A Hedge Against Logic
I have been ignoring former NYT scribbler Chris Hedges ever since, just before the Iraq War, he began disparaging the Pentagon’s embed program. He bragged about how only he and a handful of others actually knew anything about covering war. Everyone else always stayed in the hotels. OK, true. I have respect for anyone who puts himself on the line, regardless of his politics. Hedges continued that the embeds wouldn’t get anywhere near the fighting, and would be led around by the nose by the U.S. military. This was not true, was not at all what the Pentagon was talking about, and not what happened. But Hedges would have nothing to do with it, and disparaged those of us who were getting ready to put our lives on the line.
He missed out. Just about anyone and everyone from any news organization who wanted to got all the war they wanted. As a result, we probably have more reporters now with firsthand experience with intense combat and intimate knowledge of the workings and character of the U.S. military than at any time since World War II. Even many of those who now criticize the war have respect for the United States military and the American soldier. And if you care to take that walk, you don’t even have to work for a news organization any more. It isn’t easy or safe, but bloggers such as Roggio, Ardolino and Yon who can drum up the cash and a loose affiliation with a news organization are doing it. Sadly, the embed program has fallen out of popularity, in part due to the normalization of war three years on, in part due to staff and budget cuts in news organizations everywhere, in part due to bureaucratic and logistical obstacles created by the Pentagon. Too bad. It was a great program and has given Americans and the world some of the most telling insights into the Iraq war.
Sorry, I’m digressing. Hedges, whose career since then I know little about, beyond the predictable Bush- and Iraq-bashing, apparently decided the great unreported threat to America is the religious Right. Never mind that his book came out just in time for the godless Left’s takeover of Congress, suggesting democracy remains somewhat active in the United States. Never mind that our nation is actively engaged in a global war with people who want to kill all of us, to whom Hedges’ leftie pals would very much like to capitulate. I suspect Hedges here is as full of it as he was about the Iraq war and the embed program.
On this winter’s must-ignore list of books not to read: “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.”
Topics: Uncategorized
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:56 am on Tuesday, January 9, 2007
3 Responses to “A Hedge Against Logic”
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January 10th, 2007 at 2:18 am
Hedges was in Israel in the 1990’s. Then he wrote his famous blood libel article, which Tom Friedman denounced. Thereafter they sent him to the New Jersey Bureau.
He spoke at a high school graduation a couple of years ago and got booed off the stage for his leftist ranting.
January 10th, 2007 at 2:40 am
I’m telling you this guy is dead on man. No shit. We’ve been having a massive wave of Baptist vest bombers down here in Florida. SOB’s are becoming more common than palmetto bugs.
Its gotten so bad you walk into any church these days and there’s plastic spread all over the floor in anticipation of the mess. It looks like the back seat of the car Hoffa took his last ride in!
January 10th, 2007 at 8:25 am
Around here now the penalty for not going to church is sleeping in and having to watch cartoons. The morality police are, well they don’t exist but if they did they’d be pissed.