Veteran Reporters

Thanks to the Internet, major media reporting on Iraq is challenged by milbloggers, and others, with first-person reporting and with facts that don’t fit in the major media, whether for reasons of space, contradiction to anti-war meme, or MSM incompetence.

For an earlier generation of now middle-aged Vietnam servicepeople, whose voices largely went unheard and whose reputations were tarred by major media echoing of Kerryesque fabrications, the rise of the milbloggers is cheered, and many are now getting their voice heard.

The condescension toward milbloggers oozes from the head of establishment journalism’s Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, for whom the truth is his fellows’ “big picture,” rather than piecing together a better picture from the individual shards of first-hand facts:

If the overall picture is one of continued violence and a significant lack of stability in many parts of Iraq, the individual shards of good news could be more of a distortion than a reflection of the truth.

The former managing editor of American Journalism Review, another major center for establishment journalism, exhibits this failure to gather all the facts, in her AJR article reporting on the mainstream reporters of the Haditha incident. Near the end of her long piece, she does get to the core of the problem, but ends on the MSM’s note of agreement with their “big picture”:

Coverage of these incidents is only going to increase as the cases go to trial, presenting a challenge for the press to provide fair and contextual reporting.
Galloway [Joe Galloway, recently retired military affairs correspondent fro Knight Ridder] and others point out that mistakes and abuses happen in every armed conflict. "The slaughter of innocents, accidental and deliberate, has occurred in every war man has ever fought," Galloway wrote in a June 7 column. "It's especially true in the wars of insurgency."
I asked Galloway if he has seen that kind of context, a more realistic picture of war, in coverage of Haditha. "I can't say that I have," he answered.
Human Rights Watch's Sifton says that the media should be looking at systemic problems, the bigger picture, not simply "incident, incident, incident." He adds, "I don't think Haditha coverage alone is a good thing."

I emailed her:

Lori
… after repeating the charges and allegations, you don't bother to mention the unreliable and changing narratives of "witnesses", the suspect provenance of the tape, or the refusal to allow exhumation (which is allowed in Islamic law; happy to send you the reference) although it has been permitted widely before and since.

Lori, it's far from a complete narrative you provide, and I guess the outcome will be different than many of the rushes to judgment. Although, then the major media will have moved on.

She responded:

Bruce,
Thanks for your comments. Having not been to Iraq or talked to any of the people involved, I wouldn't want to comment too much on the case itself. Witness accounts in any situation can be unreliable and the tape in this case doesn't provide proof of what did or didn't happen -- it simply served as a tip to a reporter that he should look into it. Everyone I talked to is still waiting for the NCIS report for the final word. I know at least one reporter who would love to talk to the families about the exhumation question but hasn't been able to do that.

It does feel like the media have moved on from this, but I think they'll be there to cover the outcome -- it's been such a big story.
Best,
Lori

I replied:

Thanks for your reply Lori.

However, you don't address that you did not address these evidentiary issues, in simpler terms matters of direct relevance to the charges, but only the charges, as if or leaving them as if true in the minds of readers without deeper information.

Also, granted, the media will be there to cover the outcome of the case, but will they cover their prior coverage lapses?

At least Military.com’s 8-million online readers, well larger than any national newspaper, will soon start seeing the milbloggers posts there from Milblogging.com. As CBS’s PublicEye blog points out:

The site links to some 1,400 blogs written by soldiers and veterans, mostly to correct what they see as shallow or inaccurate reporting by the mainstream media.

Vietnam veterans’ voices are, also, increasingly being heard. We often find each other in unlikely places on the Internet. I recently formed a friendship with a fellow Vietnam Marine, 1/5 grunt and then helicopter door gunner Harley Melton, when I came upon his post at the academic discussion site H-War debunking many of the myths about PTSD.
(See the Read More extended entry, below the fold, for excerpts from Melton’s posting on PTSD.)

I’m halfway through Harley Melton’s sadly funny semi-autobiographical novel, Touch Not This Wall (2004: featured by publisher Trafford at BookExpo America in New York in June of ’05; You can order an autographed copy directly from the author, for 1/3rd off, free shipping, for $14 at: Harley Melton, 5480 Laurie Lane, Memphis, TN 38120; or email him at sharhar@bellsouth.net to arrange purchase), which I heartily recommend. Harley writes within, drawing on the lessons his platoon learned from Winnie The Pooh:

Now another generation has its war….They, as we and our fathers and our grandfathers before us did, will come home to a land they do not recognize. To a people that do not know that the only thing that ever matters…is how you treat another.

Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are, also, active in gathering their literary muscle. As I wrote here, James Clark (remarkable bio) is gathering vets’ narratives for Global Security Press to publish a new book, Outside The Wire: True Stories of American Soldiers in Iraq. Clark can be reached at jclark@bootsontheground.org.

Another new book, Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Home Front, in the Words of U.S. troops and Their Families, is supported by a National Endowment for the Arts program. The Operation Homecoming director says, “I think this book will be the book of a generation.” The book’s material came from 50 writing workshops held between April 2004 and July 2005 at domestic and overseas bases. Thousands of experiences representing more than 10,000 pages of manuscripts were considered.

Let mainstream journalists in the Green Zone, or who rely on suspect native stringers, or who’ve never been to Iraq or Afghanistan, try to match that as the true facts and history of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam are unfolded by true veteran journalists.

