Letter to Commander of Lithuanian Special Forces
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I sent this letter directly to the Commander of Lithuanian Special Forces
To: Aitvaras Commander
From: Michael Yon
Sir,
The words I wrote about Lithuanian Special Forces were meant as the highest praise. Yet I understand that those words have been widely misinterpreted in Lithuania. One Lithuanian journalist contacted me saying that normally a gigantic story in Lithuania spawns around a 100 comments on their website, but that this one about my commentary on Lithuanian Special Forces has gotten well over 400 comments.
A number of U.S. military personal have reached out to me privately in defense of Lithuanian soldiers. My long time readers realize that my reference to LithSOF being a "weaponized version of Borat" was tongue-in-cheek. I did not realize that there are so many Lithuanian readers of my work, or how some might take offense to those four words, when the rest of the story was clearly very complimentary of LithSOF. And so I am writing this apology to Lithuanian readers and to you not to take pressure off of me from you; but to take pressure off of me from American soldiers who greatly respect the Lithuanian Special Forces. Our soldiers admire the courage and competency of Lithuanian soldiers, and their willingness to kill terrorists. And so our soldiers don't want four words from a writer to damage their relationship with your Special Forces. One key American officer contacted me this morning saying of you: "a leader and warrior any American would be proud to serve alongside under any circumstances."
A Lithuanian journalist contacted me and I was very clear that my words were meant as highest compliments (if tongue in cheek), but apparently that interview did not percolate as widely in Lithuania, if it was printed at all.
Sir, I think the real Borat here is me. It takes special "skill" to insult an entire country with only four words. I should have realized that certain types of journalists might take those comments and run with the opportunity to spin, yet I simply had no idea that apparently huge amounts of Lithuanians are reading my work.
And to those people, I say now, America respects Lithuania. American soldiers have only one complaint about Lithuanian soldiers: There are not enough of them!
Sir, please consider me -- an embarrassed American writer -- to be a friend of Lithuania who will be more precise with his words in the future. If I am not careful, I'll have to deal with American soldiers who energetically come to your defense.
Very Respectfully,
Michael Yon
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Michael Yon
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Thank you!
Michael
Comments
Spouse of SFC USArmy Ret.
In fact, it's hard to put into words what I implicitly understood--the Borat character had an unpretentious enthusiasm for life, as do the Lithuanian warriors. But, again, in retrospect, it is easy to understand how others may focus on the fact that "Borat" the movie was very insulting to the former Soviet Republic that he came from and other Eastern European nations might be sensitive to this in a way an American reader might not.
Hopefully they accept your apology.
Your culture-neutral apology is handsome and should very well clear up the air, though.
Lithuanian troops, and of the Lithuanian people, at least for those of us who missed the column
in the first place. Good for you, Michael!
You have already described some of the Danish soldiers in previous posts - so it all makes sense
Please post some lithuanian soldiers photos (with shaded faces of course). We want to know more about our boys
From Russia with Love!!!
It's a shame Lithuanians ignored the praise and fixated on a light-hearted comment. I suspect the soldiers themselves found it hilarious.
My apologies, but I would have expected the Lithuanians to have more of a sense of humor than that.
Yon's apology was graceful, however.
If you would like, you could use translate.google.com to get an impression of this article:
http://www.lrytas.lt/?data=20081220&id=akt20_a2081220&view=2
Thank you for being man enough to apologize to anyone that was offended by your comment.
It was and is a great post. I felt proud of our bearded guys down there, of the fact that our guys are different, and in a good way. There's a whole lot of cultural truth in your story- in business too we Lithuanians tend to be rough, direct, always politically incorrect, but usually greatly efficient and productive. Thats what I hear about me from my western colleagues, and I take it as a compliment. I enjoy the thought that while the French are busy choosing what to wear under the flack jacket, we Lithuanians are already killing our fourth terrorist of the day- in our underwear.
To the defense of the journalist. There was no negative spin in the article. The journalist just chose to use the Borat quip for the headline, the rest was a clean translation of your post followed by a short information about Aitvaras. The article did not imply offense in any way.
