Anti-Taliban offensive begins in Afghanistan

Thanks to you both, clearly this shows Nato Generals safely ensconsed thousands of miles away as usual have not a friggin clue what is going on.

The constant tensions between the need for classified operations to protect
our troops in war and the need for an open media is one that puts military
leaders into a very peculiar place. And from having walked in a classified
world, and then also having had to do media interviews myself  on portions of  operations that weren't classified, one thing I know is this: when the mediawants to talk to the head cheese, you have to produce a head cheese now and  then. And usually the head cheese hates doing it, and if they're smart,someone teaches the head cheese how best to do it. I've done that, too.

Note: I left the above comment on another thread, and then found this one, with similar bent. So I saved myself from some work!

The soldier is right, he's the one who's going to walk into the s*storm. The general speaks from an overall perspective. Generals very rarely lead charges. I think the last time generals led charges was during the U.S. Civil War, and we lost a lot of generals. Generals are policy, planning, coordination, and today, a lot of media work.

If the general doesn't show up for media stuff, then he and his troops will be trashed for being secretive and closing out the media and "the public." If he does show up, then he'll be trashed for a) saying too much and/or b) not saying enough (often both at the same time from the same press conference!

And today, the pressure is on leaders to get "into" the cyber-culture. You know use MySpace, Facebook,etc. etc. Personally, I think that's ridiculous, but the new "gotta have it now in easy small bits" generation demands that leaders "interact" with those types of tools. Alas, those types of tools are even more meaningless than TV soundbytes, but today's media rep knows you've got to play that game too. Otherwise you're out of touch, reclusive, and unavailable to the public, or so they'll say.

Basically, there's nothing most leaders, especially military leaders, can do today to please most of the most vocal parts of the public. Luckily, I bet they realize it, and just "do the show" and focus on their real work. And count on the silent majority type folks to back 'em.

Yea, the bad guys did a prison break and are attacking again. That's what war is about. The bad guys don't lay down and say "oh yea, we decided you're right, we give up!"

Ebb and flow. Ebb and flow.

If people are supporting the bad guys, there are a few good old-fashioned words: carpet bombing, more missiles.

M-M-M-M Carpet Bombing,d-ro-o-o-l-l-l

Thanks Jordan, with recent reports of 400 Taliban less than 15 kilometers from Kandahar, certainly shows the Taliban are serious about getting their old home base back.  

When people use suicide bombers to attain their goal, conventional weapons are pretty useless as a deterrent, when the other side looks forward to dying and taking everyone with him.

How do you fight that?  Even worse when they strap bombs on babies and send them out to our troops, preying on a soldiers sense of decency not to shoot certainly has a big effect on Morale for our soldier. 

A Coup for the Taliban though who care not for anything but Allah.  As Pep says, Carpet bombing them all would bring them all so much closer to those 1,000 virgins or questionable gender or even species for that matter.