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Announcement :: Iraq : Media |
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GHOST TROOP PRESS RELEASE |
Current rating: 0 |
by Captain Athena Z
Email: athenasshield (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified!) |
05 Oct 2005
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Ghost Troop, 3/7 Cavalry is unique to the Iraq War, and perhaps to military history. On April 5, 2003, unit founder former Eric May detected major glitches in the media pictures coming back from Baghdad, which US forces had just reached. The reporters had gone from April 4 announcements that the siege of Baghdad had begun to announcements that the fight of Baghdad had begun at the Baghdad Airport..., then from such large-scale, important announcements to the "human interest" story that Private Jessica Lynch had been saved. |
Ghost Troop, 3/7 Cavalry is unique to the Iraq War, and perhaps to military history. On April 5, 2003, unit founder former Eric May detected major glitches in the media pictures coming back from Baghdad, which US forces had just reached. The reporters had gone from April 4 announcements that the siege of Baghdad had begun to announcements that the fight of Baghdad had begun at the Baghdad Airport..., then from such large-scale, important announcements to the "human interest" story that Private Jessica Lynch had been saved.
To unsuspecting US viewers, this information wasn't anything much to worry about, but to May, whose areas of expertise included military intelligence and public affairs, it was clear that the military and media were working together to cover up the true story: The Battle of Baghdad was happening off-camera, hidden beneath Private Lynch. The pull-down of the statue of Saddam Hussein on April 9 was another manufactured event to indicate that the Baghdad had been occupied by US forces. But how did they take the city?
The answer is that US forces were attacked at the Baghdad Airport on Friday night, April 4, and were engaged in a fierce fight in the days between the build-up of Private Jessica and the pull-down of Saddam Hussein. While causalty figures have been suppressed by the media (along with the existence of the Battle of Baghdad), international military estimates are that hundreds died. Summer/fall reports from Ft. Stewart, Georgia, about the overflow of 3rd Infanty Division wounded soldiers sleeping in tent cities when they needed medical treatment were never explained, either: There were too many wounded GIs from the Battle of Baghdad to fit in the Ft. Stewart Hospital!
To May, the cover-up of the battle was a clear violation of Department of Defense Principles of Information, which he had learned thoroughly in the Defense Department's Defense Information School, where he attended the Public Affairs Officer course as ther PAO for the Army's 75th Divison in 1994. Thinking that the Constitution was being violated, May self-activated (under his former rank of captain) to investigate the cover-up with media, military and political leaders and players. Frustrated with their indifference (or indecision), he founded Ghost Troop, a unit created to honor the unmourned, unacknowledged dead from the Battle of Baghdad. Ghost Troop now comprises hundreds of loosely affiliated Ghost Troops, along with a few dozen inner circle members, mostly veterans like May, who function as a command cell.
They have published extensively about the Battle of Baghdad, and their main publications, "Ghost Troop Introduction" and "Ghost Troop Home" have received 3 million hits since their creation in 2003/2004. The story is spreading, and more and more journalists are remembering their ethical duty to tell the truth, not sugar-coat it. In fact, the Embedded Media itself seems to be coming clean: This summer LA Times Embed David Zucchino published his Thunder Run: Three Days with the Tusker Brigade in the Battle of Baghdad.
May and his Ghost Troops were glad to see the bare existence of the battle so long hidden on the front of a history book, but are still angry that what has become history has never been reported as news! Inside the book the main lines of the battle are still suppressed, along with the numbers of the dead and wounded.
Ghost Troop continues its mission to establish and communicate the truth of the Battle of Baghdad to the American People. Its chief members are veterans from the services, with Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps joining the original Army members to function together in the best tradition of the military. They share tasks, contacts and new information as they go along, thereby becoming perhaps the best experts around for a rational discussion of the situation in Iraq, a matter so covered-up (like Baghdad) that most of those who try to talk about things realistically end up in dead-ends or contradictions.
As for May himself, the former general staff officer and, later, Houston Catholic School teacher of the year hasn't changed his assessment of the situation in the nearly three years since he began his mission of conscience to inform the public. Going into the Iraq War, May published military analyses of the coming conflict as op-eds in his hometown Houston Chronicle, predicting that Iraq would be a "Quicksand War" and lead to a US fiasco at best, and a world war at worst. The op-eds are cyber-published as "Published Essays of Captain May." Similarly, May's 3/7 Cavalry, Tragedy and Travesty, about the unit that was first attacked and badly mauled by Iraqi forces at the Baghdad Airport, has been published worldwide, both for the fact that it was written within days of the cover-up and for the disturbing analysis of the United States Constitution in a new era, with a new Watergate in BOBCUP, the Battle of Baghdad Cover-up.
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Bibliography:
Zucchino's Thunder Run:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/184354282X/026-7200192-0620450
Captain May Published Essays: http://www.geocities.com/onlythecaptain/pub.htm
3/7 Cavalry, Tragedy and Travesty (w/pic of Capt. May at Camp Casey, Crawford):
http://homepage.mac.com/kaaawa/iblog/C177199123/E20050823090852/ |
See also:
http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/ghosttroop/
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This work is in the public domain |
