graeme
The war against truth
Posted on: 03/10/2010 14:55
Early in February, American military leadership told they were launcing an assault on the most important Talivan fortress and direction centre, the town of Marja. The American press, so far as I can tell, vought the story, and even added. in some account Marja grew to a city of a hundred thousand and more. Major networks and just about all newspapers, including the NY Times published that story as evidence the war was turning around fof us.
But there is no city of Marja. No town, either. Marja is about a hundred square miles of poppy farms The closest thing to a settlement is a cluster of three small shops and a mosque. The population is about 80,000, but widely scattered. There is no fortress, no direction centre. Most Taliban there would, being guerilla fighters, simply withdraw ahead of the US troops.
But much of the American press is still going with the original story.
How are the news media in your area treating it?
graeme
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graeme
Sorry for all the typos. I
Posted on: 03/10/2010 15:02
Sorry for all the typos. I couldn't find the way to edit iit.
crazyheart
Can't edit original post,
Posted on: 03/11/2010 14:07
Can't edit original post, Graeme
redbaron338
Can'r really recall any
Posted on: 03/11/2010 14:15
Can'r really recall any mention of it at all in the local 'news'paper (such as it is)
graeme
Remember the american woman
Posted on: 03/11/2010 18:06
Remember the american woman who was wounded and captured in Iraq. The government put out a release which all the papers ranl The story was that she was attacked and outnumbered by a horde, but killed eleven before they got her. Then the American army in its famed "nobody behind.) stormed the hospital to resuce her with a dozens of TV cameras covering itl
She was welcomed home by the American government as a hero. The news was full of here.
Then she told the ttruth.. She didn't kill anybody. She ws badly hurth when her truck crashed. The hospital contacted the US army to tell them that she was at the hospital, and asked if they would send an ambulance.
The whole story ws a fraud. But when she told the truth, both the government and the news media dropped her like a hot potato. I've heard and seen nothing about her for years.
SG
graeme, I expect better of
Posted on: 03/11/2010 18:56
graeme,
I expect better of you. No, Private Jessica Lynch never shot anyone. Yes, the US military said the young men and women fired their weapons. They all jammed, so of course they were in arse covering mode. That is the truth she told. The Pentagon did not start the stories about her heroics, The Washington Post did. The Pentagon disputed the story. The news media everywhere hopped on it. That is what news is about... sensational stuff... if someone had went to an editor and said "I don't knwo that she shot or killed anyone", the editor would have said "Girl Rambo sells, so how many she hit does not matter"... if the reporter would have said "I am not sure she picked up her gun"... the response likely would have been "who cares - run it"
Her complaint is primarily about propoganda around her treatment by Iraqi's and her "rescue".
Yes, Lynch says she was largely sheilded from the Iraqi military, who were using the hospital . There is also apparently some medical evidence that she was raped, but she has no memory of it or would prefer not to. When and where is up for grabs.
The ambulance trip was a week after she went MIA and was shot on by US forces.
The eventual "rescue" knew the Iraqi forces had left the hospital.
The US government should be held accountable, but they cannot be held accountable for news stories that some reporter wrote.
SG
Did military breifers call
Posted on: 03/11/2010 18:53
Did military breifers call Marja a "town" or did news reporters call Marja a "town"? It was a NATO-Afghan offensive and not merely an American action. It depends on what news you watch. I have seen US and Canadian and British services call it an area, an agricultural district... up to calling it a "town". It is a Taliban stronghold, hub, area of insurgency (pick your word).
BTW I did not/do not support invading Iraq and I did not/do not support the mission in Afghanistan (just for clarity)
Witch
"Yes, the US military said
Posted on: 03/11/2010 18:59
"Yes, the US military said the young men and women fired their weapons. They all jammed, so of course they were in arse covering mode."
I don't really recall much of the story, because it's not the kind of thing I follow, but this statement kind of stands out to me.
So the Pentagon is trying to tell us that all of this group's incredibly reliable M-16 rifles (or probably carbine in a transport company) all jammed at the same time, and none of these highly trained soldiers attended the class on basic weapons handling that included "How to clear a stoppage"? Jammed weapons inconvenience a soldier for 5 seconds or less, or they don't get to be soldiers.
Based on my years of experience as a combat infantry officer, I'd have to say I was a little skeptical.
This says nothing about any of the other elements of the story at all..... just that particular one
SG
Witch, for clarity, it is
Posted on: 03/11/2010 18:59
Witch, for clarity, it is Private Lynch who say her weapon jammed and that she could not have done anything anyways, not the US military.
SG
That paragraph, the one you
Posted on: 03/11/2010 19:05
That paragraph, the one you quoted, was poorly formed by me.
What I intended was to say that of course with that many dead soldiers and MIA's you want there to have been return fire. Heck, one might assume there would have been. They are playing the glorious soldier thing and hero thing and it is not merely for the military and war support at home, but it it is also for families... If they knew there was jamming problems (which has definitely been hinted at in Iraq and Afghanistan and by all forces, not just one nations) they would not want to say "well, they should have fiured back, but maybe they were injured and couldn't or they surrendered or well maybe the gun jammed"....
Witch
It was somewhat wordy. But
Posted on: 03/11/2010 19:07
It was somewhat wordy.
But it does give me cause to think perhaps there is something wrong there. Why could she not clear the jam? What happened to the other soldiers rifles? Why didnb't she use her grenades or her sidearm? Generally speaking, soldiers don't stop firing until they run out of ammunition.
Perhaps she was coached a little? I don't know. But in my own mind, without any of the other information, and trying as hard as I can to resist making this into a conspiracy.... well the idea that she was hurt in an accident does appear more likely.
graeme
The description of Marja as a
Posted on: 03/12/2010 01:26
The description of Marja as a town of eighty thousand was the official statement given to reporters by the mlitary leaders in Afghanistan. IT was corrected later only when so many people made it known they had looked up an encylopedia. It was the US military and the US government that lied. The reporters wrote down what the army told them. (Though I can't understand why the New York Times didn't have someone who could find M in the encyclopedia.)
The US government lied when it staged the fake raid on the hospital, and did not mention that they knew the Afghan doctors had asked them to pick her up. That raid was not staged by some careless rfeporter making up a story. It was staged to get favourable press coverage. And, to the best of my knowledge, the American government never admitted the raid was a fake.
As to the idea that the story of her valiant fight came from some reporters making up a story, that is extremely unlikely. Reporters were summoned by army command to watch that raid. Any reporter with half a brain would know that raid was staged.. Then they interviewed officers. That is almost certainly where their information came from.
And the government did not immediately to deny the story. Not until there was ass to cover.
I wonder where the story (vague) that she (might) have been raped came from? Was it the same one who said Saddam had weapons of mass destruction?
The news mdeida, particlularly in a war, lie and omit constantly,omit news its owners don't like, use words to create prejudices - so that the word terrorst has come to mean moslem; But the pilots who bombed helpless Cambodia in the most intensise bombing campaign in history, killing half a million civilians were never referred to as terrorists. Thery were our brave boys doing a good job.
I am not sure one can draw the line you do between the media and the government.