Category Archives: Troops

Strange, really, how the U.S. military capitulates when it comes to trying to influence the media war. I guess they expect to lose with the MSM and so they refuse to try to win. But that’s really pretty stupid. It may please them to, as Michael Yon notes, decline to set up press centers for the benefit of reporters who need reliable Internet and satellite connections, but they are cutting off their own noses.

"Billions of dollars are spent on the war each month, millions of dollars fly around here like sparrows, yet there are no designated places for journalists? While so many soldiers and their families shout for coverage from Afghanistan (remember that place?) and Iraq, I can sometimes be found from midnight to sunrise sitting outside, trying to transmit photos through a wireless network that only works sometimes."

Much is being made in the blogosphere of Gen. Vincent K. Brooks’ apparent threat to kick Yon out of Iraq. I suspect that has less to do with what he writes than his attitude combined with his former status as an NCO trigger-puller. But he also doesn’t fail to paint pictures of the ubiquitous PX with its incongruous multitude of flat-screen TVs, and the steak-and-lobster, cake-and-cookie mess halls which the brass cannot fail to dislike having publicized. It’s supposed to be all about guns-and-glory, not how many discounted components you can buy for your stereo or camera. As Yon’s reporting illustrates, it’s really about both. And it isn’t new. It was like that in Viet Nam, too. But at least there the military tried, and sometimes successfully did, influence MSM coverage.