Tom Ricks And The Military's New Philosophical Embeds

Columbia Journalism Review:

Thomas E. Ricks has a photograph of a general--Ulysses S. Grant, looking haggard and defeated in Cold Harbor, Virginia--on the wall of his office. His shelves are filled with books about Dwight Eisenhower, William Westmoreland, and other generals. A husky, bearded, fifty-four-year-old with faded eyebrows, he looks a bit like a general himself, and sometimes talks like one. "I'd be wary of the media," he says, describing how a commander might feel if a journalist wanted to embed with his unit in Iraq.

Read the whole story: Columbia Journalism Review

Comments

[arvay]

How far has Ricks "evolved" away from his analytical­/journalis­t roots?

In his blog at FP Passport
http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/09/05/the_dying_marine_what_the_hell_was_the_ap_thinking_0

. . . he berated the AP for publishing the photo of the Marine killed in Afghanistan. To me that says it all, rationalizing censorship as a way to "protect" the families of the fallen.

Remember all those devastating photos and videotapes of wounded and dying US soldiers we saw during the Vietnam war, and how that helped to crystallize opposition?

We can't have images of death spoiling our illusions about counter-insurgency, now, can we?

[mikebarden]

If it was the military, I'd agree with you, but...
this came from the family.

[andyg]

He doesn't care about the family, all he cares about the cause. They never show photo's of dead babies. But dying soildiers are ok.