Last week I wrote the blog entry about Nick Meo’s article in the Telegraph.uk. Needless to say, between me writing about it, Blackfive.net writing about it and the dozens of fellow milbloggers that I sent it out to my site traffic increased five-fold. There were many people who were drawn to the blog entry by other websites, google searches, etc.
It seems the grass-roots effort to let Mr. Meo know that what he wrote was unprofessional, uncalled for and not in any way a form of professional journalism (as he calls himself) took off and had an effect. Maybe not the desired effect by all who took time out to write him or his employer and email.
In what appears to be his classic style, he has written another piece about the static he caught from the milblog community and its readership. So for those that wrote him or his bosses, they heard you. Now granted if what he wrote was true some of you took it upon yourself to write some nasty things and even threaten him. On one hand I would not be surprised that could happen as each person is their own person and can say whatever they want. On the other hand, based on the lies and spin of the truths that he has already expressed I have a reasonable doubt that the hateful things written to him actually did happen.
One interesting point that he makes is that the US Military did not refute his writings. There is a reason for that; they have bigger fish to fry as they are waging a war against a determined and deadly enemy. They did what they needed to, the US Army recognized the power of the milblog community and they let us know about it. They let us highlight Mr. Meo’s cowardly and terrible actions and writings. I can assure you knowing the military like I do (and of course I do), Mr. Meo stands almost nil chance of ever being embedded with them again. I mean even Geraldo accidentally gave away troop positions in the opening days of the Iraq campaign and the Army let him come back to embed later. I don’t think Mr. Meo’s actions will ever be forgotten amongst the Army or Task Force Phoenix.
The comments area to my original post quoted above is starting to get nasty too, so it looks like Bouhammer has attracted attention from some of Mr. Meo’s supporters. In addition, one of the regular readers of both this and blackfive.net posted an entry onto military.com‘s discussion forum and that has turned into quite a back and forth argument. You can check it out at, forums.military.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/672198221/m/8170050402001
You can read the actual story at:
or you can read my copy/paste of it below.
Nick Meo hits back at Afghanistan battle report slurs
(Online blog)
Last week the Taliban tried to kill me. This week it was the turn of American bloggers. After being blown up by a bomb in Kandahar province, a stream of hostile emails and some vicious blogging posts have been fired my way, writes Nick Meo.
I had described what happened after Easyrider company ran over a massive bomb on a road convoy to Helmand Province. The vehicle I was in was hurled into the air and landed on its roof, killing the top gunner and injuring two soldiers. The small unit then fired thousands of rounds blindly into the night – from automatic rifles, grenade launchers and heavy machine guns — in an area where there are many villages, as well as Taliban guerrillas.
For writing about this, the bloggers have called me a coward, a liar, a fantasist, anti-American, and a cheap Brit journalist. One urged the Telegraph to demote me to covering dog shows, not wars. Another blog described what the Taliban would have done to me if I had been taken captive. He was clearly disappointed that it hadn’t happened.
There was also reaction from family members of soldiers involved in the attack – they knew, for instance, that I had been told to stop filming and were angry that I hadn’t, although as an embedded journalist I was entitled to do so and was not hampering operations.
One message purported to come from a soldier who was there. He wrote: ‘You Coward piece of S—’. He advises me never to step inside a US base again, or on US soil, for my own good.
The US military has not challenged my reporting and the bloggers’ criticism is vague. Perhaps they were disappointed that I didn’t produce a straightforward tale of stirring heroism on a bad night in Kandahar.
Things got nasty even during the incident because the soldiers, clearly badly shaken, didn’t want to be filmed and demanded my camera. I didn’t hand it over because such footage of what happens in the aftermath of a bomb attack is rare.
Following an ambush it is standard US military procedure to switch weapons to fully automatic and pour out rounds. This is called suppressive fire and does not involve careful aiming. It kills attackers, saves soldiers’ lives and keeps the heads of ambushers down.
But such devastating gunfire also kills and wounds civilians. Hundreds of Afghans have been hit in the past two years in such incidents.
When civilians are killed Nato spokesmen usually blame the Taliban for attacks that force soldiers to defend themselves, killing non-military personnel in the process. The Taliban, knowing that US or British forces will be held responsible for the carnage, often explode bombs in markets and towns.
I don’t know whether Easyrider killed any civilians that night but I suspect the bloggers were angry because I pointed out that there may have been peace-loving Afghans out there in the dark.
Not unnaturally, the US military prefers to highlight the courage of their soldiers — men such as Scott Dimond, the father of four who died because, like all Easyrider volunteers, he wanted to stop terrorism. I certainly did not want my story to dishonour his death.
What happened that night on the Kandahar road was not part of a struggle between square-jawed good guys and bad guys wearing black turbans, as the bloggers perhaps imagine the war to be. It was a horribly everyday incident in a deadly conflict in which men kill each other in terrifying and sometimes chaotic conditions.
If you still don’t like what you are reading by Mr. Meo, please feel free to try emailing him at nick.meo@telegraph.co.uk, or you can try emailing the newspaper at telegraphenquiries@telegraph.co.uk if the address for Nick does not work. Let them know what you think of his lies, twisting of the truth to make it feel worse and his utter dis-respect for the American soldiers that protected him. You can also make an international call to 0800 316 6977 and let them know how you feel.
