An Account of Marines’ Incredible Gestures

Arab News ^ | 4/15/2003 | Barbara Ferguson

[bluecollarman]

An Account of Marines’ Incredible Gestures Barbara Ferguson, Arab News War Correspondent AT AN AIR BASE IN KUWAIT, 16 April 2003 — People are curious about being embedded in the Marines. This is my effort to set the record straight. Some readers suspect I was subjected to propaganda while living with these men and women. There was no propaganda campaign. If there...

[bluecollarman]

Excellent article for Marines..Good execpt for the slam on Rummy. What a difference 21 days makes at the arab news.

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[Sauce]

"PUT IT ON!"

I can just hear her voice. Wonder how she is.

[homeschool mama]

**"PUT IT ON!" I can just hear her voice. Wonder how she is. **

What are you talking about?!

[lainde]

Hated the Rummy slam too...But we'll win them over one step at a time. Cheers for the wonderful Americans and their breathtaking generosity!

[NMFXSTC]

That reporter had no business being "embedded"...she decided to pick and chose what she would endure and contend with and showed open disregard for the embedded program, lack of compliance (the MOPP suit episode), and a clear displacement from the war ("I' didn't want to know").

Excellent article? Yeah...it shows that some reporters are non-hackers and don;t belong in that program! The rest is a "woe is me/I had it so tough" piece of bovine excretment!

[2Jedismom]

From the article...a woman tells this reporter to put on her MOPP suit...and gives her her own MOPP suit.

At first I thought Sauce had had a bit too much sauce! LOL But then I read the article and figured it out.

[IncPen]

While ultimately positive about the troops, this article makes the writer out to be vapid, ill-educated, and helpless in the extreme

It also exposes her nudge and wink that "not everyone likes what mean old Rummy is up to". She's letting the reader and her editor know that she's still 'on the team' in spite of all she's seen with her own eyes and the fact that, as evidenced by the preceding 250 words, she knows better

If this reporter wants to report dissent in the ranks, name names or shut the F up. I don't believe it for a minute.

And, she copped out! She never even saw the war!

She couldn't bear to see Americans shooting Arabs? Honey, sweetie stupid leftist reporterette: Get yer head outta the sand! It's a war! They're the bad guys!

Friggin' leftist.

She shoulda got shot, once in the ass, so she'd know what it felt like and so she could think about her stupidity everytime she sat down

For the rest of her life

[gcruse]

It's not Chaplin, sleezebag. It's Chaplain.
A leftwing vegan who chickened out from her
embed. I wonder if she told the sargeant on
the hospital ship that they wasted three days
looking for her worthless body?

[MHGinTN]

The 'reporter' illustrates the 'embedded' mindset of the Arab streets ... she didn't want the truth as it happened, she wanted the filtered version. I just hope not one casualty resulted from our Soldiers looking for her still decaying butt.

[Free Vulcan]

That reporter is a snaky little bitch and I wouldn't turn my back on her for a sec if over there.

[CyberAnt]

I agree - a great article. I especially liked her statement about "I have been forever changed".

However, I am very curious about the comments regarding Rummy. I find it very difficult to believe these things would be spoken in front of media.

[Billthedrill]

That's two, her and an Irish fellow who will remain nameless. Two journalists with the chance not only of their professional lives, but of their personal ones as well, two without the courage to see it through. Their loss.

It is a pity this one didn't realize that combat troops are not immune from the tender sensibilities that led her to opt out rather than see people getting shot. In a lifetime of being in and around the military I have met fewer than a dozen individuals who actually enjoyed hurting other people, quite a bit fewer than in civilian life. One does not have to hate to shoot, and it is better that way. "It is good that war is terrible lest we grow too fond of it." - Robert E. Lee.

Well, she found out something about the Marines she was with, but not the big things. For that there's a price, one this reporter opted not to pay.

[cyncooper]

OK, I can see she is going to praise what she saw overall.

But I have read this far and I am trying for the life of me to think just what she thought she was being embedded in, if not a unit that was going off to war??

Putting the pieces of the puzzle together, it became clear to me that we were heading into battle. I had not joined the embed program to watch Americans fight Iraqis. The thought terrified me.

[nutmeg]

read later bump

[oyez]

It good she dropped out. If she did anything stupid that would endanger the troops she would not have any nice gestures to report about Marines.

[bluecollarman]

I disagree, you read the most negative spin that could be put on this article.

She explains the concept of "Marine Green", if you don't understand the concept, I can't explain it to you.

Coming from and Arab journalist, I thought it was good, and quite a change in tone.

[bluecollarman]

I still think the Marines are shown in a good light. This is exeptional considering the source. It shows respect for the Marines. I will take that.

That is what I took away from the article. I wasn't looking for the negative.