Posted on 01/29/2006 5:25:40 AM PST by ARealMothersSonForever
Bob Woodward and photographer injured in IED attack.
Your words, not mine. You said in your post, you were going to protest "like the American Left..."
Again, I ask, "You're going to lower yourself to their level?"
You know we're better than that.
With headlines like this how could you think they are not?
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/PollVault/story?id=1549959
Poll: Weak Ratings Confront Bush Ahead of State of Union
War Fatigue, Ethics Concerns Impact Approval Rating
By GARY LANGER
You are correct, milemark. Hospitals in Iraq are in sad shape.
"Iraq's top professionals -- doctors, lawyers, professors -- and businessmen have been targeted by shadowy political groups for kidnapping and ransom, as well as murder, some of them say. So many have fled the country that Iraq is in danger of losing the core of skilled people it needs most just as it is trying to build a newly independent society."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/22/AR2006012201112.html
The Iraqi army and police will have to wipe out foreign terrorists, Baathist insurgents and just plain criminals very quickly, in order to keep people who have options in Iraq. I have to admit, I would not stay in a country where kidnapping for ransom and murder was a common, everyday occurrence. And if I held out through that threat, once the medical system was gone, I wouldn't want to stay for that reason.
What I wonder about is, what happens to the brave Iraqi soldiers and policemen who are wounded? So they get the benefit of good medical care, or are they taken to hospitals with inadequate staff? The answer to this question will have a lot more bearing on Iraq's future than the question of how Woodruff is treated.
ABC News anchorman Bob Woodruff and his cameraman Doug Vogt were seriously injured in a roadside explosion in Taji, Iraq today. Both are in "serious condition" and are being treated at a U.S. military hospital in Iraq, according to a statement from ABC News President David Westin.Woodruff and Vogt sustained immediate shrapnel injuries to the head and Vogt a broken shoulder from the bomb, an improvised explosive device, or IED. Both are undergoing surgery at the U.S. military hospital in Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, according to the network. They had been embedded with the 4th Infantry Division and were traveling in a convoy with Iraqi security forces. ABC reported that Woodruff and Hogt were in the hatch of a military vehicle taping footage when an explosive went off, followed by a small arms fire...
-- snip --
...According to ABC, Woodruff and Vogt has been traveling in a U.S. armored humvee and then transferred to the Iraqi vehicle before the bomb exploded. Both were wearing body armor, helmets and ballistic glasses at the time and were medevaced to the Green Zone for treatment and then flown to Balad for medical care.
Raddatz said the two switched to the Iraqi military forces' vehicle to more closely cover the conflict, making them a "softer target."
Because training Iraqi forces is of primary importance to the U.S. military strategy, war correspondents have been embedding themselves with the Iraqi forces to "see how they live."
Knowing this, Iraqi insurgents have made these forces their "primary target," she said. Woodruff and Vogt were undergoing "the best medical care you can possibly get."
Woodruff, 44, assumed the co-anchor slot at World News Tonight earlier this month. He and Vargas replaced the late Peter Jennings. Since then, ABC has often kept one anchor reporting from the studio, while dispatching the other to report from the field, as it did in sending Woodruff to Iraq. He was to have remained in Iraq through Tues., ABC said...
And you need to reread the Constitution. The practice of law as it is today is a caricature of what the Founding Fathers intended it to be.
Lawyers, as we know them today, for the most part, are lowlife's ambulance chasers that know just how much they can gouge the system for.
And in so doing, they gouge the ones that cannot afford to be gouged in the long run.
What about the wife with a couple of kids, charged thousands by a lawyer, simply to file a reply to a petition from her ex-husband to deny child support...thousands that she is expected to repay on the pitiful amount of child support she receives. No one expects him to do it for free, but a couple of pieces of paper and 15 minutes in a court room should not be that costly.
How about the ambulance chasing lowlife that is first on the scene of a mishap, whatever it may be, with an admonition to the "victim", to say nothing, do nothing, without his advice, until he can "assess" the situation, in other words, see just how deep the pockets of someone "to blame", is.
How about the POS that goes beyond the defense of a person (i.e., Lynne Stewart) and actually participates in the crimes against which they are defending the perpetrator of?
Ever heard of a lawyer by the name of Bruce Cutler?
