ArtBistro

No; if anything the press is badly sanitized by the government for public consumption...It's a propaganda tool; if anything the press tries to make it look like Sunday in the Park over there to show what a great Job the White House is doing in handling Bush's war..

 To answer your question. No. I have a brother serving, and uncles who have served. I support the troops. But not our involvement in Iraq. The press had more free access in WW 2 and Vietnam to the front lines than they do now. There were images of dead soldiers that shocked the nation, much like Somalia. Imbedded aside. If they do have access the images are not getting into the mainstream media outlets. Many images we get are from the troops themselves. 

I don't believe a lot of what the press has to say, they have their own agenda, and it's making money, not being the purveyor of truth.

A good friend just got back from Iraq, I haven't heard any details from him yet. If I do (his unit is quite secretive) I will pass on what I learn, as I trust his word.

I dunno about the press but I haven't met a recruiter yet that didn't lie

Regnadkcin says ...

bluestarr says ...

I dunno about the press but I haven't met a recruiter yet that didn't lie

Yeah, they told me I'd be living in condos, work 9 to 5 and never get dirty...farggin ice holes!  

I looked into joining the Navy and was told a ship never went more than two weeks without hitting a port.

yeah, I'm that stupid 

 Thanks for the tip Gio.

Worse? Worse then what, war? One needn't spend six months in a Green Zone military hospital to know that shit, blood and urine smells just as bad, is just as slippery as that being mopped-up two kilometers, and three lefts, down Route Irish at  Evil-doer-land Municipal Hospital. Some day, and soon, we will have to pay a moral debt on our national soul that will have us absolutely nostalgic for the '70s. (Reality check: Few are either alive to remember or give a damn, anyway, about the Holocaust or, for that matter, the Killing Fields or yesterday's popular African tragic de jure. "They" only care about what we're up to, and lately at that. We're the new boogieman! And we don't even get to drag NATO, SEATO and the UN down to Hades with us.) Listen people, this War On Terror (which Gore Vidal so succintly likens symantecally to a war on dandruff) is not only being conducted primarily in the wrong place, it's chewing-up our soft and durable resources like termites let loose on the National Archive, both figuratively and literally. (So that's what happened to our Bill of Rights and Constitution.) Trust me, you don't need to take a bullet to know it hurts. One of the oft-cited "miracles" of this conflict is that we now generally return whole bodies in aluminium caskets, as opposed to "remains"  in  "coffee cans" , like back when I played the draft lottery. The traumatic brain injuries we're seeing will start a new dance trend in a few years, unlike anything an English speaking society has seen since the close of The Great War. All those stories about "heroes" with traumatically amputated limbs, pining to return to active duty - and their buddies - is case in point of the psychopathology that has taken hold in wholesale lots. Sicker still is an ethically bankrupt nation that supports such mental musings, seeing no wrong in it - even condoning it like some reality show  dine and puke contest - rather then coming to terms with the awful truth of lowered educational [re: intellectual] standards amongst the pool of potential enlistees, and the quiet spectre of senior personnel exiting in demoralized droves.  Remember all those FOX News "good riddance to old junk"  reportage of just a few years back? Many are now wishing  we still had some of those old dogs of war, most especially those whom time has proven correct; both as boots on the ground commanders and policy advisors. (I'm waiting with anticipation for Survivor: Gaza Strip to air one day. They'll eat goat gonads with yogurt and "feel" like they're in Iraq - or Badguyland, but I digress.) While I wholeheartedly appreciate the strategic pitfall of blundering into a new war, whilst re-visiting the methodology of the last, experience does rate a performance review and, should anyway, provide us with real leadership predicated on long examined contingencies.  Instead, we've seen some of the greatest strategic blunders since Reagan decided, forty years after the fact, to refight the North Africa Campaign, recommisioning the USS New Jersey and seeing to it that there was plenty of '40s swing music piped into officers clubs world wide. (After all, the Soviets rolled into Afghanistan to the tune of Rod Stewart 8 Tracks, and that didn't seem to work. Don't ask how I know that. Or was it our Taliban that slowed them down?) The net result of America's nostalgia for the greasy comb-over and women in three layers of underwear were Marines blown to bits in Beirut; fifteen years of Lebanese civil war; the faggots are killing us paranoia after a gun turret explosion on said battleship (that was already strategically obsolete the day it first left the yard in 1944); our present situation in the world.

Who says "the press" has less [unfettered] access to the "front" then in previous wars? You have all the freedom of movement you want. There are taxis everywhere! Just don't expect to go too far without being taken hostage - or worse - if you're the wrong kind of "you". This is not a photo safari or theme park. (Reality check gang: We couldn't walk about Japan [hello] with a fedora and a Bush Pressman either, regardless of the fact that they continued to publish an English language daily in Tokyo for the duration of that war. "We" were their "enemy".) Sure, you can get to the "front of anything" in Iraq or Afghanstan. Just don't expect the US military to come rescue you. They're there to fight a war and impose peace, not babysit errant "journalists". If you're "swarthy" enough, speak the language fluently and know which hand not to pick up your food with, you might last a day getting out on your own. But you'd likely be better received at a KKK barbeque, donning a Notre Dame sweatshirt.  (For more, read Chris Bangert's excellent humanists take on the war from a photographer's perspective. And get his book!)

