Today is Monday, May 28th, 2007; Karen's Korner #1071

It's Memorial Day; time to listen to soldiers and those who gave, or give, their lives for us everyday.
 
Below is an email sent to the Des Moines Register and published in John Carlon's IOWA column last week. Carlson introduced Chief Warrant Officer Jim Funk (39 years old and a full-time employee of the Iowa National Guard) who has flown more than 80 combat missions since arriving in Iraq last October. He and his unit are based out of Boone.
 
Here is what he emailed; the article was titled, "Media is enemy's best weapon":
 
"Hello, media, do you know you indirectly kill American soldiers every day? You inspire and report the enemy's objective every day. You are the enemy's greatest weapon. The enemy cannot beat us on the battlefield so all he does is try to wreak enough havoc and have you report it every day. With you and the enemy using each other, you continually break the will of the American public and American government.
 
"We go out daily and bust and kill the enemy, uncover and destroy huge weapons caches and continue to establish infrastructure. So daily we put a whoopin on the enemy, but all the enemey has to do is turn on the TV and get re-inspired. He gets to see his daily roadside bomb, truck bomb, suicide bomber or mortar attack. He doesn't see any accomplishments of the U.S. military (FOX, you'r not exempt, you suck also).
 
"Let's give you an example. A couple of days ago we conducted an air assault. We lifted troops into an area for an operation. The operation went well and our ground troops killed (insurgents) and took several prisoners, freed a few hostages and uncovered a weapons cache containing munitions and chemicals that were going to be used in improvised bombs.
 
"The next morning I woke up and turned on Armed Forces Network and watched the NBC nightly news. Nothing, none of that reported. But the daily car bombs report was reported, and the file footage was not even from the event. There was a car bomb in the Sadr City area and your news report showed old car bomb footage from another part of town, from some other time.
 
"So we really set the enemy back that night but all the enemy had to do was turn on the news and be reassured that the enemy's agenda (objective) was still going to be fed to the American public.
 
"We, the soldiers, keep breaking the back of the enemy. You, the media, keep rejuvenating the enemy.
 
"How hard would it be to contact the Public Affairs Officer of the 1st CAV. 36th CAB 25th ID or the Marines and ask what did you guys accomplish today--good and bad?? How about some insurgent blooper videos? Now that would be something to show on the evening news.
 
"Media, we know you hate the George Bush administration, but report both sides, not just your one-sided agenda. You have got to realize how you are continually motivating every extremist, jihadist, and terrorist to continue their resolve to kill American soldiers."
 
~~
 
An opportunity for an American soldier to be heard on Memorial Day.

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