result #95833 - SHOULD THEY PRINT THIS STUFF?

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political : SHOULD THEY PRINT THIS STUFF?

[+] serious ballot by herzog
created Wed Jun 14, 06

Guardian:
An American-led force of 11,000 troops will launch their biggest offensive against Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan since 2001 on Thursday, concentrating their firepower on an area under British control.

British, American, Canadian and Afghan troops will sweep across militant strongholds in four southern provinces rocked by a wave of Taliban violence in recent months, US officials said.

The ambitious offensive, named Operation Mountain Thrust, aims to cripple the strengthening insurgency before Nato takes command of southern Afghanistan next month.

The heaviest combat is expected in the lawless mountains spanning western Uruzgan province and north-eastern Helmand, where 3,300 British troops are deploying and Britain suffered its first combat fatality last weekend.

Less intensive operations will target pockets of Kandahar and Zabul provinces. US military officials announcing the operation this morning said reconstruction activities would follow.

"This is not just about killing or capturing extremists," US spokesman Tom Collins told reporters in Kabul. "We are going to go into these areas, take out the security threat and establish conditions where government forces, government institutions humanitarian organisations can move in … and begin the real work that needs to be done."

The British troops will fight alongside 2,300 Americans, 2,200 Canadians and about 3,500 Afghans.

On Wednesday, the US military announced that an American soldier had been killed and two others wounded when their patrol was ambushed in Sangin district of Helmand. Another coalition soldier, whose nationality was not disclosed, died in eastern Kunar province.

Dilbar Jan Arman, the governor of Zabul, one of the four targeted provinces, said US forces and local leaders had been planning the operation for the past two months. "We will search for the Taliban wherever they are. We seek to disrupt their underground networks. We hope it will be a success," he told the Guardian in the provincial capital, Qalat.

As he spoke, US Black Hawk helicopters circled the town centre and an American armoured convoy rumbled through the streets, but there were no other signs of military activity.

The 11,000-strong multinational operation is the broadest and most ambitious strike against the Taliban since 2001. The previous largest offensive involved 2,500 American troops and was confined to Kunar province.

Benjamin Freakley, the US major general commanding operations in Afghanistan, said the troops would attack Taliban safe havens across the four provinces simultaneously.

"They'll be in one area, they'll move out of that area, they'll conduct an attack in another area, then move back to a safe haven," he told the Associated Press. "This is our approach to put simultaneous pressure on the enemy's networks, to cause their leaders to make mistakes, and to attack those leaders."

A dramatic surge in fighting since mid-May has killed about 550 people, according to US and Afghan military figures. The Taliban has suffered the vast majority of casualties under US and British bombs; at least 11 coalition soldiers have also died.

Information about civilian deaths is notoriously difficult to obtain due to the inaccessibility of battle sites, but local human rights groups have reported dozens of casualties.

Afghan officials in Qalat welcomed the coming offensive against the Taliban, who reportedly killed at least three people in a recent ambush on a police checkpoint. But many officials also blamed Pakistan for allowing the insurgents to shelter, train and rearm in the lawless tribal areas that run along the Afghan border.

"The Taliban is a disease, like typhoid," said Muhammad Hanif, Zabul's director of education. "And the ISI is the germ that causes it."

Pakistani officials have repeatedly and angrily denied any collusion with the Taliban, saying it is impossible to control the 900-mile, largely unpatrolled border.

- - - -- - - - - - - - - - -

Ok so they just gave very detailed description of the time, location and troop deployment of a major offensive, 24 hours prior to it's start. I doubt that is going to help things (I'm not worried about repeating it here, all terrorists have a free subscription to the guardian anyway, so they already know).

Should they really be printing these stories before they happen? Or should they hold important military details until after they are no longer useful to the enemy, by say, waiting until tomorrow or friday to print this?

-and maybe it's deliberate dis-information	39%
Yes, since journalists were fed the information, openly, by U.S officials, who obviously wanted it m	21%
They should print it immediately, the press should have no loyalty to the military	13%
They should wait until it is of no use to the enemy, the press should have some loyalty	13%
No, they should wait until it is of no use to teh enemy, the press should exercise some judgment	13%

Ballot #95833: has 23 total votes.
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COMMENTS:
If the military is prepared to give this information then it's probably in their best interests to have it published. The military dont need to tell the press this. Its not like the taliban can do anything about it. Except perhaps stay away. Maybe thats it? I would assume so anyway.

by xxxxxxxx on Wed Jun 14, 06 5:27pm [+]

Although the bit about first british loss is simply dead wrong. Or it needs putting into context.

by xxxxxxxx on Wed Jun 14, 06 5:29pm [+]

I'm not sure this is a "news flash" to the Taliban. Sometimes info of this sort is leaked to intimidate or to mislead. Hard to say what is going on here.

by FiddleFaddleOnLSD on Wed Jun 14, 06 6:51pm [+]

If the military has no problem divulging the information to the press, then the info is fair game to use.

by xxxxxxxx on Wed Jun 14, 06 7:44pm [+]

It's not hard to figure out what's going on here. Look at the article, it clearly says that the information was supplied by a named U.S. military spokesman.

I guess in the future, the U.S. military should contact military-avoiding neo-cons to ask their permission before giving information to the press.

MAG_afro

by cranky on Thu Jun 15, 06 7:35am [+]

good point. It's a tactical move by the army/CIA. it's a campaign of misinformation, designed to scare or force relocation of certain key targets, which will be closely monitored by the satellites.

Maybe they smell OBL or Mullah Omar in that area, and want to see what crawls out before the pending attack.

by LCD on Thu Jun 15, 06 1:47pm [+]

Stupid, stupid. Why not just send up smoke signals for the Taliban instead?

by Truthseeker013 on Thu Jun 15, 06 2:53pm [+]

- you musn't believe everything you read in print.
Just becoz someone committed ink to paper duzn't mean it's true!
The Military quite often have The Media publish what they want the public(me,you,Taliban)
to *think* they're being well informed of.

by aplmac on Thu Jun 15, 06 2:59pm [+]

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