Posted on 06/28/2005 8:06:42 PM PDT by ajolympian2004
Lead-in to the President's address tonight.
Instead off listening to Senatorial chumps from Massachusetts like Ted Kennedy and John Kerry undermine what is going on in Iraq, let's see what people who have actually been there and served on the ground think. Up first, Matt the paratrooper from Black Five. Here's what he had to say:
HH: Good to talk to you, Matt. I want to start with tonight, and the president's...what do you expect the president to say tonight?
Black5: Well, you know, I'd expect a couple of things. Of course, he's going to focus on the troops. I've got a few friends that are there at Fort Bragg, and you know, I expect him to highlight some of their achievements. I know a lot of the wounded guys will be there, and I think he'll highlight a lot of the efforts that have gone on in the hard work of the military. But I'd also really expect him to also talk about the Iraqis themselves, and the hard work they've done. After all, I think we're all aware that they're making a lot of sacrifices as well.
HH: Now Matt, tell people your background as a paratrooper.
Black5: Yea, I've spent over 16 years in the military. I was an enlisted paratrooper, became a special forces sergeant, spent a few years doing that, and then became an officer, served in Desert Storm, provided comfort. One of my most favorite memories is working with the Kurds in Northern Iraq, and helping them set up the enclave that's flourishing up there now, thanks to them. And spent the majority of my career mostly in special operations and military intelligence.
HH: Now, one of the reasons I asked Matt to come on is because Black Five was one of the original handful of mil-bloggers, military bloggers, both veterans in active duty who know what they are talking about, and I tend to go to them to get updates from Iraq and from Afghanistan, and Matt's blog is at Blackfive.net, but you've heard me talk with Mudville Gazette's Greyhawk before. You've heard me talk with Smash last hour. Do you think the mil-blogs are doing a much better job, Matt, communicating what the situation is in Iraq than our mainstream media?
Black5: I think if you want to get the gist of what's happening without the spin, without hearing about, you know...the sacrifices are very important, and I feature them daily on people that have been killed in service to their country. But it's not just all about that. And I think what you get from the media is the headline, you know, five people died in an I.E.D., and then five pages away, it's oh, by the way, you know these guys were helping to inoculate school children and things like that. And they dont...they just would rather spin it the negative way. And so if you really want to get to the truth of what's happening, and not only that, also to hear how the fight is being fought, mil-blogs are a great source. And primarily, it's because we've either been there, or we have friends that are there, and are in contact with us, and are letting us know what's happening on a daily basis.
HH: Now how do you judge morale among the deployed?
Black5: You know, that's a great question. Morale, you know, ebbs and flows with...just like any other sort of base emotion. There's a lot of things it depends on. I can tell you that most of my friends, and I have a lot of former soldiers that are in Iraq right at this moment, that have stopped paying attention to the New York Times, to CBS, to any of the news, because AFN, the Armed Forces Network over there, has an obligation to be balanced in terms of what news gets broadcast from what organization. And they just stopped paying attention to it, because it's no negative, it actually affects their ability to do their job at times. But I can tell you that there are definitely ways that I know of that help their morale. For instance, Soldiersangels.org, which I know you've talked about before, is one of the best, outstanding groups that you can help out, whether it's by a donation or by volunteering to help at one of the military hospitals, or writing letters to the troops. I think the main thing to remember during this war, is that they need to come home to a grateful nation. And we can't allow Kennedy and Kerry and Rangel and Durbin and these fellows turn this into something that it's not.
HH: Now, have you noticed in the last month a hardening of sort of the anti-war line that's attempting to convert it back to the anti-Vietnam approach?
Black5: Well, if I could use one of your terms, Hugh, I actually wrote a post about the left's attempt at a blogswarm. They're trying to take a couple of cues from what's happened, and I think the difference is a lot of times, when the mil-bloggers jump on a topic like Durbin, mostly it's due because the mainstream media hasn't, and they needed to. And they let us down. For the left, you know, the left-wing bloggers and the left-wing media, you know, they try to concert this effort, and people can sense it. I think there's a recent Pew study that just came out. It said people are really sick of the negative spin on the military, on the War on Terror, on the president, things like that. So I think definitely there's been a concerted effort. I received e-mails from left-wing bloggers saying hey, you know, I think you should pay attention to this. It's a quagmire, you know, all the standard themes, the talking points that they put out. And it's really sick.
HH: Now, I met with Howdy and Hurl before they deployed. They're a couple of Marine Cobra pilots. I know you've read their blogs. And they...I encouraged them to start a blog. They got shut down for a while. They're back up and running.
Black5: Right.
HH: The fact is, that the military doesn't know what to do with these people. I can't imagine, you have a post over at Blackfive, that they're thinking...what? Are they thinking about shutting them down, or just organizing them? What's the deal?
Black5: Well, what they're doing right now, or at least what they're doing in Iraq, is they are requiring that all bloggers, all military bloggers, register. And they're not requiring bloggers to...they're not requiring bloggers at this point to have oversight on every post that you put up. But they are requiring that the blogger's commander, the first full colonel in their command, be able to read, and check their posts, once a quarter. That takes a lot of the immediacy out of the concerns for OpSec and other issues. Operational security, any kind of intelligence, away. And it's obvious from that, that the Department of Defense, and the chain of command including General Casey, have a lot of confidence that the bloggers are actually doing a good job.
HH: That's what I think. I think they've bought into the idea that this is what the American people need to read more than mainstream media drivel.
Black5: Well, if you think about it, Hugh, the military were the ones that were insisting on having embedded reporters. Because they believe that if the reporters were there with the troops, they'd get a better idea of what the picture really is. And it's sort of akin to that. And I hope, I really hope, and I've made a lot of suggestions, and I have a lot of friends that were looking into this at SoCom, and at the Pentagon, that this was the way it was going to go. So I was definitely pleased, because the other issue is that when you're out there writing, and you're not sure if what you're doing is right or not, and in the military, everything is black or white. It's pretty clear a lot of the time of what you're doing is right or wrong. And I think it's very important for the soldiers to understand where they stand with their command, and what they can do and what they can't do.
HH: It's a great point. Matt, twenty seconds. Do you think the troops generally like the president?
Black5: Yea. You know what I think they believe? He's a man of integrity. I think they believe he's got a good heart, and I think they believe that he's got their best intentions. And I think they're right.
HH: And I think they'll get a good reaction from the troops assembled at Fort Bragg tonight. Thank you, Matt. A real pleasure. I look foward to doing it again soon.
End of interview.
Posted at 4:45PM PST
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