ANYBODY FROM FT. BENNING OUT THERE?

Two takes. Which one is true? (Courtesy of the folks at the Patriot Post). I know which one I believe.

“Bush Cheered at Fort Benning: FORT BENNING, Ga.—President Bush, surrounded on Thursday by cheering soldiers in camouflage, defended his decision to send 21,500 more U.S. troops to Iraq and cautioned that the buildup will not produce quick results. ‘It’s going to take awhile,’ he said.” —headline and lead paragraph, Associated Press, Jan. 11

“Bush Speaks and Base Is Subdued: FORT BENNING, Ga., Jan. 11—President Bush came to this Georgia military base looking for a friendly audience to sell his new Iraq strategy. But his lunchtime talk received a restrained response from soldiers who clapped politely but showed little of the wild enthusiasm that they ordinarily shower on the commander in chief.” — The New York Times, Jan. 12.

Back in September 1996 I was en route to Bosnia on assignment for Soldier of Fortune magazine to cover the Bosnian elections and had to enter the Tusla via an Air Force Base in Germany (the old Rhein Main AFB near Frankfurt). Speaking with some MPs who were escorting me around the base, they asked if I’d heard what happened when President Clinton had arrived to “pump up the troops.” I said, no but noted that all the stateside news outlets had said it had gone swimmingly for ol’ Bill.

Not according to these guys. Seems as if all the enlisted soldiers from E-5 and down were in a barracks lockdown — “they were afraid somebody’d take a shot at him,” explained one MP.

Ah, yes, the good ol’ media - truthful as always.