Comments for Things You Used To See In The MSM We're the Military and Airpower Guys of Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online + a stray we found wandering around looking lost. All original material JHD, BHD, JR, WT, and KA 2003-2010 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/04/things_you_used.html Sat, 24 Mar 2012 15:31:23 Z Movable Type 4.12 en Copyright 2012 http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification Things You Used To See In The MSM Such as this one: February 8, 2007 • In Iraq, improvised explosive devices pose a constant threat to security forces. The makeshift bombs are stashed on the sides of roads, buried in trash or hidden just about anywhere. The U.S. military has sought to train Iraqi security forces to handle them on their own. But things don't always go as planned. U.S. Army Sgt. Ryan Lord hadn't driven his Humvee more than 50 yards out of Forward Operating Base Warrior when he came upon Iraqi police standing in the middle of the road. An IED had been spotted up ahead,... http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/04/things_you_used.html http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/04/things_you_used.html Fri, 04 Apr 2008 05:04:41 -0600 Comment from MajMike on 2008-04-04 thx for the numbers kat... now to apply the "Iraqi fudge factor" calculation to it.. "about 4% loss" = "bodaciously fantastic attendance today" = "slightly less than a recruiting drive" all in all i would say that was a great show of force. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/04/things_you_used.html#comment-71589 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/04/things_you_used.html#comment-71589 Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:41:19 -0600 Comment from eric on 2008-04-04 thank you all and long live the internet! http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/04/things_you_used.html#comment-71587 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/04/things_you_used.html#comment-71587 Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:01:18 -0600 Comment from kat-missouri on 2008-04-04 Basra to the alleged "mutiny"
A British military official said that Mr. Maliki had brought 6,600 reinforcements to Basra to join the 30,000 security personnel already stationed there, and a senior American military official said that he understood that 1,000 to 1,500 Iraqi forces had deserted or underperformed. That would represent a little over 4 percent of the total.
Context. and even then there is the qualifier of "he understood" which means he is getting his information from a secondary source as well. ]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/04/things_you_used.html#comment-71585 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/04/things_you_used.html#comment-71585 Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:57:20 -0600 Comment from kat-missouri on 2008-04-04 Maj Mike...guess we had the same thoughts on that subject. "reports of large scale mutiny are highly questionable". http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/04/things_you_used.html#comment-71583 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/04/things_you_used.html#comment-71583 Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:57:14 -0600 Comment from kat-missouri on 2008-04-04 alleged mutiny as reported by "police and army officials in Basra" I say alleged because many of the "officials" in Basra are also Sadr mahdi army or have sympathies to that cause. Noting that an alleged battalion refused to fight is pretty big not to be also validated by the American military. I would look there first before I accept that it was an entire battalion of the army. The police, on the otherhand, I would believe. In 2005, Steven Vincent, author of In the Red Zone, was murdered in Basra and his interpreter critically wounded because his daily dispatches noted the "criminals", the corruption, and, most importantly, the police being infiltrated by Mahdi militia who posted signs of Sadr and were going around at night kidnapping and killing people for their "un-Islamic" behavior, dress, etc. Does the possibility of the Basra police "mutinying" against attacking Sadr bother me or portend something that we didn't know already? Nope. however, I would look to Centcom to see if they have any confirmation of the number, size and organizatoin within the Iraqi army that did or did not "mutiny" before I would accept Basra/Mahdi propaganda that is basically trying to portray even the Iraqi Army under Sadr's control. Best article I've seen today about the Basra affair is right here: Planning Gaps for Assault on Basra]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/04/things_you_used.html#comment-71582 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/04/things_you_used.html#comment-71582 Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:52:30 -0600 Comment from MajMike on 2008-04-04 eric: mutiny and desertion are practiced as a fine art in Iraqi military culture (see Desert Storm and OIF battle reports for quantification). "going over to the other side" has varying degrees of "gone" to it, and i wouldn't put overly much stock in any report that breathless exclaims that "all" the members of a unit "mutinied". my brief assessment of the sparse reports i had seen would be thus: "guys who never could have passed a decent background check" may have walked off their current job in order to report back in to whomever their real allegiance was due. such is life. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/04/things_you_used.html#comment-71581 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/04/things_you_used.html#comment-71581 Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:48:22 -0600 Comment from eric on 2008-04-04 but what about the mutiny of shiite troops who were supposed to attack positions of the Sadr Army? Do I read about it here? If not, was there a good reason for that? I like to know, because I try to read info from both camps and make up my mind myself. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/04/things_you_used.html#comment-71580 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/04/things_you_used.html#comment-71580 Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:06:35 -0600 Comment from kat-missouri on 2008-04-04 If it doesn't bleed, vomit, spew, or otherwise meet a certain level of negativity they are not "informing" us. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/04/things_you_used.html#comment-71561 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/04/things_you_used.html#comment-71561 Fri, 04 Apr 2008 08:09:46 -0600 Comment from fdcol63 on 2008-04-04 If the story doesn't meet the spin, don't put it in. At times, when I'm more positive, I have hopes that the influence of new media and history will prove just how much bias we've had pushed down our throats by the MSM. And then I remember what a stranglehold liberals still maintain within journalism, broadcast media, academia, and Hollyweird. Until that changes, they will continue to spin the historical narrative according to their liberal bias to advance their own agendas. All while gullible Obamaniacs accept it as the complete truth. TGIF. LOL]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/04/things_you_used.html#comment-71558 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/04/things_you_used.html#comment-71558 Fri, 04 Apr 2008 07:03:23 -0600