Gareth Porter unveils a conspiracy theory:
For weeks, the U.S. public followed the biggest offensive of the Afghanistan War against what it was told was a “city of 80,000 people” as well as the logistical hub of the Taliban in that part of Helmand. That idea was a central element in the overall impression built up in February that Marja was a major strategic objective, more important than other district centres in Helmand.
It turns out, however, that the picture of Marja presented by military officials and obediently reported by major news media is one of the clearest and most dramatic pieces of misinformation of the entire war, apparently aimed at hyping the offensive as a historic turning point in the conflict.
Unfortunately, it’s not the conspiracy theory he meant to unveil:
Gareth’s argument is supported by an ISAF official “who asked not to be identified” confirming that Marjah is a “rural community” — which adds to the air of a secret plot revealed. Except there’s no secret. The official was me, and I didn’t ask to be quoted anonymously.
Why report the news when you can just make it up?
Update: Oops. Link fixed.
Pretty much describes the news.
There’s a reason why the MSM news programs are all a part of their networks “Entertainment” division. Sigh…
Whenever an location in Afghanistan is mentioned in the media, I immediately look at it using Google Earth. It was obvious that Marjah was not a “city of 80,000″, but was a rural area with small concentrations of houses and compounds. Apparently, no media person ever checked the place out.
Kandahar, on the other hand, is densely populated (look it up) and will be an urban battle space.
you can’t fix stupid, but its often darkly entertaining to marvel at it….
teh st00p1d is strong in that one.
Ok, I must be missing something here. Is the 2nd paragraph about the ISAF official contained in the comments or something? Cuz I could not see it anywhere on the webpage, and didn’t feel like signing up to another news blog just to read one comment.
So I’m in good company, didn’t follow the reference either; “The official was me” -?
SIGH…..file under the “Why am I not surprised category.”
Well, that is the approximate population of Marja.
80,000 usually isn’t what one would call ‘urban’ or a ‘city’ but whatever….
Wish I could say I was more surprised. Nothing the media misstates surprises me anymore. Remember the Segrina case (a journalist) where the italian agent was shot in the car at the checkpoint? And Segrena was interviewed and swore they stopped and they were shot at in cold blood. And then the fact come out (very very limited distribution on those facts, btw) and it turns out that the driver didn’t stop as required, but rather slowed down and then held his cell phone out of the window and shook it.
So in a nutshell, an unknown car tries to run a checkpoint, and waves a device regularly used to set off explosive ordinance. But that didn’t stop the Italian courts from trying to sue the shooter. The world is filled with idiots, and a great many of them call themselves journalists.
Regardless of the quantity of the people in Marja it was the activities of those within it and controlling it that were of consequence.
Sounding a lot like mission (at least this part) accomplished.