Posted on 01/05/2008 4:39:40 PM PST by Kaslin
Al Qaeda in Iraq knew they could not defeat the United States on the battlefield so they planned to defeat the U.S. at home. In 1968, the communists in Vietnam threw themselves against the U.S. Military with all they had in the Tet Offensive. They were defeated and utterly destroyed. The media, however, convinced the American people that the communists were strong and Walter Cronkite told the world the war was unwinnable. A desperate, suicidal offensive that ended in military failure became the path to victory for the communists. They defeated America on the homefront, not on the battlefield.
This was not lost on al Qeada in Iraq (AQI) and the Iranians. They saw the way in which Tet won the war for the communists and planned to emulate it. AQI, however, was even weaker than the communists in Vietnam. Instead of a direct assault on the military, they would begin killing hundreds of Iraqis to create a managed “civil war” in Iraq. It was all stagecraft for the benefit of the Western media and the Democrats in the U.S. If they could convince Americans that Iraq was a civil war and unwinnable, they would force the U.S. Military to withdraw.
The “civil war” characterization of the war was a force multiplier for the al Qaeda/Democrat media war alliance. “Continuing violence” by itself did not by itself have a very powerful anti-war effect because it had tendencies not just to depress America’s fight spirit, but also to energize it. If the violence showed al Qaeda waging war on the Iraqi people, that would show the American people and the Iraqi people on the same side, which would make Americans want to protect Iraqis, while hinting at the reality on the ground: that more and more Iraqis were turning against al Qaeda.
Of course, AQI and the Iranians knew their time was limited. The more Iraqis they slaughtered, the the more the Iraqis turned against them. It is one thing to convince the American public that the violence was Iraqi-on-Iraqi, but the Iraqis knew better. With each week of violence, more more Sunnis turned on AQI and more Shia turned on the Iranians. It was a race. Could AQI and the Iranians convince the Democrats and the American people the civil war hoax was reality and goad them into surrender before 100% of the Iraqi people turned on them? The media and the Democrats played “useful idiot” to al Qaeda and the AQI plan was within grasp of victory.
Enter General Petraeus and the Surge.
Alec Rawls at Error Theory has the whole article and all the details. You really need to read the whole thing.
Wish the source link had been NYT, USA Today or WSJ... dreams.
Everyone at FR knows this.
I SO look forward to our MSM going down the tubes.
Dinosaur Media Deathwatch(TM) away!
the problem is, they have a second window of opportunity as they try to influence the American Presidential election. That assassination of the American officers on December 26 by embedded insurgents might be the strategy for their surge.
Thank you walter crumkite! scum media at its best, The blood of many innocent young boys are on your hands. I cant believe these idiots almost fell for this trick again. Shame on you despicable politicians on both sides LETS SEE IF YOU CAN GET OUT OF THIS WHEN YOU SEE THE MAN UPSTAIRS!
Very worth reading thanks for posting.
You’re welcome. I thought it was worth reading
Radigan’s Raiders pinglist—if you want on or off, let me know via freepmail.
Just a quick ping before heading out for awhile—found this most interesting.
The msm and the dimocRATS are usefull idiots.
You said it
Preaching to the Choir again.
It’s a given that most of the Freepers understand this to begin with.
This article is well worth the read, as are the comments at the end of the article.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sample:
Mudville nails The New York Times
One particularly glaring sequence was documented by milblogger Greyhawk at the Mudville Gazette. The New York Times’ front page headline for March 27, 2006 read: “30 Beheaded Bodies Found; Iraqi Death Squads Blamed”:
BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 26 — The bodies of 30 beheaded men were found on a main highway near Baquba this evening, providing more evidence that the death squads in Iraq are becoming out of control.
Two days later, Major General Thurman in Iraq exposed the story as a hoax. The Times buried its retracted headline in a paragraph seventeen, where it was joined with fresh claims of sectarian massacre:
The police in western Baghdad discovered 14 bodies on Tuesday, all killed execution-style with gunshots to the head, apparently the latest victims of sectarian bloodletting. On Monday, Iraqi forces found 18 bodies near Baquba with similar wounds. Earlier reports of 30 beheaded bodies found in that area were wrong, the Interior Ministry official said.
“Apparently the victims of sectarian bloodletting,” but not actually the victims of sectarian bloodletting. On April 2nd Stars and Stripes reported that the 18 victims near Baquba had been murdered by al Qaeda terrorists dressed up to look like Iraqi military. Al Qaeda was trying to make it look like the country, and the Iraqi military, were descending into “sectarian bloodletting”
When the Times learned how it was being used by al Qaeda, it should have issued a front page apology and promised not to be duped again. Instead, the Times just kept on reporting each al Qaeda ploy with the same fresh gullibility. It was a game of footsie between them, striving on both sides for American defeat.
This guy has been reading my posts.
the truth falls on a traitor’s deaf ears...
Thanks for the ping. Hope you have a nice evening. The enemy from within proves the most dangerous.
How could one expect a commie family owned magazine to do such a thing.
bump
A GREAT piece. Original thinking? Well, how far have we come when obvious, common sense and uninhibited by political correctness plain talk looks like brilliance.
Those who do not state the obvious truth about Jihad will sadly end up enabling jihad.
Excellent article. The democrats very nearly lost this one for us. I hope one of the lessens learned from this war is that the military needs to find a way to combat enemy propaganda at home. It appears the military had a very effective counter-propaganda campaign in Iraq. This war could have been lost if only one or two things had happened differently. For example, if 2006 had been a Presidential election year, we might have ended up with a defeatest in the White House.
THANK YOU for posting this excellent commentary!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.