected the mounting civil, political and social unrest we see every day. (Obviously, these are our personal views and should not be seen as official within our chain of command.)

    The claim that we are increasingly in control of the battlefields in Iraq is an assessment arrived at through a flawed, American-centered framework. Yes, we are militarily superior, but our successes are offset by failures elsewhere. What soldiers call the “battle space” remains the same, with changes only at the margins. It is crowded with actors who do not fit neatly into boxes: Sunni extremists, Al Qaeda terrorists, Shiite militiamen, criminals and armed tribes. This situation is made more complex by the questionable loyalties and Janus-faced role of the Iraqi police and Iraqi Army, which have been trained and armed at United States taxpayers’ expense.
     
  7. Johnny Dangerously

    Johnny Dangerously Well-Known Member

    Re: The Clusterf**k, Part Whatever

    That's for you, slap boudreaux.
     
  8. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    Re: The Clusterf**k, Part Whatever

    I appreciate it... you have a pm...
     
  9. Point of Order

    Point of Order Active Member

    Folks, it's time to bring this war to a close. The only debate now should be what is the fastest, safest way to hit the exits.


    From the op-ed
    ...

    Reports that a majority of Iraqi Army commanders are now reliable partners can be considered only misleading rhetoric. The truth is that battalion commanders, even if well meaning, have little to no influence over the thousands of obstinate men under them, in an incoherent chain of command, who are really loyal only to their militias.

    Similarly, Sunnis, who have been underrepresented in the new Iraqi armed forces, now find themselves forming militias, sometimes with our tacit support. Sunnis recognize that the best guarantee they may have against Shiite militias and the Shiite-dominated government is to form their own armed bands. We arm them to aid in our fight against Al Qaeda.

    However, while creating proxies is essential in winning a counterinsurgency, it requires that the proxies are loyal to the center that we claim to support. Armed Sunni tribes have indeed become effective surrogates, but the enduring question is where their loyalties would lie in our absence. The Iraqi government finds itself working at cross purposes with us on this issue because it is justifiably fearful that Sunni militias will turn on it should the Americans leave.

    In short, we operate in a bewildering context of determined enemies and questionable allies, one where the balance of forces on the ground remains entirely unclear. (In the course of writing this article, this fact became all too clear: one of us, Staff Sergeant Murphy, an Army Ranger and reconnaissance team leader, was shot in the head during a “time-sensitive target acquisition mission” on Aug. 12; he is expected to survive and is being flown to a military hospital in the United States.) While we have the will and the resources to fight in this context, we are effectively hamstrung because realities on the ground require measures we will always refuse — namely, the widespread use of lethal and brutal force.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/opinion/19jayamaha.html?ei=5090&en=5a8349a0e944e61b&ex=1345176000&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=print
     
  10. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    I know it's impossible to tell by the head, but...

    http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/45874/
     
  11. Point of Order

    Point of Order Active Member

    There really ought to be a Dewey Decimal system just for cataloging published pieces describing the different ways the Bush Admin has fucked up the world.
     
  12. Smallpotatoes

    Smallpotatoes Well-Known Member

    Hmmm, I wonder what they'll say about this on Pundit Review tonight.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page