“Progress in Afghanistan” actually means…progress in Afghanistan
Ray Robison takes on the media’s narrative about Afghanistan head-on, claiming it’s another Tet offensive–in the sense that yet again, the media is spinning American military victories into military defeats. His post is full of examples like this:
I remember one article in which the writer declared that the Taliban had “vast swaths of unchallenged territory, including rural areas.” The truth of the matter was that NATO forces had pushed the Taliban out of the towns and villages and into the wastelands. But even a clear victory finds the media unable to represent the truth of the matter that we are holding, expanding and rebuilding in Afghanistan.
He also goes through the latest NATO report about Afghanistan, and shows how much it is at odds with big media’s failure narrative:
The report, Progress in Afghanistan, belies the current media dictum in its’ very name. But the revelations in the report shred the media template to the point of making it incontestable that the American public is the victim of journalistic malpractice concerning Afghanistan.
Afghanistan is a destitute country and there are huge logistical and political challenges to fighting there. But it doesn’t sound like we’re losing.
This is a great fact-filled little article to read before you go out to dinner with those liberal friends who you just know are going to bring up the war and talk politics, even though you try to change the subject, and drop a hint that you don’t actually agree with them that Dick Cheney eats live kittens. But noooooo…they believe that because you’re able to speak in complete sentences and don’t drool on yourself, you must therefore be one of the cool people who agrees with them.
Do you know those people? I think everybody knows those people.
Full NATO report here.
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Where is sox?
The MSM longs for the days when they controlled information. But you wonder if they’re all trying to re-live their lost youth with talk about Tet and Vietnam. Sort of like old ladies in miniskirts, there’s something tawdry about it all.
Obama found him on his pillow…
Liberal friends? lol, good one.
Note with #3, the HillBilly mafia kills their own to scare others, unlike La Cosa Nostra who kill yours to scare others…
Let em lie. It hasnt worked yet. We are still kicking ass and taking names— and the wheels haven’t come off our military yet (as whined about for what 5 years now?).
It will be time to re-fit, re-tool, and re-school the military based on fighting for nearly six years of the new warfare everybody said we would fail at.
The MSM is bleeding to death as it tries to figure out how to publish in a digital age. Too bad they arent as good as the military is at fighting in a digital age.
I would love to see there some big shaming moment when the truth comes out about the lies they told. It will come out two decades from now then they are no longer in business and blogs rule the media universe.
No More Dan Rathers.
#2 On April 10th, 2008 at 4:39 pm, AlohaGuy said:
“Sort of like old ladies in miniskirts, there’s something tawdry about it all.”
Dead-on!!!
LOL!!!
So many with that MSM mindset just don’t want to grow up.
I’m glad that I did, and accepted the FACT of aging, and cut my hair shorter; otherwise, my once full head of curly/wavy hair (believe me, it rivaled that which you see on the cover of the Cream or Jimi Hendrix Experience albums), that is sadly thinned in front/on top, would now look like Larry of The Stooges, or like Bozo the Clown!
Sad. But typical, and completely expected by our press. Reminds me of this:
If today’s press reported on The Normandy Invasion
We are definitely winning militarily, no question. We have minimal forces and equipment there, but the Taliban is no real match. They rely on ambushes and IED’s to take out our personnel, but it is still a war zone over there and Americans at home seem to have forgotten or ignored this fact.
From what I personally saw in Afghanistan, we are a long way from “winning” the populace over, which is the really hard part of the battle. Unfortunately, the people of Afghanistan don’t share the ideals of freedom and democracy that we take for granted. They don’t know any better, however, and Americans need to understand this. They operate on basic tribal principles and live a generally uneducated and agrarian life with much of their existence centered around a strict adherence to Islam. Power is in the hands of the “religious leaders” and their goal is to keep the primitive population isolated, ignorant and dependent. Our goal is to educate the populace and bring them to a better standard of living through aid and infrastructure improvements.
