On Scene: How Operation Swarmer Fizzled ..... TIME

[RedEarth]

Web Exclusive| World
On Scene: How Operation Swarmer Fizzled
Not a shot was fired, or a leader nabbed, in a major offensive that failed to live up to its advance billing

Posted Friday, Mar. 17, 2006

Four Black Hawk helicopters landed in a wheat field and dropped off a television crew, three photographers, three print reporters and three Iraqi government officials right into the middle of Operation Swarmer. Iraqi soldiers in newly painted humvees, green and red Iraqi flags stenciled on the tailgates, had just finished searching the farm populated by a half-dozen skinny cows and a woman kneading freshly risen dough and slapping it to the walls of a mud oven.

The press, flown in from Baghdad to this agricultural gridiron northeast of Samarra, huddled around the Iraqi officials and U.S. Army commanders who explained that the "largest air assault since 2003" in Iraq using over 50 helicopters to put 1500 Iraqi and U.S. troops on the ground had netted 48 suspected insurgents, 17 of which had already been cleared and released. The area, explained the officials, has long been suspected of being used as a base for insurgents operating in and around Samarra, the city north of Baghdad where the bombing of a sacred shrine recently sparked a wave of sectarian violence.

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

The operation, which doubled the population of the flat farmland in one single airlift, was initiated by intelligence from Iraq security forces, says Lt Col Skip Johnson commander of the 187 Battallion, 3rd Combat Brigade of the 101st Airborne. "They have the lead," he said to reporters at the second stop of the tour. But by Friday afternoon, the major targets seemed to have slipped through their fingers. Iraqi Army General Abdul Jabar says that Samarra-based insurgent leader Hamad el Taki of Mohammad’s Army was thought to be in the area, and Iraqi intelligence officers were still working to compare known voice recordings and photographs with the prisoners in custody.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1174448,00.html

[MadMaddie]

1. Can you spell P-R-O-P-A-G-A-N-D-A.......

The * cabal thought that this would work....it lost them a few more points.....they are really stupid aren't they?:popcorn:

[Freedom_from_Chains]

14. Not to the faithful.

To them this is another demonstration of American military superiority.

[saigon68]

36. sheep they are sheep

[CoffeeCat]

15. I am astounded at how stupid they think Americans are...

Does this asshole administration think that they can trod out the soldiers every time they need a boost in the ol' polls?

These bastards are so transparent. They look like fools.

This strategy is so 2003.

A bunch of impressionable idiots bought this bullshit the first time around. Now, those same idiots are pissed off that they believed it in the first place.

As for all of us---we knew all along that it would fail--and that Junior's war was full of lies and holes.

Let's just hope this maladministration continues making huge blunders. I'll enjoy watching their bottom of the barrel--the lower 30 percent--defect and sink Junior's polls further.

[Seabiscuit]

35. Don't look now, but 32%-38% of Americans *ARE* that supid.*

* = *'s base.

[Demeter]

25. It Worked Just Fine; Gas Up 20+ cents this week/gallon

[brokensymmetry]

2. Truly pathetic.

It's not just propaganda - it's amateurish, transparent, ludicrous propaganda. It's a joke - except the squandered blood and treasure isn't a joke.

What have we become under the Chimpenfuhrer's inane leadership?

[0007]

31. Junior High mentality.......in fact Junior High students are a cut

above this crap.

[Theduckno2]

3. Can you say "Permanent Bases"?

An objective of this operation seems to be the instilling of the idea that for the Iraqi forces to be effective they need to ferried about by helicopters.
Of course we would never give the Iraqis any such stockpiles but we would be willing to station some, only of course, if they were provided permanent basing.

[sweetheart]

4. smarmy indeed

greasy gooey sick and chewey,
prison rebellions burned with fire,
murdering murdering the sickey bushey,
doing a putin, chechens bombed for his desire.
Go bomb some city seems the way,
of all foul hoodlums when the prosecutor closes with public cold fire,
Better to start another war far away,
and none of the public will be wiser, there's no town crier.

All the murdering prison machine,
eating the truth, machined to the touch of a million liars,
and slick glossy smut magazine,
some more live fire murder to keep the public agog gurgling afire.
Ooohh shooting and killing, must be the way,
look at all those free slaves, what do they today?

[RDANGELO]

5. May not have been a total waste.

Looks like some of the troops may have gotten a little vacation in the countryside.

[Rose Siding]

6. It's remarkable to see this reported this way

Too late, but still :applause: :(

[waiting for hope]

7. Didn't Wolf Blitzer

try to get Madeline Albright yesterday to say it was somewhat convenient that this attacked was happening right at the time of the third anniversary? I could see her holding back but it was a tough sell to get her to admit that it may be a publicity stunt....

[TacticalPeek]

8. K & R

:patriot:

[The_Casual_Observer]

9. the major targets seemed to have slipped through their fingers

Man, that is really amazing that they got away AGAIN! :sarcasm:

[donco6]

32. Yeah, darn those guys.

Maybe someone dropped a dime on us? Yeah! We must have Communist - er, - Al Quaida infiltrators in our ranks. I say we have Congressional hearings on it. Call in everyone for questioning. We should have a senator in charge of the whole mess.

