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Archive for the Gloabl War on Terror CategoryMore On The Cool Aid Generals8. May 2008 by Dan Verton.
Memo to the media: Have you hosted on air the person who told Rumsfeld at military analyst meeting, “You are the leader. You are our guy”? Summary: In an audio recording of an April 18, 2006, Pentagon meeting attended by several media military analysts, one of the attendees tells then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that he would “personally love” for Rumsfeld “to take the offensive, to just go out there and just crush these people so that when we go on, we’re — forgive me — we’re parroting, but it’s what has to be said. It’s what we believe in, or we would not be saying it.” He adds: “And we’d love to be following our leader, as indeed you are. You are the leader. You are our guy.” Will media outlets try to determine if they have hosted the speaker? Posted in Gloabl War on Terror, Media Misrepresentations, Editor's Notes | Print | 1 Comment » Exposing the Cool Aid-Drinking Generals20. April 2008 by Dan Verton.
So This Is What We’ve Become For the past several years, I’ve been quite critical of the military’s handling of the War on Terror, particularly because of its tendancy to treat every aspect of the GWOT as simply another target for a laser-guided bomb. I’ve written often about the military mind-set and its limitations in understanding the true nature of the radical Islamic threat. Now, in today’s New York Times, we see evidence that the Pentagon has successfully tapped into the blind allegiance and private sector greed of a small group of former military officers who became talking heads on television news programs. This is one of the most disturbing stories about the undermining of our nation’s democracy by the Bush Neocons that I have ever read. The evidence presented here is quite clear and incontrobertible. I am deeply saddened that the freedoms fought for by generations of Americans (including generations of Vertons) have been so easily set aside by a group of men who want us to believe they are freedom’s defenders. And as a long-time journalist who left the news business because of its fundamental disregard for the truth, it is just as hard for me to take the side of the NYT. But it is what it is. Read it and weep. Behind Military Analysts, the Pentagon’s Hidden Hand A PENTAGON CAMPAIGN Retired officers have been used to shape terrorism coverage from inside the TV and radio networks. The administration’s communications experts responded swiftly. Early one Friday morning, they put a group of retired military officers on one of the jets normally used by Vice President Dick Cheney and flew them to Cuba for a carefully orchestrated tour of Guantánamo. To the public, these men are members of a familiar fraternity, presented tens of thousands of times on television and radio as “military analysts” whose long service has equipped them to give authoritative and unfettered judgments about the most pressing issues of the post-Sept. 11 world. Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance, an examination by The New York Times has found. Posted in Gloabl War on Terror, Pentagon Watch, Media Misrepresentations, Editor's Notes | Print | No Comments » Why The War in Afghanistan Will Be a Long, Long War16. April 2008 by Dan Verton.
This is an HSTV documentary featuring a young Afghani who served 5 1/2 year as a US Military translator. His commentary on why the Taliban is still a strong force in Afghanistan is most enlightening. Posted in Afghanistan, Gloabl War on Terror, Editor's Notes | Print | 1 Comment » | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||