Michael Yon Demonstrates His Prowess
Michael Yon shows how he has become such a respected and impressive chronicler of the war in Iraq. He also tells stories that the mainstream media don’t want to bother with, because the stories derail their narrative.
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I talked with some of the Iraqi boys between the ages of about 7 and 14. A 9 year-old at least, I think he was 9 told me he likes to read. When I asked what he likes to read, he said Superman. And then he told me how Superman wears a mask. Ice and I said that Superman does not wear a mask. I pointed to the Indian Head patch on an American soldiers arm and said Superman wears that patch. Everyone laughed. But we thought he was talking about Batman, but then he said no, it was not Batman. We figured maybe it was Zorro and he asked if Zorro is from America, and I said something like no, I think he is from Mexico. But then an American photographer named Chris Hondros said he thought Zorro was from Spain, and shortly after that, the boy smacked another boy behind the head and laughed saying you told me Zorro is from America! All the boys cracked up. Nobody mentioned the Lone Ranger, or Captain Marvel, or Spiderman, or any of the other myriad masked men in the Pantheon of comic book superheroes. When I asked a 14 year-old boy if he liked school, I cautioned him to be careful about his answers because the video was running and his teacher might see it. I wont publish what he said because many Iraqis read this site, and he could get into trouble at school. All the world round, boys are boys.
I excerpted the paragraph above because of a disturbing article I found at The American Prospect. It was titled “The Revolt of the Comic Books,” by Julian Sanchez.
A telling paragraph in this apologia for left-wing propaganda is excerpted below:
That bit of propaganda-by-the-deed launched acclaimed British scribe Warren Ellis’ Black Summer, an eight-issue comic book miniseries from Avatar Press. And though heroes at industry giants DC Comics and Marvel have shown more restraint — even after Superman’s Lex Luthor won the Oval Office in 2000 — the post–September 11 era has seen an explosion of politically themed storylines in mainstream as well as independent comics. While real-world presidential candidates invoke supercop Jack Bauer, of the TV series 24, as a guide to national security policy, a more nuanced debate about preemptive war, warrantless surveillance, and the responsibility that comes with great power is taking place in an illustrated universe.
A more nuanced debate? Sounds like bold propaganda about one political party or leader, or just against the course of US government policy to me.
The next paragraph in Sanchez’s apologia attempts to sweep any criticism of this ant-US propaganda away with the “everybody’s done it” argument:
In one sense, this is nothing new. The very first issue of Captain America (1941) showed the star-spangled super-soldier punching out Adolf Hitler, prompting criticism from both Nazi sympathizers and those who considered der Führer Europe’s problem. Superman and Batman hawked war bonds while facing down monstrous racist caricatures of buck-toothed Japs.
It is something very new - it is the press and the entertainment industry actively undermining the country’s efforts to defeat an enemy that is both an enemy itself, and a proxy for an even more dangerous enemy of the US and the western world.
Michael Yon carries out his efforts to let the facts tell the story of the war in Iraq. These others look for a story that will convey their narrative. He has the facts and the light of his blogging and photography to shine on those facts. They have their cast, crew, make-up and props to stage things they way they want them to be.
