People Make Me Smile

So once again I found myself wanting to rant about the comments I found on the news articles I've been reading. I've kept from going onto any hard core rants because most of the idiotic comments are from people who don't really know any better. Nine times out of ten, the stupidest comments come from people who don't really have a clue about what is going on. I've read things ranging from complaints that there was no proof for invading Afghanistan (the commentator was probably high for most of September 2001) and about how we are losing the war in Afghanistan because the Taliban are digging in and "fending us off" (in which case the person doing the complaining is probably basing this off of the tactics he learned from Halo or Mario and envisions a Taliban castle atop a Afghan mountain that we have been attacking in the grandest Napoleonic style since the beginning of the war.)

These well-meaning people are fun to listen to and can usually contradicted with a sarcastic comment and will be sent on their way, but the people that really entertain me are the ones that know exactly what they are talking about, and just don't care.

Today I was reading an article that actually addressed one of my recent concerns: The fact that the media has been playing up an upcoming offensive, Operation Moshtarak (which means "together" in the language of the Afghans.)
I, like others I know, had been concerned that this large operation was being publicised an obnoxious amount, and the article basically said "Hey, we know. The generals are doing it on purpose. They said it's cool."
I still don't know if it's a good call, but its not the media being silly, at least not this time, so I was reassured in humanity just a little from reading the article.

Then I made the mistake of reading the comments posted on the article.
Faith in humanity took another kick to the face.

There was a long list of the usual comments about how everything is bad, the military is awful, and the strategy is horrid. Ok guys. Whatever you say. That's cool.
Then came a comment that really made me smile. I think I will quote it en mass just for effect.
JD writes...

"This entire story is absolute garbage, and pretty naive. Obviously CNN is doing its govenment mouth piece thing again. First of all using the media is part of the plan. Repeat. Using the media is part of the plan. Cultivate lines of communication and feed disinformation into it, and plan attacks based on the results. Propaganda. Perfect example: Desert Storm. They marketed the amphibious assault, Sadam focused his defenses to combat this. The US used the last battleship to make lots of noise with the big guns, When the Marines landed they were greated by news crews, while the real attack did a complete end-around flanking maneuver, attacking the enemy from behind. It was brilliant, but then someone went "wait a minute." They purposely fed the media disinformation, lies. An effective tactic learned from the Nazis I'd imagine. They did it prior and have been doing it ever since, even against the American people, to cultivate support for our only viable true export, war, war profiteering and the military/industial complex. It a huge war machine from top to bottom, and right now the leash is off. So CNN... please spare me the sheeple contrived context or pretext for this crap. Surely Goebbels would have done it with more tact?"

Mmmmm. Yeah.
Just soak that in.

So basically this guy is mad at the military because they're using strategy? That's the vibe I'm getting. I really have no reason to complain though, because I nearly forgot about the rule of war where we have to publish all of our operations plans on the internet. And before we start missions, we have to shoot flares, and shout over loudspeakers "WE ARE STARTING OUR ATTACK NOW!" in seventeen different languages.
My bad.

Fortunately for my sanity, the next poster was a super duper paratrooper, who ended his post with "All the way!"

ATW.