Mark Phillips: The American Question
2/7/04: Narratives beyond control.
The Web changes everything.
An
interesting article
in today's Washington Post notes,
As one of the biggest troop rotations in U.S. history gets underway in Iraq,
with almost 250,000 soldiers coming or going, the seasoned units that are leaving
are doing their best to pass on such hard-won knowledge to their successors, in
e-mails, in essays, in PowerPoint presentations and rambling memoirs posted on Web
sites or sent to rear detachments. And in the process, these veterans of Iraq have
provided an alternate history of the Army's experience there over the past nine
months -- one that is far more personal than the images offered by the media and
often grimmer than the official accounts of steady progress.
These
narratives
by soldiers are intended to pass along hard-won lore to new generations of comrades.
As the article makes clear, they do more.
Although some of the commentaries argue that progress is being made, as a whole
they tend to paint a harsher picture than the public statements of senior officials.
In his advice to incoming troops, Capt. Ken Braeger, a company commander in the 4th
Division, which is headquartered in Tikrit, in the middle of the Sunni Triangle,
states that "what they have to understand is that most of the people here want
us dead, they hate us and everything we stand for, and will take any opportunity to
cause us harm."
The Web makes it easy and virtually free to circulate documents and commentaries
which undermine official narratives. How long will it be before the Web becomes a
major conduit of GI resistance to a policy they know from first-hand experience has already
failed?
Support our troops! Bring them home now!
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More Information
- CompanyCommand.com
- "All roads lead to Tehran", Phillips
- "Complexity", Phillips
- "weblogs: a history and perspective", blood
- "You've got blog", Mead
- EatonWeb Portal
- BlogHop
- Blogger
- Blogroots
- The Pepys Project
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