Iwo Jima, If Covered By The Media Today ...

phoenix80

Banned
What if today's reporters had covered the Marines landing on
Iwo Jima, a small island in the far away Pacific Ocean,

[FONT=Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=+3]in the same way they're covering the war in Iraq?[/SIZE][/FONT]

[FONT=Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=+3]Here's how it might have looked:[/SIZE][/FONT]

iwo-spacer1.jpg


iwo-day1-txt.jpg


[FONT=Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=+2]With the aid of satellite technology,[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=+2]Cutie Cudley interviews Marine Pfc. John Doe,[/SIZE][/FONT]

stormingashore.jpg


[FONT=Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=+2]who earlier came ashore with 30,000 other Marines.[/SIZE][/FONT]

iwo-cutie-txt.jpg


[FONT=Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=+2]"John, we have been told by the administration that this island has great strategic importance because[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=+2]if you're successful, it could become a fueling stop for our bombers on the way to Japan.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=+2]But, as you know, we can't be sure this is the truth. What do you think?"[/SIZE][/FONT]
iwo-johndoe-txt.jpg


[FONT=Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=+2]"Well, I've been pinned down by enemy fire almost ever since I got here[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=+2]and have had a couple of buddies killed right beside me.[/SIZE][/FONT]

iwo-beach-03.jpg


[FONT=Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=+2]I'm a Marine and I go where they send me.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=+2]One thing's for sure, they are putting up a fight not to give up this island."[/SIZE][/FONT]
 
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Forget Iwo Jima, can you imagine what Tarawa would have looked like in our modern media?

6,000 killed in 74 hours over a itty bitty speck of an island barely bigger than the airport it houses. The entire island itself isn't long enough to land jets on!
 
硫黄島速報
This iwojima report.
Hello everybody,I report this hell from far island of pacific oceaan,
A?This is Tokyo too?AH yes.Ⅰ know.
The first terrible news,US marines began to landing on here Tokyo.
Ah where is BB Yamato&Nagato pride of Navy?
Today,s weather forecast in iwojima,
MORNING;Steel rain.3ton ammo per one meter square.
Noon;Blood rain
Night;unknown
hmmmm,what,s that?
Oh Tank!M4!Hey panzerfast please.
Ok,that careless boy is incoming,
Now!fire!ah missshoot!
Get away!
machine gun!Cover me!
damn!why there is no Automatic rifle here?

B-29 is coming,hey bombing incoming.
Hide in shelter,and this news is broadcasted in network.
see you again if I was still alive.
 
Read thru the whole thing, and sad to say, I think the war in the Pacific would have been lost if it were covered by the press like that. Good post, Phoenix.:thumb:

:sorry: :box:
 
My friend's grandpa had a friend who fought in Iwo Jima and he said it was pure massacre.

You know the footages in the History Channel where they have Japanese soldiers surrendering.Well he says that they cut the film during the part where the marines execute the prisoners.He would know since he had traveled with a film crew during the battle.

Neither side during the fighting took any prisoners,it was a bloodbath.
 
We couldn't win a "WWII" today!

I just know that I am opening up a can of worms with this next statement.

WE COULDN'T WIN A WWII WAR TYPE SCENARIO TODAY - THE REPORTING OF EMBEDDED REPORTERS ABOUT 6,000 DEATHS WITHIN A 74 HOUR PERIOD WOULD BE SO HORRENDOUS THAT NAMBPAMBY PEACENIKS AND ANTI-WAR ACTIVISTS WOULD OOZE OUT OF THE WOODWORK IN SUCH GREAT NUMBERS THAT THE ADMINISTRATION WOULD CAVE IN TO DEMANDS THAT WE BRING OUR TROOPS HOME.


(Sorry for all caps). I figured that I may as well shout this statement and get it done with.

======================================================
All of us know what it was like during the Vietnam era. Could you just imagine how much worse it would be today if we were to suffer the kind of casualties that took place during WWI and WWII with todays immediate (24hr) television news coverage. If IwoJima didn't send them scrambling for cover then coverage of follow on campaigns would have caused such widespread rioting in our streets that even the National Guard could not have handled it. It would lead to almost immediate capitulation on Congress's part (suing for peace) and an immediate call for the President's resignation on the part of the party not in power. There'd be such a donnybrook of a fight in Washington DC that the battlefields would NOT be the ONLY place the blood was flowing. The demand by average American Janes and Joes would over rule any battlefield commander's assessments of what the taking of that particular fly speck means to the overall strategy that planning the next stage of operations would almost grind to a halt.

Without the free flowing strategy planning for a WWII style of warfare, the steps for victory would most assuredly grind to a halt. This would ultimately lead (if not to defeat) at least to a ceasefire of the Korean War type.
 
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Blixs said:
My friend's grandpa had a friend who fought in Iwo Jima and he said it was pure massacre.

You know the footages in the History Channel where they have Japanese soldiers surrendering.Well he says that they cut the film during the part where the marines execute the prisoners.He would know since he had traveled with a film crew during the battle.

Neither side during the fighting took any prisoners,it was a bloodbath.

in my book it is called Human beings' Sacrifice to reach the objectives!
 
1ed621a8.jpg

V-E Day: "Th' hell with it. I ain't standin' up till he does!"
_maul49.jpg

"Them buttons wuz shot off when I took this town, sir."
_maul32.jpg

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]"I can't git no lower, Willie. Me buttons is in th' way."[/FONT]

Where are the war correspondents when you really need them?
 
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phoenix80 said:
in my book it is called Human beings' Sacrifice to reach the objectives!


Indeed,War is cruel,and such things like the Geneva Convention are merely guidelines of conduct,not really rules.When it comes to executing prisoners,you really can't argue with results.
 
WE COULDN'T WIN A WWII WAR TYPE SCENARIO TODAY - THE REPORTING OF EMBEDDED REPORTERS ABOUT 6,000 DEATHS WITHIN A 74 HOUR PERIOD WOULD BE SO HORRENDOUS THAT NAMBPAMBY PEACENIKS AND ANTI-WAR ACTIVISTS WOULD OOZE OUT OF THE WOODWORK IN SUCH GREAT NUMBERS THAT THE ADMINISTRATION WOULD CAVE IN TO DEMANDS THAT WE BRING OUR TROOPS HOME.

Very True. Some are also already saying that this is another Vietnam, another unwinnable war, but as President Bush said tonight in his speech
"The war is winnable, and we are winning."
Goodnight and Goodluck.
 
"Come on, you sons of bitches-do you want to live forever?"
Attributed to Gunnery Sergeant Dan Daly, USMC, Belleau Wood, June 1918.

"Goddam it, you'll never get the Purple Heart hiding in a foxhole! Follow me!"
Captain Henry P. "Jim" Crowe, USMC, Guadalcanal, 13 January 1943.

"We're not retreating, Hell! We're just attacking in a different direction!"
GEN. OLIVER SMITH, USMC

"Our Country won't go on forever, if we stay soft as we are now. There won't be any AMERICA because some foreign soldier will invade us and take our women and breed a hardier race!"
LT. GEN. LEWIS "CHESTY" PULLER, USMC
 
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