Friday 31 October 2008

The night I was 'killed in action' by a Taliban ambush






(RG) Well it seems that Nick Meo has caused somewhat of a stir particularly in US military circles with his article using the sensational headlines The night I was 'killed in action' by a Taliban ambush. I am not a journalist but in my opinion this is a more akin to a badly written paperback than an article by a professional writer with The convoy started with a line from a second-rate war film. "I've got a bad feeling about this mission," said Major James Becker, as his unit of National Guardsmen - the US version of the Territorial Army. It seems to me Nick Meo wanted something critical to write about the American troops from the outset. I’m sure any British journalists embedded with British soldiers could if they wanted, write something disparaging that a young Tom might come out with just before leaving base? I also just want to clarify something . The National Guard and the British TA are well trained soldiers who can do the job just as well as their professional colleagues or they simply would not be there. If you need proof of the TA and its professionalism under fire just read the article about the outstanding bravery of Lance Corporal Matthew Croucher, Royal Marines When Meo talks about Major James Becker is there really any need to say He had a dreadful Mohican-style army haircut that made me think of Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver. What has his haircut got to do with anything? Would he have left this statement in if Major James Becker had been killed? He claims that he didn’t speak to the deceased Scott Diamond, a 39-year-old father of four, I don’t personally believe this, he will have edited his insults later.
When the bomb detonated Meo says about the US troops returning fire "The British would have regarded this level of fire as excessive, and perhaps even trigger-happy. Thousands of rounds must have been used." How does he know, is he some sort of military expert, every contact is different and from the clip it did not sound like thousands of rounds being fired. Lets get this right, Meo has just survived but he is concerned about, "It dawned on me that there could be Afghan homes out there." What the hell is he trying to insinuate that the US troops could be killing innocent civilians? This in my opinion was not even in his mind at the time, he would have been relived that he was still alive, thanks to the quick thinking and professionalism of the National Guardsman soldiers, who unlike him cant flee off back to England and write his colourful report about what a Hero he is. They must stay in Afghanistan and fight on and maybe loose even more comrades because members of the press have dubbed the US troops practically murderers, nice one Meo you might have even got a few of the Brit lads killed by suicide bombers. Perhaps Meo should get a job with Al Jezeera or something? I would have expected better from a long standing Right Wing British newspaper than this. To say the Afghan interpreter looked like a matinĂ©e idol has no relevance and is ridiculous, I’m sure Meo looked like a shit scared Eaton schoolboy who had just pissed his pants, but I wouldn’t have written that up in a newspaper report. If I was the editor of the Telegraph I would put Meo to work on the obituary column, I mean he was killed in Afghanistan wasn’t he? Correction his journalist career. My deepest condolences to the family and colleagues of Scott Diamond, he is a Hero and will never be forgotten unlike Nick Meo.




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© Mack (RG) The thoughts of a Falklands War Veteran.
Rogue_gunner_32_alpha@yahoo.co.uk

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2 comments:

  1. Love the post, RG, esp the bit about sending Meo to work on the obits page. As my young'uns would say, Mwah-ha-ha!

    Thank you for your service to the cause of freedom, on both our countries' behalfs.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you Susan, Meo may be from the same lump of land as myself but thats as far as it goes. The UK/US have each others back covered, take care!

    God Bless our Great Nations

    ReplyDelete

Pointless leaving spam it wont be published.