MSM Undermines Morale on the Home Front.
Once a while I read Bill Rogio's blog The Fourth Rail. Rogio is on the right side of the political spectrum, like in deep bush land. But his mostly military posts are sometimes bordering on being interesting and his commentators are outright funny.
On a recent thread of his about the division size attack on Baqubah, I stumbled over this comment by one Tony:
For the last few years the MSM has been undermining morale on the home front for The Long War by telling us that major combat operations in Iraq have ended.
[...]
And the MSM needs to stop telling us that major combat operations are over in Iraq and start preparing us for the Long War. We will all need to make huge sacrifices, not just the brave young men and women in uniform.
Citing Tony one Rubin follows up:
Tony, "For the last few years the MSM has been undermining morale on the home front for The Long War by telling us that major combat operations in Iraq have ended."
Yes, thank you. A sadly pathetic but most important dynamic to remind everyone about..
The MSM, the current crop of rapporteurs express their contempt for the current mission in A-stan and Iraq every day.
One Luke Willen adds:
The BBC are just as biased. If there is yet another car bombing in Baghdfdad or Kabul then it was committed by the "Insurgents."
Call it what it is - TERRORISM
First I thought Tony was a prankster of some kind, but his co-commentators seem to know him, take the comment as serious and follow up in kind. So let's look again what Tony says:
For the last few years the MSM has been undermining morale on the home front for The Long War by telling us that major combat operations in Iraq have ended.
Has the MSM really told us so?
Yes, I slightly remember it did. I even remember being quite angry when they started offering that claim.
But how did they get the idea? What devilish liberal scumbag payed the MSM to propagate the outright ridiculous claim that major combat operations in Iraq have ended?
Googling the phrase the first hit is dated May 1, 2003 and from the well known media manipulation site www.whitehouse.gov. It says there:
President Bush Announces Major Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended
Remarks by the President from the USS Abraham Lincoln
At Sea Off the Coast of San Diego, California
Obviously Tony blames the MSM for uncritically paroting the commander guy in chief. I certainly can join him there.
I'll also join his call to make huge sacrifices maybe by doubling his income tax and by taxing U.S. gas prices to $8/gallon. That's what I am used to pay here anyway, so why shouldn't he.
Unfortunatly I can not ask him about his view on tax increases. Even my mild response to his comment, only pointing out the above white house link, was censored.
But then, it's a right wing blog and I am not sure I want to see my comment there anyway.
There is some danger the MSM could grab off the link I'd serve and undermine morale on the home front by repeating its content over and over.
Happened before, you know.
Posted by b on June 20, 2007 at 18:21 UTC | Permalink
@Uncle - easy to beat that one:
Lesley Stahl on U.S. sanctions against Iraq: We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: I think this is a very hard choice, but the price--we think the price is worth it.
--60 Minutes (5/12/96)
It goes at least as far back as Socrates "corrupting the youth of Athens". Pass the cup, willya?
Posted by: ralphieboy | Jun 20 2007 19:23 utc | 3
right-wingers say the darndest things
(actually, they're usually just mindlessly repeating the talking points scripted for them w/o examining them too much. which makes it all the more ironic that they manage to miss the directives laid down from their authoritarian leaders)
besides, CENTCOM's fallon retired the phrase "the long war" sometime back in march
Posted by: b real | Jun 20 2007 19:40 utc | 4
If you want to play Top This, how about Sy Hersh's revelations in the last 2 days that Gen. Taguba was forced out of the Army for not being a good Colin Powell & supporting/covering up official policy of torture. See, the Army was right in thinking he was too dumb to send to grad school. After all, by their logic, he passed up his chance to be Chairman of JCS by that action & it doesn't get much dumber than that :(
Posted by: jj | Jun 20 2007 19:42 utc | 5
Fallon may have retired "Long War", but I get the feeling that they see the ME as so much kindling to be lit in preparation for the Big One they want to stage in Iran. Once you promulgate policies of torture, you've sunk to such a level of bestiality that mere mass murder is just another day at the office for those giving the orders. I hadn't realized that I was lucky to have never been scared of my own govt.
Posted by: jj | Jun 20 2007 19:48 utc | 6
Then there's this comment by warplanner General Kean on the frontline show where he says http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/06/general_never_a.html>that "beating the insurgents was never part of the mission".
I think their narrative has completely desintigrated.
Posted by: asnna missed | Jun 20 2007 21:30 utc | 7
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6222848.stm
Maybe B's blog "Tony" is "sex them up" Blair, out of the
closet now that he's double-dipping on the USA taxpayer,
in good company with wannabe Queen Condi and that other
smarmy Limey, Dimitri (Johnny Boy) Negroponte. Along
with Israeli's in high office, (Chertoff), the Bushito's
and Hallib's have clearly taken America multi-national.
Couldn't Tony have just taken a job selling sex toys??
Posted by: Tony Tiger | Jun 21 2007 5:28 utc | 8
Anthony H. Cordesman on the "completely disintegrate narative": Still Losing? The June 2007 Edition of “Measuring Stability in Iraq”
The latest Department of Defense report on “Measuring Stability in Iraq” attempts to put a bad situation in a favorable light. It does not disguise many of the problems involved, but it does attempt to defend the strategy presented by President Bush in January 2007 in ways that sometimes present serious problems. More broadly, it reveals that the President’s strategy is not working in any critical dimension.
...
if the US loses in Iraq – as seems all too possible – its primary enemy will not have been Al Qa’ida, but the US government.
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/>Marc Lynch passes on some speculation on what happened to the "Anbar Salvation Council" i.e U.S. funding insurgents:
Anbar Salvation Council head skips town?This story from al-Malaf is currently the talk of the forums: Sitar Abu Risha, head of the Anbar Salvation Council, has allegedly fled Iraq with $75 million that the Americans had given him to fight al-Qaeda. The story links his flight to the near-collapse of the Anbar Salvation Council over infighting among its leadership (which jibes with recent reporting in the Washington Post). It claims that he simply never distributed the American cash to the fighters, who are now threatening to go on strike if they don't get paid. Seeing as how the Anbar Salvation Council has for months now been portrayed as the great American hope in the battle against al-Qaeda, if this story turns out to be true - a big if, given the shaky sourcing to this point - then it would be a rather embarrassing fiasco. "The Anbar model", indeed. I haven't seen this officially reported anywhere, and right now I have no way of checking its accuracy - but thought it worth passing on a juicy rumour just in case it turns out to be true.
So, the U.S. gave this guy 75 million to shore up their pipe dream -- and he skipped town with all 75 million of it. Against all odds, its just a rumor.
Posted by: anna missed | Jun 21 2007 8:10 utc | 10
Explosions Strike Baghdad's Green Zone
A huge plume of black smoke billowed into the sky and helicopters buzzed overhead after about nine blasts occurred in quick succession around 10 a.m.The U.S. militray never reported these numbers of course. Who are the 26? Foreign worker most likely - dispensable ...At least one mortar round struck a parking lot used by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his security detail, an official from the prime minister's office said.
...
A June 5 U.N. report said insurgents had bombarded the Green Zone with rockets and mortar fire more than 80 times since March, reportedly killing at least 26 people.
No wonder Condi, at Crockers insistance, is having trouble finding new members for the new country club. There's still time to put in a nice golf course though.
Posted by: anna missed | Jun 21 2007 9:21 utc | 12
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For the last few years the MSM has been undermining morale on the home front...
yeah, like this...
Attack that killed kids was worth it, says military
Officials: Military knew children were present but considered risk worth it.
This'll get em ready for the long war alright...
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jun 20 2007 18:28 utc | 1