BY THOMAS E. RICKS
MARCH 26, 2015
Recently, among the several blogs I read, there was a particularly vitriolic repost to a journalist by a veteran. His contention was that since the journalist had never been in the military and never commanded any unit in combat, he was unfit to comment about combat or the management of same. I disagree — strongly.
I was in the Army for 29 years — mostly in the pointy end of the bayonet organizations and saw considerable close, personal combat and its effect. I would not make a particularly good reporter.
I like journalists to see, touch, smell people and organizations in combat and then report about that from a detached viewpoint. It is the only way in which a balanced view as to what soldiers do will ever emerge. The public needs to know how its Uniforms feel, think and fight. Journalists can do this. Soldiers cannot — they are too engaged.
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