|
Tilted Cat Head
Administrator
Location: Manhattan, NY
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cynthetiq
Interesting. I'd love to read it, but I think that like Cimm I'm not qualified to read it nor am I qualified to have a grasp on the opinion I will have from reading it.
We've seen what happens when unqualified people get to put their opinion out there for things like budget votes and you wind up with an incapacitated state government ala California.
I'd like to not see that happen to the US Military.
|
And this is an example of why I sit within the above belief.
Quote:
Echo company got into a gunfight last August 25th in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. You’ll learn that by reading the report found in WikiLeaks’ database. You’ll learn that, after a chase, the marines killed one insurgent. You’ll learn that the insurgents supposedly fled and that the troops – part of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines — decided to stay the night in the area in case the militants returned.
What you won’t learn is that a marine sniper team sparked the shoot-out with a surprise assault on the insurgents; that every member of that team was nearly killed in the battle; that the incident would kick off a three-day siege in which the Taliban nearly had the Echo company squad surrounded; that this spot eventually became an Echo company base; or that, while this extended gun fight was going on, British and Afghan troops were nearby, waging a more gentle form of counterinsurgency as they sat cross-legged under shady patches of farmland and talked with village elders.
I happen to know this because I was there with Echo company, reporting for WIRED magazine. And the wide difference between what actually happened at the Moba Khan compound and what the report says happened there should give caution to those who think they can discover the capital-T truth about the Afghanistan conflict solely through the WikiLeaks war logs. It should also give pause to those officers in military headquarters who count on these updates to learn about what’s happening on the front lines. The military has a problem in how it talks to itself. These reports — ultra-compressed, and focused solely on the bombs-and-bullets part of the war — are a symptom of that shaky reporting system. They have their utility, of course. But they’re not smart or broad enough for the complexities of a war like Afghanistan.
|
There's no way we'll know the connections that happen before and after the documentation of the events.
Put the rest of that into scope of macro big picture battlefield, I'd be selling myself short thinking I totally had a grasp and understanding of what was happening there.
__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.
|