Before you go any farther down the road of attacking me for failing to recognize Woodruff for being in Iraq, let me offer you some perspective.
The only soldier my unit lost in Iraq was shot in the back in Taji, probably on the same stretch of road Woodruff got attacked. You didn’t hear SPC Perez’s name on the evening news. You didn’t hear about his family. You didn’t hear about the other soldiers in the vehicle with him. You didn’t know that he was bringing valuable supplies from Kuwait to the theater distribution center in Balad. You didn’t hear how much his colleagues (like me) respected him. You didn’t hear about how he volunteered to go on the resupply convoy, even though he could have stayed in relative safety at the Aid Station on the FOB. You didn’t hear about the other times he volunteered to go with his comrades on missions to recover ammunition Saddam left laying around the country for later use by Fedayeen Saddam who are planting IEDs. You didn’t hear how he saved his First Sergeant and the Sergeant manning the machine gun in his HMMWV by making sure he cleared the ambush area after he got shot, but before he passed out. You didn’t hear about the way SPC Perez was mourned. If you were ‘lucky’, you heard that a soldier died in Iraq, but you probably didn’t even notice that announcement.
So, explain to me again why I should be paying Mr. Woodruff special attention because he is a reporter who was wounded by an IED while doing nothing special?
Nobody's asking you to pay him special attention; I certainly didn't.
But why won't you afford him the respect that you say is so lacking for your people?
You're railing against a system that is stacked against us by trying to imply that this man doesn't matter because he's not in the military.