Foxhole Philospher

The Foxhole Philosopher is a blog by David Benson and from his standpoint he addresses media coverage, and the Iraqi society, as well as some day to day accounts. The blog is really laid back, and what and how he writes is fluent and very well done.

After reading a good amount of entries. I started to notice how he talked about how the problem with media coverage and who understands what. He says that the problem is not a problem of presence but of absence. The absence of media coverage is the problem. If their was more journalists in Iraq then people could understand more of what is actually happening, but at this point only the soldiers really understand.

To clarify a little more on what I just said, I must talk about the second part of this discussion, so that I can tie the two together. Unlike america, where honorable is honesty. Honorable in Iraq the exact opposite. Lieing is honor in Iraq. If something goes wrong, you never tell the truth, or if somebody does something wrong, you never point them out. Iraqi's are manipulators in interviews. This soldier goes on to say that he has found Iraqi's telling americans what they think we want to hear. In 10 minute interviews they say what they think the media wants to hear, and not what the truth is.

Despite the United States being very selfish he admits, he says that he has never seen a more selfcentered culture before in his life. The soldier talks about how Iraqi's see people die right on the same street as them and don't even both to help, or ask why it happened or what they will do next. All they are worried about is how the american security, or troops will affect them.

This selfishness is the key to the downfall of a culture, and even know this has not happened yet in the United States, it only takes one generation to do so and we could collapse and start ruining ourselves. He explains that giving and charity and such are things that have kept the United States going. He mentions maybe morals and economics are things that should be stressed in high school.

I would describe the author of this blog as being very educated and knowledgable. You can see it in his wonderful writing of this blog. It's pretty insightful. I see this man as someone who knows what he is talking about because he is there. Maybe we should listen to it.

I was really involved and focused when I read this blog. I was laid back and relaxed and was able to take in everything. It made me see things like I might not have saw them before because I don't have a lot knowledge on the subject. He has been there and done it. I felt like a student eager to learn more. I was after more and more. I felt like I wanted to hear another story.