War Stories (9 page)

These are the young Americans who beat the Butcher of Baghdad. Their skill and daring, discipline and endurance are without parallel in the world today.

“Good troops” indeed. They are a credit to their parents and to this nation. This book is for and about them.

INTRODUCTION

REALITY TELEVISION

   
AFTER ACTION REPORT

      
USS
Abraham Lincoln

      
Pacific Ocean Vic 131°W, 30°N

      
Thursday, 1 May 2003

      
0900 Hours Local

S
hortly after my return to the United States from Iraq, President George W. Bush, a former F-102 pilot, wearing a military flight suit, roared onto the flight deck of the U.S. aircraft carrier USS
Abraham Lincoln
in a U.S. Navy W-3B Viking. Shortly after landing, he welcomed the crew home and congratulated them for serving with distinction in the war against terrorism and during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Later, wearing a business suit, he addressed the nation from the flight deck.

The president's remarks had barely been transcribed before the criticism began. Some in the media described the trip to the carrier as a publicity stunt, and castigated the White House for an extravagant waste of tax dollars. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer tried to defend the trip by pointing out that the cost of the flight in the
Viking would have been nearly the same as the president taking a helicopter, but that a helicopter would have taken longer and would have been more hazardous and, according to the Secret Service, less secure. Fleischer's defense was ignored.

Then Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, the so-called Dean of the Senate, rose to berate the commander in chief, saying, “To me, it is an affront to the Americans killed or injured in Iraq for the president to exploit the trappings of war for the momentary spectacle of a speech.”

The controversy—and particularly Senator Byrd's divisive statements—sparked a flood of e-mails from those I had come to know in Iraq and scores of other men and women of the military. Many soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines felt that the criticism of President Bush was an effort to divide them from their commander in chief, a man they may or may not have voted for but whom, in the aftermath of September 11, they widely admired.

Though West Virginia has more citizens serving in the Armed Forces, per capita, than any other state, Senator Byrd persisted in his attack, prompting a deluge of mail into my office—much of it highly derogatory to Senator Byrd—some of it intended to remind Americans that the good senator had once been a member of the Ku Klux Klan. One such missive began with, “Senator Byrd, who in his salad days spent more time in white sheets than in camouflage uniforms, just doesn't get it.” Another characterized the senator's rant as “Byrd Droppings.”

Yet the media lapped up Byrd's remarks and raced around Washington seeking more outrageous partisanship to feed the hungry maw of the nonstop news cycle. Forgotten in all of this were the 5,500 officers and sailors of the USS
Abraham Lincoln
. In late December 2002, they had been headed home to San Diego through the Indian Ocean after a six-month deployment in support of Operation Enduring
Freedom in Afghanistan. The crew was looking forward to seeing their wives and children, who were eagerly awaiting their arrival in southern California. Then came their new orders: turn around and head north, back up the Persian Gulf, and prepare for war.

For the next four months, the crew of the
Abraham Lincoln
served without leave, carrying out their orders. They had already launched almost six hundred combat sorties in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and nearly a thousand more in support of Operation Southern Watch, enforcing the no-fly zones over Iraq. Then they handled 1,558 combat sorties supporting the Marines, soldiers, and special operations teams of Operation Iraqi Freedom. And they did it all—more than three thousand sorties—without casualties. When their mission was completed, they had been deployed for 290 consecutive days and had traveled more than 100,000 miles—the equivalent of circling the globe four times.

None of this mattered to the president's ardent critics, who also chose to ignore the extraordinary compliment President Bush had paid to the crew of “Honest Abe.” By landing on a moving aircraft carrier at sea—an extraordinarily difficult feat—the commander in chief was offering the crew of the
Abraham Lincoln
the ultimate accolade. He put his life in the hands of a Navy pilot and the crew of the carrier—never doubting that they would bring him in safely.

All of this was a rude awakening to those of us who had just returned from the harsh realities of Iraq. There, brave men and women were serving in harm's way, in great personal danger. Even when there was little danger, the requirements of duty and the conditions under which they served were difficult at best and downright horrible at worst.

But being back home, hearing the commander in chief of the Armed Forces of the United States being described as a “deskbound
president who assumes the garb of a warrior for the purposes of a speech,” and accused of “flamboyant showmanship” and “self-congratulatory gestures” by a U.S. senator, made many of the troops ask “What am I doing here?”

Before the story waned, Congressman Henry Waxman, citing “clear political overtones,” was calling for a congressional investigation of the president's flight. But most of the sailors and Marines aboard the USS
Abraham Lincoln
wondered about the political motivations of the president's detractors. Meanwhile, others in Congress began calling for a “regime change” at the White House.

Among the troops who communicated with me in the weeks right after I returned home, the strident partisanship of the attacks on President Bush was topic number one. What we didn't know then was that this was just the opening volley. It was about to get a whole lot worse.

   
AFTER ACTION REPORT

      
Washington, DC

      
Friday, 12 May 2003

      
0900 Hours Local

After the vicious assault on the president, it should probably have been expected that those who were embedded with the troops—and who reported good things about them—would be the next targets. It seems that almost all of us who lived with the troops came away favorably impressed.

I've spent much of my life in the military and have concluded, based on how these warriors performed under combat, that the soldiers, sailors, airmen, Guardsmen, and Marines serving in Iraq are without parallel. There has never been a brighter, better-trained, better-equipped group of people under arms than those who
responded to our country's call in this war. No military force in history has ever gone so far, so fast, with so few casualties as this group of young Americans.

I said that repeatedly during my time with the troops and I know no other way to put it. It seemed fairly self-evident to nearly every embedded correspondent, and certainly was to me—and I don't pretend to be nearly as observant as a “professional journalist.” I didn't learn journalism at the Naval Academy. But I did learn to recognize courage, competence, commitment, and compassion—all qualities that these youngsters have in abundance.

I did not expect the ire of the fourth estate for what their colleagues had said—that these young American men and women of the Armed Forces really are remarkable troops. But that's exactly what happened. Apparently, I and some others who were embedded “lived with the troops too long, got too close to them.” We lost “objectivity,” and became “flag-waving advocates,” as was reported in one weekly newsmagazine.

Time
magazine's James Poniewozik, among others, scolded us for covering the war from the American perspective, branding us as “biased” for the way we reported the swift victory over the vaunted Republican Guard troops and Saddam's fedayeen.
Harper's Magazine
publisher John MacArthur, citing the way embedded reporters covered Marine Cpl. Edward Chin scaling the statue of Saddam and momentarily draping the huge black metal sculpture with Old Glory, accused not only the embedded media, but also the U.S. military, of being “propagandistic” for “the Bush reelection campaign.”

The reality is considerably different. Most of us who were embedded with the troops simply allowed the young Americans doing the fighting to tell their story. They said how proud they were to help liberate a repressed people. They spoke openly about being honored to be in the service of their country. And they showed modesty and
restraint in talking about their own courage and military prowess. We didn't make this stuff up. The troops said it in their own words.