New PBS Documentary: A Good Story or Anti-Military Hit Piece?
PBS’s Frontline has an episode tomorrow on the increase in crime around Fort Carson, Colorado since the beginning of the Iraq War. The episode specifically focuses on one platoon which had three soldiers convicted of murder following its Iraq deployment. Here is the trailer for the episode:
The episode hasn’t aired yet so I don’t want to jump the gun and make a blanket judgment. However, PBS’s past reporting on the Iraq War (in particular the Haditha killings) hasn’t been great and there is an obvious hard-left bias at the network. I also worry that it could potentially reinforce the negative stereotypes that are associated with troops returning from combat.
Hopefully, PBS does this story some justice but I am not betting they will.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Media, Military issues
The ONLY things worth watching on the Proletariat Broadcasting System are their English-produced programs. I can’t stomach anything else they have. You’re right, of course, it’s always skewed to reinforce leftist stereotypes and prejudices.
My biggest issue is, the preview make it look like combat vets are crazy… which, maybe we are. Regardless, without proper prefacing, it may mislead the viewer into thinking that we’re murderous psychos. This can be very detrimental to some. I’ve personally had issues with false perceptions people have about vets and PTSD.
Paul,
Good points, I have the same concerns.
Ah, those “ticking timebomb vets” stories. And (just from the trailer) can’t they get some modern Iraq footage– dudes have had ACUs over there for five years now.
Connecticut’s Attorney General might have a wee Stolen Valor problem:
http://tinyurl.com/248v53j
Dunno about the PBS show, but when I was at Carson, 91-95, I was amazed at the number of criminals in the Army there. Never saw anything like it in Hawaii or Germany. Something in the water there.
Brad,
See above post.
Combat vets aren’t “crazy” for the most part. But many are coming back seriously damaged psychologically. You simply cannot expect to send soldiers off into the hell of combat–especially a messy insurgent war–and come back just the same as when they left. Stories like this need to be told, because it is part of the price we pay for getting into these wars of choice. The clueless American public needs to know that this is what it means to send your young people overseas to do the President’s bidding for questionable reasons.
Jimmy:
How you tell the vet’s story is just as important as the story it’s self, and slanting the story to paint all returning vet’s with a few bad apple’s brush does not do any one a service. Kinda like your post above, and the slant it it displays. There was nothing questionable about my service in Iraq, or the reasons I was sent and went. Don’t presume to speak for me, or any other vet you personally don’t know.
@Jimmy,
Wars of choice???? Last I checked this one was caused by the “peaceful practitioners of Islam”. Had I the power 3/4ths of the Middle East would have been neutron-bombed to zero population on 12 September 2001. THAT’s how you fight a jihad. “Questionable”, my ass. READ: http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/no-lies-about-iraq/
Iraq and Afghanistan are just two fronts in this war.
Jimmy,
Islam declared war on all things NOT named Islam some 14 centuries ago. This is a continuation of that conflict. We didn’t start it, but we certainly need to finish it. This is a cultural war, and if the west loses, then you can kiss freedom goodbye for a thousand years or more.
“Had I the power 3/4ths of the Middle East would have been neutron-bombed to zero population on 12 September 2001.”
I’m not a fan of Islam by a long shot, have no illusions that all third worlders are unicorn riding Na’vi who never crush a blade of grass. That being said, am a National Guardsman, not an SS-Einsatzgruppen member. Is it a stretch to say we MIGHT NOT be in the fix we’re in had we avoided interfering in Islamic nations internal affairs, ie deposing Mosaqdeh in ’53 and Zbigniew Brzezinski creating the Afghanistan debacle??
“Islam declared war on all things NOT named Islam some 14 centuries ago.” The agression is in Islam’s favor, that being said, do we paint all nominal Moslem nations with the same brush? In Kryzygstan, they weren’t batshite crazy like the Saudis, UAE or Afghans I’ve been around… Food for thought.
Look gang, I have no multicultural blinders, tribalism is a factor in human relations and we will always “have wars and rumors of wars.” Advocating extermination gives me the willies. Just sayin’.
I love that in our current mode of thinking American’s do not accept that people could possibly hate an unknown group of people so much that they are willing to kill their own kids to win.
As a society we have been so far removed from any kind of killing that we cannot imagine how our brave men and woman willingly face it.
On PTSD; like most problems it can be overcome, and like a lot of other conditions there is no “typical” survivor.
Stigmatizing veterans who have PTSD as “evil” is like saying a mom with postpartum depression is a bad mom.
Soldiers don’t volunteer to be traumatized. We volunteer to serve and defend our country, regardless of the cost.
In my book making a quick political buck on the backs of heroes is at least as bad as sending soldiers to die for the wrong reasons.
@Junior AG Says:
“That being said, am a National Guardsman, not an SS-Einsatzgruppen member.”
Funny you should bring Nazis into the equation. Ever heard of the Handshar SS Brigade? Look it up. Muslims and Nazis have a lot in common.
Is it a stretch to say we MIGHT NOT be in the fix we’re in had we avoided interfering in Islamic nations internal affairs, ie deposing Mosaqdeh in ‘53 and Zbigniew Brzezinski creating the Afghanistan debacle??
Is it a stretch to say that Islam declared war on Western civilization back in 693AD after Mohammad wrote his screed, and they’ve conducted that war ever since? The mistake we made with Afghanistan was walking away after we helped the mujahedeen kick the Soviets out.
“….do we paint all nominal Moslem nations with the same brush?”
Pretty much.
“Advocating extermination gives me the willies. Just sayin”
Diminishing the war on Islamic agression to “man-caused disasters” and “overseas contingency operations” scares the shit out of me.
I hope you don’t have any illusions that you’re representing the United States of America with your extremist views, GI Jane.
@Anonymous,
I hope you don’t have any illusions that anyone cares about your shitty, clueless opinion.