Scheer Naïveté
Shooting Intellectual Blanks
June 16, 2003
What to do when L.A. Times columnist Robert Scheer, with the fervor of a Thug, wants to believe in the cult of stupidity? We aren’t talking about the naïveté of youth, but the stupidity of naïve, yet intentionally biased, journalism. Journalism that resonates its pall of thunder and smoke but never hits a target because the journalist is shooting intellectual blanks.
In a May 23, 2003 piece of Scheer stupidity, “Saving Private Lynch, take two , he accuses the Pentagon of an “ability and willingness to manipulate the facts” that “makes Hollywood’s story lines look tame”. Even at its worst, Hollywood, unlike Scheer, at least makes an effort at researching its story lines. Scheer’s idea of research is to worship at the altar of BBC (British Broadcasting Corp.) credibility…as incredible as that may sound.
With all the sardonic pettiness of impotency, Scheer tries to manufacture a moment of viability for his tooth fairy vision of the world…a vision that hates anything superior to his uninformed hubris. In trying to discredit what he mockingly refers to as the “heroic” rescue of Pvt. Jessica Lynch, Scheer’s only accomplishment is to lay naked to the world his inability to research and deal with facts.
In a made-for-minuscule-intellect accusation, Scheer refers to the Lynch rescue as a “premeditated manufacture” that “stains those who have performed real acts of bravery”. What Scheer knows about bravery, aside from cowering behind the First Amendment and name-calling, is anybody’s guess. But, before he impugns the bravery or our Special Forces any further a logic-spanking is in order.
The centerpiece of this Scheer fabrication is testimony from Iraqi Dr. Anmar Uday, “It was like a Hollywood film. (The U.S. forces) cried ‘Go, go, go,’ with guns and blanks without bullets, blanks and the sound of explosions”. Scheer cites this as appearing to be the truth, “according to the BBC, which interviewed the hospital’s staff”. As if the BBC and the Iraqi people wrote the definition of “truth”.
The notion that officers and troops would enter a combat area armed with blanks is absurd. And, as about to be shown, any childish conjecture that the troops were packing both blanks and live ammunition in order to transition between the two is equally absurd. Unlike some journalists in L.A. who never leave the fantasy playground, troops do not play games in hostile situations.
In order for either a M16 or M249 (two of the weapon types employed by the rescue forces) to fire blanks two things must be present: (1) the M200, 5.56-mm blank cartridge and (2) the M15A2 BFA (blank firing attachment). The M200 is the blank bullet. The Army manual describes it as having “…no projectile. The case mouth is closed with a seven-petal rosette crimp and a violet tip”. The M15A2 BFA is a square box-like attachment that fits over the muzzle of the weapon and is quite noticeable when it is employed.
If M200 ammunition is not employed then the ammunition is not blanks. If a BFA is not employed, the weapons will not cycle in an automatic or semi-automatic mode and must be hand-fed one cartridge at a time. The BFA takes three separate steps (and a bit of time) to install on the weapon. It is too cumbersome of an attachment to remove quickly if the combat zone should turn hot (hostile). This is pretty simple stuff to understand.
Additionally, in the case of the M16 or any of its variants, a special ammunition magazine or clip must be used in the firing of blank rounds. Blank ammunition will not feed from a conventional magazine because it is a different size than the M855 ball ammunition (the stuff that kills). This magazine, for blank rounds, is a very noticeable red color.
So, until somebody can produce proof that: (1) any weapons in the rescue video had M15A2 BFA square boxes on their muzzles or (2) that any seven-petal rosette crimped M200 spent cartridge casings were recovered from the scene of the rescue or (3) that any troops were seen in the video to be hand feeding one cartridge at a time into their weapons or (4) that any red clips can be found…Scheer and his BBC allies can stuff this simple-minded conspiracy fabrication of theirs where the sun never shines.
The only conspiracy associated with the Lynch rescue is the Scheer mendacity that insults all uniformed Americans by belittling their professionalism. But conspiracy theories are the stuff of little minds incapable of understanding complex issues. Scheer is living in a world where eclipses are actions of angry Gods and must be answered with a sacrifice. That is the outer limit of the witch doctor’s intellect.
But why would you expect any different from Robert Scheer who, in June 2000 wrote that “even the Taliban leadership in Afghanistan is now said to be uneasy with the Osama bin Laden gang of terrorists” and that a “picture of the two Kims from Korea, North and South, holding hands and singing a song of peaceful reunification” was an end to Pyongyang’s threat to the free world.
In a haze of Scheer Naïveté, dear Robert extols that, “Peace works because deep down, it’s what people of all stripes want -- to make love, not war”. Maybe he should try firing that blank at the victims of 9/11. Or, better yet maybe he should party with Uday Hussein whose idea of making love was violent rape…even though he too was reportedly shooting blanks.
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