Liz (as she has asked to be identified) writes in response to the post we have updated and corrected below: "Covering up the home front in Iraq?" Liz refers to the version of the NPR report that we originally linked to in the post, though we subsequently learned that NPR also broadcast a longer, eight-minute version of the report including interviews of four families of deployed Minnesota National Guard soldiers.

Liz refers throughout her message to the Minnesota National Guard unit's "FRG," or Family Readiness Group. Liz's comments add an important dimension to the discussion of the NPR report. She writes:

Hi. My husband is part of the 1/34 ID. I saw the "Home Front" post via Fraters Libertas. Here's my response to some of your reader's questions:

How can it be that a reporter of the stature of John McChesney drove 700 miles, interviewed members of seven families, and came back with less than two minutes of content, and less than half of which is an interview with just two of the presumably seven wives he spoke to?

The FRG I attend was contacted in early March to be part of this project. Since we had our FRG meeting the day after the initial contact, we declined. Basically what these people (and all media, for that matter) do is contact the Family Assistance Center to get FRG leader contact info. It’s up to the FRG leaders to invite media. As to the length of the interview, I really can’t say...

Even if most of the audiotape got zapped by the x-ray at security, couldn’t he have told us how many families originally supported the war, and how many do now?

Probably not. First, most of us don’t talk politics at FRG. We talk care packages and how we’re getting through this. Also, the National Guard doesn’t take such opinion polls. And furthermore, who is really going to be honest even if such a poll were to exist?

Why did McChesney come back with only one minute of live tape, from only two wives?

There is no way I talk to the media. And have you forgotten that it was members of the Minnesota Guard that displayed the famous banner: “Halp us, Jon Carry, we R stuk hear in Irak!”? I get the idea that at least some folks in the Minnesota Guard don’t suffer liberals, and by extension perhaps reporters who work for NPR, gladly.

I don’t suffer liberals...much...and nope, I don’t talk to the media.

Consider, which is more likely: that NPR would fail to broadcast every last second of anti-war sentiment it could capture on the home front, or that John McChesney got some strong expressions of support for the war in some of those homes, and perhaps even a dressing-down?

Oh, if there were a media rep at my FRG meeting, there would be Hell to pay. I am not too keen on involving the media in my daily struggles missing my husband.

I suspect that John McChesney and NPR are deceiving their listeners in this report, by refusing to air the words of many of the people they interviewed.

To edit out all but one minute of seven interviews obviously exceeds any reasonable degree of editing for quality or air time. What other explanation could there be for this anomaly, other than to remove embarrassing comments about NPR, or about actual support for the Iraq war, or both?

Even if someone from the media is invited to an FRG, it is under the condition that people who don’t want to talk don’t have to.

Now here’s my story. I know “the public” wants to know how the troops and their families are doing. However, people, even people I know well, tend to impose what they want my opinion to be on me. There’s a lot of pressure being “the face” of the Iraq War.

Take, for example, the father of two sons, aged 18 and 20. He is very strongly in favor of the war and one day he asked if I was. I told him, truthfully, I am but I’m having a hard time with it. I thought since I’m friendly with the family, that they would understand why I was having a hard time with the war. He went on and on about how I was not in favor enough.

I had an incredibly hard time not telling where his sons could go and how they could get there (Iraq, via a military recruiter). Likewise, people who are opposed to the war place their beliefs on me in a similar manner.

Sure, I’m in favor of the mission, but I’m also committed to it. Because commitment to an issue is difficult, there are days when I just need to vent about how miserable this deployment is. And my venting might be taken as a lack of support. I posted this on my blog describing why I don’t talk to the media.

So, when people ask about [her husband], I say, “He’s doing well.” I also have a couple of generic canned stories of hope and triumph that I can use to add a personal touch. They both happened in September, but I change them as the situation dictates. When people ask how I’m doing, I say, “I’m doing well.” I may not be, but I don’t know who I can let my guard down around.

It’s easy to find women who want to gripe about the war. Those that do are just not thinking about what it looks like to their soldiers or the enemy. OPSEC starts with me. Loose lips don’t just sink ships, they destroy morale, and that can be just as deadly.

Liz K.

Posted by Scott at 06:09 AM  |    |