The Battle Hymn of The New Republic
Right wing pounces on Beltway bible’s Baghdad diarist; but who’s telling the truth about Iraq?
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At 9:52 p.m. on the evening of Aug. 6, Michael Goldfarb, the online editor of The Weekly Standard, struck gold.
He’d been hammering away at political rival and fellow beltway-cognoscenti handbook The New Republic for a series of reports run by an anonymous soldier serving in Iraq, who until recently had been known only by the pen name Scott Thomas.
The stories Scott Thomas told were almost too bad to be true.
There was the Iraqi boy whose tongue is cut out for talking to Americans; the dog eating a corpse lying in the street; the troops mocking and sexually harassing a woman whose face had been damaged by an I.E.D.; and the soldier who wore a part of an Iraqi boy’s skull under his helmet.
And on July 18 he said so, asking other military bloggers to check out the stories of the anonymous columnist and find out whether they were true.
“Is it possible that American soldiers would be so sadistic?” Mr. Goldfarb asked rhetorically, referring to the mocking of the I.E.D. victim and then, in turn, to each of the stories told in TNR’s “Baghdad Diarist” column.
Soon, the right-wing blogosphere had taken up the cause. Bloggers exploded with rage that an anonymous soldier might be telling tall tales that maligned the dignity of American troops serving in Iraq. Only, it was not completely clear where the doubts were coming from initially—other troops found the stories implausible and wrote in to Mr. Goldfarb and others to say so; to many, the stories were simply too upsetting to be possible.
On Aug. 2, TNR issued a statement—based on an internal investigation—claiming the magazine had corroborated most of their correspondent’s account. A week earlier, the editors had identified him as Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp.
They did, however, find one serious error. The burned woman described in one of the pieces was indeed mocked in the way Pvt. Beauchamp had described, but the incident took place while she was stationed in Kuwait—before Mr. Beauchamp had been in the country.
The statement released by The New Republic was therefore hardly a triumphant vindication of their writer. But there was some detail about how the magazine had investigated Mr. Beauchamp’s story.
“In this process, TNR contacted dozens of people,” their statement read. “Editors and staffers spoke numerous times with Beauchamp. We also spoke with current and former soldiers, forensic experts, and other journalists who have covered the war extensively. And we sought assistance from Army Public Affairs officers. Most important, we spoke with five other members of Beauchamp’s company, and all corroborated Beauchamp’s anecdotes, which they witnessed or, in the case of one solider, heard about contemporaneously. (All of the soldiers we interviewed who had firsthand knowledge of the episodes requested anonymity.)”
A TNR source confirmed to The Observer that the “re-reporting” project wasn’t just for junior fact-checkers but senior staff, including senior editors Jason Zengerle, Lawrence Kaplan and Michael Crowley—and even former senior editor Ryan Lizza, who officially left the magazine, but had not yet started his new gig at The New Yorker.
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Anyone viewing the proliferation of military videos on YouTube.com and similar sites can see "what it's like" in Iraq - particularly when the "men" have a lot of downtown on their hands. From eating moldy candy bars stolen off the dead bodies to insurgents, to the non-stop use of the "F" word, to teaching Iraq children to sing "F*** Iraq", buying and selling porn to Iraq soldiers, mooning each other (Yes. These are all videos now onine) the one painful fact about our military's mindset is obvious. The men are mostly still 18 and 19 year-old hormonally driven teenagers with a riveting fascination for body functions. Put rockets, bombs, grenades and guns in their hands and they will be teenagers with rockets, bombs, grenades and guns in their hands. We don't trust them enough to let them drink - yet we expect them to behave in a war zone where someone is trying to kill them?
The military dignity (oxymoron) everyone is all upset about exists primarily in those soldiers of rank - higher rank, who are career-minded and politically driven. The grunts and soldiers on the front line are having to cope with trauma and stress that most of us can't fathom, yet insist on judging on every level - morally, ethically, mentally and spiritually. Are there soldiers there who aren't joking about dead bodies, headless corpses and war victims? Maybe.
My guess is the mind-numbing shock of Iraq would drive any of us to engage in the black, sick exchanges that pass for humor - but enables them to stay alive. I support the troops and applaud them for what they do in terms of fighting. I pray for them for what they do to stay sane.
Did this young soldier "gild the lily" and lie? Probably. Much of what he has written IS based in fact I'm sure. Did the Army lie? Of course they lied. They hate the media. The media cost them the war in Vietnam. Their biggest enemy will always be the media. They are in a constant battle to recruit young men and women and they have to convince mom and dad to let their child join an upstanding organization - one that won't let them cuss, get drunk, get laid, get in trouble.
