Well, Hush My Mouth!

Will Wonders Never Cease? Here's a link to the Time website. Despite what Trey (read Khaddafi post below) thinks - You Guys and Gals Rock! As I've said before, I'm glad I still carry a US Armed Forces ID card, even if it is bluish-grey! I'm leaving this at the top all day, so if you come in more than once, scroll down. PIAT pics are on the hard drive, I just gotta find some words - but I'm going to see Return of the King today, too!

The American Soldier

They swept across Iraq and conquered it in 21 days. They stand guard on streets pot-holed with skepticism and rancor. They caught Saddam Hussein. They are the face of America, its might and good will, in a region unused to democracy. The U.S. G.I. is TIME's Person of the Year...

...To have pulled Saddam Hussein from his hole in the ground brings the possibility of pulling an entire country out of the dark. In an exhausting year when we've been witness to battles well beyond the battlefields—in the streets, in our homes, with our allies—to share good news felt like breaking a long fast, all the better since it came by surprise. And who delivered this gift, against all odds and risks? The same citizens who share the duty of living with, and dying for, a country's most fateful decisions.

Go read the rest, even if you can't normally take Time's editorial slant. Well, you can only read the whole thing on the web if you're a subscriber. Since I'm not, I'll content myself with a newsstand copy.

UPDATE: Of course, it's not our first time in the chute. For a different take, click the trackback and see how Jack at Random Fate sees the Time cover. The Chaos Lord weighs in too, with a little editorial correction.

UPDATE II: Greyhawk is pleased for the troops, but otherwise unimpressed:

Congrats to all. We're Time's "Person of the Year".

My response is cynical. They've hardly been supportive of our efforts (to say the least) and I can't help but think their choice is driven by desire for maximum profit.

Whether you agree or not, it seems a noteworthy (blogworthy) topic.

Merry Christmas to all, and a wonderful New Year.

I mean he's REALLY unimpressed... and after looking at his graphic depiction of WHY he's unimpressed, well, I can't say I blame him.

Others among us are annoyed that Time singled out soldiers, seeing in that a 'dis' to Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coasties. While it's easy for me to be sanguine about this cuz I'm a soldier, I suspect that it has more to do with the culture at Time than it does a deliberate snub. They put us all into the same military lumpen proletariat... y'know, 'them'. Back when they did this in 1950, where there were three generations of Americans intimately familiar with war and the people who fight it, they called us The Fighting Man. Of course, they couldn't recycle that title - not politically correct, don't ya know. So, inadvertently, they insulted 4 of the 5 services in their usual clueless fashion, since I'm sure there are sooooo many staffers at time with deep cultural immersion in the services. Any Time-Warner person who can show differently, please do.

UPDATE III: Owen was right. No girls (so consider my apology in the comments activated. Even worse for you grunt types - they are all Redlegs!

The magazine's cover shows three of them Sgt. Marquette Whiteside, of Pine Bluff, Ark.; Sgt. Ronald Buxton, of Lake Ozark, Mo.; and Spc. Billie Grimes, of Lebanon, Ind., all members of Survey Platoon, Headquarters Battery, 2nd Battalion in the 1st Armored's 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, based in Giessen, Germany.

From my regiment, no less.