108 CommentsBecause Bwog doesn’t do hot, sandy or constantly-in-existential-danger, Iraq didn’t quite make it into our summer plans. Not so for Matt Sanchez, GS, who has been blogging out of the war-torn country for the past couple of weeks. What the hell’s gotten into the conservative activist, military man, Spec opinion writer, American studies major and one-time porn icon? We reached the Marine corporal by e-mail in an attempt to find out.
How did you get the opportunity to travel to Iraq? Moreover, why go there in the first place?
I applied for the media embed; the process seems daunting but if you’re tenacious and know exactly what you want to do, your chances of getting approved are a lot higher. I had several advantages. I have a security clearance from my time at NYPD Counter-Terrorism, I know people who have been through the process and they explained it in detail, I had a definite plan of doing a syndicated radio show, In Their Own Words and Hometown Heroes, and I was as specific as possible with dates, units, places etc.
The reason why I came here in the first place was because I just wasn’t content with the media coverage. Having seen, personally, how the media can twist, mislead or just fabricate stories, I really wanted to see things for myself. You see, I know lots of people who have been to Iraq and back and I had not been given that opportunity, so I was eager to see for myself Let’s face it, this is THE issue of 21st century and, frankly, I want to know what’s going on as much as possible.
Iraq strikes me as a pretty violent place. How safe do you personally feel there?
Since I’ve been in country, I’ve been IED, RPG’ed, shot at with small arms fire and have witnessed a suicide bomber…Iraq is a dangerous place; when we have debarked on the streets of Fallujah, you scan windows and rooftops in a way that would be impossible on my Midtown block. Surprisingly, I feel fairly safe. The Marines know their stuff, and they work hard at safety, both on and off the base. I will tell you, the first time I heard small arms fire touch down around us, I was surprised to see my training kick in and focus at the job in hand. The Marines picked up their weapons and I got my camera. I couldn’t ask for a better nor braver security detail.
Your blog takes a pretty optimistic view on things, while most other media does not. Why should we believe you over them?
If the press is the eyes, ears and voice of a nation, then we are currently deaf, dumb and blind. My blog takes what I feel is a realistic view given the facts on the ground. I try to be as open and detailed as possible in describing the dangers, without being melodramatic or exagerating. You should not “believe” me over them, but I do hope yo
u will begin to question the mainstream media as much as you question me.
I’ve noticed quite a bit of media misinformation, you can check that out on my website. The al Anbar province, aka the Sunni Triangle, is as big as Utah and yet there were five embedded reporters here, at last count. When I was in Camp Cedar, in southern Iraq, I was told I was the first reporter to ever go through there. Far too many of the journalists report from the comfort of the Green Zone, which is the most fortified gated community in the world. Much of what is going on here in al Anbar…has been either misreported or glazed over. Let’s not forget that the press…practically cheered during the Fallujah offensive of 2004. I will never play down the dangers these men and women undergo, I would hardly call that “optimistic”. Everyone has a point of view, but from where I’m standing the media is facing in the wrong direction.
The American media has seen a glut of stories about the discouragement of soldiers in Iraq (such as a front-page story in the Village Voice just last week). Considering the popular sentiment that the war has been a failure, what is morale actually like among the American soldiers you’ve spoken to?
I don’t think Americans think the war is a failure. The feedback I get is that the war is important, there are problems and most people feel that something needs to be done and that there is a threat here in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa that could directly impact mainla
nd USA. I also think that we, in the US have the luxury of disregarding the conflict in Iraq, since our lives are so far removed from the dangers of terrorism. The press does its part to play down those dangers, notably in the planned assault on a military base in New Jersey and the foiled assault on JFK. I also know that neither Columbia University nor the Village Voice is very representative of most Americans. Morningside is not just a neighborhood, it’s a membrane around a self-inseminating organ. I’ve met many Marines, soldiers and Airmen who have been here more than one time and have re-enlisted, because they feel this job is important. I have yet to meet a member of the American Armed Forces who feels the media has done an accurate of fair job of reflecting this conflict.
What are five things you’ve observed in Iraq that you feel the mainstream media has either not reported or underreported?
Five Major Myths about Iraq:
1. This is a civil war
2. Iraqis are angry about Abu Graib or Haditha
3. This is an occupation
4. Americans are torturing people
5. Troops are discouraged
Five Scoops on Iraq:
1. Troops are human
2. Iraqi Children wave and smile at troops.
3. Military provides healthcare
4. Iraqis have no gas despite sitting on major oil reserves
5. Iraqis look to American forces to provide daily necessities, and that should probably start to change.
Do you plan on returning to Columbia in the fall? Do you think your experiences in Iraq will help you as an American Studies major?
Yes, I intend to return in the Fall, although I will be extremely busy with work.
My final paper will be on “American Values as projected through the Military during a time of Occupation.” And I have a feeling that this summer will give me plenty of insight.
-ARR
-Photos by Matt Sanchez
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108 Comments
@LAST! LAST!
@Anonymous Rod, it’s not a smear if it’s true. Don’t insult our intelligence by pretending that’s not you in those pictures. You used them on your blog! And that’s definitely your voice in that recording. And you can find escort reviews of “NYC Excellent Top” that link you Matt/Rod Majors to this web site.
@matt Sanchez Wow, Rich and Wilson. You’re both pretty low on the human scale. You’ll say just about anything to smear me. I’m supposed to be on a hookup site when I’m 8,000 miles away.
You are both perfect gay jihadist.
@Goombah And you are a big liar, Sanchez.
@Anonymous Wilson has an obvious bias, but he’s compiled some convincing evidence.
Here’s an archived version of Matt Sanchez’s gay hookup site: (explicit)
http://cplsanchez.kimtragedy.info/
$200 in/$250 out? Is he charging by the hour or by the stroke?
And there’s a .wav file with Sanchez’s voice, so you know it’s him.
@Anonymous That website goes into a fair amount of detail on the USMC’s investigation. As for Sanchez’s wording, there is no such thing as “tabling” an allegation. Sanchez already admitted trying to cut a deal with U-Haul and the military charity in return for “promotional consideration” in connection with this so-called embedded reporter gig. Which, by the way, I don’t think he has ever done. I don’t believe he’s in Iraq.
Notice the care with which Sanchez parsed his words with respect to that issue. He only said that he never “collected” money. He never denied trying to cut some sort of deal with U-Haul and the military charity; in fact, he admitted that.
So, I’m telling you: Caveat emptor with this guy. He has a documented, years-long career as a male prostitute. That put him in the business of lying to begin with, and hustlers of both sexes are just notorious for their schemes and scams.
@Scott Lanter Allow me to expose Charles Wilson for who he is. First, his name is not Charles Wilson. He won’t reveal his real name. Second, he admits that he is gay and his web site that smears Sanchez is gay-owned. Third, he claims to be a journalist, yet cannot provide proof that he’s written one article. Fourth, he has a following of 4 people on his website, which should tell you how credible this person actually is. And fifth, I will expose this fraud for who he is by following him site to site until I see him squashed like a bug. I can’t stand people who throw stones and yet hide their own identity.
@Anonymous Look, you can’t believe anything he tells you unless there’s an independent means of verification.
Under military regulations, Sanchez is entitled to a copy of the USMC investigation, which was completed in April. This means he has the report in his possession right now, in his apartment in Manhattan where I believe he is “stationed” right now.
I have repeatedly challenged him to scan the entire document and post it on the Internet. Believe me, it would answer all kinds of questions. Sanchez has never taken up that challenge, and he never will. If he does so, he’ll cherry pick a page here or there that appears to support his case. We will never, ever get the whole report. Not from Sanchez, anyway.
If and when the USMC releases it in response to my FOIA request, I expect the document to be heavily redacted. In fact, there’s a real chance that the USMC will release nothing at all, or the equivalent of nothing at all.
So if you’re looking for every least “i” to be dotted and every last “t” to be crossed, you should give up right now. If, on the other hand, you’re capable of using some common sense, then check tke link I offered above and draw reasonable conclusions of your own.
@Anonymous By the way, I’ll be away for about three weeks, starting June 25. So I won’t be participating. I’m sure that while the cat’s away, the Sanchez will play. Caveat emptor, people!
@Goombah Sanchez claims a charge raised by a third party has been ‘tabled.’ He doesn’t say which charge and he said nothing about the other charges.
@Anonymous What about ’em? Read the website at the link I provided above. All the evidence is there.
@Anonymous p.s.: For someone who isn’t gay and who has never been gay, you sure seem to have accumulated a lot of familiarity with the milieu. Did that happen before or after you were filmed giving another man analingus?
@Anonymous Mateo, isn’t it a little odd for you to be posting at 3:36 PM “Baghdad time?” I hope others reading this thread notice that. If you were really in Iraq, you wouldn’t be posting literally in the middle of the night.
@Matt Sanchez Wilson: You’re so desperate. That interview was with Fight Club author Chuck Palauniak and I did indeed conduct it. We call that splicing “voiceover” it’s a technique NPR uses all the time.
Wilson, you’ve been kicked out of every chat room. At what point do they revoke your trolling permit?
@Anonymous Hey Stephen, I do hope that you’re not a Columbia University student. I say this because I’d like to think that a school of its prominence would have students with better reading comprehension than yours.
I have never said that Sanchez is faking being in Iraq. I have written that I do not believe he is there.
Sanchez has not provided verifiable evidence of his presence. Everything he has posted his easily fasifiable, and he has a track record of falsification of this sort of material.
A about a month or so ago, Sanchez posted an audio clip on his website that purported to be an interview with an author. In fact, it was a recording of the author talking about his book, with Sanchez’s questions spliced in between the author’s words.
Video and picture editing software makes it easy for Sanchez to do the same thing with respect to this material that he claims to have gathered in Iraq.
You should not only be a more accurate reader, you should be more skeptical of the Matt Sanchezes of the world.
@Anonymous Although, CharlesWilson is really going out on a limb by saying you are faking being in Iraq, can we stop with the “gay jihadist” nonsense? What does that even mean, how do you come up with that kind of crap?
@Matt Sanchez Gay Jihadist. It’s a term I coined and it’s starting to get some traction. Do a Google search on it.
Basically, a gay jihadist is a rabid activist,
Michael (sissy) Signorelli, Larry (on the rag) Kramer, or Barney (Will you stay the full hour?) Clark. These are people who will attack and smear pretty much anyone to advance their agenda.
From Baghdad
Matt Sanchez
@Anonymous Mateo, you have a track record of lying. Post the entire Marine Corps investigation on line. And what is your medical condition that got you out of the USMCR? Did it have anything to do with your years as a prostitute?
@Matt Sanchez Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to introduce you to my stalker, give a hand to the gay jihadist, Charles Wilson. Please check out his website. And note, Mr. Wilson believes I’m in Camp Pendleton, California and that I am very creative with Photo Shop.
@Matt Sanchez 1. I am currently a Marine
2. My status has been upgraded to the IMA,
3. The allegations made by a third “undisclosed” party have been tabled, which means dropped.
4. I’ve embedded with several Marine units who have specifically requested to meet me and offer me their support.
@Goombah What about the rest of the allegations?
@Anonymous The Marine Corps completed its investigation of Sanchez in late April. The report, and its recommendations, are currently under review. According to federal privacy rules, the USMC is forbidden to disclose the results of an administrative action in the case.
In plainer English, it means that if they give him an OTH (“Other Than Honorable”) discharge, no one will be told other than Sanchez himself.
However, the investigative report is releasable under the Freedom of Information Act. If and when it’s released, I’ll publish it. Incidentally, military regulations require that Sanchez be given a copy of the report.
I’ve repeatedly challenged Sanchez to publish the entire contents of the USMC report on the Internet. He has not done so. One wonders whether it’s because the report calls him a prostitute, a thief, and a liar — the things he was accused of — and recommends an OTH discharge.
Beyond that, it would be interesting if the report should happen to detail the precise nature of his removal from the USMC Reserve after only two years there. Public reports have only mentioned a “medical condition,” but haven’t specified it.
Matt, what was your medical condition and how did you acquire it?
@liveleak videos Matt Sanchez, what exactly is your problem with people expressing their opinions from the keyboard and the internet? “sanctimonius crap”. we will debate the legality of the war, because it is important, we are not a country that is outside the law, nor are we a country that can arbitrarily make up rules under the pretense that we are at war. don’t pretend you are some sort of pragmatic truth teller, you are just full of crap.
what’s the difference between you and the keyboard pundits? nothing. i don’t see you fighting in the war, if you feel so strongly about it, return to active duty, soldier. until then, you’re just another blabber mouth like the rest of us.
@Matt Sanchez Please note, there will be several interviews with Iraqis living in Baghdad. You will find them here.
http://www.liveleak.com/user/Mattsanchez
@Goombah What were the results of the military’s investigation of your participation in pornography, prostitution, and fraudulently soliciting donations to fund your trip to Iraq?
@Matt Sanchez Two days ago, I met with much of the media at the Ambassador’s residence. The CNN bureau chief, Cal Perry, complained that they may be pulling out of Iraq, because the news was “too expensive to cover”. CNN covers a lot in very short, quick spurts, they rarely embed. Cal, said it was great that there were freelancers to take time and embed for more than 24 hours.
@Carlos Is that true about his porn past? This was pre-viagra and he maintained an erection while using his tongue to stimulate the unprotected anal region of another man? He did this by faking it (like any other red-blooded guy would)?
Cpl Sanchez can you please explain that? How could you maintain an erection while orally licking another man’s different orofices and you claim to be 100% heterosexual? Is there anyone else on the planet capable of that? Oh yeah, I forgot, Ted Haggard.
@Sandra Mr. Sanchez, please don’t take offense to this comment but it seems like you are doing stuff that was done on the first day of the invasion over five years ago. You are interviewing an Iraqi interpreter at Camp Victory or one of the other mega-bases? How is that providing us with anything but rehashed garbage? Can’t you actually go out into the populace like CNN does every day?
@Matt Sanchez You are quite mistaken. I have spent the majority of time with a Civil Affairs unit in Fallujah and the al Anbar Province. That unit spent most of the time with the Iraqi government and people. It’s on my blog.
http://www.matt-sanchez.com
I also went “Outside the Wire” today to several neighborhoods in Baghdad. I’ll be blogging about that trip this weekend.
@Anonymous typical matt sanchez retorts. yes my friend is going back afghanistan and no… that has nothing to do with me being an expert on your writing. what it shows is that while you say you are representing the soldiers, you are representing only one side of what the military has to say.
he’s in afghanistan, he’s seen combat, he volunteered to go fight, and he thinks represents “in his own words”, a story that you haven’t come across, or choose not to present. I’ll take his opinion over yours any day. At least he went to combat when his country asked him to, that’s more than I can say, definitely more than you can either. it’s kind of nice to know you can leave iraq whenever you feel like it. some people who remained in the marines actually didn’t have that fanciful option. kudos to you.
@wait in these wiki links, did he really say he “pretended” to have sex in videos? I’m pretty sure porn isn’t pretend sex?
@Goombah Yes. The trail of lies is almost too much to believe. Sanchez thinks that by changing his story over and over again he can confuse people enough that they won’t know what to believe anymore. However, not everybody was born yesterday, the facts are out there for anybody who wants to know, but you won’t hear them from Sanchez.
@Its not "news" My personal problem with Fox News is the same problem I have with most all cable news channels: They put pundits up and don’t bother to take the word “news” of the screen. Whats happening is analysis, editorial, and often times just plain show-boating, and while all of these are often related to news, they are not of themselves news. And the unfortunate thing is that there isn’t enough news to fill the 24 hour cycle, so they have to fill it with fark to keep their ratings up. Fox News just manages to be a bit less professional and bit more obnoxious about it.
@Goombah Here’s another:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Matt_Sanchez&diff=139802559&oldid=139799254
Sure, Wilson, and I’m currently in Manhattan. You are a really screwed up fag. [[User:Bluemarine|Matt Sanchez]] 01:21, 22 June 2007 (UTC)
@Goombah Here’s an example of Sanchez’s spazzing elsewhere, namely wikipedia, where he posts under ‘bluemarine’
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Matt_Sanchez&diff=139802728&oldid=139802559
This is a farce Pwok is a disgusting sodomite who has been tossed out of many places. He thinks I’m lying about being in Iraq and this whole article has become as ridiculous as Pwok and his sexual advances toward me. How much more crap can you send me Pwok?[[User:Bluemarine|Matt Sanchez]] 01:25, 22 June 2007 (UTC)
@Anonymous Mateo, you’re really spazzin’ out lately. Posting on various boards, middle-of-the-night “Baghdad time.” What’s the matter? Getting lonely for you in Midtown Manhattan where you live and create phony videos?
@Matt Sanchez A lot of the interview I’ve done have been with everyday Iraqis. I’m staying in one of Saddam’s Palaces and I just spoke with an interpreter who has been in Baghdad his whole life. You may find this interesting.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a41_1182553913
@the guy you spoke to speaks impressive english, actually.
Worth noting that when he says “Al-GUY-eh-deh” he’s saing “Al Qaida”, fyi for those of you who aren’t familiar with the arabic accent.
@Who do you Who do you represent, Sanchez? You still haven’t told us… an embed needs press sponsorship, who’s yours? Tell us, otherwise your credibility = zero.
@hello http://www.wikicu.com/Image:Swords.jpg
@Tom Sanchez, why are you hogging the soldier’s internet bandwidth? On your site you said you downloaded Rush Limbaugh’s show all night long. You seem very selfish to be hogging a limited resource for the soldiers to keep in contact with loved ones back home.
@Sean How is Sanchez’s ‘analysis’ any different than Jeff Gannon’s White House reporting? His work is so superficial as to be a joke. BTW, none of the other reporters bothered to go to FOB Cedar because it’s in the middle of nowhere (thus the nickname ‘The Dustbowl’).
@Darien Sucks! New Canaan forever!
@Sanchez Senor Sanchez, so are you representing the Bwog in your embedded unit? What news outfit are you working for?
Darien wannabes? What the hell are you talking about?
@Matt Sanchez Extreme Home Makeover in Iraq
http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/3287/Extreme_Home_Makeover_Iraq_Edition
@Matt Sanchez If you go to the right hand column of my blogs, I post what THEY say in the series “In their Own Words” and “Hometown Heroes.
My “agenda” is to let the servicemen speak. That’s pretty much it.
Everyone “cherry picks” I have a lot of information to sift through. I’m not here to paint a “rosy” picture.
