Fiction of Marja as City Was U.S. Information War

[kpete]

Source: IPS

POLITICS: Fiction of Marja as City Was U.S. Information War
By Gareth Porter*

WASHINGTON, Mar 8, 2010 (IPS) - For weeks, the U.S. public followed the biggest offensive of the Afghanistan War against what it was told was a "city of 80,000 people" as well as the logistical hub of the Taliban in that part of Helmand. That idea was a central element in the overall impression built up in February that Marja was a major strategic objective, more important than other district centres in Helmand.

It turns out, however, that the picture of Marja presented by military officials and obediently reported by major news media is one of the clearest and most dramatic pieces of misinformation of the entire war, apparently aimed at hyping the offensive as a historic turning point in the conflict.

Marja is not a city or even a real town, but either a few clusters of farmers' homes or a large agricultural area covering much of the southern Helmand River Valley.

"It's not urban at all," an official of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), who asked not to be identified, admitted to IPS Sunday. He called Marja a "rural community".



Read more: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50581

[KamaAina]

1. The population of Marja *district* is 80,000 or more

but it's spread across an area the size of a small U.S. county.

From Wiki (DU software eats parens in links):

Marja (also spelt Marjah or Marjeh) is an unincorporated agricultural district in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, southwest of Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital. The name Marja is also applied to a location within the district where a number of farmers' markets, shops and a mosque are located. The population of the Marja district is 80,000 - 125,000 according to different estimates, spread across 80 - 125 square miles. During the February 2010 Operation Moshtarak, Marja was repeatedly described in the press as a "town" and even "city", following a 2 February 2010 briefing by US Marines.

Disinformation, or more :dunce: s in the M$M like the one who thought Hawai'i was off the coast of Ecuador??

[IndianaGreen]

2. Obama promised victory in Afghanistan

just as LBJ did in Vietnam.

[DFab420]

3. Cue un-necessary outrage!

Mmm nothing like some reheated copy pasta from this morning

This story is such a non - issue. So they called it a city as opposed to a rural Provence of small towns and resettled Pashtun nomads...OMG ITS ALL LIES!1!! :sarcasm:

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. Funny, I remember hearing all about the heavily mined approaches to the

fortified city which was a stronghold of determined resistance. Now, how do you get 'heavily mined approaches' when the area in question is region of 125 sq miles, rather than a single concentrated strong point - you know how many millions of mines it would take to 'heavily mine' 125 sq miles?

Is the government and the military deliberately lying always a non-issue with you, or do you pick and choose your non-issue governmental lying?

BTW, nobody was invading Provence - I reckon you meant province.

[EFerrari]

11. Thank god someone will stand up for the Pentagon around here!

LOL

[Alamuti Lotus]

12. LOL x2... *nt

[Ex Lurker]

4. maybe if you only went by the headlines you thought it was a city

it was accurately described as a collection of compounds surrounded by irrigated fields in several articles I read. I don't think anyone was practicing information control. To what end, anyway? What difference does it make if it was a built up city or a semi rural agricultural area?

[DFab420]

5. Dont you see!

It's all a vast conspiracy, there actually isn't even a country called Afghanistan! We aren't even at war! The news media is only there to keep you IN CONTROL!!! AHHHH!H!!H ITS ALL LIES!! Obama is Bush but in black-face and and..There isn't really a Taliban, its just untrained farmers and and and...*

*Unless, as you have pointed out already, you read more then just one blurb online or on TV about whats going on, then you would have known...but hey its more fun to freak out right?*

WAG THE DOG MAN!:rofl:

[RaleighNCDUer]

7. The difference is, a single fortified city surrounded by thousands of

mines and IEDs is a more formidable target than a scattering of villages and compounds, any one of which could be quickly and easily overwhelmed by concentrations of power. The value of an enemy in a propaganda war is his perceived strength - taking out an enemy stronghold imparts a much greater victory to the troops than rolling through a few villages does.

[Betsy Ross]

8. Check out Marjeh on Google Earth.

Some rather orthogonal roadways between farms and not much else. No apparent city-center.

[cadmium]

9. to be fair thare was not that much of an information blitz -

considering the way the media usually pushes war noise. I know that everyone I work with knows about Fallujah and very few know about the action in Marjeh

[Alamuti Lotus]

10. *there was not that much of an information blitz* ?! That's *all* it was..

Are you high?! It may be that nobody really cares anymore, but that's not for lack of trying.

[Lagomorph]

13. The second I read of a major operation in Iraq or Afghanistan...

I Google Earth it.

What they call a major city over there is often no more than a small town by American standards. Marja has a few clustered single story buildings scattered over a wide area of dirt roads, amidst large, widespread poppy fields. If there is a mosque, a fueling station and a market, it seems we call it a city.

When they call for roads, clinics and schools to be "rebuilt" it often appears they never existed in the first place, in any form we might recognize. Over the years they've found every place a truck or car can travel and use those paths as lines of communication.