Originally Posted by RedCoat2009

Originally Posted by Canader

Use caution when approaching Yon's 'If they're not from the good ol' US of A then they're NFG" rhetoric. He needs that line to sell copy in the World's largest PX.

You are a bit off target on this one...Yon has been quite pro-UK on many, many an occasion.

Show us some examples of his bias.

+1 Canader

Not to mention his piece of the Uzbeen ambush in 2008, riddled with factual errors (see thread at the time on this board) and prejudice.

What is the purpose of the article? Just to inform? Rather to destroy Euro-Atlantic military brotherhood, to endanger the operation in Afghanisatan with clear intention to ruin the NATO.

Originally Posted by KGB_resident

What is the purpose of the article? Just to inform? Rather to destroy Euro-Atlantic military brotherhood, to endanger the operation in Afghanisatan with clear intention to ruin NATO.

I would imagine it's to embarrass the Spanish into action.


Not sure what the Spanish will make of this.

Originally Posted by inbredyokel666

Originally Posted by KGB_resident

What is the purpose of the article? Just to inform? Rather to destroy Euro-Atlantic military brotherhood, to endanger the operation in Afghanisatan with clear intention to ruin NATO.

I would imagine it's to embarrass the Spanish into action.


Not sure what the Spanish will make of this.

Not much-they wilo be too b usy throwing donkeys of tall buildings or killing other animals in the name of fun before going for a short sleep

Originally Posted by inbredyokel666

Not sure what the Spanish will make of this.

Paella?

Originally Posted by Canader

Originally Posted by RedCoat2009

Originally Posted by Canader

Use caution when approaching Yon's 'If they're not from the good ol' US of A then they're NFG" rhetoric. He needs that line to sell copy in the World's largest PX.

You are a bit off target on this one...Yon has been quite pro-UK on many, many an occasion.

Show us some examples of his bias.

Here's a good example. Yon calls for the Canadian Brigadier to be fired beacuse this bridge was taken out. However, his detective work was apparently so flawless on this that he had to file a retraction when it turned out that the bridge was not in the Canadian TAOR. I thought that the SF were trained to take proper aim before pulling the trigger? Perhaps that's why he's been 'bowler hatted'?

Michael Yon - Fire the Task Force Kandahar General:

Yesterday at 0735 local, a suicide car bomb attacked a US convoy crossing a bridge only about ten minutes from the major base called Kandahar Airfield. The car bomb blew an MRAP off the bridge, killing a US soldier and injuring several others. Another bomb had been planted under the bridge.

Michael Yon-Facebook-021736EST-Mar-10.pdf

You can't scrutinise Yon like a regular hack. He's an ex soldier who reports idependently from the front line in a way that few others do.

For that reason, he sometimes gets his facts mixed up (as the troops on the ground often do) and doesn't have the benefit of an editorial team to check over his content before it goes live.

He's a very brave guy and a good friend of the troops on the ground.

Originally Posted by inbredyokel666

Originally Posted by KGB_resident

What is the purpose of the article? Just to inform? Rather to destroy Euro-Atlantic military brotherhood, to endanger the operation in Afghanisatan with clear intention to ruin NATO.

I would imagine it's to embarrass the Spanish into action.


Not sure what the Spanish will make of this.

The Spanish don't want to be there anyway and their population is opposed to their presence in Afghanistan. The end result of this article will be an even deeper rift between the Spanish contingent and the US. Spaniards do not like to be made fools of and they will show even less goodwill to get the job done.

So far, Yon has managed to antagonize (in alphabetical order) the British, the Canadians, the French and now the Spaniards military authorities.

Give him another couple of years and he'll be able to do nothing but reports on the US forces. I suppose he will then lambast the other nations for not sharing the burden...

It's sad to see the lines being drawn already - those who support Mr Yon (including many who have met him, and who have read his earlier work, like me) against those who don't like him - mainly it appears because of his 'crime' of being American, informed, and patriotic, and of upsetting some world views.

In this piece, as in so many others, he appears to have been well-informed. I will not comment on the veracity or otherwise of his posts – but he’s always told the truth as he sees it, and from the perspective of soldiers on the ground. In my view he is a great Journo, who is not afraid to report consistently from the front line – and that’s a rare thing these days in war reporting.

And he has not managed to annoy the Brits – he’s told the truth, based on what he has seen, and that’s something that many people do not like. He may have annoyed some people in certain areas of the Army/MoD, but that’s a very very long way from ‘antagonising the Brits’.

As for the Spanish – I cannot comment, but if the word ‘Italian’ had replaced ‘Spanish’ in his story, I would have absolutely believed it, having seen that at first hand on more than one occasion!

Keep up the good work, Mr Yon – and I hope that you are in-country over the election period – the UK election, that is…

Originally Posted by fantassin

Give him another couple of years and he'll be able to do nothing but reports on the US forces.

Until they decide they cannot spare the resources to babysit a full-time hanger on (which, if I recall correctly, was why he was embedded with the British in the first place).

A couple of years ago he was a very good reporter. Now he seems to be turning into a bitter hack prone to throwing a strop whenever someone doesn't bend to his every whim.
Which is why I will take this report with a huge pinch of salt - previously I would have been more inclined to believe him.

I expect the Spanish will be picking up their ball and going home very shortly.

Actually he has a pretty detailed piece on the bridge saga on his main web page here. As normal things are more completicated than first reported and he has clairified a few of his errors in the initial report.

The one small detail that I think he gets wrong in his write-up is that COMISAF (with NATO hat on) reports to Com JFC Brunssum, then to SACEUR. The same individual, with his US hat on, reports to CENTCOM.