[progressivebydesign]

10. Can you say "Operation Falling Poll Numbers?" I knew that you could n/t

[still_one]

11. where is the media on this?

for the past two days they have been drumming this up, and now nothing except a report from Time magazine

These are dangerous times we live in today, it is very much like the mccarthey period except where is our Edward R. Murrow?

[oblivious]

34. Well the Fox TV expert said this was a very sophisticated operation.

When asked how sophisticated, he said well certainly not elementary school, maybe not even high school. It might be college level sophistication. They transported 1500 troops by air!!!

Then they went back to proving how Saddam and Al-qaeda really did have a relationship.

[regnaD kciN]

12. Strange, because...

...AP Radio News (as carried on the local Air America outlet) has been reporting throughout the day that Operation Swarmer appears to be a major success -- that we've captured large numbers of foreign insurgents, and uncovered large caches of their weaponry, without losing a single U.S. or Iraqi soldier.

:patriot: :patriot: :patriot: GOD BLESS AMERICA! :patriot: :patriot: :patriot: :eyes:

[Media_Lies_Daily]

24. Why is it strange? This kind of propaganda is the typical....

...modus operandi of the NeoCon Junta:

1. Announce a "major" military operation in the media using falsified information;
2. Supply the media with video clips of the alleged action;
3. Send a group of "embed" reporters to the outskirts of the "action" and give them "happy news" to report to the sheeple back home.

By the time the REAL story leaks out, the media has moved on to the next "big" story about the kidnapping of a blond, blue-eyed child, and/or the murder of a white female.

[glitch]

28. Typical of AP Radio News. They are very blatantly pro-corporate state

as it is manifested by Bushco. What I can't understand is why AAR runs them. Are there really no better radio news clip providers? If not, perhaps AAR can hire their own news compiler/reader. Probably cheaper than the AP subscription (I bet they pay a fee per station).

[fearnobush]

13. I knew it. I felt it in my bones this was a song a pony dance.

This morning at work I dubbed it, "Operation Raise the Poll Numbers", got some laughs from my fellow lib co-workers and dead silence from the freeper type. The Freeper types at the office, over all very nice get along with people, just sadly misguided by the billions of Bush propaganda and M$M. May be one day they will see the light but today is not that day.

[UpInArms]

16. related: Commander denies politics involved in timing of operation

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/03/17/iraq.main/index.html?section=cnn_allpolitics

A commander of multi-national forces, Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, told reporters Friday that there was "very, very light resistance" in the region of the operation -- about 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of the capital. (Watch former top U.S. general explain what's behind Operation Swarmer{

<snip>

In an air tour of the area, CNN's Nic Robertson was taken to a farmhouse being searched by troops and a command post that was manned by Iraqi and U.S. forces. (Watch Robertson on his visit to the operation command post -- 1:49)

<snip>

With President Bush's low approval rating in opinion polls and the growing unpopularity of the Iraq war, Army Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli denied that politics influenced the timing of the operation.

"There was no attempt on anybody's part back here to time this to anything other than the intelligence that was coming in. It was an operation that we had been working on for a couple of months," Chiarelli said, speaking via teleconference from Iraq to reporters.

<snip>

The operation's second day marks the third anniversary of Bush's televised ultimatum to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. On March 17, 2003, Bush said, "Saddam Hussein and his sons must leave Iraq within 48 hours. Their refusal to do so will result in military conflict, commenced at a time of our choosing." One Iraqi looked back on how things have changed since the war began. (Full story)

hmmm... no politics involved - low ratings - 3rd anniversary ...

yeah, I believe everything :sarcasm:

[lovuian]

17. This is aimed at Iran!!!

too scare them...

[global1]

18. *Co Is Getting Desperate And It Looks Like They Are Trying Everything....

possible to get *'s poll numbers back up. My fear is that they will do something stupid - like attack Iran or create another 9/11 type event.

[anotherdrew]

19. how? ONE WORD: suspected . it's an unknown unknown

why? maybe our methods have become "unsound" ?

PBR streetgang to allmighty....

[Hekate]

20. So the "news" crews churned up this poor woman's wheat field...

...terrorized her cows into drying up, and the gods know what else. All so Commander Cuckoobananas could accomplish what?

Hekate
:argh:

[bklyncowgirl]

21. Hey those cows might have been terrorists in disguise.

Haven't you ever heard of Mad Cow Disease?

[peacebird]

22. Mad Cow Disease!!!

thanks bklyncowgirl! :rofl:

[Media_Lies_Daily]

23. Nothing but a "photo op". I would imagine that the....

...Freeperites are crying in their collective beer steins after hearing this news.

[Doctor_J]

26. "It's not a war - it's a pageant"

- Wag the Dog

[saigon68]

27. IT'S A PAGEANT STARRING

condominium Rice



and the CHIMPANZEE

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

29. I'd much rather have an expensive photo op than

hundreds of bombed out civilians.....

:nuke:

[Doctor_J]

30. True, P6

maybe when the MSM runs the video of this campaign stunt, they should precede it with "no humans were harmed during this pretend military exercise"

[sakabatou]

33. One more failure to tack onto Bush