Spinning their brains out
Two of our ace columnists revise reality in order to make trouble for our Afghan mission:
1) Greg Weston in the Ottawa Sun:
And our columnists sure missed this article in the Feb. 24 NY Times Magazine:
On the other hand some fairly sensible words on eastern Afstan from Maclean's Paul Wells:
1) Greg Weston in the Ottawa Sun:
...2) Haroon Siddiqui in the Toronto Star:
Instead, French troops are being deployed to the less perilous eastern area of Afghanistan, supposedly to free up U.S. forces there to join the Canadian efforts in the south...
...I guess our media bright lights missed this Washington Post story April 4:
But the mission is no less muddled just because France is sending a battalion to the relative safety of eastern Afghanistan...
Border Complicates War in AfghanistanTry reading that and then maintain the east is some picnic. But facts just do not matter when there is an agenda to push.
Insurgents Are Straddling Pakistani Line
And our columnists sure missed this article in the Feb. 24 NY Times Magazine:
Battle Company Is Out ThereRead that for a bit of "less perilous". No need to take seriously Messrs Weston and Siddiqui. But the hard fighting in the east may actually have achieved something (along with some good COIN doctrine), perhaps the basis of our columnists' above puerile and polemical punditry.
On the other hand some fairly sensible words on eastern Afstan from Maclean's Paul Wells:
...Other pundits might well note Mr Wells' slightly more serious--even with attitude-- committing of journalism.
The optics of moving American soldiers from East to South as they are displaced by new French arrivals may be unfortunate [only from the reflexively anti-American Canadian view], but operationally it will present advantages. The Americans have longer tours of duty, which encourages them to take a long view and to accumulate expertise while they're in country. Dan K. McNeill, the American commander of ISAF, told a group I was travelling with last October that of all NATO troops in Afghanistan, it is the Americans in the east who have operated the most successful counterinsurgency. McNeill said he expected not to be taken seriously because he's an American vaunting American results, but he insisted it's so...
posted by Mark, Ottawa at 5:48 p.m.
2 Comments:
but without the false claim that the East region is a calm area, their argument that they build in the column makes no sense.
So when you don't have the facts or the knowledge, or even if you do, it's OK these days to just guess or make up anything you want to substantiate your claims.
That's why journalism is so well respected these days.
I would argue that Siddiqui is not a journalist.
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