Melton wrote at H-War:
I do suggest that you read Sally Satel’s book, One Nation Under Therapy. It is a rather neat book which explains how the “rules” for determining if a person has any symptoms of PTSD have been expanded…. There has been virtually constant expansion and widening of these parameters since that time, almost to the point where if you were to have a firecracker explode in your fingers during a Fourth of July celebration, that “Trauma” you experienced (through your own clumsiness) could actually allow you to be diagnosed as having PTSD symptoms. The new rules are almost really that silly. However, as Ms Satel notes often in her book, these expanded parameters used for PTSD diagnoses do help psychiatrists and psychologists maintain a really decent income….

I often make the statement in group discussions or when giving guest lectures that 100% of Combat Veterans return home draped in heavy doses of PTSD. Few, and I do mean very few, ever argue with that rather egregious statement. So conditioned are the civilian population by what I call “The Common Knowledge of The Vietnam War” that serving in any war zone equals mental problems, most members of the audience nod their head sagely.

When I follow that statement with a “By the way, did you know” statement that among veterans of the Vietnam War there is only an estimated four to seven percent (4% to 7%), some twenty-six to thirty thousand in number, who actually have long-term PTSD problems. This almost always gets an argument from my audience. Someone in the audience will usually quote the number most used from the “common knowledge,” seven hundred thousand (700,000), though a couple of times one or two people in the audience have insisted that at least a million Vietnam veterans (1,000,000) are “Known” to have serious PTSD problems.

Please note that I purposely omit the term Combatant in the second statement. Mainly, I must admit, to further the discussion in my favor. While the old (late sixties, early seventies) idea that is still hanging around mainly in the academic and war protest worlds continues to be that as few as 700,000 to well over a million Vietnam veterans (1.5 million is quoted in some instances) suffer from being victimized by their war experiences, few understand that on average only ten to twelve percent (10% to 12%) of any of the men and women who serve in a war’s Area of Operations (AO) are actually combatants. This ratio of combatants versus non-combatants has remained true from the Civil War on.

For example, during the Vietnam War a bit over three million (3,000,000) served in the war’s Area of Operations. You must understand that the Area of Operations included not only Vietnam but also Thailand, Okinawa, the Philippine Islands and later Guam. Those that served inside the borders of Vietnam itself numbered some two million six hundred thousand. (2,600,000) According to the latest information I have there were only four hundred, thirty-two thousand, eight hundred (432,800) give or take a few that were actual combatants. The rest, two million, five hundred sixty-seven thousand, two hundred (2,567,200) in the AO and a mere two million, one hundred, sixty-seven thousand, two hundred (2,167,200) within the borders of Vietnam, were support troops not people assigned to combat units. While the 432,800 combatants of the Vietnam War is a bit higher than the norm (14%) it is obvious that the increase in percentage was due to the twelve month tour (ARM&-AIR FORCE) and the thirteen month tour (MARINES – NAVY).

Even with the percentage of combatants being slightly higher during the Vietnam War you have to wonder how, if you only use the low estimate of 700,000, how in the world did it become such a part of the “common knowledge” that 162% more than the number of actual combatants in the Vietnam War come home to become mentally deranged victims of their war experiences. Especially since the latest research on PTSD shows that of those people who experience a major trauma, be it a hurricane, tornado, a war, a plane crash, or even a second or third divorce, only four to seven percent will have any long-term symptoms of PTSD for more than a few months after the event.
The rest of those who experience what could be termed as traumatic events, as did the combatants in all the wars in our history, get on with life, or rather I should say, life goes on and they jump on the wagon. So I ask you to be aware, not only that it is only a very small number of Vietnam veterans who actually have long term PTSD, but also that it has been recently proven that there are more pretenders to Vietnam war service than there were that actually served in Vietnam in a combat capacity. The sad thing is that from what I have found during the research for my nonfiction book (Twisted Warriors: The Creation Of The Myths) is that more than sixty percent of those claiming to have been in combat in the Vietnam War, never served in any branch of the service and those who did actually have a tour in some branch of the armed forces served in Europe, Korea, US bases or the National Guard….

I don’t think it would hurt my chances of receiving a disability check if the psychiatrist in charge of my trauma case were to find out that I served two tours in Vietnam with the Marines no less and earned the Combat Action Ribbon (The Marine Corps version of the Kentucky rifle award). Especially now that the parameters for combat induced PTSD include hearing about, hearing about war tragedies, not experiencing any, mind you.

Now ain’t that a kick in the butt, John Wayne? A serviceman or woman from our war can actually get a disability check for being affected by war stories instead of having to experience actual bullet, grenade and mortar noises. I wonder if the psychiatrists or psychologists in charge of granting PSTD status ever heard the old Marine Corps method of beginning a war story? It usually goes:
What is the difference between a Fairy Tale and a Marine’s War story?
A Fairy Tale begins with, “Once upon a time.”
A Marines war story begins with, “Now this ain’t no shit.”
After that there ain’t much difference.

Yes, Mike, I came back from both tours loaded to the gills with PTSD symptoms but then life—you know, an education, a job, a marriage and kids—took over and like most combat veterans I have come to know, be they combat veterans of World War Two, Korea, Vietnam or the Gulf wars, most if not all of my PTSD symptoms went away in less than a year.