KAF attack, or, the enemy within (notably Globeites): Matthew Fisher explains/At Upperdate: "It wasn’t an attack; it was a media buy"

An recent post by Adrian MacNair:

Taliban Attack Repulsed, Media Make Hay

Now, front page, top of the fold, relentless Globeite spin:

Bold base strike shows Taliban's rising resolve
Missile attack on Kandahar Air Field reflects insurgents’ determined battle for hearts and minds of Afghans

Paul Koring
Washington [?!?]...

Wrong subhead, wrong. It's Western "hearts and minds" they're after. This interview with our best war corresponedent is an absolute must-listen, latter part the most telling:

...
Monday, May 24, 2010
Deadly Weekend Attacks in Kandahar and Kabul
Madely in the Morning - 7.50am -- Canwest's Middle East and South Asia bureau chief, Matthew Fisher, is on the line with Mark Sutcliffe with the latest on this weekend's deadly attacks in Kabul and Kandahar.
mp3 (click here to download)...

A few highlights:

*the KAF attack was qualitatively different in that it was coordinated with a perimeter attack--that failed; rocket attacks are quite regular.

(Here's a grand example of media hooey, courtesy CP:

Rockets and mortars rained down [emphasis added] on the main Canadian military base in Afghanistan late Saturday as insurgents attempted to breach Kandahar Airfield in a brazen nighttime attack...

At least five rockets and mortars were fired [emphasis added, not exactly what I'd call a hard rain fallin'] at the vast Kandahar airbase. But no insurgents entered the base after they were repelled by security forces, ISAF said...)

*The Taliban were "just trying to get a lot of attention"; that "works...in undermining support for the mission overseas"; the Talibs "achieved...a strategic success" from the "massive media publicity"; the Taliban are trying to achieve a victory they "cannot achieve on the battlefield" (Mr Fisher points out the Washington story above); the attack "proves nothing except that the Taliban can manipulate the Western media like the violin".

*The main ISAF operations at Kandahar--Kandahar City itself will be the "key area" (more here and here)--are "unfolding very slowly", slipping to July, September, October (August break for Ramadan); there are difficulties bringing in all the new US forces.

Update comment: Well into Mr Koring's story one finds this gem of reality,

...
The attack, militarily inconsequential in terms of the overall war, nevertheless demonstrates a Taliban resolve and capacity to attack foreign troops even inside heavily fortified bases

but why is it followed by this linkage?

– just as Afghan insurgents did a generation ago as they eventually drove out more than 100,000 Soviet soldiers...

Maybe to make readers think things are hopeless?

The Soviets were not defeated militarily by the Mujahedin (the Taliban did not even exist then). Rather the Soviets gave up politically--sound familiar?--and withdrew in good order, completely by February 1989, after extensive international negotiations (more here, here and here). I guess Mr Koring doesn't know those facts; in any event they do not fit his agenda.

Upperdate: For some balance take look at this post at Kandahar Diary, esp. the third comment:

The Bad Guys Step It Up

While from Bouhammer's Afghan Blog:

Ready America, We see the Worst summer has started

You know it was just the other day when I wrote the posting, Obama sees heavy fighting ahead in Afghanistan, like DUUHHH! and then now over the last few days we have major, coordinated attacks against the two largest bases in Afghanistan. Both Baghram and Kandahar have been attacked in complex attacks with minimal injuries against Coalition Forces. So tactically they were complete failures on the enemy’s part, but in the Information Operations campaign these were huge victories for the enemy. They showed to the people of Afghanistan that they can attack at their whim against the most “secure” places in the entire country.

Too bad for the guys that took part in the fighting, as they were pure cannon fodder with no chance of surviving it. They must have been at the bottom of the terrorist graduating class, and easily expendable.

So I hope you are ready America, and Coalition partners. We are about to see the worst of combat we have ever seen...

Both via The Thunder Run, worth a regular look. Plus from Babbling in a comment at Mr MacNair's post:

...this was “earned media.” And the best part for those who planned the attack is that it affected two centres of gravity [good point - MC]: the Afghan population gets to see how bold and fearless the insurgents are, and the allied populations back home get to see just how unsafe everything is over in Afghanistan after almost ten years of fighting. Sharp IO.

Too bad “our” media hasn’t figured out just how sharp.

An earlier comment:

It wasn’t an attack; it was a media buy.

Quite.

Uppestdate: Mr Fisher in print:

Taliban scores publicity coup