Wednesday, November 24, 2004

BBC portrayal of Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment

BBC NEWS | Programmes | Newsnight | Hunting 'Satan' in Falluja hell

The BBC are a reasonably neutral source of information. This is a fundamentally sympathetic portrayal of a marine regiment, a regiment that accounted for 20% of the US soldiers lost in the battle for Fallujah. The Colonel of this regiment gaines some infamy for describing the enemy as Satan; this fills out the image in a different direction.

There are stories of very brave men* who died well and with little note. This journalist found very few civilians, but he found a 10 year old fighter.

* I write of "men" here. One of my neighbor's, a man I don't know, has a daughter who's a lieutenant in the marines. The sign he puts by his house tells us she's lost two of her men in Fallujah. So there is at least one woman marine fighting in Fallujah.

No comments: