Irwin Graulich — the guy who says journalist Kevin Sites is an ally of al Qaida and Saddam for reporting on the Marine shooting in Falliujah — responded to my earlier letter. Graulich, who elsewhere describes himself as “a well known motivational speaker on morality, ethics, Judaism and politics,” promises to “kick the crap out of” Sites if he ever runs into him on the street. But compared to other online missives he’s credited with sending, he’s positively civil here:
Dear Dan
Thank you for your comments. I have seen the videotape and I stand by my article. I tried to place myself in the soldiers shoes, and knowing what had occurred with these so-called insurgents (who are actually terrorists and do not give a damn about their own lives), I would have probably shot them as well. It is frightening to go into that situation knowing these evildoers could set off a bomb hidden under their bodies or whip out an AK-47.
It is very easy for a journalist like Sites to take the situation out of context, which is what he did. I would always give the benefit of the doubt to our heroic, extremely moral military, whereas you and Sites apparently will not jump to that conclusion. That is where we differ. This is not a street fight in Brooklyn. This is an ugly war against some really bad monsters. Of course the marine was facing a life or death situation. If a branch to a tree moved, he should shoot it and ask questions later.
I know of Sites past reporting and some of it is commendable. However, this action was a very tragic and despicable error on his part and I do not want any other journalists to try to become heroes at our military’s expense. Frankly, if I ever run into Sites on the streets of Manhattan, I will personally kick the crap out of him for what he did to that marine. That is the justice I learned growing up on the streets of Brooklyn.
Remember, reporting a war in real time is in a completely different category than reporting on a political rally or factory opening. So lease do not give me this baloney about Sites honorable attempt to convey the truth. I know a ex-marine who captured a Nazi officer in the Dachau concentration camp at the end of WWII, and when the Nazi spit in his face, the soldier pulled out a revolver and shot him in the head. This was featured in a well known Steven Spielberg documentary called “The Final Days.”
Would you want to give this heroic African-American soldier who eventually became the Secretary of Education of the state of Massachusetts a trial and a prison term? Frankly, I would give him a medal, a dinner in his honor, a brand new Cadillac and a cruise to the Bahamas.
Irwin N. Graulich
President
Bloch Graulich Whelan Inc.
333 Park Avenue South
New York, NY 10010
Well, there you go then. Just did some searching online for Irwin Graulich, and found some interesting results. While I’m not one to condone beating the crap out of people on the street, his Kevin Sites call-out reminded me of a recent (and now semi-famous) craigslist posting:
http://newyork.craigslist.org/about/best/nyc/47785163.html
Maybe someone can organize a steel cage match between the two.
In all seriousness, it’s too bad Mr. Graulich doesn’t realize that Sites is a reporter, and he is doing his job with the unit he’s embedded with. Why should Sites be pilloried for reporting war’s ugly reality? And now here’s what’s happening to Sites:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/18/international/middleeast/18mosque.html
Dan: This guy is is too far gone to talk engage in conversation. Someone ought to tell him the real threat to national security is the ballooning national debt. He needs to take lessons in Madarin so he can converse with the guys who are helping to bankroll the “heroic” war and will shortly be eating his lunch. Besides, Brooklyn isn’t all that tough these days. As for Sites, he collected the story under rules set at the Pentagon. What should he do, act as a sensor for Rumsfeld? As for the marine, I feel some sympathy for the guy. He was (all 21 years of him) put in dangerous position where he felt threatened. The government put him there. They (we, the people) may be responsible for that. In any case, Sites got the story…fair and square. NBC ran it. So let the viewer be the judge. That’s the American way.
Correction: “censor”