The only ones who would say that are the girlie-men who complain from behind their keyboard as if they knew everything. The first two weeks I was in country I witnessed an IED to our convoy, took small-arm fire, an RPG and was about 200 yards from a suicide bomber. That is NOT painting a rosy picture. The effetes are the ones who talk to the most and do the least, which may just be why they talk so much. All you Wall St, Upper East Side, Darian, Hampton Weekend Warrior wannabes live under the protection of men who are will to visit violence on those who would do you harm. No wonder you are so emasculated.
@Matt Sanchez You’re friend in Afghanistan doesn’t like what we’re doing “there” and that makes you an expert on my writing from Iraq….?
Ok.
http://www.matt-sanchez.com
@Matt Sanchez When I come across one that doesn’t “share my views” is that I let him speak and record what he says, as I have done.
My views don’t matter it’s the views of the servicemen and women that matter.
@Anonymous But — and this is key — do you post what they say on your blog? Or do you cherry-pick what the troops tell you “in their own words” and only post comments that support your agenda?
@Matt Sanchez My reports especially the audio programs are to let the servicemen and women speak for themselves. That is not me ‘slanting’ the news.
@Shut up Shut up, you psycho.
Look, give this scumbag an inch and he goes ape-shit–look, 4 posts in a row–ergo a internet loony in anyone’s book.
@Anonymous Yes you are letting servicemen speak for themselves, but what happens when you come across one that doesn’t share your views and has negative views on Iraq and the administration?
If you start parading around the fact that Iraqi children smile and wave as a sign that Iraq is doing great and loves America (although I’m surprised to say the mainstream media which you don’t give any credit to, has recently been saying that a lot of good progress has been made).
I find it hard to believe you’re not slanting the news by ommitting opinions that don’t fit. Out of the handful of my friends that are in or have been Iraq in the last couple of years, a smiling Iraqi child is met with fear that he is carrying an IED. Maybe you’ve gotten lucky and you’ve had all of these positive interviews, but it makes you come off as a cheerleader. My friend that came back and is about to get re-deployed to Afghanistan, I can tell you for a fact that he doesn’t like what we are doing there but he has a job to do, and he’s going to do it.
@Matt Sanchez Problem with the mainstream media is that they have neither the time nor the inclination to wait around for a story. They use ‘stringers’ of questionable origins and that results in misinformation time and time again.
@Goombah You’re one to talk about ‘questionable origins.’ So, did the military clear you of any wrongdoing?
@Anonymous I think it’s pretty clear he’s actually in Iraq.
@Matt Sanchez But Stephen, Charles Wilson is the crazy man who sends me love letters every other day and pornography. so, go to his site and see how much time, he…a perfect stranger, has spent on me and you decide :)
@Anonymous I don’t believe Sanchez has gone to Iraq. There is nothing in his videos that can’t easily be faked using cheap, off-the-shelf editing software. He has a track record of fakery in this regard. So be skeptical about his latest claim.
I’m not sure very many people are aware that Sanchez enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps reserves on an 8-year contract, and was tossed out after two years because of an unspecified medical problem. This was reported in the Marine Corps Times on March 16, 2007.
Coincidentally, he admitted three separate times that he has been a male prostitute.
For the complete story about Matt Sanchez, see http://www.cplsanchez.info
@to sanchez Matt,
Everyone at Columbia isn’t a snot nosed brat, trust fund baby, or whatever priveleged stereotype you care to label them as to make yourself feel superior in some way. For somebody that is always complaining of people ascribing to black and white binary views on the world, it seems to be something you spout a lot.
You jet off to Iraq and complain that the media doesn’t go outside of the green zone to report, it’s because they’ve had so many casualties as they’ve been in and out of the war zone since the war began. Are you going to get in a pissing contest with everyone? Who is in Iraq and who isn’t, who has been in Iraq longer, who can go hug the most Iraqi children.
Your embed would mean more to me if you reported every side of the story. Maybe the main stream media presents the worst aspects of the war, you’re just doing the opposite, neither is objective reporting.
@Matt Sanchez What a cop out. Of course, not everyone is a trust fund baby at Columbia, but the population at Columbia is one of the most monolithic, and rubber-stamped. There is more “diversity” among amoebas than there is among the average Columbia undergrad (with the exception of GS)
@huckelbe Killing people in Iraq is not really so tenuous a moral position. It generally comes down to killing someone, who might be about to blow you up or might just be out walking the dog, vice not coming home. Of course one might argue that the individual has the moral obligation to not join the military and be placed in such a situation, as those from privilege tend to do. Unless the reader is prepared to renounce all military force, (Nice in theory but not really very workable in reality.) then it must also be accepted that the solider does not choose his or her battles.
