The apathy of a great majority of my fellow citizens towards this war in Iraq is killing me. Partially, but not entirely because my son gave his life there, but because I remember the phrase, “If you are not outraged, you are not paying attention”. Well most people are not actively outraged so I have to wonder why they aren’t paying attention. I sure don’t question their patriotism or love of country, like so many might, but perhaps more Americans would be more interested in the day-to-day success and failures of our troops in Iraq if its status was really reported to us by the mainstream media. Maybe Americans would take a more active interest in either continuing the war or ending it somehow if it was on their radar every day as it was in the 60′s during the Vietnam War. The Pentagon learned their lesson from that war and now their efforts to keep a strangle-hold on the “message” over the last four years have gutted the mainstream media. The MSM just rolled over and forfeited their credibility permitting a darkness where there should be questions, truth and light.
So… Where is Ernie Pyle when we need him? Right now, some younger readers are asking why we need the help of some relative of Gomer Pyle’s. Still younger readers are wondering who either one is.
Ernie Pyle was a Pulitzer Prize winning War Correspondent in the 40′s and no relative of Gomer. He covered WWII right up front in the mud with the troops and reported it like he saw it. He would be considered embedded today, but unlike today, he had no restrictions on what he could report. He was not alone in this but Ernie Pyle was the most widely read reporter in the world at the time. Last spring I read his 1944 book, “Brave Men”. I found it in a box of old books from my father-in-law’s house. I rescued it and it is now on my bookshelf. Ernie Pyle wrote in a clear homespun style about each and every soldier he met. He always gave the soldiers name and hometown address so the folks back home could say, “Hey, that’s my son, brother, husband, kid next door!”, and he told in detail what that guy and his unit were doing and how the unit helped the war effort. Every soldier and officer knew him on sight. He slept with the troops, he ate with them and he was with them in battle. They loved and respected him. He went in with the troops on the beaches of North Africa, Sicily, Anzio and Normandy, through France and then after Germany surrendered he went to the Pacific. Sadly, he was killed on IE Shima in 1945. His last words to the officer who was with him were, “All you all right?”
Where is Ernie Pyle when we need him? The answer to that question is that he is still there at the front. He is an amalgam of the self-supported free-lance journalists working at the front. He is embedded with the troops, humping through and choking on moon-dust. He is talking with the troops, facing the same threats they do, risking his life writing about the troops, He is writing about the encounters with the Iraqi and Afghani people they meet and help. He doesn’t work for the mainstream media. He is supported by contributions from people like you and me who want to know just what is really going on there. He may be conservative or he may be liberal or somewhere in between, but most importantly he is American and he is there with his butt on the line. His outlet just like ours is the internet. Answers, truth and light. The Battlefield Tourist, A Long War Journal and Matt Sanchez in Afghanistan are just three who do this for us. There are more and they all deserve our support. If it wasn’t for them we might completely forget the damn thing was going on.
