TOM RICKS IS MY HERO
Tom Ricks is the Washington Post's military correspondent. He has humped it with the grunts many a time, won the Pulitzer Prize twice, and is the author of the bestselling masterpiece: FIASCO: The American Military Adventure in Iraq.
Nobody, but nobody cuts through the bullshit smoother and quicker than Ricks, and you can trust that his reporting is truth--not something filtered through White House "leaks" to willing stenographers.
He is highly respected by those in the military, at all levels, from the Pentagon to the infantry, and it shows in his reporting.
This is a piece he published in "Tom Ricks's Inbox," for the Washington Post, on February 25, 2007. He literally means that this comes from an e-mail he received. I'm going to publish Ricks's words as well, in full:
Subject: What affects morale?
There has been much debate recently about whether congressional resolution of disapproval for the U.S. troop increase in Iraq would undercut the morale of forces there. Here an officer who has served two combat tours in Iraq reports on what has affected his morale:
Ten Worst:
1. getting blown up
2. buddies getting blown up
3. re-securing a town we secured year before last
4. "Taps"
5. the "catch and release" detainee program
6. colostomy bags
7. civilian young men who won't look me in the eye when I'm in uniform
8. any scene from any shopping mall anywhere in America
9. editorials pointing out that casualties are "light by historical standards"
10. lies
Ten Best
1. Iraqis willing to fight for their country
2. good sergeants
3. clean, dry socks and T-shirts
4. cigarettes and chai without body armor
5. the USO at the DFW airport
6. meeting an Iraqi leader from my last tour who's still alive
7. "nothing significant to report"
8. sleep and KBR macadamia nut cookies (tie)
9. dead generals (this one is hypothetical, at least for the past six years, but Ridgeway said, "It's good for the troops' morale to see a dead general once in a while.")
10. truth
"Tom Ricks's Inbox," Washington Post, February 25, 2007
Nobody, but nobody cuts through the bullshit smoother and quicker than Ricks, and you can trust that his reporting is truth--not something filtered through White House "leaks" to willing stenographers.
He is highly respected by those in the military, at all levels, from the Pentagon to the infantry, and it shows in his reporting.
This is a piece he published in "Tom Ricks's Inbox," for the Washington Post, on February 25, 2007. He literally means that this comes from an e-mail he received. I'm going to publish Ricks's words as well, in full:
Subject: What affects morale?
There has been much debate recently about whether congressional resolution of disapproval for the U.S. troop increase in Iraq would undercut the morale of forces there. Here an officer who has served two combat tours in Iraq reports on what has affected his morale:
Ten Worst:
1. getting blown up
2. buddies getting blown up
3. re-securing a town we secured year before last
4. "Taps"
5. the "catch and release" detainee program
6. colostomy bags
7. civilian young men who won't look me in the eye when I'm in uniform
8. any scene from any shopping mall anywhere in America
9. editorials pointing out that casualties are "light by historical standards"
10. lies
Ten Best
1. Iraqis willing to fight for their country
2. good sergeants
3. clean, dry socks and T-shirts
4. cigarettes and chai without body armor
5. the USO at the DFW airport
6. meeting an Iraqi leader from my last tour who's still alive
7. "nothing significant to report"
8. sleep and KBR macadamia nut cookies (tie)
9. dead generals (this one is hypothetical, at least for the past six years, but Ridgeway said, "It's good for the troops' morale to see a dead general once in a while.")
10. truth
"Tom Ricks's Inbox," Washington Post, February 25, 2007
posted by Deanie Mills at 9:37 PM
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