Mr. Sanchez, you do need to accept that, even if it has a few minuscule merits, Fox News is neither far nor balanced. Really no news outlet is objective, so it shouldn’t matter. But it’s Fox’s clear right slant in contrast to their motto that makes their motto laughable.
The reason everybody is concerned about the gay translators is that Arabic translators are in particular shortage and thus the number removed from service due to “don’t ask, don’t tell” is significant both percentage wise and operationally. Additionally the whole “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy collides with the orthodox left’s fundamental ideology of the individual’s identity and feelings being paramount even to the determent of the greater good of the group. Residents of the UWS fail to comprehend that anybody should renounce his or her personal rights for the good of the group. That the service member’s opinion on the policy or his or her sexual orientation just doesn’t matter and thus he or she needs to keep his or her identity to themselves.
@alexw 1) I didn’t read your article.
2) I don’t think I’ve seen any racial slurs on here, but I might have missed some. A lot of people made fun of you for being a gay porn star though.
3) Killing people in Iraq = tenuous moral position from which to pass judgment on people.
@Matt Sanchez As for the sissies on here who complain about Fox News but claim that they support freedom of speech, you can’t have it both ways, you snotty little turds.
Fox Speaks. You can throw yourself on the floor and cry all you want, but your nanny is going to make Fox stop from broadcasting. Beside, aren’t you tired of hearing the same Upper West Side morons complain about how stupid everyone else is?
And I really enjoy seeing the racial slurs on here. It’s probably the most sincere most you sheltered nerds have ever been since you started taking the anti-depressants.
Goombah, they’re accepting applications if you’re looking to finally go public. I mean aren’t you tired of that lurking in the bathroom trolling?
@Goombah No smiley faces now, Rod?
@to sanchez funny you should even mention racial slurs, as if you care about that sort of thing. you do throw around the word “faggot”, “fag buddies”, etc pretty often.
@Goombah I’ve observed Major Rod in a number of forums now and I can safely say he’s an utter hypocrite on that point. He also has what appears to be a split personality following a conciliatory toned message with a rage-filled screed. He politely decided to tone it down a little here, substituting ‘sissies’ for ‘faggots’ but he hasn’t been so nice elsewhere. That doesn’t make him any less fun to toy with given his cinematic past. Sanchez may be a nutter, but at least he’s OUR nutter.
@Matt Sanchez There’s something odd about the “gay” translator stories. Why would there be more “gays” in the translator side of the military?
@Goombah Let’s not forget Matt Sanchez’s other ‘summer job.’
@huckelbe The reality is that both Morningside and the Pentagon have their own special membrane around them. Those of you in Morningside have little, if any, understanding and clue about how the non-upper middle class rest of America and much of the world lives. It would be nice if everyone could just get along, but the contrary continues to be the reality and will continue to be the reality even if congress cut the DOD’s budget in half and brought every solider back to the States. Those in the Pentagon, who do understand the rest of America slightly, have an equally uninformed view of the rest of the world. For instance, I know only two fellow military officers who even know who Edward Said is, let alone his ideas. One of them went to Barnard and the other is the smartest most well read person I’ve ever known.
As long as Mr. Sanchez’s comrades continue to attack “evil liberals” and the orthodox left refuses to grow up, our country is screwed independently of Iraq. The reality is that we’re all in this together and we both want to strong and ethical country. Although obviously Iraq had nothing to do with terrorism five years ago, it does now. Yet any type of long-term solution remains elusive. Although the idea that our withdraw from Iraq will only fuel the jihadis to re-establish the caliphate and re-conquer all Islamic land may be wrong, (The dominos never fell past Southeast Asia despite consensus that they would.) I’ve yet to see a better hypothesis.
Although it’s not necessary to be in Iraq or the military to speak authoritatively on either subject, it certainly helps, so whether you agree with Mr. Sanchez or not, don’t malign Bwog or anybody else for giving him a chance to speak. (On second thought, perhaps you can malign Fox News.)
The fact that the Army and other services are firing gay translators is more stupid than sad. In my six plus years in I’ve yet to meet anyone who really cared about other people’s bedroom actions. The conservatives don’t want to get ride of “don’t ask, don’t tell” purely because they don’t want to lose. Even Colin Powell has publicly admitted that perhaps it might be time to just not care about people’s sexual orientation.
@Isnt it sad... That the army is firing gay arabic translators????
@Question Is http://www.matt-sanchez.com safe for work?
@depends Do you work for MeatSpin Corp.? Then yes.
@Matt Sanchez If you have questions please ask me or e-mail them to me: Matthew.a.sanchez@gmail.com
I’m trying to get to all of them.
http://www.matt-sanchez.com
@Matt Sanchez Audiocast:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d5b_1182420980
@i think everyone is missing the bigger issue here. 60 years later, military forces have again resorted to employing comfort women. Except now they can’t even afford Korean girls, so they’re forced to use Mexican muchachos. I SUPPORT OUR TROOPS…efforts to get better head!
@Matt Sanchez Could everyone who has actually been to Iraq do me a favor and say so when you post?
@yeah, totally. Addendum: could everyone who talks about welfare reform do me a favor and say whether you’ve been on welfare when you post?
Also: could everyone who talks about electroshock treatment do me a favor and say whether you’ve received electroshock treatment when you post?
Finally: could everyone who talks about the dangers of unprotected anal sex do me a favor and say whether you’ve had any in when you post?
Thanks.
@Finally Finally, we get to the heart of the matter. It turns out it’s about a reporter’s love of free speech. “I have seen the things will chill mens souls. Do not speak in mine presence, foolish children.” Hey St. Matthew, you do realize that your job is to help people understand things without actually going to the site of the news, right? Goddamn, it’s astounding how little you can actually think about anything. I really think you must be trolling the American public. You got us good!
Oh yeah, #32, I didn’t say it was easy. But there are provisions in military law for relieving your superior officers when they are unfit for duty. As far as I can see, that seems to apply everyone over the rank of colonel currently serving in the US military. What you mean to say is that they’re afraid of being seen as cowards. But they’ve forgotten that everyone is a coward and I would bet that most people would respect a mass moral movement of soldiers rejecting an illegal war much more than scared order-following killers.
@hey matt defecating on the internet, FROM IRAQ, is still defecation nonetheless.
no, i am not in iraq while i post this. does that matter?
@tangent Is anyone else bothered by the use of ‘existential’ to signify ‘pertaining to existence’ insead of existentialism the philosophy? I remember a Safire column on this. Just say no to this kind of conflating language.
@Anonymous Yeah, nobody, nobody ever uses existentialism properly.
“leftist Columbia groupthink”, that gave me a chuckle, because everyone that proclaims themselves a libertarian or conservative at Columbia all of a sudden thinks they are the most awesome free thinking independent mind the world has ever seen.
Matt,
Your comment about Iraqi children smiling and waving, I have to ask you why you think that’s pertinent. I have quite a few friends in the Marines/Navy in Iraq/Afghanistan/Africa and they all tell me the same thing, they see smiling children all the time, but they are afraid that those same waving children will explode an IED and kill them.
You keep saying that you are trying to be impartial and objective, getting the story straight from the soldier’s mouth, but your writings on Iraq have made it out to be nothing but optimism. Sure we should be optimistic, but that’s not realistic, and realism is what you’re going for. There are plenty of disgruntled grunts in Iraq that don’t like what we are doing, even the Marine Times and other military publication polls of their soldiers reflect that now.
@Blah Without Matt and the tiny handful of others who speak from beyond the leftist Columbia groupthink, you guys would get bored stiff.
@soldiers http://www.ivaw.org/node/1040
@ok sure Nice follow-up questions ARR. I hope Matt gets home safe but I also hope Bwog stops talking about him and stops promoting this hypocritical anti-left ego therapy. Matt, you’re clearly talking to the wrong people. Talk to the mothers of sons who died in their 3rd tour too many.
@An earnest request The faster you STOP reporting on this media whoring self-promoter, the faster he will fizzle away!
@Does Matt speak Arabic? I sure hope so.
@Yo Sanchez Stop bothering children at Columbia and go get a job as a faith healer in an ex-gay retreat or something.
@Anonymous “Global Policy Forum, or GPF, is an organization seeking to promote accountability of international organizations such as the United Nations and strengthen international law. GPF holds that free markets are not enough to ensure global prosperity, and therefore is opposed to libertarian groups such as the Cato Institute that oppose publicly-funded foreign aid. GPF’s website has collections of analyses on subjects such as the UN Security Council, UN reform, international development, NGOs, globalization and the Iraq War. Often these articles provide a view of the behind-the-scenes negotiations and posturing that result in UN action.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Policy_Forum
That bias being said, I’ve read the statistical background of the study and the techniques used in sampling. After a critical analysis of the methods of their study, it seems that their claimed “4% margin of error” holds up. Even if the margin were double that, at the best, 84% of Iraqi’s identified our presence as an occupation. And that was three years ago, after only one year on the ground.
Don’t try and refute the obvious Matt. You sound like you’re interviewing for a job with the White House, not presenting any objective view.
@Anonymous Full of shit indeed.
From a June 2004 (soon after Abu Ghraib revelations) Poll of Iraqis by Global Policy:
A statistically random sample of Iraqis were asked to answer “The Coalition Forces are…”:
Liberators- 2%
Peacekeepers- 3%
Other/Don’t Know- 3%
Occupiers- 92%
http:\\www.globalpolicy.org\security\issues\iraq\poll\2004\06iiacss.pdf
Then again, the margin of error is roughly 4%. Science, schmience.
And the poll is three years old too. I wonder if Iraqi’s are living better lives now than then: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17687430/.
@Matt Sanchez I have never heard of globalpolicy.org, but I’d encourage you to be half as critical with them as you are with me. Unless, of course, you’re only interested in media that is in lockstep with your own point of view. :)
@Hey My dear St. Matthew, what kind of journalist is still stupid (by still, I mean, after Vietnam) enough to generalize the opinions of an entire country from smilling faces at checkpoints?
You do realize that the North Vietnamese were very friendly to American soldiers too? You know, when they weren’t trying to free their nation from a pointless occupation by destroying them.
I do not believe you to be completley ignorant, therefore, your commetns seem to suggest that you yourself are attempting to create media that is lockstep with your own (or perhaps a sizable money-making demographic’s) points of view.
It follows that you are either a liar or profoundly confused. If you really believe that garbage you write, I really feel for you. I don’t pity you in that liberal self-righteous way I pity the poor, where it’s all about me. I mean that I imagine that you breeze through life imagining you’re always doing the right thing. No one sane does that.
Get well soon.
@globalpolicy.org of course not, you’ve only heard of foxnews.com
@Matt, How is Iraq NOT currently in a Civil War right now? Muslims hate each other! The majority of deaths in Iraq have not been caused by American troops directly–but by insurgents! Please explain.
best,
LH
@no gas?! but all the oil should cause a little diarrhea, right??
@ROBOT ROBOTSON “1. Troops are human”
PRECISELY THE REASON FOR FAILURE. HUMAN TROOPS ARE INEFFICIENT AND ERRATIC. IF MY COLLEAGUES AND I WERE DEPLOYED IN IRAQ P(SUCESS)=.94.
@ROBOT ROBOTSON HUMANS WISHING TO POINT OUT WHAT THEY PERCEIVE AS A SPELLING ERROR SHOULD NOTE THAT “SUCESS” IS SIMPLY A ROBOT-ENGLISH VARIATION ON THE ENGLISH “success”.
@Astounding I’ve rarely encountered somebody so completely full of shit as Matt Sanchez.
@While I give him all the credit in the world for volunteering to go to Iraq, I cannot help but agree with you.
@Why Why give him credit? He claims to be a journalist while misusing words, making completely paradoxical claims, and generally being an attention whore with an agenda. That’s not journalism. If he wants to get shot at for a chance at some glorious attention, good for him. I shan’t confuse histrionics with heroism, although the two are obviously not incompatible.
p.s. I’m still cracking up at the hilirious “membrane” comment. Partly because I think it captures the Pentagon so perfectly.
Go humans!
@I gave him credit for becoming a soldier, not for being a “journalist.” He is clearly not the latter.
@But the former? As far as I can recall from the U.S. armed forces oaths, none of that is in the job description for a soldier either. And soldiers will get credit with me when they deserve it: when they stand up for themselves after receiving their nth illegal tour and refusing declaring their commanders unfit for duty.
@quiet down, No soldier needs credit from you. This war’s illegal in the sense that congress never declared war, but it doesn’t mean that all soldiers ought to turn on their commanders.
@and have you even CONSIDERED that maybe this is their JOB, and that this is how they provide for their families? It’s remarkably arrogant to say that soldiers don’t deserve respect until they basically quit their job. You go to an Ivy League School–things are different for us. But not all people have college degrees.
@Oh Please Speaking up is in their best interest, even if they’re doing it as a job. After 3 tours of duty, I think it’s time to say, “hey, this sucks. I hate my idiotic generals. I won’t do this anymore.” Indeed, certain individuals have made this argument, which unlike Matt’s stupid shit, is actually ignored by the American media.
I mean, it’s great you’re supporting your family. But it kind of sucks if you get killed on your 5th tour having never seen your 5 year old child, doesn’t it?
@Uhm Morality doesn’t scale like that. No matter how tough your life is, if you know your job is immoral, you don’t have any excuse if you stay.
@Uhm Reality doesn’t scale like that. If your kids were hungry, the morality of the job would seem irrelevant. And this war, although illegal, hasn’t been entirely devoid of benefit.
@Anonymous that’s not what Kant would say!
@Wow Some of you show a profound misunderstanding of how the military works. It’s not like an office where you walk up to the regional VP and say you don’t like what you’re doing. You are told what to do by your commandering officer, and you do it.
You may disagree with this system, but I assure you a military run by individual soldiers’ senses of morality would fail today or in any era of history.
@Matt Sanchez Liveleak.com is featuring my video of the trip. Feel free to check it out.
http://www.matt-sanchez.com