Posted on 01/13/2014 11:15:00 PM PST by smoothsailing
CNN’s Jake Tapper would have done well to read “Lone Survivor,” rather than just seeing the new movie, before interviewing former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell last week. If he had, Tapper might have been more careful than to describe the deaths of Luttrell’s SEAL comrades in Afghanistan as “senseless.” And he would have been wary of Luttrell’s contempt for the liberal media.
The film “Lone Survivor, which ” took in $38.5 million at the box office its opening weekend is based on a 2010 book by Luttrell that tells the tragic story of a 2005 operation in which the three other members of Luttrell’s SEAL team, along with 17 other special ops warriors, were killed. The story turned on the team’s agonized decision to turn lose some Afghan goat herders who had stumbled onto its concealed position. As the SEALs had feared, the freed civilians went straight to the Taliban, precipitating the battle.
While the movie recounts the fateful decision, it doesn’t explicitly tell the audience that a big part of deciding not to kill the goat herders was the certain knowledge that, “The media in the United States of America would crucify us,” in Luttrell’s words.
To kill or not kill the goat herders was a horrible choice to have to make – a moral, ethical and military dilemma that weighed the lives of the civilians against the lives of the team. Luttrell was rightly furious at having to to decide knowing that the SEALs would never get a fair shake from a hostile news media.
Throughout the book, Luttrell registered distrust of liberals in the media and in Washington – and did so with a very direct eloquence. Here are 10 of the best examples from the book. (Page numbers correspond to the Kindle Edition.)
1. “This entire business of modern war crimes, as identified by the liberal wings of politics and the media, began in Iraq and has been running downhill ever since. Everyone’s got to have his little hands in it, blathering on about the public’s right to know.” (p. 38)
2. “It’s been an insidious progression, the criticisms of the U.S. Armed Forces from politicians and from the liberal media, which knows nothing of combat, nothing of our training, and nothing of the mortal dangers we face out there on the front line.”(p. 36)
3. “That situation might look simple in Washington, where the human rights of terrorists are often given high priority. And I am certain liberal politicians would defend their position to the death. Because everyone knows liberals have never been wrong about anything. You can ask them. Anytime.” (p. 37)
4. On the left’s view of U.S. troops: “… we were somehow in the wrong, brutal killers, bullying other countries; that we who put our lives on the line for our nation at the behest of our government should somehow be charged with murder for shooting our enemy.” (p. 36)
5. “I promise you every insurgent, freedom fighter and stray gunman in Iraq who we arrested knew the ropes, knew that the way out was to announce he had been tortured by the Americans, ill-treated, or prevented from reading the Koran or eating his breakfast or watching television. They all knew al-Jazeera, the Arab broadcasters, would pick it up, and it would be relayed to the U.S.A., where the liberal media would joyfully accuse all of us of being murderers or barbarians or something. Those terrorist organizations laugh at the U.S. media, and they know exactly how to use the system against us.” (p. 39)
6. “Was there ever a greater uproar than the one that broke out over Abu Ghraib? In the bigger scheme of things, in the context of all the death and destruction that Muslim extremists have visited upon this world, a bunch of Iraqi prisoners being humiliated does not ring my personal alarm bell. And it would not ring yours either if you ever saw firsthand what these guys are capable of. I mean, Jesus, they cut off people’s heads, American heads, aid workers’ heads. They think nothing of slaughtering thousands of people; they’ve stabbed and mutilated young American soldiers, like something out of the Middle Ages.” (p. 68)
7. Of the realization that the goat herders had betrayed the SEALs’ position: “It was the stupidest, most southern-fried, lamebrained decision I ever made in my life. I must have been out of my mind. I had actually cast a vote which I knew could sign our death warrant. I’d turned into a fucking liberal, a half-assed, no-logic nitwit, all heart, no brain, and the judgment of a jackrabbit.” (p. 206)
8. “I guess we’d better start getting used to the consequences and permit the American liberal to squeak and squeal us to ultimate defeat. I believe that’s what it’s called when you pack up and go home, when a war fought under your own ‘civilized’ terms is unwinnable.” (p. 313)
9. “And I am left feeling that no matter how much the drip-drip-drip of hostility towards us is perpetuated by the liberal press, the American people simply do not believe it. They are rightly proud of the armed forces of the United States of America. They innately understand what we do.” (p. 375)
10. “Some members of the media might think they can brainwash the public anytime they like, but I know they can’t. Not here. Not in the United States of America.” (p. 376)
Here’s hoping Luttrell is right.
Hopefully I feel better tomorrow and can go see this awesome movie...
Luttrell an Murphy were not murderers. They could take the media backlash but not if they werent in the right.
Heck, luttrell is taking media backlash now, and standing up to it.
They were just thinking out loud. The media is no friend to trees guys and the media has been responsible for deaths, but not here. These guys were not going to murder kids to save themselves
That’s all
I haven’t seen it yet, either.
Get well soon! :-)
“These guys were not going to murder kids to save themselves”
Even when I was still in canuckistan during the Iraq War, the lib media and foreign media were in cahoots cheering for deaths of American soldiers. The AP especially. Those traitorous bastards were the sole reason for driving anti Americanism just to spite Dubya’.
