Matt takes on the lying dogs of war, and more

In The lying dogs of war, Matt Sanchez addresses Franklin Foer's article on how the New Republic lied on their "Baghdad Diarist" series. Foer managed in his article to work in a personal dig at Matt,

On August 1, six days after the "skulls on their head in sector" meeting, the Army concluded its investigation. Two days later, a public affairs officer announced that Beauchamp's piece had been "refuted by members of his platoon and proven to be false." The Army didn't announce this to The New York Times or even The Weekly Standard, let alone in a public report. It first gave the story of Beauchamp's supposed fraudulence to a former porn actor turned blogger named Matt Sanchez.

Where to start?

First of all, Foer is defending a lie. Not just any lie, but a lie that he personally tried to maintain for weeks to no end. No matter who the Army first gave the story to, the story was a lie.

In second place, the Army gave the story to Matt because Matt was there. As you can appreciate by browsing through Matt's website, he's been with the troops in Iraq reporting the truth.

And then, as I have previously stated, it's not the conservatives who have psycho-sexual issues. Foer may dismiss Matt's writing because of his past, but wouldn't the same standard apply to often-married former brothel madam Maya Angelou?

But never mind that; as Matt says,

Foer, never the shrinking violet, asserts his detractors weren't professionals, just conservatives, bloggers and pornstars. Franklin may have learned this haughtiness from his time at Columbia University where the righteousness of one's leftist cause is always beyond reproach.

In frustration, Foer writes that Gen. David Petraeus' spokesman, Col. Steven Boylan, took forever to get back to him, because he apparently didn't realize that a call from the New Republic in Washington was far more important than all that silly surge stuff going on in Baghdad.

No one had a problem contacting Maj. Luke Luedeke, public affairs officer at Forward Operating Base Falcon, the home of the Baghdad Diarist. In fact, when I returned to FOB Falcon, Luedeke told me he was swamped by major media requests. I specifically asked if Franklin Foer or someone from the New Republic had been in contact. Luedeke replied, "They called once, a couple of days ago and haven't called back since." This is what Foer called "pleading with the Army" for information.

Once at Falcon, I just spoke to the public affairs officer and proceeded to execute what is commonly referred to as reporting.

The higher-ups at FOB Falcon said Beauchamp quickly recanted his Baghdad Diarist stories. I asked the Army if I could talk to the private and was told Beauchamp did not want to speak to any more media. As anyone who has been around the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan knows, there are plenty of jokes and rumors told just to pass the time, or as the editor-in-chief of the New Republic likes to call them, an opportunity to give his liberal readers the kind of imagery they need to justify those long therapy sessions and costly anti-depressants.

Read it all.

Matt has another article, Kicking out the Taliban
Huge Pearl Harbor Day air assault on Afghanistan

Also don't miss his post Trauma, shrapnel, and the fight for life.

Matt has been my podcast guest twice: when he called from Iraq,and when he called from Germany prior to going to Afghanistan. Go listen.


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Dr. Fleming reviews Beowulf

My son, who has been corresponding with Dr. Fleming (who is visiting France), just informed me that Dr. Fleming wrote a review of Beowulf for The New Republic:
Good Grief, Grendel
There are poor adaptations of great works of the past--and then there is the latest film version of 'Beowulf.'

The film's signal originality, and the occasion of its most grotesque travesty of a great poem, is its "vision" of what should have been the second and most terrifying monster: Grendel's mother, who dwells in the depths of a haunted pool. But that's no monster, that's Angelina Jolie--and, boy, swiche wenche was never ere now found in mere, tarn, lagoon, or hwaelsweg, let alone in the giant fishbowl dreamed up by our director. In light-hearted mood, medieval scholars debated such questions as this: "If you are to be married to a mermaid, which half do you want to be fish?" Zemeckis appears to have the implied problem all figured out, since Grendel's Mom has been most fecund in her many matings with, apparently, every king in town. We have always known who Beowulf's father was. We now learn that actually, like poor old Job, he is a brother to dragons. This is too silly for words, but, alas, not for pictures.

You got to read all of it - he's at his best!

You will also enjoy my podcast interview of Dr. Fleming from last March, which I also transcribed.

Here's the Beowulf trailer:



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Yet one more round-robin press conference, and today's items

The party of run-and-run-faster had another "debate" yesterday. There were not challenged at all in their run-and-run-faster premise by the debate's moderator. Mark Finklestein points out,

Stephanopoulos didn't pose one question challenging the Dems' assumption that surrender is the way to go.

Don't expect the Dems to be holding any of these round-robin press conferences at Fox News any time soon.
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Via Larwyn, and related to the above, The Post 9/11 Liberal
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It's Not Just Scott Beauchamp and It's Not Just Scott Beauchamp (II)

Don't miss Richard Miniter's excellent article, How The New Republic Got Suckered

ACLU sues JetBlue

TigerHawk has the story: The ACLU sues JetBlue on behalf of a passenger who happens to be an Arab

There are a couple of noteworthy items about this lawsuit, but the most salient is that the lawsuit wasn't filed until a year after the passenger in question was told to hide his t-shirt. As it happened, two days before the incident at JetBlue, the massive plot to kill thousands of people on airplanes by Arabs living in Western countries has just made the headlines

It is not surprising, therefore, that the ACLU waited a year to file the case -- they wanted the jury pool to forget the context. I would bet my bottom dollar that as the case progresses Jarrar's lawyers will file a pre-trial motion to prevent the defense from reminding the jury of the plot discovered on August 10

Read the whole post.

Meanwhile, Gerard has the goods on TNR.

The New Republic lies, and a few other items

Fact or Fiction?
The New Republic's "Shock Troops": Fact or Fiction? Looking more and more like fiction
Scott Thomas, Franklin Foer & The New Republic- Beatdowns all around
Doubting Thomas: Simple Questions for the New Republic
They Don't Really Support the Troops: The latest from the New Republic and the Nation
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Former Gitmo Prisoner In Suicide Bombing

The US has released hundreds of detainees from its Guantanamo Bay prison under pressure from human-rights groups, demanding an end to the detention of suspected terrorists captured mainly in Afghanistan. The US has warned that releasing these prisoners will result in their return to terrorism, creating more danger for civilians and for the military still working to bring an end to the Taliban and their allies, al-Qaeda. More than a few have been captured a second time or killed in battle with Western forces.

This time, the terrorist committed suicide by grenade rather than get captured alive in an attempt to take a couple of his enemies with him

--------------------------------------------------------I didn't watch the YouTube "debate: but Captain Ed and Stephen did.

James didn't watch, either.

Special thanks to Larwyn.