If we want to see real progress in Afghanistan, it will probably take a couple of generations under the right circumstances. We are slowly bolstering the infrastructure of the country and educating the populace, but it will take a lot of time and patience. We are fighting the good fight, but it is up to the citizens of Afghanistan to truly make their own future a better one.
2 & 7… are you all takin bout katie?
From what I heard, I agree, pboilermaker. But the democrat controlled MSM is desperate to snatch “defeat from the jaws of victory”. Anything to control this country and move into socialism.
No, no. You got it all wrong. I was told, in private, by a Captain…no wait, he was Lieutenant then, that his platoon deployed WITHOUT ALL THE STUFF they needed!!!!
No, wait. It turns out that this light infantry platoon had some hummers, which puts them 400% over allowance for vehicular equipment, and 800% over for heavy weapons, but…you get the idea.
It’s an old joke, but worth revising here:
How can you tell the MSM is lying?
Their lips are moving.
Today’s MSM would have had us surrender to Japan at about noon, 7 Dec 1941.
Almost right Tennessee Dave.
Today’s MSM would have articles in the papers the next day explaining how Pearl Harbor was brought on ourselves, due to our bullying of Japan trade-wise in southeast Asia. Editorials would include pieces about how we need to be tolerant of Japanese culture, and how only a small percentage of the Japanese want violence against other nations. A few months later, there would be articles condemning anti-Japanese propaganda cartoons as ‘hate speech’. Peripheral articles would later include bits on how the exhaust from our battleships and aircraft carriers were causing global cooling, as evidenced by a particularly nasty winter a couple years later in Europe and Russia.
Geraldo Rivera would ‘accidentally’ broadcast the location of the US fleet north of Midway island, from the deck of an aircraft carrier.
Very good analysis Yashmak.
Wish I had some liberal friends (not), but I find that the wife and I only hangout with folks we have something in common with. The MSM is still using the tired old Vietnam template for defeat and retreat. It may have worked over 30 years ago, but thanks to the new media they are getting nowhere.
The Military is far from broken and you wouldn’t believe how many young folks volunteer or are excited to get an opportunity to deploy over to the AOR every time a tasking comes down to our base. I have 3 people from my Squadron on 365 day deployments along with 2 more getting ready to go in the near future. The all volunteer force continues to meet or exceed recruiting targets (thanks to Brit Hume and Fox News for that bit of info we watched this evening) and re-enlistments are through the roof. As I have read before atributed to liberals, whom are you going to believe? Me or your lying eyes!
I’ve read that the Viets lost 50,000 troops in the Tet offensive. Hardly a military defeat for America but apparently it did not cover the MSM point spread (overall the Viets lost 1.5 million troops while America lost 50,000).
Will Afghanistan be a MSM Viet Nam type victory. Maybe, maybe not, but Afghanistan is it’s own worse enemy and self defeating in the name of religion, dope, and tribalism.
Sounds like some o’ y’all like Bush need some Ritalin (methylphenidate) for that Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD or ADHD, sometimes called “mission creep”).
We were attacked by bin Laden, so how did we end up forgetting about him and wasting trillions of dollars making war on the Taliban and the poor people of Iraq?
Treatment of ADD:
* Inhibiting the impulse to respond so that thinking can guide action
* Analyzing problems and coming up with effective solutions
* Managing short-term working memory
* Becoming and remaining organized
* Focusing and starting on a task in a timely manner
* Sustaining attention and effort until the task has been completed
Quite possibly the most ignorant post I’ve read today.
Congratulations.
I think it had something to do with the Taliban aiding Osama and generally just being bad people.
Exit question for Alphonse: Have you had your head stuck in a bucket of……aahhhh….well……sand for the last few years?
Does that mean lgm, Rusty and Mookie haven’t posted today?
Who says we forgot about him? Oh, that’s right… the leftist mouthpieces in the MSM.
Believe it or not, we can walk and chew gum at the same time.
The key is that pay-offs/bribery have been our best weapon in the war on terror. Unfortunately, that is very tenuous strategy and setting a dangerous precedent.
TexasTiger #21,
You took the words right out of my mouth.