The War in Iraq

Caption:

FALLUJAH, IRAQ: A US marine from the 3/5 Lima company stands in front of graffiti scribbled on the bridge crossing the Euphrates River in the restive city of Fallujah,14 November 2004, 50 kms west of Baghdad. The bridge became famous after the death of US security officers' charred bodies were hung on display at the end of March 2004. US-led forces will probably need up to five more days to finish clearing Fallujah of rebels after a week of fierce fighting that left more than 1,200 insurgents dead, US marine officers said today. AFP PHOTO/PATRICK BAZ (Photo credit should read PATRICK BAZ/AFP/Getty Images

Last spring and summer, Fold was demanding more troops.

THX, "Mass Graves" was NOT the reason we went in there.
Irrelevant.  It was a good enough reason for liberals to go in places where the US did not have any national security interests. It should be good enough for them now.

Ah, I didn't post any picture. I did post a link to a 3 min video of our boys fighting in Iraq.

Twas me ;)

 

I'm not taking sides in this...

But this is how it plays on the Arab Street.

Less than a week after Beslan, there wasn't a word mentioned on Aljazeera.

But this will run for days.

Congratulations...! When will you welcomeour invasion of Rwanda and Nigeria and half a dozen other countries, that are currently murdering their own countrymen???

You never will.

Probably not becuase, as fr as I know, the US has no strategic or national security interests in either place.

Yes, well that is about as simplistic an answer as I expected, but your not THX.
I thought the point needed to be made.

Much as you would like to be.
 No, not at all. JT is too much of a lefty for me!!!

See the film. It says a lot about what you just mentioned.

Translation....I can't back it up.

Subject:D/216 Embed Article

The ‘McSkinney’ on the Delta Battery

 

by Laurie Dennis

Jeff McKinney is back at work at the WCCO station in downtown Minneapolis. He’s chatting on the air weekday afternoons with Don Shelby, offering radio listeners “the McSkinney with Jeff McKinney” and immersed in the station he’s worked at since 1994.

 

McKinney


, as always, is also closely following news from Iraq.

 

But now he’s far more attuned to the places mentioned in and around Baghdad, and the war coverage comes with vivid mental images of a place he’s just seen.

 

 McKinney spent ten days last month embedded with Monticello’s Delta Battery. He ate with the guys in their cafeteria, slept in one of the trailers assigned to the D-Battery unit at Camp Blackjack, and went out on daily patrols of the streets surrounding the Baghdad airport.

 

“They were wonderful hosts


–


I had complete access,” he said. “I never once had a guy say, ‘I don’t want to talk to you.’ ”

 

Becoming ‘embedded’

 

McKinney


began to prepare for a trip to Iraq months ago. In December he had his first taste of an overseas military campaign when he traveled with Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau to visit Minnesota troops on a peacekeeping mission in Bosnia.

 

“That was a dress rehearsal,” McKinney explained. “It was understood (by the radio station) that there was a plan to go to Iraq.”

 

Talks with the National Guard in Minnesota led to the discovery of the Delta Battery, which consists of about 150 men who had trained in air defense artillery at the Monticello Community Center before being deployed in the spring to Baghdad airport. The unit members come from across Central Minnesota and were just the type of group McKinney was interested in visiting.

 

However, events began to intervene with his plans.

 

“Our general manager began to have some second thoughts in April when the violence escalated,” McKinney said. “I kept pushing to go.”

 

But getting the go-ahead from his station was just the beginning. McKinney had to go through the long process of applying to be an embedded journalist.

 

“I signed a lot of waivers,” he said with a grin.

 

He spent May 15-22 with the D-Battery, jetting in and out on C-130 cargo planes (a dramatic experience itself as the planes landed and departed at the steepest possible angle in order to make a small target, which Mc-Kinney said resulted in being “sucked into my seat” by the force of gravity).

 

 

Once at his destination, Mc-Kinney worked 18-hour days, trying to broadcast as much as he could.

 

“I slept about four hours a night,” he said.

 

He sent constant broadcasts home, trying to manage the time difference and yet still send live reports for the WCCO morning show and for the Don Shelby Show in the afternoon.

He had to cope with disconnections, sound delays over the airwaves and communication conditions that were sometimes “pretty dicey.”

 

For the most part, though, it all worked.

 

“My reports were traversing 7,400 miles,” he pointed out.

 

He attributed the success of his reporting largely to the D-Battery company commander, Major Pete Lillie.

