For the 12 hour round trip to Iowa we took the audio book recording of Stephen Ambrose’s Band of Brothers. Its about the 506th Airborne Division’s Easy Company and if follows the men from their first day’s in basic training to the end of the war and, I presume, home. I say I presume because we still have the last of twelve discs to hear.
Claudia was a good sport to let me choose this. Its got plenty of gore and mayhem and has given me a new appreciation of how men under pressure bond.
So today I ran across an email which has apparently been circulating among the military high command about another band of brothers – marines serving in Iraq. Its one of the pieces of the Iraq puzzle that slips through the censors to helpsexplain what’s going on.
Here is one of the least interesting tidbits if only because its not very surprising:
“Biggest Hassle — High-ranking visitors. More disruptive to work than a rocket attack. VIPs demand briefs and “battlefield” tours (we take them to quiet sections of Fallujah, which is plenty scary for them). Our briefs and commentary seem to have no effect on their preconceived notions of what’s going on in Iraq. Their trips allow them to say that they’ve been to Fallujah, which gives them an unfortunate degree of credibility in perpetuating their fantasies about the insurgency here.”
 Like Condi Rice paying a visit in her helmet and flack jacket?