However, that child is still probably sneaking porn and alcohol, bullying classmates, raising hell and doing what most 17, 18 and 19 year olds do. I assure you - the majority of males that age are NOT mature. While Scott is penning what he envisions as the start of the great American war novel, his contemporaries are making music videos using war footage they've shot and swapping "grossest pictures ever" of Iraqi dead.
The primary vocabulary of those soldiers posting videos about Iraq includes the "N" word - now supposedly buried in the U.S.A. - (obviously that obit is not available in Iraq - judging from the clips I've seen); the "F" word and the ever popular slang for women's genitalia.
So what's the story here? One we all know. The media wants to sell papers, be "edgy" and "hip" and attract the 20-somethings their advertisers crave so the media can sell the ads and get the money they crave. The young man wants to be famous, doesn't want to die, has smarts enough to know which heartstrings to pull and realities to portray to both offend, fascinate and disgust just enough to propel him to fame and riches. The military wants to keep the recruiting machine turning out new fodder. Simple.
Ultimately - it's all about the money. What we're seeing is simply the brawl about who's going to get it, who's going to keep it and who's not going to get screwed out of it in the public eye.
Ultimately the military will benefit, as will TNR, as will this young writer. The only losers? The individuals whose essence was pimped to make this whole show possible.
Anyone viewing the proliferation of military videos on YouTube.com and similar sites can see "what it's like" in Iraq - particularly when the "men" have a lot of downtown on their hands. From eating moldy candy bars stolen off the dead bodies to insurgents, to the non-stop use of the "F" word, to teaching Iraq children to sing "F*** Iraq", buying and selling porn to Iraq soldiers, mooning each other (Yes. These are all videos now onine) the one painful fact about our military's mindset is obvious. The men are mostly still 18 and 19 year-old hormonally driven teenagers with a riveting fascination for body functions. Put rockets, bombs, grenades and guns in their hands and they will be teenagers with rockets, bombs, grenades and guns in their hands. We don't trust them enough to let them drink - yet we expect them to behave in a war zone where someone is trying to kill them?
The military dignity (oxymoron) everyone is all upset about exists primarily in those soldiers of rank - higher rank, who are career-minded and politically driven. The grunts and soldiers on the front line are having to cope with trauma and stress that most of us can't fathom, yet insist on judging on every level - morally, ethically, mentally and spiritually. Are there soldiers there who aren't joking about dead bodies, headless corpses and war victims? Maybe.
My guess is the mind-numbing shock of Iraq would drive any of us to engage in the black, sick exchanges that pass for humor - but enables them to stay alive. I support the troops and applaud them for what they do in terms of fighting. I pray for them for what they do to stay sane.
Did this young soldier "gild the lily" and lie? Probably. Much of what he has written IS based in fact I'm sure. Did the Army lie? Of course they lied. They hate the media. The media cost them the war in Vietnam. Their biggest enemy will always be the media. They are in a constant battle to recruit young men and women and they have to convince mom and dad to let their child join an upstanding organization - one that won't let them cuss, get drunk, get laid, get in trouble.
However, that child is still probably sneaking porn and alcohol, bullying classmates, raising hell and doing what most 17, 18 and 19 year olds do. I assure you - the majority of males that age are NOT mature. While Scott is penning what he envisions as the start of the great American war novel, his contemporaries are making music videos using war footage they've shot and swapping "grossest pictures ever" of Iraqi dead.
The primary vocabulary of those soldiers posting videos about Iraq includes the "N" word - now supposedly buried in the U.S.A. - (obviously that obit is not available in Iraq - judging from the clips I've seen); the "F" word and the ever popular slang for women's genitalia.
So what's the story here? One we all know. The media wants to sell papers, be "edgy" and "hip" and attract the 20-somethings their advertisers crave so the media can sell the ads and get the money they crave. The young man wants to be famous, doesn't want to die, has smarts enough to know which heartstrings to pull and realities to portray to both offend, fascinate and disgust just enough to propel him to fame and riches. The military wants to keep the recruiting machine turning out new fodder. Simple.
Ultimately - it's all about the money. What we're seeing is simply the brawl about who's going to get it, who's going to keep it and who's not going to get screwed out of it in the public eye.
Ultimately the military will benefit, as will TNR, as will this young writer. The only losers? The individuals whose essence was pimped to make this whole show possible.