As America seems to be close to a
final, but ungraceful end to the
war in Iraq, all the hindsight debates
will start in our Vet community
about whether or not the news
media ought to continue being
involved in wars the way they
have been, and whether or not
the relentless whining and monotone
and monotony of blow by blow accounts
of war is REALLY what is damming
the system in the public viewing
mind right from the time that
troops are actually deployed.

Just how many times, after all,
can the public be told "a bomb
exploded today" or "gunfire was
exchanged today" or "5 more troops
were killed today" before the
REAL question becomes, is the
news media taking on the role
of sabatour and subversive in
all of our international deployments ??

This is a fair question to know,
and if it is proven in history
to be true, then shouldn't this
be changed in future international
commitments so as to give the
right characterizations to the
benefit of the doubt to our very
own troops? Why exactly, does
the public need a blow-by-blow
account of war? It's not exactly
a sport now is it? They kill some,
we kill some, get over it that's
how it all works so who exactly
needs to hear this day in and day
out through every single news
outlet in the country?

To the extent that we can actually
say that we may be at the doorstep
of a new peacetime, although the
relentless revolving doors of NATO
may not see it that way, returning
troops and post-service Veterans
once again truly must reinvent
themselves into non-war news
stories so as to level the balance
of public perception and take away
the now heavily instilled notions
that we are all killing-machines,
crazed homeless types, and boozing
slackers with used up identities
and nowhere to go, or even worst,
the next 6 o'clock evening crime
headline as the psychotic shootout
at a shopping mall down the road.

Veterans ought to develop a new
media plan, either within their
organizational identities, OR
just to form up as unincorporated
Pal groups with exclusive Vet membering
and take on projects that will
specifically attract news media
coverage so as to get the heads
of our local communities screwed
back into place and with a reality
check.

It was perhaps, a huge media mistake
of the post Vietnam period where
combat Veterans infiltrated schools,
churches, and public speaking venues
and then became the Pity Icons of the
universe, seeming to pass off PTSD
as the ultimate excuse for every
personal failure they were ever
met with.

I am not even sure myself that
this was a good move, as in the end,
the news media uses that even
now to lock the rest of us into
a FORMAT of sorts when covering
news stories on our population.
After all, our fathers and grandfathers
went through some of the most horrific
wars of all time and the majority
of them had never really succumbed
to PTSD. The majority led full
and productive lives, and often
became leaders of their communities
after returning home.

So in today's scrutinizing society,
which is smarter and more educated
than ever, this kind of front-and-center
imaging opens all of us to the
public questioning of how it can
possibly now be in the post
Vietnam period, that almost every
single combat veteran on the planet
is now claiming PTSD PTSD like
it's every other freakin word
in their limited vocabularies.

We absolutely do have to distance
ourselves from this and start
getting things back on track.

Returning Veterans can find ways
among themselves to keep their
legacies in history alive, by
seeking out topics to speak on
in public forums, which are phrased
a lot better then news coverage
in the past.

Distracting the public from the
killing part of war, and also
from the pity-me PTSD case part
of the war really does have to
be a part of the new Veterans
media strategy. There is a lot that
goes on during a time of deployment,
we all know it so let's get real.
And how to take those OTHER
times of combat service may very well
be the key to the public's heart
that will endear them to you a lot
better, and make that important
human connection which post service
Veterans are deserving of.

Forming, perhaps, a neighborhood
cleanup event by Iraq Veterans,
first getting the news media
to cover that, then getting them
to follow the group into an
outdoor cookout of rememberance
afterwards is a way to lure the
news into your world.

Or how about a medals exhibit
for young people to be held at the
local community library.

Collect your videos and digital
photos from your deployment
and organize art exhibits
as well as you can, with a
wine and cheese Meet-the-Veterans
social gathering afterwards.
Keeping in mind that anything
goes in art, and it doesn't ALL
have to be bullets, blood, and
bombs.

Being creative in first staging
a news media event, and then
strategically figuring out in
advance how you want to phrase
your combat experiences so
as to not push away or alienate
a non-military audience is all
very do-able and it requires
just a little advance planning.
Returning troops and post service
Veterans really do have to take
these extra steps now to get
the best out of their news
story outcomes.

Thinking ahead on choice words,
phrases, and adjectives to use
when talking to the news or public,
that will bring the audience closer
to you rather than pushing them
away will be key to healing the damage
done in the current public
perception by relentless and
monotonous war news coverage.

Have the Veterans meet in a group
and actually go through closed
rehearsals before staging your
news events. Play reporters to
each other and ask each other
questions that the public would
likely come up with and practice
your answers in advance. Rehearse,
rehearse and practice. Have a
little fun but see if the Vet
wives would find the answers
appealing or brazen.

Ya don't need the VA to do this --
hey, we can get this done ourselves!

Show Veterans to be involved,
healing, getting on with it, approachable
and likeable, can-do types, and
connected to today's world. Just
how hard could this possibly be?

The news media, on the other hand,
also DOES have a burden to bear by
bringing an end to ICON reporting for
post service Veterans, and keeping
all of them locked into the war and the
killing formula when creating news
stories about them.

These formulas are obsolete, misapplied,
no longer our reality, and are NOT
contributing to the healing process
of returning troops who are deserving
of a second chance to REINVENT themselves,
and still receive accurate and reasonable
news coverage recognition for it just
like any other feature story that floods
our newspapers, TV's, and magazines.

Veterans occupy every walk of
life at military bases, whether
or not they are involved in war
or killing, and who can say the public
is NOT interested in any of this ??
Military equipment stories are hardly
ever seen by the public, but watch
a crowd gather around if you pull
some little piece of something out
that is a military field version
of a fax machine or something
of the like. These are all missed
opportunities for favorable news
media coverage with post service
Veterans and returning troops.
Veterans have a million things
to show you and tell you about,
if only the media would stop
locking them all into the
formula of killing and injury.

Todays news media really does
have to think outside the box
and update it's approach to phrasing
news stories involving Veterans.
The old formula's and predictable
outlines coming from the 1950's
are becoming a bore and it's fair
for Veterans to insist that the
industry itself takes on change
for the better.

So let's get busy and see what
we all can do to put out there
the all new troop and Vet image
and watch the invitations come
flooding in for them to speak
or appear as guests of honor
at the next community gathering
somewhere.

I had called an editor at a Richmond, Virginia newspaer once to explain how I was being abused and being refused medical care. Soon after, I was reminded by the director's office at the hospital that the editor had told him all that I had said. It has cartainly been hell due to retaliation and abuse that many probably would have a difficult time. I had written 5 or 6 letters to President Bush begging him for help. He had responed once stating that there wasn't anything he could do. There must be a new breed of Born Again Christians in Washington these days.More and more of them are showing up in the pulpits in order to represent an image that is pleasing to potential voters. Won't work for me this time! Too bad for most Americans that it worked for those during the last 2 elections and now we suffer.