Does anyone actually know whats going on in Iraq?

[Trident-za]

The reason I ask is fairly simple: I don't have access to any news other than the net (no CNN/Fox/BBC TV etc), but from what I've seen the place has gone ballistic. Fighting all over the place, civilians being taken hostage, cities (or areas thereof) being taken over by militia etc. And yet.... the last 2 days there have been very few coalition casaulties from what I can see in the media.... I've just read about video footage of a US marine's body being mis-treated, but no marine died today according to media???

This doesn't gel for me. Either, the chaos isn't as bad as the (internet) media is making out, or coalition casaulty figures are not being released. What is the case, really and trully?

Please note, my american friends, that I'm NOT being ghoulish.... I sincerely hope the chaos is being blown out of proportion by the media! Simply put, I'd like to know wtf is ACTUALLY going on...

Edit: I know, for example, that the DoD has not updated their "wounded" statistics since the 4th of April, which is odd.

[American Patriot]

It's media propaganda BS.

http://www.cjtf7.com/media-information/briefing-transcripts.htm

This March 7th Centcom briefing might help.

[cut]

if the media is saying all sorts of different things you know this is war.

[Threelions]

Thanks for starting this thread. i have been wondering the same questions, and i have access to cnn, fox, internet, blah blah blah. Its all confusing as hell to me. And now, just to make life more confusing a'stan is having problems as well. I

Cheers

[Trident-za]

Thanks for the link, American Patriot ...

Maybe I'm a cynic (actually, I am)... but this is also just media propoganda to an extent. They say what they WANT us to know/believe, not what is actually going on. I'm sure the "truth" is somewhere in between the 2 extremes. I hope the guys from this forum who are going to Iraq soon are going to give us "news withOUT the spin".

Note: my comments are not intended to start a flame war. I have no idea if the info at this link is 100% accurate or not, but I'd feel better hearing it from an entity that doesn't have political agendas (hard to find, unfortunately).

[computer]

American Patriot Wrote:

It's media propaganda BS.

http://www.cjtf7.com/media-information/briefing-transcripts.htm

This March 7th Centcom briefing might help.

And you think a briefing from Centcom made public is entirely comprised of non-propaganda content?

[cut]

It's media propaganda BS.

http://www.cjtf7.com/media-information/briefing-transcripts.htm

This March 7th Centcom briefing might help.

I thought centcom were less reliable, during the invasion they actively mislead the media.

[Trident-za]

A quote from the Centcom link posted above:


Q I was down in Najaf and Kufa yesterday. The Mahdi Army was completely in control of those two towns. There were hundreds of men with RPGs, had taken police cars. They were manning police checkpoints. How are you going to go in and get those people out?

GEN. KIMMITT: Yep. Najaf is one of those cities that we do have some concern about. We do have a fairly strong coalition presence on the outskirts of the city. But we've got to recognize the time and the number of pilgrims inside of Najaf city right now. We are weighing our options, thinking very carefully about the way to restore order to Najaf. But at the same time, doing it in such a manner that does not alienate the pilgrims who are celebrating one of the most important observances of the Muslim calendar

Does anyone else find the answer particularly evasive and non-informative? This is the point I'm trying to make: nobody is telling exactly what is going on..... they have "some concerns" about a town/city with hundreds of men with RPGs? Umm, OK..... :roll: :roll:

[American Patriot]

There are thousands of pilgrims there to celebrate a Shiite holiday. I wonder if those pilgrims are there to fight the U.S.

[Felix]

If the media is propagnada, CENTCOM is DEFINITELY PROPAGANDA, for clear and obvious reasons.

[cut]

no-one knows exactly what's going on, and any centcom knows is censored for the media, it's not all bad the BBC has always had a good reputation and in my opinion they still report the news to the best of their ability, i.e. with as little bias as you can possibly get. The arab TV station are good to get the arab point of view of things. Americans services like are good to get the american perspective and are reliable in terms of american news.

[Trident-za]

An interesting article I found.


The Army has launched what I can only describe as a smear campaign against me by trying to destroy my credibility. They are claiming, among other things, that I am trying to present my self as an official Army or Pentagon spokesman (God forbid!) and that I have been trying to set national policy (I never realized I had that much authority). They are, of course, trying to minimize my experience and expertise by saying, in effect; I don’t know what I am talking about. Pretty standard stuff for a large agency trying to muzzle someone who is speaking the truth about them.