Some very rudimentary research skills will take you to places where you can cull all the "truth" you need. (I haven't yet checked Mr. Giovanni's link, but his reputation precedes him and I'm willing to wager an AP stringer who has been there/done that knows of what he speaks on Iraq, at least from a photo journalists perspective, which undoubtedly occupies its own special ring in the Inferno. I personally know of one especially disturbing link I myself even find difficult to visit, so I'm not sharing it.) Like to read? The CIA, for one, collects, and makes available to all US citizens, a daily English transcript of just about every major international news broadcast they tap into. I give these "spooks" this much: Sure as they might snap your spine like a bread stick, regardless of how many beers you bought them the night before (bro!) they don't lie and couldn't give a rat's rectum about politics. They mightn't tell you anything... but when they do say something, in my limited experience, it's as truthful as they believe it to be. (They're not the FBI.) Mind you, they lost the entire Red Army in '68, but they didn't lie about it. Nor the Iranian Revolution they failed to see coming. (Don't even get me started on the Brits, mate!) Read Arabic, Farsi,  evil French [gulp!], Danish, German, Italian etc? The information is there. Start in the... name escapes me... library at Columbia University. (You'll likely have to ask the guard where it is and show some valid ID with a picture. Should anyone attempt to deny you access on the grounds that you're not a student, when your done laughing at them, tell them they can't!. It's your tax funded project. It doesn't belong to the university, rather all US citizens.) Like to pump scholars for information but can't get past those spam filters? Can't login to the Carlisle Barracks? GOOGLE "NYMAS".  Ask them anything. Be ready for some answers.

Don't even get me started on blaming the press.  As long as fewer then half of all Americans possess three digit I.Q.s, there will be people believing the New York Times "lost" the war in Vietnam (actually, the Vietnamese did; we just left in disgust ) Elvis is still on that secret mission in Rush-sher; Sad'im [sic] put a hit on the Twin Towers, military recruiters are just well meaning uncles trying to get us off the farm and into college work-study programs, and Hank, Jr., speak of traumatic brain injury, is an inspired musical talent  - and not the spawn of satan! (Sorry Big Hank! It wasn't your fault! Hug Jesus, for me.)

If you feel it your duty - or destiny  -  to serve in the armed forces, then do so honourably and without excuses. Don't rely on the so-called "media", as the pundits and uber-patriots put it. Make certain you are receiving the maximum enlistment bonus and know which branch of the service actually guarantees your "M.O.S." after boot camp (Hint: begins with "A") and have them give you a signed contract for you to keep on file with an attorney; pick a "skill" you can use in civilian life (driving a tank WILL NOT prepare you to be a heavy equipment operator at Roadway); keep your head and your ass down, stay near the Old Sarge when the shit hits the fan, and never - I mean ever - obey an unlawful order.  Remember what Ghandi (yeah, that guy) said: "If your going to be a soldier, be a good soldier." Oh, and lastly be nice to Canadians. Bring a camera - or even a sketch pad... but please, I've seen All Quiet On The Western Front. I know how it ends. Be careful! And if you're ever near a field hospital outside Kabul... never mind. It's a beautiful war! Kites and all!

Then you just concentrate on how great it will be having him home again! And tell him thanks for his service and welcome home, on behalf of artists for peace and healing. (And truly awful coffee.)

phoenixfirestorm says ...

Since when has the press ever done anything good?  All they worry about is their ratings and beating the other networks to the punch, even if they have to lie and the latter is usually the case. 

Don't consider TV news, news... don't use the word PRESS in relation to TV news. The people who worry about the ratings on tv ARE NOT the press... those are the suits. Don't mix the reporting with the ratings. TV news is fluff, clear and simple... no content and possibly one of the major contributors to the dumbing of America.

from the things I've heard from friends over in iraq our soldiers travel through banks filled with piss and shit back and forth.  they can't go to sleep as much as their used too for ridiculous hours at a time so they stay alive.  another thing is that the parents in iraq send their kids to go and distract soldiers while they go warn and hide weapons, info, and such.  We were asked to send loads of small candies so the soldiers can throw to the kids so they don't get distracted away from the elders scurrying.  Number one rule over their is if you see someone running at you while an explosion goes off, kill em.  If you see a high speed vehicle coming your way warning shots, if they keep coming at you, kill em.  the worst story I ever heard was when the soldiers raided a home and found a bunch of children holding guns intheir sleep.  one kid woke up and was going to kill a U.S. soldier so he had to kick the kid in the face so he didn't get killed himself.  The children are raised believing to carry a gun at all times.  I can't imagine growing up with all that hate my whole life.  And this is the stuff they were allowed to talk about.  Imagine the things our soldiers are ordered not to talk about.