 

“He would march into a communications trailer and say, ‘One of these phones will be used by this reporter’

 

–


me,” McKinney said. “I had to endure some withering stares, but the phone situation was great.”

 

During patrols, Lillie allowed halts designed to help WCCO listeners back in Minnesota.

 

“A few times we’d be doing patrols and the guys would have to stop and wait, with guns pointing out, so I could file a report,” McKinney said.

 

For Lillie, having a reporter embedded with the unit proved an interesting diversion.

 

“Having Jeff McKinney here was good,” he told the Times in a recent e-mail. “He was able to get our story out to Minnesota and WCCO seemed to appreciate his efforts. We certainly did.”

 

Meanwhile, for the families back home, McKinney provided an additional source of information about distant loved ones.

 

“I don’t watch the news these days, but I did listen to that,” said Audrey Perry of Monticello, whose husband, John Perry, is a member of the D-Battery. “I found it very interesting.”

 

 

She said McKinney’s reports gave a perspective on day-to-day life in Camp Blackjack.

 

“The hardest thing about being apart is the difference in our worlds,” she said. “It was nice to have a sense of what their daily life is like


–


they already know all about ours.”

 

A few tense moments

 

Before arriving in Camp Blackjack, McKinney wasn’t sure what he’d be able to do. He said he quickly settled into a routine, the highlight of which was the daily patrol of areas outside the Baghdad airport. The tours lasted several hours, and varied in duties


–


one involved a visit to a neighboring sheik’s vineyard to discuss irrigation problems, while others wound through narrow town lanes.

 

McKinney


said he could feel a distinct difference in tension the moment his patrol headed “outside the wire” or the heavily guarded boundary to the military base.

 

 

“You marked the leaving of the compound by the clearing of your weapon, which involved a great clanging of weaponry,” McKinney recalled.

 

One of the most precarious moments came during a patrol of a busy city area.

 

“We got stuck in a traffic jam rather suddenly and were motionless on a very big street,” McKinney said. “First Sgt. Bob Dedic just quietly handed me his handgun. We were in a Humvee and we hopped over a curb and backtracked to safety. Then I, just as quietly, handed the gun back.”

 

McKinney


said the patrols traveled with local interpreters, but he did not have much contact with Iraqi people. And on one occasion, he ran into trouble with a woman on the street.

 

“I once made the mistake of taking a picture of a woman in veils,” he said. “She started waving her hands around and a man nearby started to say, ‘No, no, no,’ and Commander Lillie said, ‘Oh, I forgot to tell you, that’s prohibited.’ ”

 

Reflecting on his time with the D-Battery, McKinney said he was surprised at the routine way in which soldiers

 

–


who only a short while ago were working in Minnesota as real estate agents and bartenders and college students


–


were able to handle duties that placed them in harm’s way.

 

“They’ve undergone a metamorphosis,” he said. “If anyone thinks the National Guard takes a back seat to the army


–


they’re wrong. They are indistinguishable from the regular army.”

 

McKinney


added that the morale of the Delta Battery is high.

 

“For the most part, they’re concerned with the safety of their guys and the effectiveness of their patrols,” he said. “I didn’t ever feel scared because the guys around me never seemed scared. Sometimes the tension levels increased, but they didn’t ever seem scared.

 

“I think we should feel pretty good about their safety level. They’re very safety conscious as they go about a quite hazardous duty.”

 

 

More reports still to come

 

McKinney


’s intense week as an embedded reporter resulted in exhaustion


–


he said he briefly nodded off in front of a computer the first night back at work.

 

“I was tired and eager to get back to my family. But every time I felt that, I always thought of the fact that these guys still had 10 months of duty to go.”

 

McKinney


still has several hours’ worth of unaired tapes from his time in Baghdad that he plans to air as special features at a later date.

 

His connections with Monticello are likely to continue, as he plans to meet up with the Delta Battery once the deployment to Iraq is finished


–


likely sometime in the spring. WCCO is also working to send a representative to Monticello’s Riverfest parade July 11.

 

 

Though McKinney looks forward to seeing the D-Battery safely returned home, he’d also like a chance to visit them again before their deployment ends.

 

“I would like to go back right now,” he said.

 

McKinney


called the experience of being embedded with the Delta Battery a career high point.

 

“This was meaningful,” he said. “It was about life, death and bravery.” 

 

Group brings Delta families together

 

by Laurie Dennis

When the Big Lake Township home of Delta Battery Staff Sgt. James Prettyman burned down earlier this month, a group was ready to step in and assist Prettyman’s wife and children.

