I just got in an argument with my husband over TIME mag. article

It's the Canadian edition, which is different from the American one. The online version of TIME doesn't have the article so I can't provide a link. Anyway, it's by Michael Ware and I couldn't finish reading beyond this point...

""Terminators coming in," he bellows as he goes inside, using the unit's name in a code to warn that friendly forces are entering. Inside they find Bellavia alive and on on the hunt. Upstairs he scans the bedrooms. An insurgent jumps out of the cupboard. Bellavia falls down and fires, spraying the man with bullets. At some point another insurgent drops out of the ceiling. Yet another runs to a window and makes for the garden. Bellavia its him in the legs and lower back as he flees. When it's over, four insurgents are dead; another has escaped badly wounded. To Bellavia, Fitts says, "that's a good job, Dude. You're a better man than me." Bellavia shakes his head. "No, No, no," he mutters."

At this point I start shouting. "They're glorifying these guys like they're some kind of Tom Cruise character. How can one guy get four guys with weapons? This is like another Jessica Lynch embellishment"

Hubby got mad at me for getting so emotional. After I calmed down I explained that the reason I get so upset is they're not reporting the horror of the war. There's nothing in this mag. about civilian casualties. They're glorifying it. He agreed with me and it's all O.K. now. But I thought maybe this was a propoganda method to soften folks up for the draft. The fact it's not in the American edition may mean I'm wrong. What say you?

as recruitment bait......

It's getting to the point that I'm going to avoid commercial TV, period. The game was something stupid like "Ranger Patrol," and featured blasting away at any human figure in sight. Ugly.

Yes, they're glorifying war to soften us up for that "special skills" draft that will soon be widened to include the special skill of grunt.

This is where I came in, and it's even more sickening the second time around.

I know veterans who have seen combat duty. Most of them were truly appalled by what they experienced but there were a few who admitted that they enjoyed combat. So it's not hard to imagine that there are many reporters and readers as well who find the gory details of war to be thrilling entertainment. Sad but true. Also, think about how many war movies that glorify the participants have been made over the years to huge audiences.

it will be a miracle if the world survives them...

what the military wants them to report. This is the problem with being to inside of our government like the media here is right now at this moment in time in our history. This has all been planned and orchestrated to control the message and at the same time control the people giving the message.

This administration saw long ago how easy it was to intimate and control our media by simply threatening to deny them access. They know that large single corporations own large segments of media and it's much easier to control them that way. Lastly our media is lazy and use to fat paychecks for little work.

Think of it this way, since Time and its conglom has always been a government establishment tool for disseminating apple pie culture, pro-business views and state propaganda.

The CIA and other Intel had a choice in the Stalinist days. They chose to do Stalin better in all the dirt. At the same time the other idea they played around with was simply getting ALL the truth out there, a much healthier and braver way to accomplish the same goals. The Internet was born from the latter idea- in a way. That is how it functions and the technology now makes it a more powerful option than ever.

Meanwhile the old media has been corrupted for generations by secrecy, idea wars, manipulation, elitism, ideological combat. Even the lies and secrecy barely make sense any more.

Open source, less privatized and free ranging world wide information sharing is available only by the very chaotic and difficult task of using the Internet. The corrupters are there too, but the days of Pollyanna reliance on print Pravda and radio TV snow jobs(again Corporate Pravda) are increasingly a senile, spiteful joke of lies told incompetently for causes absurdly bad.

Cancel. Tune out. The money feeds the beast.

it doesn't have much bearing on the issues you've raised, but it does answer your question, "How can one guy get four guys with weapons?"

I'm reprinting this from something I wrote elsewhere, so the format is a little unusual for a post like this.

Oh, and remember, my neighbor accomplished this against battle-hardened German soldiers, guys who took this sort of warfare seriously, who were trained to work closely together.



There’s a park around the corner from me, a real nice place; kid’s playground and picnic area, a small lake for fishing. It’s a pleasant spot to spend an afternoon, one where I’ve spent many an hour with my children.

The park’s named for a Medal of Honor winner. He was an Army Sergeant, Second World War, who found himself and his squad pinned down on an Italian hillside one October morning in 1944 by heavy fire from emplaced German machineguns and mortars. Undeterred by the deadly fire that ricocheted off the barren rocks, he directed his squad to stay under cover while he climbed around the left flank and attacked the first machinegun emplacement. In a surprise assault of unexpected ferocity, he forced the surrender of 8 soldiers, whom he sent down to his men below. He was discovered as he crept towards the second emplacement, yet under withering fire he leapt to his feet and, bobbing and weaving, crouching then lunging, he charged ahead. He killed four and forced a fifth to surrender. He then went after the third machinegun, this time in the face of a thoroughly alerted enemy. So ferocious was his attack, so aggressive his shouts and bursts of gunfire, the four enemy gunners threw down their arms. The fourth emplacement was not so easily cowed. Situated on the crest of the hill, their backside protected by a fifth emplacement, these soldiers took a stand to stop this crazed man. Four died, three surrendered. And the fifth emplacement surrendered as well — all six soldiers chose capture over death. In his one-man assault, Sergeant Chris Carr overran 5 machinegun emplacements, killed eight enemy soldiers, took 22 prisoners, and saved the lives of the men of his company. When his battalion moved in the next day, it found itself in possession of the neighborhood’s commanding ground.

My family and I have lunch at the park some days. We talk about movies we’ve seen, books we’ve read, places we’d like to go. We don’t speak of troubles there, nor do we discuss the day’s events on those grassy slopes. We are content to know there are some things for which words are not necessary, that the grass and placid waters can tell us all we need to know.

runs...four insurgents are dead.

I can't find this country "Insurgi" on the map anywhere.