Article

2003-04-27

Three weeks after Yorktown, still no constitution ready

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Posted by Fred Pruitt 2003-04-27 09:34 am|| || Front Page|| [4 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Can you imagine what the reportage on D-Day would have been like if today's crew of "journalists" had been at work back in 1944? With all the things that went terribly, horribly wrong in the invasion of Normandy, it would have seemed like a catastrophe, an utter failure, to us back home.

Yet we only remember the bottom line: eleven months later, Nazi Germany was history. I hope it ends up the same with Operation Iraqi Freedom, and future campaigns in the WoT.

Posted by Dave D. 2003-04-27 10:24:24|| 2003-04-27 10:24:24|| Front Page Top

#2 Back in 1944 those journalists weren't secretly rooting for Hitler,you know.

Posted by El Id 2003-04-27 12:50:52|| 2003-04-27 12:50:52|| Front Page Top

#3 But there was a lot of criticism of the Normandy invasion, both from journalists and the military. For example, from the diary of Alan Brooke (head of the British army):-

"26 July 1944 ... At 4pm I was sent for by Winston [Churchill] and kept for an hour. Eisenhower had been lunching with him and had again run down Montgomery and described his stickiness and the reaction in the American papers! The old story again: 'He was sparing British forces at the expense of the Americans, who were having all the casualties.' ... In the end I was asked to dine tomorrow night to meet Eisenhower and Bedell Smith."

Note the date of this diary entry. D-Day was June 6. The American attack (operation Cobra) was launched on 25th July and the German front was collapsing at the same time that Alan Brooke was having to defend Montgomery from the criticisms of his boss (Eisenhower). [Monty was land forces commander, Ike was Supreme commander].

This diary entry was not unique. Monty was having to fend off criticism throughout July 1944 from those who wanted the Germans to collapse immediately.

Criticism from those who don't have a clue or even from those who should have a clue is not new to Gulf war 2.

Posted by A 2003-04-27 13:25:25|| 2003-04-27 13:25:25|| Front Page Top

#4 This morning I saw part of the movie B.F.'s Daughter, which is set during WWII. Keenan Wynn has a smallish role as a muck-raking journalist. He is constantly talking about "the People's War", as opposed to the war of the elite who are running it. I gather (I didn't see the beginning of the movie) that he's always trying to get "the little guy" to say that he doesn't support the war, or doesn't see the point of it.

The thing which really made me take notice was a scene where he gave a series of radio broadcasts depicting the war as a disaster, always in the strongest terms. In every broadcast he says, "Only a fool would not know that ..." And he was proven wrong every time.

Of course, that was fiction, but I'm guessing that his scenes satirized real journalists of the era. The movie is from a book by John Marquand; I should try to get hold of a copy.

Posted by Angie Schultz 2003-04-27 15:33:55|| [darkblogules.blogspot.com] 2003-04-27 15:33:55|| Front Page Top

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