[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.

[Eighth Square]

Actually the media is running the country AND destroying it. Whether it be in the courts or the 'gumm'nt' the media is king - unelected scumbags directing the outcome of damn near everything. They ARE the enemy, and will remain so until the nation is free of idiots.

[hopespringseternal]

This country is like a beautiful, ripe apple you pick up only to find that the bottom is maggot-riddled rot. Half of America is virulently anti-American. They will never support America in war, they will always find fault and second guess.

That is why our leaders appear so gutless today compared to the past. There is no consensus that we should defend ourselves against terrorism, and the anti-American networks are wholly concerned with catering to the rotten half of America.

One of the first things we should have done was bomb Al Jazeera out of existence. Second, we should have only allowed reporters in country if they were embedded and approved. Finally, any reporter caught in country without approval should be treated as an enemy combatant and interred until the war is over.

But we can't do that because the rotten half of the country simply does not take war seriously.

[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!

[Jim Noble]

The thing about this analysis (which is fine, as far as it goes) is that it does not expose the fact that the Administration is reacting to what the media says the American people are going to think.

I don't actually care WHAT happened to enemy prisoners at some hellhole in Iraq.

Not even one little bit. I don't know anyone else who cares, either (real person, non-media).

Any Americans who do care are already unrecoverable Kerry voters.

So, the question is, why the big political reaction from Bush and his crew?

The answer, awful though it is, is that Bush himself must care about the media and what they say, and he is not in touch with his own supporters.

THAT'S reason to worry.

[triceratops]

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.

...To do so, 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.

Time is the new enemy.

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.

[nightdriver]

"That propaganda is increasingly, viciously, mindlessly anti-American."

Reagan confronted the liberal, biased American media on this when he suggested to them that they weren't on our side.

Remember how they squealed? The dog that gets hit is always the one that yelps!

[mil-vet]

We NEVER lost a significant military engagement in Viet Nam but the media has everyone thinking we did. Tet 68 was an overwhelming defeat for the north vietnamese, but ask the US public about it and you would think American forces were soundly beaten.

The US media was instrumental in making vietnam the mess it became. Likewise, the US press was complicit in the treasonous announcement by swimmer kennedy that he wished the iraqi terrorists would turn up the heat on US forces so Bush would have to pull out of iraq. Attacks, which had been on the decrease, suddenly surged, starting with the fallujah incident.

An iraqi terrorist, when interviewed, stated that they were not listening to OBL, they were listening to kennedy and took heart from his statements - kennedy, via the US media, was directly responsible for the four civilians murdered in fallujah and the following conflagration there.

The press is aiding and abetting the enemies of the United States from their position of Bush hatred and "blame America first" liberal biases. There was a day when treason was punishable by death.......oops, I'm wishing for "the good old days" again - sigh.

[jjm2111]

Can't we jab Al Jazeera's satellite feed?

[Rightwing Conspiratr1]

The media are the insurgents in Iraq.

[Rightwing Conspiratr1]

Another answer... MIL-SPAN Cable and official military reports and feeds.

[Tom Jefferson]

BTTT

[atomicpossum]

I thought CNN was the "Arab CNN."

[Americanwolf]

Can you charge a media entity with Sedition or Treason.... Mind you I can already hear the screams of McCarthyism from the far left, but I think if there were provable actionable charges that outlets like CNN or CBS, were indeed providing aid and comfort by providing false propaganda to the enemy and to demoralize our troops in the process. The Media might change there tune very quickly. But the pickle is proving it. When is the media going to accept the responsibility that comes with the freedom of speech that this country provides them. If the Government can not hold them accountable someone has too.

[Wolfstar]

The Global War on Terror is going to be a decades-long struggle.

No, actually, it won't if John Kerry is elected. He'll find a way to surrender to the UN and Euroweenies post haste.

[FierceDraka]

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.

[LibKill]

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."

[El Gato]

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.

[Tom Jefferson]

BTTT

[Tolik]

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.

 

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[mo]

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.