From the halls of propaganda/To the shores of court martial

The San Francisco Chronicle's front-page story on Haditha today quotes extensively from one Mike Myatt, head of the Marines Memorial Association (MMA) in San Francisco, a retired major general in the Marines who commanded the 1st Marine Division in the Gulf War. Gen. Myatt ladles out standards boilerplate to the reporter, like "I'm very concerned about how this is going to affect the Marine Corps. It has the possibility to undo all the great work Marines have done in Iraq. ... There's a lot of buzz going on out there. Everyone is asking, 'How could something like this happen?'"

As we'll see below, while the "atrocity-producing situation" was developing in Iraq, Gen. Myatt was more concerned about spreading pretty propaganda stories on the war.

This made me recall an e-mail exchange I had with the general in 2003. I got on the MMA's e-mail list somehow, and Myatt sent me some rah-rah e-mail about the Iraq War. I sent him back a note saying I didn't care to receive stuff like that and explained in what I thought was a dignified way my concerns over the war. He sent back a pissy note sounding like a College Republican twit. Even though it's not considered polite to put stuff like that on the Internet without the person's permission, if I still had copies of that I would post it just because he was so obnoxious.

But I do have this e-mail that he forwarded to his mailing list on 08/10/03 which he labelled "Email from our Man in Baghdad":

From: CSSGDM Decarrillo 1stSgt Scott J
[mailto:DecarrilloSJ@CSSGDM.1MARDIVDM.USMC.MIL]
Sent: Sunday, August 10, 2003 9:17 AM
To: MajGen Mike Myatt
Subject: RE: One year Reunion at the MMC

Gen Myatt,

[A paragraph about affairs at the Marines Memorial Association]

On this side, from an enlisted perspective, we are doing great here in the southern sector of Iraq! I was just out in Diwaniyah yesterday, helping to clean up a facility that is to be converted into a Women's/Youth center and the support for the US is just as strong as it has been during the past few months. The children hover around us, the adults smile and wave back and the efforts/results of CE's, CAG and Marines across this AOR is just stunning. In fact, the day before I was able to see a team of CE's putting up some rebar fencing and sidewalks in front of a local bank in town - working right alongside local Iraqis - it was a great sight. One could easily tell that the Marines loved it and the good will was clearly visible. And the children, God they are great. They still walk right up to you, look you in the eyes, say hello in Arabic or English, reach out with those skinny little arms of theirs and then give the traditional Arabic kiss on the cheek. What an emotional reaction every time that happens. Anyway, you are probably flooded with all sorts of Intel on this but I wanted to give you a dash from this part of the world. ...

Already in August of 2003, it was clear that there were serious problems in Iraq that the Bush administration had not anticipated.

That's not to say the information in this sargeant's e-mail was wrong, which only someone on the scene at same time could say with any confidence. But it sounds so much like FOX News feel-good propaganda that it could easily have been a PR release. And, in any case, I sure didn't get any e-mail from Gen. Myatt reflecting the more problematic side of the war in late summer 2003.

Maybe if war cheerleaders like Gen. Mike Myatt had been taking the situation a lot more seriously before and after the invasion, and tried to alert the public about the real problems instead of sending out hokey stories about how the nice Iraqi kiddies hugging were Marines, things might look very differently now.

But Myatt sneered at war critics back in 2003. Now he's having to assure reporters that deliberate mass murder of whole families isn't the standard policy of the Marine Corps.

Way to defend the honor of your Marine Corps, Gen. Mike.

But, gosh, those were charming stories about the friendly Marines doing social work and basking in the smiles of the happy liberated Iraqis.

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