I loved this at the end of the

AP story:

Paul Rieckhoff, director of the New York-based Operation Truth, an advocacy group for U.S. veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, denounced the event as a “carefully scripted publicity stunt.” Five of the 10 U.S. troops involved were officers, he said.
“If he wants the real opinions of the troops, he can’t do it in a nationally televised teleconference,” Rieckhoff said. “He needs to be talking to the boots on the ground and that’s not a bunch of captains.”

Now, it’s certainly fair to whack it as a carefully scripted publicity stunt, because that’s what it was (though I’m sure “Operation Truth” has never, never orchestrated a publicity stunt and would never dream of doing so).

But since when do officers — captains no less — not count as “boots on the ground” in Iraq? There’s no frontline, remember? My understanding is that officers make up about 10% of the casualties in Iraq. I get a lot of email from officers in Iraq. Seems to be their boots touch terra firma too.