Thursday, August 07, 2008

The New York Pravda, er, Times, Soldiers On


FAREWELL TO FATHER Ethan Andrews, 9, was comforted at the burial of his father, Sergeant Andrews, by Maj. Tom Westall, at Arlington National Cemetery. Sergeant Andrews, raised on a farm in Solon, Me., had been assigned to the 366th Civil Engineer Squadron of the Air Force in Idaho.

The picture is heart-wrenching and it is part of the story the NY Times is running with the headline 500: Deadly U.S. Milestone in Afghan War.

We all knew this was coming. Once the violence in Iraq dropped off we could see the narrative moving back to Afghanistan, and apparently the story line is staying the same. Start the daily drum beat of casualties. Ignore any stories of progress or acknowledging any of the good things our service members and the allies in Afghanistan are doing and use such imagery to grab attention.

Well, this is the rest of the story.

I noticed that the young man was being comforted by an Air Force officer in the photo. To the best of my knowledge it has been a long time since a member of the Air Force was killed in the Global War on Terror, and I was right. This picture is from 2001. The Sgt. Andrews referenced in the caption is MSG Evander Andrews, 36 and he died in a heavy vehicle accident in Qatar.

I realize that they just pulled a file picture and nobody in liberal land really has a clue about anything military, and the picture will serve Pravda's purposes, but I just thought you should know the story behind the picture.

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