Help Send RedState To Iraq

Redstate has been invited to send two bloggers to Iraq and have chosen Victoria Coates (aka AcademicElephant) and “Jeff.” They’re trying to raise $7500.00 for the trip.

They anticipated my immediate reaction: Why doesn’t Eagle Publishing, their new corporate overlords, simply pony up the cash? Apparently, “there just isn’t money budgeted for something like this right now.”

If you’d like to help, click through for the details.

FILED UNDER: Blogosphere, Iraq War,
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. legion says:

    I suppose it’s the obvious joke, but they could always enlist…

  2. James Joyner says:

    Jeff apparently did an served a tour in Iraq. Victoria is a woman and ineligible for the Infantry.

  3. I would think that the left would jump at the chance for the bloggers to go over there. Whether it is to see for themselves the ‘quagmire’ or to die quickly amid the ‘civil war’.

  4. Tano says:

    Gee, I’d love to help, but there just isn’t money budgeted for something like this right now.

  5. legion says:

    Well, good for Jeff then, but if you think being female would keep the other one from going to Baghdad, even outside the wire, you haven’t been paying attention…

  6. Tlaloc says:

    I would think that the left would jump at the chance for the bloggers to go over there. Whether it is to see for themselves the ‘quagmire’ or to die quickly amid the ‘civil war’.

    Sure if you actually believe they are going to step one foot outside the greenzone. But then if you’re that gullible there’s a lot of other things I’d rather you invest in, like a lovely submersible bridge that’s for sale cheap.

    Seriously wouldn’t this make the eleventy bazillionth rightwing blogger or faux journalist to go over, sit in a hotel guarded by marines, order room service, and then come back to talk about how Laura Logan should get out of the green zone?

  7. tlaloc,

    Have you actually read any Michael Yon, to give an example of a blogger who has gone over there? Your description is so far of the mark as to make it a parody of a left winger. It would be like describing Ernie Pyle as sipping champagne in London while covering WWII.

  8. James Joyner says:

    Gee, I’d love to help, but there just isn’t money budgeted for something like this right now.

    I have similar budgetary concerns. Unfortunately, my appropriations were set much earlier in the cycle.

    if you think being female would keep the other one from going to Baghdad, even outside the wire, you haven’t been paying attention…

    There are women doing important jobs, to be sure, but it’s mostly an infantry war at this stage.

  9. Andy says:

    There are women doing important jobs, to be sure, but it’s mostly an infantry war at this stage.

    Well gosh, except for medical staff, pilots, logistics, intelligence, public affairs, military police, and many other jobs, there are no women serving on or near the front lines in Iraq!

  10. legion says:

    Well gosh, except for medical staff, pilots, logistics, intelligence, public affairs, military police, and many other jobs, there are no women serving on or near the front lines in Iraq!

    Not to mention the 5000 (soon to be 7000+) USAF personnel currently doing Army jobs the Army doesn’t have enough people for…

  11. Anderson says:

    Legion picked up one of the two obvious jokes, but left the particularly low-hanging fruit of “how much to send *all* the RedState bloggers to Iraq?” for me to pluck. Thanks!

  12. Ugh says:

    Dammit, Anderson beat me to it.

  13. Jim Henley says:

    Anderson, it would be worth it if not for that pesky internet.

  14. Tlaloc says:

    Have you actually read any Michael Yon, to give an example of a blogger who has gone over there?

    Okay I’ll grant you Yon. He’s an exception. One exception. Compared to Malkin, Hewitt, and all the others…