 

The local Family Readiness Group of the National Guard, which consists of Delta Battery families, was formed long before the deployment to Iraq of the unit’s 150 men.

 

 

 Members of the family group immediately lined up to bring daily dinners to Marie Prettyman and her three children.

 

“We all rallied together to make sure she had what she needed,” said group member Audrey Perry. “It’s nice to have a support system.”

 

Perry is the Monticello area leader for the group, known in military lingo as an FRG. It meets regularly, most recently for a family picnic Sunday at Elm Creek Park.

 

The group has long had a summer family picnic, and this year the event fell on Father’s Day. That proved fortuitous since many of the men in the unit, which is in the midst of a year-long mission in Baghdad, are fathers.

 

“We have about 80-90 dependents,” said Perry. “It’s hard on the kids (to have dads overseas) and it’s hard on the women who work full time and have young children at home.”

 

To help make the event Sunday even more kid-friendly, Variety Merchandise Outlet of Buffalo (via the Monticello VFW Post 8731) donated 120 stuffed animals, which Perry distributed to children.

 

Perry became involved with the FRG recently. She married Sfc. John Perry on Nov. 15, and he was deployed to Iraq with the Delta Battery a few days later.

 

“Life has been very hectic,” she said.

 

Her husband has a laptop computer in his trailer at Baghdad’s Camp Blackjack and sends regular emails home.

 

“My husband is good about keeping in touch


–


he calls me just about every day,” she said.

 

The FRG, chaired by Lafonda Leshovsky of Otsego, keeps those back home in touch through a newsletter, Yahoo Internet group and periodic family events.

 

The group held a scrapbooking day at the Monticello Community Center on May 16, and is planning a “Mind, Body, Soul Day,” complete with yoga lessons, massages and manicures, at the community center on July 17.

 

“We get together whether the solders are deployed or not,” Perry said.

 

But with a deployment underway, the FRG is available to handle health insurance questions, crisis assistance, day-to-day problems and also to offer the chance to meet and compare notes every few weeks.

 

“We’re hanging in there,” Perry said.

 

Anne Marie Peacock

Must have worked for the Kerry campaign.

Bill, I was talking about the media and the way they cover it.

Ask people that don't know people there to name a soldier or Marine, Sailor or Airmen. The top response is Lindie England the Smoking midget from Abu Griahb. Out of all the brave acts they've done she's probably the most famous. I don't want anything sugarcoated I want the whole picture.

Ask the troops if they feel the media coverage has been fair. Go ahead, ask.  

Deleted because the text won't paste? Anyone? 

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/breaking_9.html

[Edited 3 times. Most recently by on Nov 26, 2004 at 11:28am.]

Thanks, I couldn't get the script to show. Wierd.

Bill, I don't think there's much doubt that the MSM leans left, and they've lost major viewers/readers because of it. People are flocking to alternative news sources, and they aren't ALL stupid.

Another source I've discovered, through blogs, is Iraqi bloggers like Iraq the Model and The Mesopotamian. I've checked them out as much as I can and they seem to be legit. They were set up to tell some inside stories that don't make it into ANY media reporting.

 

But even that story is filled with negative-aspects. I don't know how you can call it positive...?

Again Bill, I'm not saying they all should nor would I want them to be positive. I just want the whole picture which the MSM has failed miserebly at.

I don't agree Muskwa. I believe that the main-stream-media is now more Conservative than ever, they have more outlets than anybody else and they complain the most about the "Liberal" media bias.

Main stream media conservative? Rather, Brokaw, Jennings and their cohorts"? Really?

"Again Bill, I'm not saying they all should nor would I want them to be positive."

What would be the ratio of Hard News to "Positive Stories" that would make the "MSM" successful in covering Iraq, Rob?

[Edited 2 times. Most recently by on Nov 30, 2004 at 10:38am.]

What would be the ratio of Hard News to "Positive Stories" that would make the "MSM" successful in covering Iraq, Rob?

I don't know what you mean. It's their job to report on events. What went on in a given day. Is it necessary to balance a day a mayhem and violence with a story of individual courage or selflessness? The latter stories show up. But their first job is news.

Is it also not their job to provide perspective or to paint a picture of the situation ?

Let me ask you this Rick.

We've seen the footage of the Marine in Fallujah shooting that guy.

Have we seen any footage of Margaret Hassan's death? I'm talking MSM here. I haven't have you? Why do you think that is? Is that not news?

