THE LEAST ARTICULATE PRESIDENT OF OUR TIMES WILL NOT ALLOW OTHERS TO EXPLAIN THE WAR

A principal reason for MSM mis-reporting? The fucking army itself. From my own experience these upper level military guys are total assholes when it comes to anything other than their specialty. They have a "censor it" predisposition. The result? They release stuff to MSM in a blast release and are surprised when they get it wrong. Among the mismanagements of this war (and they are too many to count) is the brain dead Bush Administration's inability to articulate anything. This incompetence is passed along to the Military, the one organization that should have nothing to do with communicating. Read Michael Yon today for a first hand view of the stupid policies of the army brass , and be prepared to get very angry.

Often I am asked to withhold information due to the immediate sensitivty. And so, I never release the slightest hint. But then somebody in Baghdad--three steps removed from the action here in Mosul-- releases it to CNN and the rest of the world. What is seen on television and in the papers is practically always inaccurate, or is at least poorly framed. But I rarely waste a breath trying to correct the information. It's too late. Life is busy here.

When I was in the service part of the upper level brass spent their time barring movies from the base, barring certain books from the bases, and in some areas barring every paper but the Stars and Stripes; and sometimes we didn't get even that. Now in their zeal to control reporting they have totally lost control of it. Yon points out that many of our successes are triumphs. Triumphs of technology, down and dirty fighting, and luck (ya gotta have luck). Bush is the least articulate president since Coolidge (Did I see Coolidge? No, but my son did.), and it is pathetic. If you can't explain the war in a single sentence you don't belong on the job. Bush is a shitty president. Face it. When you read Yon today I think you'll agree.

For example, our soldiers capture or kill top terror figures in Mosul routinely. Sometimes in stunning operations that display split-second timing. The "higher ups" often say, almost reflexively, that they don't want the enemy to know about these kills or captures.

Sounds reasonable. But whether soldiers sleek through dark allies with silenced weapons, slipping over walls with padded ladders, snatching sleeping terrorists from their beds before they can fully waken; or, whether they engage in a gunfight at a busy intersection and drag terrorists from behind the wheels of their cars--these are not anonymous men. Families notice when daddy's gone missing.

And we don't want the stupid American public to get information we don't deem appropriate.

Every one, even a "higher up" deserves the benefit of the doubt, and should be entitled to one mistake. But how many times, and how many major stories have to be mangled into meaninglessness before someone connects the cables and lets the information flow in a direction other than down the mainstream media drain?

It comes from the top, wherever that is.