I know. Hey, I’ve heard the Viet Nam POWs talk about witnessing the deaths caused by Jane Fonda, after watching her, in person, in Hanoi. That she wasnt tried for treason speaks to the pass they get and probably contributes to the pass they get.
I think Marcus could regret it for obvious reasons, but made the right choice
Media or no media, murdering kids is not ok and he knew it
Just my take. They sure could’ve used a working radio to get a command decision on such a deal. They’d have been told to do what they did but not had to live with the guilt
But our guys are not about murdering kids and old men as much as the media would like to think so
Tecumseh Sherman was right when he said every reporter should be killed because they are a traitorous bunch.
I think I may just stay off the lone survivor threads
Save
Nobody was killed because of Jane Fonda’s visit. Lots of false stories about that. Talked to several POW friends of mine who were there.
No POW note given by Jane to the No. Vietnamese.
No torture for refusing to meet with her.
Still, Hanoi Jane was and is a traitor. Her own acts, photos and words proved that.
Enough to have her convicted and shot. In another time and another place, like WW2.
We’ve lost our guts, but our soldiers/sailors/marines and fliers haven’t. Only our leaders.
PS: Having met and questioned Baby Jane about her activities and claims re Vietnam, I can honestly say that she is a beautiful piece of ignorant shit (as opposed to Rose O’Donnell who is just a piece of shit).
Tom Hayden didn’t marry her for her brains. If so, boy was he disappointed.
MadMax, Nam journalist
Stupid question but why didn’t they take them prisoners with them up the mountain and call their guys rather than doing what they did?
You’ll have to attend the annual symposium given by the pilots of the North Viet Nam prison camp, or read some of their accounts. No one can tell me, after seeing their testimonies year after year in front of their colleagues, families, the entire base of active duty and their families, each other, that when each gives an account of what Fonda did that tgey are lying in front of everyone, that they conspired the story.
It’s insane to assert such a falsehood
She was there, there are photos and her statements, they asked her as they were paraded in front of her, by passing a note, to send word to their families their social security numbers and she gave that to the north Viet Namese colonel He tortured them, resulting in some deaths.
Do you read? Do you have any idea what you are talking about? What these men went through for 6 and 7 years? The psychological and physical torture.
There’s a museum here there are prison uniforms and scratches of guys tied in possible contortions. They are permanently disabled, their chest muscles torn. They watched their friends die
Do you think they get together and make up stuff to tell people
Their wives have stories. Do they get up and say oh there they go again with that silly Jane Fonda story?
But there’s always some flip, egotistical know it all here on free republic who won’t let the Jane fonda comment go unanswered.
It’s worse than jake tapper
Why don’t you go tell one of these guys they’re full of crap?
Why argue with me? They’re still alive, most of them. They write books contact their publisher
Dope
Jane Fonda says that no one was killed or tortured over those aspects of her visit, but some POWs say there was torture over her visit. I am more willing to believe the POWs in "lots of false stories" who mentioned specific names and tortures many years ago than I am to believe careful wording from the traitor you spoke with (or Jane Fonda's claim that the specific stories were part of a Nixon conspiracy). BTW, I agree with you that, when young, she was one of the most beautiful packages of venereal disease alive.
Did you read the book? See the film? It’s all about having no communication ability. The radio signal was out
You can be sure that there will be a lot of criticism as if what they did should’ve been easy
You can be sure that when SEALs do or dont do things there’s a reason
Just damn
I never said anything about VD
Why would anyone even dream of listening to her?
She is a propagandist. She makes lies out of half truths.
Why would anyone even think of not taking the word of a woman who gave aid and comfort to the enemy during wartime over the word of the men who survived in a torture camp for seven years in service of our country?
That alone takes more character and virtue and honesty than most will ever see in real life
I don’t know what happened to free republic
What dopes!
2nd operation for torn rotator cuff.
Should work.
My Doc took real good care of me and ran interference with the insurance company for two years.
Didn’t need a lawyer or nothing.
Best part of his operation was his staff.
They were amazing. let me push as hard as I could even though it was more than they asked for and more than most people do.
Imuh gonna be back to surfing, snowboarding, mountain biking, hiking and best part; chasing girls again.
Yipee Kigh Yeah....mthrfkrs.....
To celebrate, I’m going to Idaho and jumping off the then”Corona Arch”. It’s a natural bridge and when you reach the bottom of the 120 foot jump, you swing in some very large arcs.
2 mins. Check it;
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4B36Lr0Unp4
God will prove he loves me if I survive . . . . Or I’ll be a rather large ink spot.
LOL
re: “Those traitorous bastards were the sole reason for driving anti Americanism just to spite Dubya’.”
That’s it exactly. That’s what I cannot stomach about liberals. They use absolutely everything for possible political gain. It doesn’t matter what the consequence to our nation, our soldiers in the field, our national will and morale - all that is secondary to their political agenda.
That’s why Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader at the time, publicly stated “the war is lost” - because he didn’t/doesn’t give a damn about the truth or the fact that our young men and women were in harm’s way, or what was good for the American people - that was all expendable in order to smear GW, to gain political leverage against the true “enemy” - his political opposition.
That’s also why Reid, the democrat party, and the GOPe - all these make me literally sick to my stomach - because they all acted for political gain - the American people or the consequences to the country be damned.
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