How about Mr. Cochran, whose lives fortunes were made by pulling the race card out and slapping a jury with it, and who could have cared less about the guilt or innocence of his client.
How about the ones that invest thousands of man-hours, researching some obscure law with which they initiate a suit, usually against a large corporation or the government, whose fees usually come out of the taxpayers pockets and benefit no one, except maybe a damn spotted owl, yet put millions in the pocket of the damn lawyer?
I can go and on, but the bottom line is...there are damn few ethical lawyers left, and those damn few are painted with the same brush as their lowlife's, bottom feeding POS colleagues and yet they refuse to police their own ranks and in so doing, continue to see the criticism mount.
I don't know about you, but I simply cannot see the worth in a multi-billion dollar lawsuit against tobacco companies that accomplished nothing other than to put those billions in the pockets of the lawyers that argued the case.
Do you know of anyone that has personally benefited from the tobacco suits? And that is just one example. Care to discuss the attempts to put the gun manufacturers out of business?
The lawyer profession is now a running joke and few see it as anywhere near the respectable pursuit it once was. It provides fodder for many a wannabe comedian.
Lawyers are seen as "oily", "shyster", "legal thieves", "sharks", etc and it is their own damn fault.
End of discussion.
I just peeked over at DU to see how much these caring, tolerant *mainstream* people are reacting to this story, and guess what? It's all Bush's fault this reporter and cameraman were injured and "Fox created and perpetuated both this presidency and this war" although a few decent people did offer prayers (to what deity, only God knows).
Of course, there are more important things for them to discuss as well, like "um, what about Space Shuttle Columbia?"
and "The Pendimum (sic) has returned...Bush is F***ed" (my stars, they spelled out the word. What potty mouths over there!!)
This is not your opinion. This is an easily verifiable fact. Bin Laden's regurgitation of media poll numbers in his most recent "screed from the great beyond" would be Exhibit A.
Like you, I don't wish ill will to Woodruff or his ABC News colleague. But the detonation of an IED is not an occasion to forget or excuse the intentional harm they have been inflicting on the men defending this country from the Islamofacists.
ABC News has been an important tool for the DNC, and by extension, the Islamists, since this conflict began. I can't just brush that aside because he put himself in harm's way and harm found him. I mourn and pray for the troops, not those working to obstruct them.
I don't like the man's politics, but I don't wish this on him.
He's an American, for God's sake, and one who was ostensibly doing his job.
People, please have some class about yourselves.
Cause the kinds of posts I'm seeing from some here is about as classless as I've seen.
"Yes I believe that the soldiers today still distrust the media..."
roger that- I feel for these folks, and especially their loved ones; that being said, the media didn't "cover" Mogadishu through the late summer/fall of '93 until we had American servicemembers dismembered and dragged through the streets- although October 3rd/4th wasn't the first time it had happened, it was the first time a reporter got it on film...funny, I don't recall ever reading about Ernie Pyle being labled anything other than a reporter who called it like it was...whatever happened to those guys?
I hope no soldiers were hurt.
.....................................................
That's my main concern as well.
Probaly tonight broadcast or tommorow
They blame it on Bush/Karl Rove/Rummy handling of the war LOL!
...Woodruff and Doug Vogt, an award-winning cameraman, had been embedded with the 4th Infantry Division. They were wearing body armor and helmets when the device exploded, but they were standing up in the hatch of the Iraqi armored vehicle, exposed to the shrapnel, the network said.THANK GOD!No one else was hurt in the explosion...
...ABC said the men were traveling in the Iraqi mechanized vehicle to get the perspective of the Iraqi military. They were aware the Iraqi forces are the frequent targets of insurgent attacks, the network said."If you're going to cover the Iraqi military, you have to go with them, you have to see how they live," said ABC News correspondent Martha Raddatz, reporting on the attack on ABC's "This Week" Sunday.
The U.S. military confirmed that Woodruff and Vogt were injured in an attack near Taji and said an investigation is under way.
Lara Logan, a CBS News correspondent who has covered Iraq, said the Taji area is considered particularly dangerous because it was the site of one of Saddam Hussein's munitions dumps. Many of the explosives are believed to have gotten into the hands of insurgents, she said...
Prayers for Woodruff and the camera man.
Prayers for Woodruff and his cameraman. Let's get this fight over with.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.