They would be:
Army Specialist Buddhika Jayamaha, Sergeants Wesley D. Smith, Jeremy Roebuck , Omar Mora, Edward Sandmeier and Staff Sergeants Yance T. Gray and Jeremy A. Murphy
.
Those seven are, of course, the American soldiers who wrote the excellent op-ed in last Sunday's New York Times-- "The War as We Saw It". I'm sure you all have read it, but if you haven't please take a minute to do so right now.
And then come back if you think they are deserving of a little extra help.
So, by now most of us have read their piece-- but a quick check shows that the Corporate Media Combine hasn't really reported on it. Even the dark, dirty little corners of the conservative blogs have been pretty much quiet. Suspiciously quiet.
How come O'Reilly, Coulter, Drudge, ad naseum are so silent? Where's the vitriol, the histrionics, the twisting of facts from Malkin or Hannity or the Freepers? Where's the righteous noise from the Right's (ass) crack team of spinners and con men? After all, these are people who thought Max Cleland hadn't sacrificed quite enough to prove his patriotism, ("what's he bitching about, he had one arm left, didn't he?") The collective near silence on the seven NCO's from the 82nd Airborne makes me uneasy.
It seems like the Right Wing Noise Machine wants nothing more that to have us all forget about their well reasoned, well written opinion piece. I just don't think I can do that. I've always held that any topic that makes conservatives uncomfortably quiet is something I really, really want to talk about (yes, even if it means "ruining" another family holiday).
So, why is the Media Combine desperately trying to sweep this under the rug? It's not about refuting O'Hanlon and Pollack, that had already been done. I think it's because the opinion of these seven American soldiers effectively pre empts and efficiently dismantles the soon to be released report from General Petraeus (and Friends!)
The Combine knows that most Americans find Sergeants much more trustworthy than Generals. Our popular culture is full of depictions of the gruff, hard working, honest Sergeant-- the kind of guy who's willing to do anything to protect his men while he gets the job done. These NCO's represent John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, the Band of Brothers and the Saviors of Private Ryan. And now, through the act of publishing their opinion they have put their careers as well as their bodies on the line.
Americans everywhere understand the special bravery it takes for a lowly Sergeant to buck the system, to piss off the brass and we all know that if seven of them do that, they're desperately trying to tell us all something very important. Contrast the image of seven brave, tired, sweaty soldiers taking great care to craft a cogent account of their war with the image of the General, escorting Congress members, conferring with White House hacks, politically covering his ass-- and the Combine knows who the public will instinctively find more sympathetic and more believable.
The argument that the sergeants can only talk about their limited view of the situation in Iraq is true, up to a point-- but countering that is the news that the Petreaus report will have to focus heavily on the Al Anbar province-- an equally narrow view of the overall picture in Iraq.
We can't afford to let the sacrfice of these soldiers fade after only a week. America must be allowed to look at The War as We Saw It and the Petreaus report side by side and draw their own conclusions about the efficacy of our continued military presence in Iraq. So, we're going to have to find a way to keep their view point from being forgotten, ignored, swept under the rug, becoming just another casuality of a 24 hour news cycle and limited attention spans.
I'm just not sure how to do that-- write the local paper asking that they reprint the New York Times piece, flood email in boxes with exhortations to read it, diaries and blogs on the subject, make a thousand copies and stick them under windshield wipers in the mall parking lot...?
You lovely Kossacks are a lot smarter than I am, so I look forward to your thoughts on strategies to keep a white hot spot light on the words and wisdom of Army Specialist Buddhika Jayamaha, Sergeants Wesley D. Smith, Jeremy Roebuck , Omar Mora, Edward Sandmeier and Staff Sergeants Yance T. Gray and Jeremy A. Murphy.
We owe them that much.