Where Are The FOIA Requests For This One?
There have been lots of unconfirmed reports about the torture that American soldiers PFC Thomas Tucker and PFC Kristian Menchaca endured after being taken prisoner by jihadis in Iraq earlier this month. Now, I don't want to see pictures of what happened to them come out -- for one thing, it would be tough on their families. I do wonder, though, about the double standard being shown by the American media here -- they're more than willing to go to court to get pictures of Iraqi prisoners with panties on their heads released to the public, where they can inflame the passions of the "Arab street", or to get pictures of flag-draped coffins released. Why aren't they trying as hard to get pictures of these two dead American heroes released? Is it because they don't want to inflame the "American street" -- to remind the American public of exactly the kind of animals we're fighting against? (A commenter at Protein Wisdom made pretty much the same point I'm making, so I guess I'm not alone in wondering about this.)
posted by Bubblehead at 12:25 AM
4 Comments:
I'm in complete agreement with you and utterly disgusted with the media. They'll abuse us, and not even talk about the shyte that our soldiers/sailors are dealing with there. OR, even the good things they are doing.
I've heard through rumor that they were marred/abused pretty badly, including eyes gouged out, beheading and even more mutilation. I would not be taken by them IF I was stationed there. NO MATTER HOW, I would ensure a AK-47 took me first.
Jeez, we humiliated a inmate with a dog? Fock the media, they suck. Burn their bodies, and bury them with a pig. It's the worst thing you can do to a muslim, then you put it on video and broadcast it. Then you tell them it is standard practice. It's worked in other places.
If you wanna see the standard tactics of the freaks, Ogrish.com runs their stuff, they like to send it to him.
We need to be as brutal as they are, and kick the media out, they are only getting our guys killed over there.
6/26/2006 3:26 AM
I've read about that they were indeed mutilated, and heard it on the Sean Hannity and Mike Savage show. I have to assume that the sources I read, which sounded like the same sources they were quoting, were fairly accurate, and not just rumors. But who knows when it comes to the MSM. I agree with the previous poster, it's time to quit playing nice-nice with these jihadist ratbastards.
And who's idea was it to let the media look over our shoulders while we engage in war? How frikkin' stupid is that? It oughta all be done by combat cameramen and military journalists, who are fighting while they get the story. That way the war doesn't get this constant negative droning spin. I've gotten so I can't watch the news on TV anymore. Makes me wanna shoot my TV.
6/26/2006 12:33 PM
I've said it before and I will say it again. The blaming of the media is overdone. What happened to these two guys WAS reported by a variety of outlets.
Their is no monolithic "new media". Rather we are probably back to the the time of 100 years ago when there were a variety of newspapers, each with its own slant and the reader could buy the type of news he wanted to read. Assuming he could read.
Which gets to the real issue IMHO, Americans are poor consumers of the news. There is too much information and not enough time to digest it all, so we get our info in snippets and take it as gospel, instead of reading a variety of things and then deciding that the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
The news media is just a product and the consumer has a choice. For every CNN junkie there is a FOX news person. So the fault Dear Brutus, lies with outselves.
6/26/2006 12:47 PM
Unfortunately for (I hate to use this term, but…) the neo-cons the military is still tax payer funded, we have a right to know what is going on with our military and a duty to over see it. The men and women of our armed forces are our brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, etc, they are also public servants, the wars they fight in are at the discretion of our elected representatives and hence the American public.
…Please don’t let that comment be taken as complete and literally, yes; certain things are not public knowledge, opsec, etc, etc…
As to the point about the report about the Soldiers bodies; I don’t think that the final report is completed yet, I’m sure when the report is done we will hear about it and if you are so inclined you’ll be able to hear about all the gory details. Don’t expect any photos, cause that just isn’t going to happen, we respect our dead. Compare that to the photos of Abu Gaharib; they were the “enemy”, not American Soldiers.
The other thing I find curious is the comment about the flag draped coffins; it boggles my mind that we even have to have a request to see these pictures. These are America’s sons and daughters and as to why this administration wants to hide their final return is beyond me. I guess it goes along the same lines as President Bush having yet to make it to a single soldier’s funeral. For a President who loves to use the term “symbolic”, he has yet to embrace the term for something meaningful.
I also find criticism of the media some what humorous; the media is a business, a money making machine and not much more. The fact that more newspapers are sold with coverage of a suicide bomb on page 1A than a story about a school built in Iraq says more about the American public than it does about the newspaper.
Sadly, “if it bleeds it leads” is a business model that works, it is free market capitalism at work, nothing more.
6/26/2006 5:29 PM
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