Yesterday afternoon I spotted this Media Alert over at Blackfive's. It was for Oliver North's War Stories, and I certainly hope you had a chance to watch it.
For me, being a civilian, never having been in a military situation ever in my life, it was....incredible. Awesome. Awakening. It was a great show. Personally, I would have preferred longer stories, and maybe make it a two parter. There were as many questions left after I watched as I had before hand.
The one line that just really stuck in my head is when North asked a young Marine who he thought the enemy was now. The response was Ignorance. I sat there on the couch and thought that truer words had never been spoken. What really amazed me is that this young Soldier is being shot at daily. His friends and team mates are being wounded, or worse, and he's still focused on the ignorance of the enemy. And then my mind hops over to what is going on over here in the States. Yeah - I'm gonna whole heartedly agree, the enemy that surrounds all of us is Ignorance.
Anyway - the show spotlighted some of the training that goes on to prepare these Warriors for what they will face. It showed some of the efforts that are being made daily to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. One story followed a night raid where they scored a shit load munitions from a suspected terrorist's home. During a night raid. I hope you got a chance to see the picture of that Troop displaying what they had found that evening. All I could think of is how many lives they saved that night. I was so proud.
I'm just so damned curious as to what it's like. What our Soldiers are having to put up with, the good/bad and the ugly. I'm not morbid - not by a long shot. But I care, and my way has always been to really understand the things I care about. (Must be that analyst in me.) So I can't tell you if the show was slanted or biased or right or wrong. I just know it was interesting - can't step away interesting - for me. I learned something. When the show was over I was proud. Proud of our Soldiers and proud of what we are doing over there.
BTW - if Matt suggests you follow a link or catch a show - good rule of thumb is to do it. I haven't been disappointed yet. Thanks Matt.
Posted by Tammi at July 12, 2004 08:14 AMI caught the alert Sunday night about 11pm, so I missed the show :-(
And when you said "ignorance is the enemy", my FIRST thought was of the American Left :-)
Posted by: Harvey at July 12, 2004 08:39 AMWas browsing through blogspot when I stumbled here
Posted by: John at November 4, 2004 05:28 AM