We're talking silencing the Ernie Pyle of this war, not the William Arkin's...
Soldier's Mom noted Mike's new product... RUBS
It looks like a certain Army General wants to shoot himself and the Army in the foot. Both feet. What a lack of vision this man seemingly has.
A note from Bob Owens, who blogs at Confederate Yankee - where you can find a picture of the General in question, Brigadier General Vincent Brooks.
Good Morning,I'm writing to you today to ask you to help support Michael Yon, the former Green Beret turned independent combat journalist, currently in Iraq. As noted by Instapundit Glenn Reynolds and Austin Bay last night, Yon has been threatened with expulsion from Iraq by an Army General :
A general emailed in the past 24 hours threatening to kick me out. The first time the Army threatened to kick me out was in late 2005, just after I published a dispatch called "Gates of Fire." Some of the senior level public affairs people who'd been upset by "Proximity Delays" were looking ever since for a reason to kick me out and they wanted to use "Gates of Fire" as a catapult. In the events described in that dispatch, I broke some rules by, for instance, firing a weapon during combat when some of our soldiers were fighting fairly close quarters and one was wounded and still under enemy fire. That's right. I'm not sure what message the senior level public affairs people thought that would convey had they succeeded, (which they didn't) but it was clear to me what they valued most. They want the press on a short leash, even at the expense of the life of a soldier.The General who wanted to silence Yon in 2005 was Brigadier General Vincent K. Brooks, then the lead Public Affairs Officer (PAO) for the United States Army. The stories that got Yon in trouble with Brooks: Proximity Delays and Gates of Fire. Proximity Delays got Yon in trouble, and in Gates of Fire, Yon picked up a rifle and joined combat to help LTC Erik Kurilla, who had been shot three times by an insurgent while CSM Robert Prosser was engaged in hand-to-hand combat with another insurgent. For inserting himself into battle (which violated embed rules) to help fallen American soldiers, and then having the gall to write about it, Brooks tried to kick Yon our of Iraq. Brooks is back in Iraq, this time as deputy commanding general - support for Multinational Division-Baghdad, and he still obviously carries his grudge against Yon. I confirmed last night with Michael Yon that it is this same General Vincent K. Brooks that sent Yon the email threatening to kick him out of Iraq.I don't think I need to tell you how important Yon's reporting is. He has been favorably compared to WWII's premier combat correspondent Ernie Pyle, in part because Yon, like Pyle, is brutally honest in his reporting. When he sees problems he reports them, and when he sees progress, he reports that as well. Yon has, if I am correct, spent more time embedded in U.S. combat units in Iraq than any journalist for any news organization. Period. He plans to spend the next year on the ground with our soldiers in Iraq. He braves bullets and IEDs with our troops out on patrol, and was once targeted to be kidnapped and killed by insurgents because of his reporting. Through it all, Yon has pushed on, and now a General on our side appears to be trying to silence him.
I don't think anyone will dispute that the terrorists in Iraq are convincingly beating us in the media war, and Yon's front-line writing has been one of the few bright spots in the coverage of this war in the western media. That vital reporting is now under assault by a General that is apparently threatened by Yon's honesty.
Michael has been stuck in a U.S. base for over a week now. I strongly feel that Brooks is behind Yon's "grounding," and the threatening email he sent Yon seems to strongly support that contention.
I'm asking you to help turn up the heat on General Brooks and the U.S. Army, so that Yon can continue to bring us dispatches from the front line. Please consider writing about this attempt at censorship by General Vincent Brooks.
Don't let one of the best combat reporters of our generation be silenced by a General with a grudge.
Don't let one of the best combat reporters of our generation be silenced by a General with a grudge.
Or just from a lack of vision, or perhaps a rule-bound mentality. I seem to remember another journalist who picked up a rifle in a firefight - Joe Galloway.
Think about it, General - who do you want doing your reporting - the guy who goes out with the troops, or some dandy who never leaves the Green Zone and gets his data hearsay?
If it's the Green Zone reporter... gotta wonder what your priorities are, General.
Update: Noah Schactman's take on the subject, over at the Danger Room.
Noonan at Op-For.
Laughing Wolf at Blackfive.
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