Suckered again?
The New Republic, the liberal magazine that was made infamous because it printed dozens of articles made from whole cloth by Stephen Glass, may have been suckered again by a pseudonymous "reporter" by the name of "Scott Thomas." In an article entitled "Shock Troops" in the latest issue of the magazine, "Thomas" -- purportedly a soldier -- tells three stories.
First, that a badly scarred woman at Forward Operating Base Falcon was mocked because of he appearance and fled the "chow hall." Curiously, "Thomas" couldn't tell if she was a military member or a contractor.
Second, that a squad discovered a mass grave with childrens' bodies in it and wore one child's skull around instead of his helmet for a day.
Third, that the driver of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle had a penchant for running over dogs.
Needless to say, that, if true, this article is sickening and people should be held to account.
Problem: The story doesn't ring true, for a plethora of reasons. The clearinghouse for questions and skeptical thought about this is the "Weekly Standard's" Blog. (Start here and scroll up.)
I found Greyhawk's analysis over at The Mudville Gazette particularly convincing.
Not until the second sentence does his story completely and totally fall apart:
She wore an unrecognizable tan uniform, so I couldn't really tell whether she was a soldier or a civilian contractor.
And that pretty much finishes that. Hint: military people wear military uniforms - the service uniform or the Physical Training uniform, AKA PT gear. and ALWAYS HAVE THEIR WEAPONS. Contractors wear civilian clothes and are rarely armed. (This has something to do with something called the Geneva Conventions, and also common sense.) Anyhow, this makes readily apparent who is military and who is not. In fact, it is the very reason MILITARY PEOPLE IN IRAQ ARE ONLY ALLOWED TO WEAR THEIR UNIFORMS AND NOTHING BUT THEIR UNIFORMS. Again, this doesn't prove Scott Thomas is a liar, only that if he is who New Republic claims he is, his ignorance exceeds that of any soldier of any rank I've ever met.
If he's to be believed, this maybe military maybe not individual who was eating at the "Chow Hall" was horribly disfigured - for reasons not stated - and ultimately fled the "chow hall" in tears after being humiliated by comments from Thomas: "“Yeah man,” I continued. “I love chicks that have been intimate—with IEDs. It really turns me on—melted skin, missing limbs, plastic noses ." The poor girl, to have courageously recovered enough from wounds so grievous, only to be reduced to tears and flight from a roomful of laughing soldiers who confront the reality of IEDs every day, and who have seen friends die from that cause.
Its looking like another black eye for The New Republic specifically and journalism as a whole.
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[...] investigating the veracity of the claims made by the pseudonymous “Scott Thomas” that I outlined last week. This is probably something they should’ve done before they printed it, but The New Republic [...]