Published on Friday, June 30, 2006 by the Guardian / UK
Fahrenheit 9/11 Marine Recruiter Killed in Iraq
by Suzanne Goldenberg


The US Marine recruiter pictured in Fahrenheit 9/11 trying to persuade young men from the bleak town of Flint, Michigan, to enlist has been killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq, the Pentagon said.

Staff Sergeant Raymond Plouhar, 30, died on Monday of wounds suffered while on duty in Anbar province. He had barely a month left of his tour of duty in Iraq, where he was in charge of detecting and detonating makeshift bombs.

Sgt Plouhar had been angered by his depiction in the anti-war movie, where he was shown aggressively pressing young men to enlist, his family told the Detroit Free Press.

The Marine Corps later accused the film's maker, Michael Moore, of duping its recruiting teams into allowing their work to be caught on camera.

In the 2004 film Sgt Plouhar is shown approaching young African American men in the car park of a shopping mall in one of the poorest parts of Flint, and assuring them that joining the Marine Corps could help them become professional basketball players.

He tells his fellow recruiter he chose the location deliberately because it was in a depressed area. "It's better to get them when they're in ones and twos and work on them that way," Sgt Plouhar tells the recruiter.

Sgt Plouhar had turned to recruiting during a four-year break from active duty after he donated one of his kidneys to an uncle.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

Published on Thursday, June 29, 2006 by the New York Times
Iraq War Ends Silently for One American Soldier
by Dexter Filkins


RAMADI, Iraq - A soldier was dead, and it was time for him to go home.

The doors to the little morgue swung open, and six soldiers stepped outside carrying a long black bag zippered at the top.

About 60 soldiers were waiting to say goodbye. They had gathered in the sand outside this morgue at Camp Ramadi, an Army base in Anbar Province, now the most lethal of Iraqi places.

Inside the bag was Sgt. Terry Michael Lisk, 26, of Zion, Ill., killed a few hours before.

In the darkness, the bag was barely visible. A line of blue chemical lights marked the way to the landing strip not far away.

Everyone saluted, even the wounded man on a stretcher. No one said a word.

Sergeant Lisk had been standing near an intersection in downtown Ramadi on Monday morning when a 120-millimeter mortar shell, fired by guerrillas, landed about 30 paces away. The exploding shell flung a chunk of steel into the right side of his chest just beneath his arm. He stopped breathing and died a few minutes later.

The pallbearers lifted Sergeant Lisk into the back of an ambulance, a truck marked by a large red cross, and fell in with the others walking silently behind it as it crept through the sand toward the landing zone. The blue lights showed the way.

From a distance came the sound of a helicopter.

Death comes often to the soldiers and marines who are fighting in Anbar Province, which is roughly the size of Louisiana and is the most intractable region in Iraq. Almost every day, an American soldier is killed somewhere in Anbar — in Ramadi, in Haditha, in Falluja, by a sniper, by a roadside bomb, or as with Sergeant Lisk, by a mortar shell. In the first 27 days of June, 27 soldiers and marines were killed here. In small ways, the military tries to ensure that individual soldiers like Sergeant Lisk are not forgotten in the plenitude of death.

One way is to say goodbye to the body of a fallen comrade as it leaves for the United States. Here in Anbar, American bodies are taken first by helicopter to Camp Anaconda, the big logistical base north of Baghdad, and then on to the United States. Most helicopter traffic in Anbar, for security reasons, takes place at night. Hence the darkness.

In the minutes after the mortar shell exploded, everyone hoped that Sergeant Lisk would live. Although he was not breathing, the medics got to him right away, and the hospital was not far.

"What's his name?" asked Col. Sean MacFarland, the commander of the 4,000-soldier First Brigade.

"Lisk, sir," someone replied.

"If he can be saved, they'll save him," said Colonel MacFarland, who had been only a few yards away in an armored personnel carrier when the mortar shell landed.

About 10 minutes later, the word came.

"He's dead," Colonel MacFarland said.

