Prop! goes the Ganda

As some of us had all too easily predicted, the latest atrocity committed by American troops and NATO – the assault on Marja in Afghanistan – is a fiasco of PR with the New York Times happily churning out propaganda by the bucketful. First we have…Countdown to an Afghan Offensive!

Why it’s just like a sporting event, countdown, get it? Countdown, 10,9,8,7,6,5,ready, set, go! Wait till our heroes start popping some rag heads, should be a great sporting season. Then, the Times almost waxes poetic with this...

In the Cold of Morning, Descending Into Conflict

Are you sure we aren’t in the novel section? Here, we are treated to an interesting variation of “It was a dark and stormy night…”

MARJA, Afghanistan — The helicopter was filled with men and dark in its cabin when a voice cut over the whir of the rotors.

“Five minutes out!”

The men of Company K, Third Battalion, Sixth Marines, shoved their clips into their rifles and pulled back their bolts. A chorus of clanks rose and fell. [They shoved their what, where?]

The whir of the rotors filled the cabin again. The helicopter banked in the darkness.

“One minute out!”

The men of Company K hollered and whooped.

Oh lock and load baby, lock and load! Oh I love the manliness of it all, and such good writing as well. I mean “A chorus of clanks…” that’s like, you know, some real awesome imagery. “A chorus of clanks”, all that’s needed is some unison farting and this could be journalism at its finest hour. Yesterday we were treated to…

Coalition Troops Storm a Taliban Haven

Indeed, the Marja operation will be the first real test of General McChrystal’s strategy — that is, whether it can spare civilian lives without compromising the safety of his men.

“The first test is, can you do this without killing a lot of civilians,” the senior NATO commander said. “I would rather you take longer, I would rather you go deliberately. Whatever we do to limit that, actually, in my view, makes us look more powerful.”

The centerpiece of the Marja operation is the Afghan government-in-waiting that will move into the town the moment the shooting stops. That is an attempt to compensate for past failures, when an inadequate government was left behind.

In May 2009, British and Afghan forces conducted a large military operation in Marja itself. It was a bigger than expected fight — and the allies vowed to go back in again.

Today, they are.

So as our troopers slaughter Afghans what it’s actually about is whether General Stanley’s “new” plan is a success or not, kind of an experiment to see how many Afghans it manages to murder. An unknown and unnamed NATO commander sees the number of bodies stacking up as a test. But the bestest part ever, even betterer than the moronic NATO commander is the way this particular piece of propaganda ends,”— and the allies vowed to go back in again. Today, they are(Shades of Dug-Out-Doug!).”

At any rate as far as the NYT goes these “articles” are pure crap. I’m amazed that it takes as many words to convey absolutely no useful or insightful information as the people who write for the Times use.