BF2S Forums Operation Iraqi Steven

• President Obama
• Vice President Biden
• Senator John McCain
• ex President George Bush
• ex President Bush Sr
• Governor Palin
• ex President Bill Clinton
• Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh
• General Raymond Odierno Commanding General, Multi-National Force—Iraq
• Command Sergeant Major Frank Grippe (the highest ranking enlisted man in Iraq)
• Lieutenant General Charles H. Jacoby, Jr. Commanding General, Multi National Corps- Iraq
• Sergeant Robin Balcom, Squad Leader, 463rd Military Police Company
• Specialist Tareq Salha, Arabic Interpreter, 111th Military Intelligence Brigade
• Tom Hanks

Mr. Colbert’s four-day “Operation Iraqi Stephen: Going Commando,” sponsored by the U.S.O., was unexpectedly charming. His interviews with generals and even an Iraqi deputy prime minister were pleasant, not barbed, and his stand-up routines proved as easygoing and good-natured as many a Bob Hope performance. Mr. Colbert sometimes let his comic persona as an monomaniacal chicken hawk to the right of Bill O’Reilly slip a little, but mostly he stayed in character, and even that matched up with Hope’s self-caricature as someone egotistical and cowardly.

The difference wasn’t in the humor, or even the technology; it was in the intended audience. Hope’s U.S.O. tours were star-studded morale boosters for isolated troops who felt out of touch and forgotten. Mr. Colbert seemed eager to energize viewers who are out of touch with overseas news and have all but forgotten that 130,000 troops remain in Iraq.