 

[Edited 3 times. Most recently by on Nov 30, 2004 at 02:24pm.]

"Have we seen any footage of Margaret Hassan's death? I'm talking MSM here. I haven't have you? Why do you think that is? "

I haven't seen either of them, because I don't seek that sort of thing out. I imagine you have a theory. I don't know why. Maybe it has something to do with her being an innocent victim and they want to respect her family.

They show the Marine because ABC has the footage.

All these news entities are operating independently, Rob. They're trying to get stories and the human interest stuff can't be done every day.

[Edited by on Nov 30, 2004 at 02:34pm.]

I haven't seen either of them, because I don't seek that sort of thing out. I imagine you have a theory. I don't know why. Maybe it has something to do with her being an innocent victim and they want to respect her family.

Sorry Rick, B.S they showed the Marine footage was that not disrespectfull to the man who died? They didn't show any of Margaret Hassan's murder.

They show the Marine because ABC has the footage.

It was NBC that had it originally and it was on every MSM news program and MSM website. No footage of Maragaet Hassan or even a still.

All these news entities are operating independently, Rob. They're trying to get stories and the human interest stuff can't be done every day.

Margaret Hassans execution was not human interest it was news. Point made thanks.

"Sorry Rick, B.S they showed the Marine footage was that not disrespectfull to the man who died?"

He was an insurgent, maybe they didn't feel the need for the same sensitivity. He was part of the fighting.

[Edited by on Nov 30, 2004 at 02:52pm.]

rick will defend anything accused of being liberal.

He was an insurgent, maybe they didn't feel the need for the same sensitivity. He was part of the fighting.

What would showing this Hassan woman being murdered do for the story?

Should all the brutal executions be shown; sensitivity to the families be damned?

That's your idea of balance?

[Edited 3 times. Most recently by on Nov 30, 2004 at 03:32pm.]

if I recall, when it was reported about Hassan, it was completely explained why the video wasn't shown. I heard it on that librul media source NPR, who had an extensive story about her.

What would showing this Hassan woman being murdered do for the story?

I'm not even saying show the whole thing. Edit it, fine. If you have to ask the question why at least some visual reference when availible isn't helpfull to the story I think you're kidding yourself.

Should all the brutal executions be shown; sensitivity to the families be damned?

That's your idea of balance?

Yes we all know how sensative the media is to peoples families. Again I'm not saying show it uncut all the way through. But I'm sure the showing of the edited Marine in Fallujah video and showing zip nadda zero or even a still of Margaret Hassan speaks volumes.

How these brutal thugs that are taking over mosques, holding and killing innocent people, using torture chambers, etc in a way to cause general havoc before elections can be called "insurgents" in a way to somehow glorify them is beyond me.  Why not call them what they really are...terrorist?

[Edited by on Nov 30, 2004 at 04:52pm.]

Again I'm not saying show it uncut all the way through.

It was Al Jazeera that chose to not show the Hassan video. They had the video. How are other media supposed to show what they don't have?

even a still of Margaret Hassan speaks volumes

here...

feel better now?

I don't know. Newswise, terrorist , to me, makes assumptions, that they are guilty of something other than what they are doing at the moment.

An inssurgent is a person who "takes forceable opposition to an established government or authority."

It was Al Jazeera that chose to not show the Hassan video. They had the video. How are other media supposed to show what they don't have?

Oh they couldn't get it if they wanted it? Please.

 

I don't know. Newswise, terrorist , to me, makes assumptions, that they are guilty of something other than what they are doing at the moment.

An inssurgent is a person who "takes forceable opposition to an established government or authority."

Seems to me terrorist is accurate sometimes, insurgent is accurate other times.

 

 

[Edited 2 times. Most recently by on Nov 30, 2004 at 05:52pm.]

Oh they couldn't get it if they wanted it? Please.

then why don't YOU get it and put it up?

I think it was CARE's wish that it not be shown.

then why don't YOU get it and put it up?

That's the medias job. Something they are failing at.

"then why don't YOU get it and put it up?"

That's what an advocate of "new media" would do. Mike Savage played the audio of Nick Berg being beheaded over and over and over.

'Internet, man. Talk radio, man. We got it goin' on.'

Piss on Dan Rather.  

[Edited 2 times. Most recently by on Nov 30, 2004 at 06:07pm.]

Something they are failing at.

To show the video would not add anything to the tragic story. It would only insult and hurt the family and the people she worked with.

Have you no shame?