And finally- Lietuvos Rytas (our major daily) published huge article on Lithuanian special forces in Afganistan yesterday (Saturday, highest readership), obviously exploiting the surge of public interest your post brought. The article included your post, as well as a lot of interviews with American and Lithuanian military personnel. So thanks to you, our guys in Afganistan got their 15 minutes of fame, which does not happen to often.
Pity Aitvaras is soooo ultra secret- the article disappointed in its lack of juicy details we all love. All the people in the know refused to speak, or resorted to canned PR phrases. Head of Lithuanian diplomatic mission in Afganistan had the nerve to say that he saw and heard things about Aitvaras enough to make a Hollywood movie or two, but he wont tell a thing.
So now we, suddenly interested Lithuanians, have to rely on you, Michael, to get some real, interesting, juicy details of the Adventures of Lithuanians in Never Never Land
Thanks again for a great post which shone light on our heroes- and our small country needs heroes very much, most of them were killed by Russians 50 years ago.
Merry Christmas
Liudvikas Andriulis
Vilnius/Brussels
But I do commend you on your story and on your apology. Stay safe.
Lithuanian Resistance Fighters:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpXYAKe6_qc&feature=related
I guess you are a thinking person and next time you will consider better before you add an article.
Some of us take it as a offence of your silly comparison.
Think your doing well with out boys.
Good luck
It never hurts to apology, but I think it wasn't necessary.
I took your meaning to be that the Lithuanians were great warriors with a sense of humor and no use for "political correctness".
The objections to the post seem to come from people outside the troops involved. What has the attitude of the soldiers referenced been? Did they find it objectionable also?
Survivors of the former Soviet Union have a first hand understanding of the difference between freedom and slavery. I welcome their support and I am thankful for it.
Merry Christmas and May God Bless Us Every One. Especially all of our brothers and sisters that stand by their guns in foreign lands to keep us safe.
Regards,
Steamboat Jack
PS
For those with a literary inclination, here is a poem by Rudyard Kipling that catches the pathos of troops stationed in a foreign land. In this case India, but not so far from Iraq and Afghanistan. http://classiclit.about.com/od/christmaspoempoetry/a/christmas_india.htm
If phrase isn't understandable, the whole text clears it out that it was a very positive opinion. for which i thank the author.
don't mind, and continua the good work.
(Tongue in cheek)
Veddy niiiice! I liiiike! Hiiigh fiiiiive!
Keep up the good work Michael.
This is the sick luxury we have after 5 decades of no foreign state threat on our domestic soil. Instead of talking about serious issues, we waste time on trivial crap.
kasp soldier
The Taliban seem to be mostly afraid of American soldiers. They do attack U.S. and inflict damage, but all around I hear from Afghans and U.S. soldiers that the Taliban are mostly trying to avoid contact with U.S., while focusing attacks mostly on Afghans. Some people see the Taliban as courageous, but I am seeing more and more that they use cowardly tactics, often hiding behind women and children.
I am tonight in Zabul Province and have been out with New York National Guard. Their morale is high and they think they are winning the fight, despite the long series of frustrations that come with the terrain of war. Especially in Afghanistan.
Our cell phones are not working tonight; the Taliban forces cell phone operators to turn off the towers at night. The Taliban are afraid of being tracked, and are afraid the Americans will interrupt their sleep. The cell towers are cut off from 5:30 PM to 7:00 AM. An American captain told me that one group of operators decided to turn off the system late one night, so the Taliban came, killed one man, and tortured two others.
On an interesting side, Americans and Afghans are giving very high marks to the Lithuanian Special Forces who operate here. They are less impressed with Romanians; Afghans and Americans say the Romanians are afraid of the Taliban, but that the Lithuanians are having a field day chasing and killing Taliban.
On the Iraq front, please read Down with Barriers, Up with Iraq.
The Iraq war is over, but the Afghan playoffs will begin in 2009. This fight is just getting started. Please send lots of Marines, and lots of training teams for the Afghan Army and police.
Your correspondent,
Anyhow, on behalf of those that are not so touchy and DID understand what you meant, I thank you for the wonderful article about our boys
Best regards.
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