I think it's time to drug test JJ Sutherland - the man seems to be hyped up on testosterone in a big way. I was going to pass on last week's clipped-sentence tough-guy narration of an Air Force Cross won by a US airman for a firefight and assault in Afghanistan - until I heard him again this morning using the uber-macho style to sing the praises of the the US air-war machine again.Here's a sample of last week's Sutherland:
"They came in at first light. Giant helicopters swooped into Shak Valley....'kind of trapped ourselves,' he says. Their mission had changed; now it was all about getting out alive....calling in air strikes from above: F-15s, Apaches, A-10s; it goes on for hours....had to call in air strikes practically on top of his own position: rockets, cannons, bombs. Nothing worked. Finally, they had only one option left....a TWO THOUSAND POUND BOMB."Interestingly, in Sutherland's wargasmic homage he didn't mention a bit of information I found buried in an Air Force write-up of the attack:
"By the end of the fight, between 150 and 200 insurgents were killed, according to reports." We all know how accurate the US military has been about killing "insurgents" (i.e. If they kill you, you're an insurgent).I also found that Afghans had a bit of a different take on the "mission."
That was last Tuesday, and then there was this Monday morning's quasi-religious worship of the fighter pilot, or as NPR titled it "Same Swagger, Different Jets."
Sutherland was at it again, chopping his sentences into manly Hemingway-size chunks:
"Fighter pilot: confident, swagger, ego...those who survive the competition are supremely confident. Ask any fighter pilot and he'll tell you a dogfight is no place for self-doubt. Results are what matter. Everyone in your squadron knows whether you succeeded or choked....the swagger's the same as it was when Yeager was flying P-51 Mustangs over Germany....at 9-Gs the blood is forced from your brain. It's hard to breathe, let alone talk, let alone be twisting around in your seat looking for someone trying to kill you....It's hard to imagine hearing this ['I feel the need, the need - for speed - ow!'] coming from a cubicle."Yeah, nothing like all that supreme confidence when you're napalming peasants, cluster bombing Afghan villages, and flattening cities in Iraq. No place for questioning orders, no place for morality, just swagger - like JJ, radio warrior.
11 comments:
That picture is insanely funny with it's insignia of "wargasmic" homage. The phallic symbols of aggression always send me all
a-flutter with palpitations of desire. Hail to those who hail war upon us in our moment of need. Attack, I say to you, Attack!!...it is a matter of national security !!
I think you nailed it when you brought up Hemingway.
Sutherland is a pathetic Hemingway wannabe.
Here is a man who thinks if he tries to write like Hemingway 9and it's a rather pathetic attempt), people will actually think he is Hemingway.
What utter garbage.
Sutherland is a crap writer and a crap journalist.
Horrible!
And what's most appalling about NPR, which is as jingoistic as (if not more than) the rest of the corporate media, is that the people listening and donating believe it represents the finest in "progressive" media.
I think this coverage is to convey the illusion that NPR is reporting on our troops. The last several stories have all been "Happy News" (see the Guard Dog story) about stateside troops, nothing (except Sunday's ATC, tip of the hat) on our deployed troops.
What's even stranger is that NPR is ignoring the 200,000+ troop in Iraq and Afghanistan. They just ignored, as are their families, sacrifice, problems, etc.
Guess anything to avoid on the Bush legacy of the last hundred troops to die for W's mistake.
It's not Hemingway; it's Sgt. Sphincter of the Dirt Patrol.
/Firesign Theater
JJ as Kiefer?
Today they were going on about non-existent "enemies" and the training to fight dog fights, of which there haven't been any since Korea. I'll bet they let everybody into the club for some of that Russian vodka.
edk
The pilots are described as "square jawed," to which I haw hawed.
Dobbs: [Over the radio] Help him! Help him!
Yossarian: Help who?
Dobbs: Help the bombardier!
Yossarian: I'm the bombardier, I'm all right.
Dobbs: Then help HIM, help HIM!
Oh, that was a news piece? I thought it was an infomercial for the military.
Honestly, how can anyone listen to that macho-boy dribble and still maintain that NPR is a "librul" outlet?
Propaganda, pure and simple.
Sutherland have obviously spent to much time in a warzone, or to much time in a fantasy world like world of warcraft.
Speaking of the forgotten soldiers, more from Catch-22:
Snowden was wounded inside his flak suit. Yossarian ripped open the snaps of Snowden's flak suit and heard himself scream wildly as Snowden's insides slithered down to the floor in a soggy pile and just kept dripping out...Yossarian screamed a second time and squeezed both hands over his eyes...
"I'm cold," Snowden wimpered. "I'm cold."
"There, there," Yossarian mumbled mechanically in a voice too low to be heard. "There, there."
Yossarian was cold, too, and shivering uncontrollably. He felt goose pimples clacking all over him as he gazed down despondently at the grim secret
Snowden had spilled all over the messy floor. It was easy to read the message in his entrails. Man was matter, that was Snowden's secret. Drop him out a window and he'll fall. Set fire to him and he'll burn. Bury him and he'll rot, like other kinds of garbage. The spirit gone, man is garbage. That was Snowden's secret.
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