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Kill Faster! - Defeated by the Media
The New York Post ^ | May 20, 2004 | Ralph Peters

Posted on 05/20/2004 5:19:06 AM PDT by Tom Jefferson

Edited on 05/26/2004 5:21:56 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

May 20, 2004 -- IN Iraq last month, I learned a great deal about the future of combat. By watching TV. During the initial fighting in Fallujah, I tuned in al-Jazeera and the BBC. At the same time, I was getting insider reports from the battlefield, from a U.S. military source on the scene and through Kurdish intelligence. I saw two different battles.


(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: aljazeera; army; deceit; fallujah; iraq; liberalmedia; marines; media; mediabias; ralphpeters; waronterror
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To: tet68

And reporters SHOULD be embedded with our troops, nothing like receiving fire and having to depend on your fellow Americans to get your mind right.

Al Jizzera = toast/kaputt/off the air.

After we get over the shock of the coming terror attack,
and "War" is DECLARED, we will see this.

It won't do any good for the 10 or 20 thousand dead and
dying mind you, but it will be the right thing to do.


61 posted on 05/21/2004 4:44:32 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: TruthInExile
You're being soft. They're traitors. Apply the Law. Try and kill them all.

I would settle for the president, or Rumsfeld, or ANYONE in the administration OR in the party leadership stepping up before a mike & calling a spade a spade - to wit, the US media is plumping for an American defeat and is getting our guys killed.

62 posted on 05/21/2004 4:51:30 PM PDT by skeeter
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To: Tom Jefferson

What we needs to do is find a way to disrupt and defeat the Leftist media in their efforts to undermine our country at every turn.


63 posted on 05/21/2004 4:53:31 PM PDT by FierceDraka (The English word "Left" is translated into Latin as "Sinister". Think about it.)
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To: Tom Jefferson
Ralph Peters is right.

Kill as fast as we can. Kill them faster than they can breed.

As one of my friends asked me when I said that, "What will that make of us?"

My answer: "Winners."

64 posted on 05/21/2004 4:55:25 PM PDT by LibKill (There's nobody more peaceful and less troubling than a dead trouble-maker.)
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To: Travis McGee
How do we put pressure on our own Tokyo Roses and Lord Haw Haws? How do we make it so painful for them to continue to be 5th column traitors, that they cease and desist?

Travis, the only way to do that would be to make them AFRAID.

A few well-known leftist "journalists" getting their a$$es kicked in the street might get the message across. But a$$-kicking is wrong! (snicker)

BTW, love your work!

65 posted on 05/21/2004 6:01:41 PM PDT by FierceDraka (The English word "Left" is translated into Latin as "Sinister". Think about it.)
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To: haywoodwebb

"Anyone know a good place to start another republic?"

Texas. Come on down!


66 posted on 05/21/2004 6:07:36 PM PDT by walden
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To: FierceDraka

Thanks!


67 posted on 05/21/2004 6:25:41 PM PDT by Travis McGee (----- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com -----)
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To: Tom Jefferson
This is not the future of wars...it is the present. The media will defeat us if we don't act quickly, decisively and totally.

It's also the past. The media, led by Uncle Wally at CBS, won the "Tet Offensive" for the VC and the NVA. Actually for the NVA. The VC were pretty much wiped out and the war was fought almost exclusively by the NVA after that.You can ask the many former VC who later became "boat people" and now reside in the US, Australia or Cananda.

68 posted on 05/21/2004 6:40:10 PM PDT by El Gato (Federal Judges can twist the Constitution into anything.. Or so they think.)
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To: Tom Jefferson

BTTT


69 posted on 05/22/2004 7:18:04 AM PDT by Tom Jefferson
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To: johnb838

you are correct...


70 posted on 05/22/2004 9:18:23 AM PDT by prognostigaator
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To: Travis McGee

You know the logical consequence of both Peters' article and your own question: our soldiers are going to believe -- and maybe rightly so -- that they can either kill hostile journalists, or be killed by them.


71 posted on 05/22/2004 9:22:36 AM PDT by mrustow
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To: mrustow
That's right. Unless they are long term embedded reporters who share the soldier's life, and report honestly the way the soldiers see the war.

And in an era of snipers and RPGs using optical sights, it's very easy to mistake a reporter's lens for a sniper or RPG.

72 posted on 05/22/2004 9:38:27 AM PDT by Travis McGee (----- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com -----)
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To: Tom Jefferson; Lando Lincoln; quidnunc; .cnI redruM; Valin; yonif; SJackson; dennisw; ...
Ralph Peters:

IN Iraq last month, I learned a great deal about the future of combat. By watching TV. During the initial fighting in Fallujah, I tuned in al-Jazeera and the BBC. At the same time, I was getting insider reports from the battlefield, from a U.S. military source on the scene and through Kurdish intelligence. I saw two different battles.

