Observed

What could ensure a more accurate portrayal of What Happened than having someone there?  Someone who was there and felt what it was like to be there.

That’s what I read when I learned this morning that the United States Marine Corps has an artist in its ranks, a painter deployed to capture combat scenes.  “We have somebody who was there who can tell the story,” according to Col. Robert Oltman, USMC, referring to Sgt. Kristopher J. Battles, the lone remaining Marine combat artist.

Why not photography?  I’ll let the New York Times answer that one. (more…)

That’s what Gen. James N. Mattis, USMC, said, according to an article in this morning’s New York Times.   He’s the Joint Forces commander in Afghanistan and was speaking earlier this month at a military conference in North Carolina.

I agree.  Less is more.