- NEW YORK (Reuters) - "The
American Soldier" was named on Sunday as Time magazine Person of the
Year, giving credit not to those who formulate the foreign policies of
the United States but those who face bullets and grenades as they execute
those policies.
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- There was little disagreement in Time's newsroom that
the U.S.-led war in Iraq was 2003's top story, Time Managing Editor Jim
Kelly told Reuters. But he said there was a spirited debate about who would
best represent that story as Person of the Year.
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- The American soldier was represented on the cover of
Time by three helmeted and uniformed soldiers from an artillery survey
unit of the US. Army's 1st Armored Division nicknamed the "Tomb Raiders"
after being assigned the task of searching for weapons in a Baghdad cemetery.
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- The three were named as Sgt. Marquette Whiteside, 24
from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, SPC. Billie Grimes, 26, from Lebanon, Indiana,
a medic and the only female soldier in the unit, and Sgt. Ronald Buxton,
32, from Lake Ozark, Missouri.
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- President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
were candidates, but "the very messy aftermath of the war has made
it clear that Washington's policy was going to have to be carried out day
by day by the soldiers on the ground," Kelly said.
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- "We thought the title belonged to those people."
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- Time made a similar decision in 1950 when "The American
Fighting-Man" got the title as the U.S. waged war in Korea.
-
- In Washington, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, said the selection was "just exactly right."
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- Myers last week visited U.S. troops in Iraq, Kuwait,
Afghanistan and Bahrain. "These folks look terrific. They understand
the mission. They're confident in the mission," Myers told the "Fox
News Sunday" program. "In many cases, it's the military that
stands between the terrorists and their goal and they are doing a terrific
job."
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- Kelly said Rumsfeld, in a November interview, made the
unsolicited suggestion that this year's honor go to all men and women who
wear the U.S. uniform.
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- "It was the first time that I had ever interviewed
a contender for Person of the Year who actually suggested someone else,"
Kelly said.
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- Veteran Time War photographer James Nachtwey, who took
Time's front cover picture, was wounded shortly after taking the shot when
a grenade was thrown into the Humvee he was traveling in. He is recovering
from his injuries.
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- Internationally, the U.S. war in Iraq has been criticized
as unilateral aggression. France, Germany and other traditional U.S. allies
have refused to participate in the war or the conflict that has continued
since President Saddam Hussein fell.
-
- Bush calls the war part of a move toward democracy in
the Middle East. But many Arabs view the Iraq invasion as carried out to
serve the interests of Washington's ally Israel.
-
- In agreement with the Bush administration, Time's cover
story says: "To have pulled Saddam Hussein from his hole in the ground
brings the possibility of pulling an entire country out of the dark."
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