Rest In Peace Lance Corporal Bernard

First off, I want to convey my sincere condolences to the family and friends of Lance Corporal Joshua Bernard, USMC. You can as well right here.

I've avoided commentary on a lot of topics here mainly because the stated reason for this blog is as training log.

However, this goes so freaking below and beyond anything I've seen the press do lately, I was literally shaking with anger earlier. Now, in full disclosure, I've got a lot of good friends serving in the US military, and several currently deployed, so yes this is personal. That said, I still cannot fathom how any decent human being could think that publishing the photo of a mortally wounded Marine (against the wishes of his parents by the way) is an "OK" idea. The associated press even has their "excuse" in the first paragraph of their page about this story.

"...choosing after a period of reflection to make public an image that conveys the grimness of war and the sacrifice of young men and women fighting it."

What a stinking pile of bull***t. If they had to take "a period of reflection" to decide then 1) they were actually not sure if this would be appropriate, but displayed a serious lack of judgement by choosing to ignore common decency anyway or, 2) they knew this would cause an uproar, which would in turn result in all kinds of publicity and a ton of hits on their website.

And by the way - anybody in this day and age who does not understand the "grimness of war" isn't going to be reading the associated press in the first place!! They're going to be paying attention to who's dancing with the stars.

I commend Secretary Gates for his "strong objection" to this. If you'd like to tell the associated press what you think, you can contact them here:

450 West 433rd street
New York, NY 10001
tel: 1-212-621-1500
email: info@ap.org

I sent an email. No reply. Imagine my surprise.