Me#1You#10 Site Admin
Joined: 06 May 2004 Posts: 6503
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Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2007 2:17 pm Post subject: Bohica...supporting the troops...leftist style? |
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With the recent Ted Rall cartoon outrage still fresh in mind, it appears that the New Republic, one of liberalism's ideological Meccas, may be having their "we support the troops" veneer peeled away...hopefully, quite painfully. An incredulous (and growing) army of conservative bloggers are digging into TNR's recently-published (and pseudonyn hidden) purported first-person exposé of yet more U.S. military misconduct in Iraq which the left, and their MSM minions, just can't seem to get enough of.
Michael Goldfarb of The Weekly Standard appears to be the genesis of this inquiry. He writes...
Quote: | Fact or Fiction?
July 18, 2007
A mission for milbloggers:
The New Republic runs a piece in this week's issue titled "Shock Troops" (sub. req.) and authored by Scott Thomas--described by the magazine as a "pseudonym for a soldier currently serving in Baghdad." "Thomas" is the author of two previous dispatches from Iraq for the New Republic, both of which recount deeply disturbing anecdotes (in one, an Iraqi boy who calls himself James Bond has his tongue cut out for talking to Americans; in the other, dogs feast on a corpse in the street). His latest piece is even more disturbing. It recounts several instances of gross misconduct by the men in his unit, some of which are, to echo the title of his piece, deeply shocking--If they are true--a big if, according to several people with experience in Iraq. One described it to me as sounding like a "pastiche of the 'This is no ******** . . . stories soldiers like to tell."
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We contacted the New Republic in order to get any information that might help us to verify the authenticity of "Thomas"'s disturbing account, and the magazine, while insisting that it had promised to protect the identity of the author to shield him from retribution by the military, did provide us with some additional details. "Scott Thomas" claims that the incident at the chow hall occurred at Forward Operating Base Falcon. And the mass grave, he says, was discovered a couple miles south of Baghdad International Airport in farmland. We have also contacted the Pentagon in the hopes of getting more information to either corroborate or disprove "Thomas"'s account.
But we believe that the best chance for getting at the truth is likely to come from the combined efforts of the blogosphere, which has, in the past, proven adept at determining the reliability of such claims. To that end we'd encourage the milblogging community to do some digging of their own, and individual soldiers and veterans to come forward with relevant information--either about the specific events or their plausibility in general.
Does anyone who has served at FOB Falcon remember hearing about or seeing the humiliation of this woman? Do they know her name and how we might get in contact with her to confirm the author's account of the events that day?
Is anyone familiar with a combat outpost a few miles south of the Baghdad airport where a mass grave of Iraqi children was discovered? What about the other parts of the story? And does anyone else know of Bradleys careening wildly through the streets of Baghdad?
Please email any information, thoughts, and suggestions for further lines of inquiry to the WORLDWIDE STANDARD at wws@weeklystandard.com. We'll report back as information comes in.
The Weekly Standard - cont'd |
Dean Barnett of HughHewitt.com gives it this treatment...
Stay tuned...
HT: Dean's World |
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