Posted on 08/02/2007 1:31:19 PM PDT by inkling
Scott Thomas Beauchamp is a U.S. Army private serving in Iraq. He came to THE NEW REPUBLIC's attention through Elspeth Reeve, a TNR reporter-researcher, whom he later married. Over the course of the war, we have tried to provide our readers with a sense of Iraq as it is seen by the troops. Usually, these stories have been written by journalists who have traveled to Iraq and interviewed soldiers there, but last January Beauchamp sent us a first-person vignette that seemed a powerful contribution to the genre. It told the story of a young Iraqi boy who befriended American troops and subsequently had his tongue cut out by insurgents. Conservatives and liberals alike praised this essay.
(Excerpt) Read more at tnr.com ...
Jon, ExurbanLeague.com
TNR hasn’t learned a thing since l’affaire Glass.
Geez, all of a sudden TNR doesn’t want to be this generation’s Jane Fonda and smear our troops too?
But praised for different reasons. The TNR position was "Stop Snithin'."
TNR. Liars, cowards, enablers. Perfect Leftists.
“Although we place great weight on the corroborations we have received, we wished to know more. But, late last week, the Army began its own investigation, short-circuiting our efforts. Beauchamp had his cell-phone and computer taken away and is currently unable to speak to even his family. His fellow soldiers no longer feel comfortable communicating with reporters. If further substantive information comes to light, TNR will, of course, share it with you.”
Poor guy, we all feel so sorry for him. We should send him cookies I guess. (/sarc)
I still can't believe the guy wrote, in his own article, that HE made fun of a woman disfigured by a bomb.
FJA. Each letter corresponds to a word. You figure it out.
What I got from this little piece of grease was (1) the story about the disfigured woman in a specific FOB in Iraq was true except that it didn’t happen in an FOB or in Iraq, and (2) the other stories haven’t been proven impossible yet. Powerful stuff, that.
Riiiiiight.
A little selectively, it appears.
Even if the stories prove true, such would not exonerate TNR — which, in that unlikely event, will simply have gotten off very lucky — from its ethical lapses. Nepotism and seeking out a writer with known, pre-deployment (hell, pre-ENLISTMENT) biases against the mission he was serving come first to mind.
Beauchamp claimed that he and a group of fellow soldiers mocked a disfigured woman in a US occupied sector of Iraq.
The truth seems to be that Beauchamp and one other soldier mocked this unfortunate woman in Kuwait.
Beauchamp also claimed that children's bones were found near the camp, implying that US troops likely killed children, but that the gruesome discovery was hushed up and went unreported.
The reality seems to be that the camp was near a well-known Hussein-era mass grave and that the remains were very old.
Finally Beauchamp claimed that US soldiers sport killed dogs with Bradley vehicles.
The reality seems to be that Bradley vehicles exist, and that there are stray dogs in Iraq.
In other words - all this stuff is either lies or unconfirmed rumors.
A few observations:
(1) TNR intersperses this weak retraction with brand-new, unsourced and unconfirmed rumors: "One soldier wore a skull like a yarmulke" (nice whiff of anti-Semitism there, no?).
(2) All the corroboration offered is that it is technically possible that some of this could have happened: that isn't confirmation.
(3) The corroborators are unnamed friends of Beauchamp. Why should they be considered trustworthy?
>>Conservatives and liberals alike praised this essay.<<
What true “conservative” praised this total BS? Name just one.
If the wearing the child’s skull or trying to run over dogs is true then Court’s Martial Procedures are in order against those who did the deed and those who didn’t report it.
His actions brought dishonor on the Army, his fellow soldiers, and his chain of command.
Let me be clear, by his "actions" I mean his fantastic lies about the conduct of soldiers in Iraq. I do not, for one moment, believe this man was party to anything about which he wrote.
What a bunch of bull crap from an anti-American publication. Their “fact checking” has always been widow dressing rhetoric.
The left is so stupid that they don’t realize that either way this guy is toast and he can either take others down with him or admit he lied.
Indeed, why should we believe they even exist at all?
don’t think they’ve said what they did to the wife...
Bingo!
No matter what the Army finds, I doubt TNR will apologize. I think they’re gonna pull a Truthout on this one, and try to lay the burden of proof on someone else, in this case, the military.
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