Mind you, these accusations are being made primarily by men (I use the term loosely here) that either never served a day in Iraq or Afghanistan or Iraq or spent their time in-theater in a nice, air-conditioned office with Internet and e-mail connections 24/7, showers, latrines, good food and never went over the wire except to re-deploy. This was done when soldiers like myself were going out, over the wire, on 3-4 mission a day, seven days a week and getting about 3-4 hours of sleep a day, if we were lucky.



We took incoming from RPG’s, AK-47’s, and 60 and 80 mm mortars every day and night. We were also exposed to the very real danger of attack from the enormous crowds that circled use every time we would stop and dismount in a town or village. As for my team, a THT (Tactical HUMINT Team) for which I was the team leader, we were responsible for some of the biggest and most significant intelligence collection efforts in the central Sunni Triangle area in which we operated. I am very proud of my team and what they accomplished, usually under very difficult conditions; conditions made all the more difficult because of poor leadership at the 0-4 and 0-5 levels, some of the very same people now leveling baseless allegations against me.




http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=DefenseWatch.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=436&rnd=981.8578468008299

And before the naysayers get stuck in because it written by some anonoymous person, he has his name and photo attached.

This kinda relates to the topic of this thread: propoganda, and the reality. I'm still kind of hoping someone who knows whats going on will post soon .

[The Walrus]

Though the different media outlets view on the severity of the recent violence is shaped by their agenda, but no matter what spin you put on it, the fact of the matter is that the situation has deteriorated (wether this is temporary or long term or is gonna get worse/better is anyones guess), in the past few days serious resistance has spread beyond the Sunni Triangle and many Iraqis and coalition soldiers have been killed, the fact that the soldiers who were due to return home around now are being told to stay speaks for itself.
My guess is that the resistance will only worsen as the run-up to the July handover gets closer.

[Trident-za]

As an aside: why is everyone assuming that the violence/terrorism will subside after this handover of power? Do you guys know something I don't?

[martinexsquaddie]

well my brothers in basra and although theres a lot of trouble going on its hardly all out war and the mahdi army are far from the majority in Basra at least.

[Trident-za]

Thanks Martin... I read your "reports" from Basra as often as you post them - great reading (and, I understand your "squaddie" ;) )

Persuadeyour brother to move north so we can get some real news? No, scratch that... "north" sounds dangerous....

[Andrekid]

O que está acontecendo no Iraque?
Simplesmente o que aconteceria em qualquer pais invadido por outro pais.
Os iraquianos estão lutando contra seus invasores como os americanos fizeram contra os ingleases na independencia, como os franceses fizeram na segunda guerra, como os vietnamitas fizeram contra os EUA nas decades de 60 e 70.

Só isso e se fosse em qualquer outro pais onde existam pessoas patrioticas e que amam sua liberdade isso acocteceria

[Trident-za]

OK, weird problem I'm having.... I religiously check a certain site everyday (http://lunaville.org/warcasualties/Summary.aspx) for news on Iraq. They mainly keep track os casaulties, but have been a reliable list of "news" too.

However, in the last 2 days I've noticed a strange thing. They post news reports without updating casaulty figures accurately.... for example, yesterday, the KIA figure for April was 38.... then they post an article saying "5 marines die"... the KIA figure stays at 38???? Today, I see it had gone to 40.... then they post an article saying "2 marines shot by sniper".... and the KIA figure jumps to 41???

Really odd.... I'm not trying to say anything about the site... it just adds to the confusion, which is why I originally posted this thread. The news reports and the "official" figures seem to be mutually exclusive concepts.

[crazyman]

I got kinda fed up with trying to decide between the doomsday reports in the media, and the stuff coming outa the pentagon, so I went to a first person source. an army LTC came to do a 90 lecture to my rotc class. he spent a year as a brigade G-5, civil affairs. this means he spent his time working with iraqis 24-7. govt/public work, that kind of thing. His opinion was pretty simple. he figured about 85% of iraqis were very glad we were there. Us invading got rid of a tyrant who was de-stabilizing the entire region. Unfortunatly ol' saddams' reign killed off many of the people who had the ability and drive to run the nation via representative govt, so it was his opinion it will take 2-3 more years before the nation is ready to govern itself. the main problem is from former saddam loyalists who have turned ferral and are not waging a guerrila war, because they are mad about losing their position and power when we invaded. the nation is vastly improving. this same officer brought with him reports he'd gathered, showing how basic things like electricity, waste disposal, food, health care, etc have improved over the last 13 months. the change is dramatic. hope this helps out somewhat