March 22, 2003
www.aeronautics.ru
March
22, 2002, 19:10 pm, Philadelphia - The war against Iraq
is being conducted by the Anglo-American coalition in
an atmosphere of complete information vacuum. Turn on
the CNN, MSNBC, FOX or any other major news network and
the picture is the same everywhere – no news.
The same old statements from the same old Rumsfeld; the
same video footage used and reused by all TV news networks
thousands of time over the past three days; the same old
Wesley Clark reminding the world that he is still the US
Army’s most incompetent general, even if now retired. The
TV news channels seem to have all of that but real news
on what is happening on the front.
Yesterday
I was flipping through the hundreds of channels offered
by my satellite TV service in hopes of finding
any new information about the war in Iraq. The CNN was
showing… photos and headlines from some Kuwaiti newspaper.
After talking for half-an-hour about this newspaper and
looking at the print from every possible angle, the CNN
“field reporter” pulled out… one more Kuwaiti newspaper
and talked about it for another fifteen minutes. That was
pathetic even for the CNN.
I wonder how this works: “Camera! Lights! We are going
live in one, two … Quickly! Get me a newspaper!” They are
getting desperate there, I’m telling you… But you’ve probably
been watching the news as well, so you should already know
all of that. This day and age after being unable to find
any decent news on TV or in the press well-connected people
turn to the Internet, so here you are reading what some
“Venik” has to say about the war in Iraq.
The complete lock down by the coalition command on the
flow of information is rather unusual. Normally, the military
would at least actively use the media for disinformation
purposes, as the US military did during the first Persian
Gulf War and during the bombing of Yugoslavia (and during
all those dozens of other armed conflicts in between).
But a complete absence of any significant news makes one
very suspicious: how are things really going in Iraq? Is
Saddam really losing control of the country and of his
troops? Are the Americans and Brits are really in Basra
and Umm Quasar? Did all the planes really return to their
bases as the Pentagon officials in Washington say?
And then there some very lame attempts at propaganda by
the US military. Consider the false report about the entire
Iraqi 51st Infantry Division surrendering to the coalition
troops. An entire division surrendered, really? This must
be huge news. There must be hundreds of videos all over
the world’s news networks showing hordes of demoralized
and hungry Iraqi troops. There must be hundreds of interviews
with the Iraqis themselves and much footage of all the
destroyed and abandoned armor and artillery numbering in
hundreds.
Where
in the hell is all this stuff? All we got was one or
two lame staged videos shot by the military showing a
few
dozen Iraqis half of whom are not even wearing any uniforms.
For that I know they may be civilians or not even Iraqis.
There is no footage of any weapons – was the entire division
unarmed? And then, of course, all the speculation fueled
by official US government reports of a possible missile
strike that might have killed Saddam. As Rumsfeld put it:
“He [Saddam] is either dead or alive.” Yeah, no shit…
Meanwhile, we have no clue as to what is going on in Iraq.
Thank God for the ex-Soviet GRU and a few dedicated Russian
army experts who provide their intelligence
reports on
the Web. But as far as mainstream media goes in terms of
accurate war reporting– you might as well be watching the
Junk Yard Wars on the TLC.
A
day ago it was reported that Bush was meeting with his
entire cabinet, the top military commanders and all of
his advisors at Camp David. Even the elusive like the white
rabbit from “Alice in Wonderland” Dick Cheney was to be
there. That in itself is major news. Clearly Bush was not
meeting with all these smart folks just to drink beer and
eat pretzels. And, yet, this meeting was not, in my opinion,
adequately covered by the media.
It is clear that the war in Iraq was the reason for this
meeting. And after the meeting Bush said that the will
be harder and longer than some expected. That the second
time in the past three days that he mentioned the “harder
and longer” part of this war. Obviously, something is going
on and, as usual, CNN’s got no clue and continues repeating
Rumsfeld’s abracadabra. I understand when the government
wants to brainwash the enemy, but bullshitting its own
people is just sad.
Venik

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