{"id":238,"date":"2006-03-18T00:25:57","date_gmt":"2006-03-18T07:25:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/?p=238"},"modified":"2017-09-13T20:45:12","modified_gmt":"2017-09-14T03:45:12","slug":"operation-swarmer-was-hype","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/?p=238","title":{"rendered":"Operation Swarmer Was Hype"},"content":{"rendered":"

You heard me.\u00c2\u00a0 If you followed the news media’s passionate coverage of “the biggest air assault” of the Iraq war, you now know what happens when someone dangles a big shiny in front of the American news media.<\/p>\n

Time has a web exclusive on it:\u00c2\u00a0 On Scene: How Operation Swarmer Fizzled<\/a><\/p>\n

A quote from the article, with my bold lettering:<\/p>\n

“But contrary to what many many television networks erroneously reported, the operation was by no means the largest use of airpower<\/span> since the start of the war. (“Air Assault<\/span>” is a military term that refers specifically to transporting troops into an area<\/span>.) In fact, there were no airstrikes<\/span> and no leading insurgents were nabbed in an operation that some skeptical military analysts described as little more than a photo op<\/span>. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more, there were no shots fired<\/span> at all and the units had met no resistance, said the U.S. and Iraqi commanders.”<\/p>\n

Some are suggesting it was all a big publicity stunt to show off the new and approved Iraqi army.\u00c2\u00a0 The troops secured some documents and war materiel<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 That much is true, and it’s a good thing.\u00c2\u00a0 No one gets to use those weapons on them.\u00c2\u00a0 Everything else is psychic lip gloss.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t be fooled by the shiny.<\/p>\n

I suppose some under-informed yahoo is going to complain that I shouldn’t challenge the official story coming from the White House, that it’s arrogant, that it’s undermining the war effort.<\/p>\n

What<\/span> freakin’ war effort?\u00c2\u00a0 Go back and read it again.\u00c2\u00a0 Our own government is lying to us.\u00c2\u00a0 Lying.\u00c2\u00a0 Bad thing.\u00c2\u00a0 And instead of doing their homework, mainstream news is going by faxed press releases.\u00c2\u00a0 They phoned it in.\u00c2\u00a0 Lazy.<\/p>\n

Besides, how is a soldier going to feel when pseudo-patriotic idiots pat them on the back for something that never happened?\u00c2\u00a0 That soldier is going to feel like a fraud.\u00c2\u00a0 That kind of patriotism isn’t for the troops.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s for the poor sucker at home, the one that’s too scared, too overwhelmed, or sometimes too damn lazy to use her brain.<\/p>\n

Listen, little neocon.\u00c2\u00a0 The information is out there, but it doesn’t always come to you.\u00c2\u00a0 If you can’t get enough news about your favorite movie or TV show, you’ll hit the ‘net faster than you can say “fanfic.”\u00c2\u00a0 But if it’s about the real world, about us, suddenly you can’t be bothered.<\/p>\n

The war protesters and angry lefties ain’t holding us back.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re not the ones who take turns cheering and then ignoring the Abu Grieb pictures.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re not the ones blowing off high crimes and misdemeanors.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re not the ones who feel safer under a dictator who sends people out to be tortured, who uses a secret police force to quelch free speech, who hides behind Allah and squirms when told that he might like “Brokeback Mountain.”<\/p>\n

Think about it.\u00c2\u00a0 Did I just describe America…or Iraq?<\/p>\n

No, it’s not them.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You heard me.\u00c2\u00a0 If you followed the news media’s passionate coverage of “the biggest air assault” of the Iraq war, you now know what happens when someone dangles a big shiny in front of the American news media. Time has a web exclusive on it:\u00c2\u00a0 On Scene: How Operation Swarmer Fizzled A quote from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,6,27],"tags":[71,35,70,26],"class_list":["post-238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-livejournal-postings","category-offtopic","category-personal","tag-iraq","tag-livejournal","tag-news","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=238"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":244,"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238\/revisions\/244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}