Yep, I still stand by it. Yep, I could be bitten in the backside by it, but I'm not changing.
TNR claims that the Army is the main bad guy in all of this (along, of course, with the Weekly Standard and Drudge), and also claims that Beauchamp contacted them without military supervision to say that actually stands by his fiction as fact after all, but is simply being forced not to say that by the Army (by the way, if that is in any part true, then Scoblus and Foer have again tried to throw him under the bus in their stead, as it's pretty obvious that STB's higher-ups are following TNR's version of the story to see what they'll say next).
TNR is pathetic. P-A-T-H-E-T-I-C. That's about all I have to say to and about them. With TNR's latest, under the bus STB goes once again. Seriously, this is one reason I think that STB is no longer the bad guy: (a) he's not talking, so they can say whatever they want, and (b) there's no way he has a battered wife/Stockholm syndrome severe enough to keep going back to them after all of this.
As far as Beauchamp goes, I'm still 100% willing to stand by what I said yesterday, and to proceed in good faith with the belief that he is learning from his mistakes. He can easily prove me wrong, but as a young (and formerly younger) man who has made more than his share of "Oh S**t!"s, and has learned from them to become who he is today, I will give STB that benefit of the doubt, and trust that he is doing the same.
That is all.
Labels: Blog
1 Comments:
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At 6:47 AM,
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Well said, Jeff. I particularly found the "invocation" of his wife's employment distasteful. It read almost like a veiled threat.
It was not necessary for these two stateside journalists to try to bully and coerce this kid over the phone. They seemed clueless to his precarious position within his unit, yet they made sure he knew what a pickle they were in.
I thought he handled himself well, and he certainly seemed to be taking his predicament seriously. The mature way he explained to them that being a soldier takes precedence over being a journalist, convinced me he has learned his lesson.
The kid is fortunate to have a CO willing to give him another chance. That could have been a career-ender. And I noticed he was relying on his superior to help him from getting flustered. Good move on his part.
Best of luck to Jeff and everyone over there putting their lives on the line for me and my family. You are great Americans.