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becca1223
PO3
Joined: 23 Aug 2004
Posts: 293
Location: Colonial Heights, VA
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 Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2006 5:18 pm Post subject: Of Words by Michael Yon |
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| Quote: | Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Of Words
by Michael Yon
Urozgan and Heland Provinces, Afghanistan
More than a year ago, I wrote from the “Sunni Triangle” that Iraq was in the midst of a civil war, words that received little attention then. I had published that dispatch about three weeks after the unexpected but overwhelming success of the first Iraqi elections. People were understandably distracted by the post-vote euphoria, while the media was largely busy explaining how they so misjudged the mood of the Iraqi people. Nearly all their pundits predicted a gloomy, violence-ridden election day with poor turnout. Instead, the day was relatively peaceful and Iraqi voter turnout was nothing less than stunning. Looking ahead from that moment, knowing that planning for the future is best done with a clear memory, I wrote on 23 February 2005:
“Nobody knows what the future will bring for Iraq. In my opinion, it’s already in a civil war, though many people seem afraid to say it. Actually, the reluctance is more likely ordinal in nature—no one wants to be the first to say what many know to be true Many now-stable democracies have suffered civil wars. Democracy, despite its inherent nobility, is seldom easy or pretty. At its best, democracy is a reflection of the “people,” and we all know what “they” are like.”
The topic of the dispatch, entitled “Mission Impossible: Mission Accomplished,” was not the question of whether Iraq’s growing turmoil fell into any particular academic definition of “civil war.” The piece was a collection of my thoughts and observations on the occasion of the departure of the 1st Infantry Division from Iraq. In late February 2005, as I was interviewing the combat soldiers with whom I’d spent an intense seven weeks, I was struck by a question I was asked over and over again.
“How much,” soldiers from 1st ID wondered aloud to me, “do the people at home know about the progress we have made over here?”
As I consider this whole manufactured controversy about my intentions in saying, then and now, that Iraq is in a civil war, and whether or not I used the right definition, and even, ridiculous as it seems, whether I have been hijacked by forces that oppose this war, what strikes me as most telling, and truly as most sad, is that, still, more than a year later, almost every soldier I’ve met in Iraq and most recently Afghanistan, still has to ask that same question: Do the people at home know about the progress we have made over here?
Back when I wrote the dispatch trying to answer that question for the soldiers of the 1st ID, there was a clear undercurrent of cynicism in the media and from growing numbers of people around the world. There was a reason for that cynicism and we aren’t proving our patriotism by engaging in mass denial. We are Americans; we can take the truth, even when we don’t like it.
read the rest here: Michael Yon: Online Magazine |
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Uisguex Jack
Rear Admiral
Joined: 26 Jul 2004
Posts: 613
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| Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2006 5:49 pm Post subject: |
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This is one heck of a good read. Further down in the piece I found this to be profoundly important: Quote | Quote: | I thought our greatest danger was the ongoing skirmishes we had with the truth.
Particularly among fanatics, there seems to be an intentional misappropriation of meaning in the liberal misapplication of labeling words. Let’s start with the BIG ones: suicide bombers and martyrs. Suicide is a term that should evoke empathy, if not sympathy, for a lonely and despairing act. A distressed soul, harboring a crushing, agonizing lebensmude, weary of the strain of a terrestrial existence, perhaps seeking mere relief, or just an end to psychic pain, may be contemplating suicide. If this person straps a bomb to his or her chest and walks out into the solitude of the desert and detonates, they would then be properly called a “suicide bomber.” But when the media reports every day on “suicide bombers,” they are talking about different people.
A fanatic who straps a bomb to his chest and walks into a market crowded with women and children, then detonates a bomb that is sometimes laced with rat poison to hamper blood coagulation, is properly called a “mass murderer.” There is nothing good to say about mass murderers, nor is there anything good to say about a person who encourages these murders. Calling these human bomb delivery devices “suicide bombers” is simply incorrect. They are murderers. A person or media source defending or explaining away the actions of the murderers supports them. There is no wiggle room.
Calling homicide bombers martyrs is a language offense; words are every bit as powerful as bombs, often more so. Calling murderers “martyrs” is like calling a man “customer” because he stood in line before gunning down a store clerk. There’s no need to whisper. I hear the bombs every single day. Not some days, but every day. We’re talking about criminals who actually volunteer and plan to deliberately murder and maim innocent people. What reservoir of feelings or sensibilities do we fear to assault by simply calling it so? When murderers describe themselves as “martyrs” it should sound to sensible ears like a rapist saying, “She was asking for it.” In other words, like the empty rationalizations of a depraved criminal.
Iraqi Police in Mosul were taking heavy losses when I arrived, yet recruitment was not a problem.
The word martyr is derived from the word “to witness.” It is used to describe a person who is killed because of a belief or principle. Given the choice to recant, martyrs chose instead to face their murderers and stand in witness to their beliefs. True martyrs do not kill themselves, but stand their ground and fight in the face of death to demonstrate the power of their convictions, sometimes dying as a result, but preferably surviving.
The only martyrs I know about in Iraq are the fathers and brothers who see a better future coming, and so they act on their beliefs and assemble outside police stations whenever recruitment notices are posted. They line up in ever increasing numbers, knowing that insurgents can also read these notices. The men stand in longer and longer lines, making ever bigger targets of themselves. Some volunteer to earn a living. This, too, is honorable. But others take these risks because they believe that a better future is possible only if Iraqi men of principle stand up for their own values, for their country, for their families. These are the true martyrs, the true heroes of Iraq and of Islam. I meet these martyrs frequently. They are brave men, worthy of respect. |
Important stuff, I think I might like this guy? Don't know yet. |
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GenrXr
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
Joined: 05 Aug 2004
Posts: 1720
Location: Houston
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| Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 1:25 am Post subject: |
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I believe he is the Deuce 4 em-bed which took large casualties while doing many high risk operations. He is also imo a liberal, but cares deeply for the troops, which off sets his views somewhat. Personally think he is becoming more conservative as time goes on and realizes the defeatism of the left.
He is also a former soldier or marine and got in trouble at one point when under heavy fire and with several wounded he dropped his camera and picked up a rifle to provide cover fire.
Definately on the side of our troops as opposed to CNN reporters who befriend and em-bed with the pyschos.
I like the guy. Even if he is a liberal.
Almost forgot, the guy is a great writer.
_________________
"An activist is the person who cleans up the water, not the one claiming its dirty."
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing." Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Founder of Conservative Philosophy |
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GoophyDog
PO1
Joined: 10 Jun 2004
Posts: 480
Location: Washington - The Evergreen State
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| Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 4:18 am Post subject: |
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| GenrXr wrote: | ...He is also imo a liberal, but cares deeply for the troops, which off sets his views somewhat.
...
I like the guy. Even if he is a liberal. |
GenrXr, this one I would have to disagree with you. Yon is probably one of the most balanced writers out there, running right down the middle. If labeled otherwise, it is so close to centerline as to be negligible.
Here is one author writing what he feels from his heart and what he sees with his own eyes rather than following the sheep - regardless of what side of the fence he may appear to be on. If nothing else, the man is honest with himself and his readers.
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Why ask? Because it needs asking. |
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