Whenever a soldier dies, in Iraq or anywhere else, a wave of uneasiness — fear, revulsion, guilt, sadness — ripples through the survivors. It could be felt on Monday, even when the fighting was still going on.

"He was my best friend," Specialist Allan Sammons said, his lower lip shaking. "That's all I can say. I'm kind of shaken up."

Another soldier asked, "You want to take a break?"

Specialist Sammons said, "I'll be fine," his lip still shaking.

Sergeant Lisk's friends and superiors recalled a man who had risen from a hard childhood to become someone whom they counted on for cheer in a grim and uncertain place.

"He was a special kid," Specialist Sammons said. "He came from a broken home. I think he was divorced. I'm worried that it might be hard to find someone."

He said he would write a letter to the family — to whom it was not clear just yet.

Hours later, at the landing zone at Camp Ramadi, the helicopter descended. Without lights, in the darkness, it was just a grayish glow. With its engines still whirring, it lowered its back door.

The six soldiers walked out to the chopper and lifted Sergeant Lisk's body into it. The door went back up. The helicopter flew away.

The soldiers saluted a final time.

In the darkness, as the sound of the helicopter faded, Colonel MacFarland addressed his soldiers.

"I don't know if this war is worth the life of Terry Lisk, or 10 soldiers, or 2,500 soldiers like him," Colonel MacFarland told his forces. "What I do know is that he did not die alone. He was surrounded by friends.

"A Greek philosopher said that only the dead have seen the end of war," the colonel said. "Only Terry Lisk has seen the end of this war."

The soldiers turned and walked back to their barracks in the darkness. No one said a word.

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

###

No doubt Michael Moore would say t hat there is some kind of poetic justice in this sad story. My only thought is that this must be what prompted that old saying, "The good, they die young."

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Cameras don't lie. Finished with the IPOD I see.

Look,as much as I decrie this Halliburton war and the curtailment of civil liberties associated with it I cannot but weep for the loss of such as Pat Tillman and others like him,when will this end?is Iran next on the slippery petroleum agenda?

Have a great weekend all,goodnight and God bless...........

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I don't see any justice, poetic or otherwise in these stories; I see nothing but disgrace for all involved. That man was revealed on film to be doing exactly what was demanded of him by a morally corrupt and out of touch system.

Bot- where art thou?

Cameras don't lie, but sometimes the people holding them do. What's that just outside the frame? Hmmm . . .

__________________
" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

I didn't say there was, only that I thought someone else might. I think it's more the individual's character in this man's case. He sounds like a better person than most. It's a shame to lose someone who is apparently as selfless as he was. Or Pat Tillman, or a thousand other faceless men and women who have been sacrificed in this war.

__________________
" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

I agree. Raw footage sure does look different than edited footage. 60 minutes t.v. show comes to mind. they edit the hell out of it until the point they want comes across. i heard they found those weapons of ass destruction in area 52. And thats the way it was June 30, 2006.

Isn't it the same morally corrupt out of touch system you and others before you have helped create and then maintain?

Moral and public apathy,you got us there pal,no arguing that.

Unfortunately being a self-proclaimed student of human nature I have no answer for you........

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Most of you responses seem to be heavily dosed with a flagellating cynicism, but this one is particularly inscrutable; what the hell are you referring to here?

To some extent, we're all a bit like buffalos in the middle of a stampeding herd. I mean I use petro-products, even if I think there's an easier way to get them than invading a country.

At the end of each Lehrer NewsHour on PBS, I hold my breath for a second cause not every show has the photos of Iraq/Afghanistan war dead.

About every other or every 3rd or 4th show, he'll say just before signing off, "and once again to our honor roll. We add them when their deaths are official and photos are made available. Here in silence are _ _ more. Sometimes it's 7 more. Sometimes it's 18 more. I look at their faces, try to read what their hometown was and what age they were. I see these young fresh faced guys in their Marine finest or sometimes a more casual photo. It hurts and I'm thinking each guy is flashed on the screen for 10 to 15 seconds, and that is about the extent of the recognition each guy will receive from all but a handful of friends and family.

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