The media weren't reporting. They were taking sides. With our enemies. And our enemies won. Because, under media assault, we lost our will to fight on.

...The Marines in Fallujah weren't beaten by the terrorists and insurgents, who were being eliminated effectively and accurately. They were beaten by al-Jazeera. By lies. Get used to it.

This is the new reality of combat. Not only in Iraq. But in every broken country, plague pit and terrorist refuge to which our troops will have to go in the future. And we can't change it. So we had better roll up our camouflage sleeves and deal with it.

...Real atrocities aren't required. Everything American soldiers do is portrayed as an atrocity. World opinion is outraged, no matter how judiciously we fight.

....We could have won militarily. Instead, we surrendered politically and called it a success. Our enemies won the information war. We literally didn't know what hit us.

The implication for tactical combat — war at the bayonet level — is clear: We must direct our doctrine, training, equipment, organization and plans toward winning low-level fights much faster. Before the global media can do what enemy forces cannot do and stop us short. We can still win the big campaigns. But we're apt to lose thereafter, in the dirty end-game fights.

We have to speed the kill.

...We've concentrated on critical soldier skills, but ignored the emerging requirements of battle. We've worked on almost everything except accelerating urban combat — because increasing the pace is dangerous and very hard to do.  Now we have no choice. We must learn to strike much faster at the ground-truth level, to accomplish the tough tactical missions at speeds an order of magnitude faster than in past conflicts. If we can't win the Fallujahs of the future swiftly, we will lose them.

...we must develop the capabilities to fight within the "media cycle," before journalists sympathetic to terrorists and murderers can twist the facts and portray us as the villains. Before the combat encounter is politicized globally. Before allied leaders panic. And before such reporting exacerbates bureaucratic rivalries within our own system.

...Fighting faster at the dirty-boots level is going to be tough. As we develop new techniques, we'll initially see higher casualties in the short term, perhaps on both sides. But as we should have learned long ago, if we are not willing to face up to casualties sooner, the cumulative tally will be much, much higher later. We're bleeding in Iraq now because a year ago we were unwilling even to shed the blood of our enemies.

The Global War on Terror is going to be a decades-long struggle. The military will not always be the appropriate tool to apply. But when a situation demands a military response, our forces must bring to bear such focused, hyper-fast power that our enemies are overwhelmed and destroyed before hostile cameras can defeat us.

If we do not learn to kill very, very swiftly, we will continue to lose slowly.

 

     Nailed It!

     Moral Clarity BUMP  !

This ping list is not author-specific. You are welcome in or out, just freepmail me.

73 posted on 05/24/2004 12:13:48 PM PDT by Tolik
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To: 7thson
"Kill the feed. Jam the signal. Establish "technical difficulties." Do something that shuts them down. Instead of a seven second delay, there should be a seven hour delay. We have military media people. Use them to record what is going on and then present it to the established media. Either use it or lose it. If they refuse to use it, they do not belong on the battlefield. Ship them home!"

Nice rant, it reminds me of ...

"I ran out of gas. I, I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake. A terrible flood. Locusts. IT WASN'T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD."

74 posted on 05/24/2004 12:26:37 PM PDT by BlueLancer (Der Elite Møøsënspåånkængrüppen ØberKømmändø (EMØØK))
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To: Old Sarge
Our military approach to reporters should be crystal clear:

embed or dead!

We should publically state that all Journalists who are not embedded with our forces found in Iraq will be shot on sight, and then shoot a baker's dozen or so.

75 posted on 05/24/2004 12:39:54 PM PDT by CatoRenasci (Ceterum Censeo Arabiam Esse Delendam -- Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit)
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To: Tolik

bttt


76 posted on 05/25/2004 2:22:31 AM PDT by lainde (Heads up...We're coming and we've got tongue blades...And panties!)
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To: PhilipFreneau
"Propagandists, including those in the employment of the media, are grave enemies during war time and should be killed."

I agree! But we all know this isn't going to happen.

Don't we have the right to kick the media out of Iraq? If, not we should. No, media would be better than what we have.

77 posted on 05/25/2004 2:56:27 AM PDT by auggy (http://home.bellsouth.net/p/PWP-DownhomeKY /// Check out My USA Photo album & Fat Files)
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To: Tom Jefferson

this really is all to be expected...America was and is formed of the rejects and those that have rejected the remainder of the world.....this is the tie that binds us as well with Israel.


78 posted on 05/25/2004 3:21:05 AM PDT by mo
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