The war the media isn’t showing you

A friend of mine e-mailed me about my latest blog and you know what he said?

“According to your blogs Iraq isn’t too bad at all. You make it sound like a great place to be where everyone does the right thing. We get long with the Iraqi people, and they love us, and we even take care of little homeless babies. Give me the real story! What’s going on man?”

So here’s the real story: When you’re in a war zone where people are killed daily it’s easy to pick out something horrible to focus time and energy on.

Unfortunately that’s our job here. When everything goes wrong, we (US and Iraqi soldiers) have to confront the worst. The worst part of rage. The worst part of hate. The worst part of war. The worst part of humanity.

So do I want to continually focus on that even in my blogs?

No, I really don’t. My commander, (Col. West) and CSM (Command Sergeant Major Cowan) have made it very clear to us that a positive mental attitude and can-do spirit and staying connected to home will help to ensure continued good mental health upon returning. Plus, as you read in the last blog, there are some amazing stories going on here in spite of the conditions.

Why not write about the ‘ugly’ side of what we do? I don’t need to because that’s exactly what the media tends to do already.

But, in their defense, it’s their job.

What they report does tend to be the news – the ‘war’ story. It’s nice to hear about the little baby being cared for by US soldiers, but in some people’s minds if the media were to report that, it would seem like they were saying “Here, read about this pretty, shiny, happy-story and avoid the real horrific things going on.”

If it bleeds it leads. This is one of the catchphrases of the news media. I learned that phrase from my father and heard it again from my professors at UK in the college of communications (outstanding department).

One of my favorite professors, Dr. Alan DeSantis, a brilliant guy and an amazing communicator, had me read a book about 10 years ago titled, “Amusing Ourselves to Death.” The point of the book was that television should stay focused on entertaining us but it shouldn’t put its dirty hands into informing us about the world or try to educate us. TV is not for that. If TV tries to inform or educate us then we’ll skew the line between entertainment and news and the war will become a 30 second blurb on CNN or Fox to everyone.

At least everyone who was not touched personally by the war.

Isn’t that the case now? We give the war coverage the same amount of time, and sometimes less coverage, than the sports highlights. Making it seem the two were equally important in our daily life and we should devote the same amount of time to each. When you hear 5 people were killed in Iraq yesterday, and in the same voice, and amount of time (roughly 30 seconds) you hear the Reds beat the Brewers, you get no time to grieve the loss of life. So it’s now not a tragedy about 5 people perishing, but a 30 second informational clip. “Now let’s go to Ryan for sports!”

“All you need is love.” If only it were that easy.

So to answer your question, buddy, I write my blog to expose you to the positives. I want to tell you about all the good things that are going on. I want you and all the American people, especially Lexingtonians to know, that in the midst of a war there is still a little girl passing out flowers to the soldiers.

That our Iraqi translator Ahmed truly loves us like his family.

That Maj. Honican, the firefighter, is still pulling his weight and then some, even though he misses Nathan and Lauren terribly.

That Lt. Whitelow is tougher and stronger than ever.

That Capt. McKinney is still missing ‘his kids’ at Shawnee HS everyday.

That Maj. Elliott, the West Point graduate, has not stopped working for 6 months straight, missing his son and wife.

That Sgt. Blackburn still won’t let me give him a hug. (Hi, Gwen, glad your feeling better, we’ve been praying for you.)

That Sgt. Polston misses his wife and baby.

That Sgt. Land, working hard as always, misses his wife and baby as well.

That ‘Bravo Battery’ 2^nd 138^th couldn’t be any braver and represented the state any better.

That the little baby that is left in a paper bag to die, is being loved and cared for by the soldiers.

That in spite of the messy and gritty job that our servicemen and women do, and especially the 138^th Fires Brigade National Guardsmen out of Lexington, Kentucky do everyday, we remain positive, focused, and committed to representing our state with pride.

Sorrow and regret look down. Worry looks around. But faith and a good attitude always look up.

God bless our families back home, God bless our troops everywhere, God Bless the people supporting us, and most of all God, please bless America.

I love you Lindsay,

YAMWW,

Steve