Niger Ambush

I am tired of hearing the press complain about the White House insulting La David Johnson.  I’m also tired of hearing the press talk about what bad soldiers he and his colleagues were because they got caught in an ambush.  I was turned off by the contempt of the White House press for Gen. Kelly when he spoke about his son being killed.  The press’ attitude was that the press corps consists of much better people who had made much greater contributions to the country than Kelly.  They think they are God’s gift to the world.  I don’t agree. They are conceited, egotistical, unpatriotic blowhards.  It’s fine to mourn La David Johnson,  but it’s terrible to revile General Kelly for talking about the death of his son.   Chip Reid (CBS) believes Gen. Kelly is scum for allowing his son to die in service to America as a Marine.  Chip Reid has no heart; he is consumed by hatred of Trump, Republicans, and the American military.  

Both Trump and Kelly made mistakes while talking about Sgt. Johnson’s death, but I would think that everyone involved would make the best of it and move on to respect his memory.  Instead his death has been made into a circus sideshow, mainly by his dysfunctional family, an eavesdropping congresswoman, and the invasive press.  Apparently the American press spits on the three dead white soldiers; only the dead black soldier is worth memorializing.  

Since all the media coverage has been critical of the White House, I think someone should question the party line being screamed in unison by the press.  How did Sgt. La David Johnson end up so far from the rest of his unit that his body was not found for two days?  It sounds like the four killed soldiers were in a convoy that was separated from the main body of troops, according to CNN.  It’s possible that he was cut off from the rest of his small group, or that he was trying to go for help, or that he was just trying to escape from the ambush.  But there is a question why he did not stay and fight with his three colleagues who were killed fighting together.  The New York Times raised further questions about discipline and unity among elite troops by reporting suspicions that two members of a Navy seal team in Mali had killed an Army special forces soldier.  I have not seen anything about whether all three were the same race or not.  Because of the press’ ignoring all the dead white soldiers and its focus on the one dead black soldier, La David Johnson, we need clarification of what really happened in darkest Africa.  

The press has made the military deaths in Niger a matter of racial discrimination where only black lives matter.  Chip Reid and his colleagues believe that any white man who is stupid enough to enlist in the military deserves to die like Gen. Kelly’s son.  But they should read Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness or watch the war movie Apocalypse Now, which is based on it, to get some realistic concept of race and war.  Perhaps then Chip Reid and his colleagues would not rejoice in the death of Gen. Kelly’s son.  

"The horror! The horror!"