Text 14687, 180 rader
Skriven 2007-05-17 12:27:15 av lizardgirl (1099.babylon5)
Kommentar till text 14616 av rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated (1028.babylon5)
Ärende: Re: unions
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On May 16, 12:45 am, "Vorlonagent" <nojts...@otfresno.com> wrote:
> I. Fight The Media War
>
> It would be great to get some genuine balance out of the mainstream media.
> Having the media cease its emphasis on the negative and de-emphasis of the
> positive would help tremendously.
There was a time when no one in the media questioned the
'intelligence' coming out of the white house. When news agencies
throughout the country rushed to regurgitate what was fed to them by
the administration, few if any real questions asked. You mention
rummy and his wartime matinee. Standing room only if I recall. He
talked, reports made like parrots. This began to go sour when folks
started asking pointed questions insisting on answers that were more
than vague generalizations and non-speak (many words in a row that
yield no content.) more on the media later.
<snip partisan...stuff>
>Hold more press conferences, Go out of my way to challenge and balance >out
>the negativity in the mainstream press.
You don't support the troops (or win a war) in a pressroom. You
support them in a *warroom* by correctly identifying, in advance of
any troop movement, the main objectives, obstacles, likely and
unlikely outcomes of actions, inactions, and operations.
There has been a lot of talk that pulling our troops out now (or in
the near future) will create a power vacuum in iraq. Not so. we
created a power vacuum the minute we blow saddam off of this perch,
turned out both the army and police forces, then seized and replaced
the Iraqi currency, effectively removing the superstructure
(government, security, services) that holds a country together, while
offering no 'immediate' replacement.
Generally, military coups (which this was, albeit by an external
military force (aka an imperialist invasion)) that are successful
happen swiftly after much consideration for strangely enough, law and
order. We didn't export democracy or liberate a people from tyranny.
we removed all barriers to anarchy. How can anyone get to be a
general and not understand even the most basic principles of warfare
and governance? Damn those pesky 'unknown unknowns.'
> The Media War is every bit as important as the shooting war on the ground.
Get the war on the ground right and the media will report that.
> we put up the facade
> of being united and resolute, then no matter what we think privately, we ARE
> united and resolute to the bad guys and they're much more likley to quit the
> field sooner. If we put up the appearance of being divided and squabbling
> amongst ourselves and losing the courage of our convictions we look weak and
> like someone who can be bullied.
Sorry, this is not WWII, this is a guerilla war fought by an
insurgence of commingled forces: The stronger the enemy (that's us to
the insurgents) the more purposeful/just the fight. The larger and
more menacing a threat we present the more urgent the need for
organized resistance in the minds of those resisting.
> II Quietly put the screws to the iranian economy
> Iran is having some major economic probelms in part because Bush is doing
> exactly thi and in part because they've been putting their money everywhere
> except equipment update and mainetenance.
>
> We don't want to take military action against iran if we can avoid it
> because it should collapse from the inside if we can help make the mullahs
> look weak enough to topple.
Sure, it 'should' topple from within if it topples at all. however,
and you know this, the mullahs represent gods will. Are we, by making
the mullahs look bad, encouraging the masses to over throw their god?
Are they to cast off salvation in favor of, what, global economic
hegemony? Going toe to toe with any theocracy is a loosing
proposition.
Economic sanctions? Sure why not. Just as long as you realize these
are the least effective ways to get a point across. The more you
squeeze the faithful the more they turn to their faith, regardless of
whether the mullahs are doing them justice or not. More over last
time I checked there was plenty of money floating around. you want to
squeeze (break) the entire mid-east? wean the entire planet off of
their oil. Dam all the water up stream and starve them. pull out of
the region completely (no trade, no business deals, no aid, no
nothing) then seal off their borders from the outside, nothing gets
in, no one gets out until they are willing to bend over with a smile
on their face and love in their heart.
> III troop deployments in Iraq
definitely needs adressing. there were to few for the task from the
very begining. perhaps we will have to, i don't know, give up our
sqautters rights and pull in troops stations in other parts of the
world.
> IV Employ Iraqis to rebuild Iraq.
Yes
> V Rebuild the way Iraqi footsoldiers and police officers are trained.
You've made statements about the state of the Iraqi army before, the
inadequate training, graft, corruption, etc. I know that these are
meant to be objective observations and that you are in no way trying
to insult the Iraqi people. Yet the argument doesn't ring quite
true. All militaries are top-down structures. With ex-military and
ex-police men labeled 'suspect' our military is in the uncomfortable
position of trying to turn 'civilians' into soldiers in what amounts
to a draft! Cultural differences aside, plucking civilians green of
the streets and dropping them at the front lines with little more
under their belts then boot camp does not make for an effective or
efficient counter terrorism force. Conscripted service in the
military is not something Iraqis are going to rush to embrace, to much
history there.
Chain of command? Best handled (I think it was you who said this
somewhere) by career military. Agree. Career military means ex-
baathists in Iraqi. My guess is many of these folks have left the
country, with a fair few directly traffic back into the fight.
> VI Make munitions trafficking across the iraqi border harder. This may
> mean patrolling the entire border ourselves, which sucks
How? Do we station a soldier with a gun every 10 feet along a 1200+
border? Do we set up substations every 100 miles with helicopter
patrols 24/7? How do we support the troops stationed there? How do
we even get there? Do we have that kind of equipment in the numbers
we need in working order?
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/terrain.htm
The border with Syria is mostly desert with few roads. The border
with iran is mountainous with few roads. Do we just watch the roads
that are for traffic? Keeping an extra special eye out for long
caravans of insurgents chanting "bagdad or bust?" was it wise for us
to trust this task to uneducated, lawless Iraqi troops who have no
honor, discipline or conscience?
> Remember the whole reason to be in Iraq is to re-envision the mideast in
> terms too concrete to ignore.
Envisioned by what people? Us? Who are we to re-envision anything.
Who are we to decide what needs re-envisioning? And to what
standard? And WHY? You will argue our motivation is to make the
world safer. I will argue it's to make the world more easily
profitable for our primary benefit.
> And we see
> some movement in iran away from the Ayatllahs that run the country and
> toward Iraq's Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani who has a much more peaceful,
> quietist philosophy.
time will tell.
>
> If all we wanted to do is stomp on Saddam's little anthill, we could have
> been out in 2004.
>
Thought we did.
And now ...back to the beginning. Balanced media coverage? Its too
late for that, not because bush doesn't deserve it exactly, but
because the mainstream media no longer does it. I forget who said it
first (ha ha) but I tend (except on rare occasions) to agree, that
news agencies no longer report the news by taking the time to dig up
the 'truth' about what is said, not said, given as fact or dismissed
as false. It simply forwards the 'news' presented by...whoever,
'experts,' officials, spokes people, mascots, etc...because this is
cheaper, easier and faster. Mainstream agencies have become little
more then news 'carriers' desperate to secure ratings. All car chases
and boob job alerts.
lg
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