What Iraq needs is an honest, bad ass who will take charge and kick shit out of the terrorists Wyatt Erp style. Time to turn the Wild into the Mild Middle East. Public hangings anyone?

Hangings, nah, public beheadings anyone?

There will never be another Tet because of the blogs and other non-Leftist media.

Tet was a military failure for the NVA. If you ask 100 people who even know what the Tet Offensive was, I'd bet 90 of them think it was a decisive defeat to the US forces.

It wasn't. It was a PR stunt, magnified enormously in importance by the diligent efforts of a news media eager to smear the US. The only reason Tet had any effect on our position in the war was because of the relentless, nearly unanimous propaganda campaign that was waged by the US media at the time. Thank you, Walter Fucking Cronkite.

Those days are over. There will be military battles, of course, but the blogs and other non-Leftist media now have a direct effect on how these events are reported and thus how we act in response. The Old Media now has to compete against other news sources that can and WILL tell the rest of the story.

I have to ask... which side was the LA Times reporter embedded with? :/

It's amazing the lengths the media will go to in order to report every action as a victory for the terrorists (excuse me, "rebels").

I think I saw the "Marine shot and killed through floorboards" story in at least 6 articles. Meanwhile the central fact of "Marines are kicking major ass" never seems to get mentioned.

Sigh.

Did any of the MSM, other than possibly Fox, carry this story about the actions of the 'minutemen.'

Here

Guys, the MSM is dead. Or at least, it's dying. This NYT Credibility Review that Ace featured on his show is just the death rattle.

We need to stop looking to the TV to report these stories the way they should be. In fact, the worse they are at their job, the more popular that alternatives like this site (and the reporters who feed it) will become. There's no need to sigh or become dejected when the Old Media drops the ball on a story -- it's an opportunity. They are doing it on purpose and they are not going to change! When your competitor's product sucks, that's a cause for celebration.

Michelle Malkin wasn't just blowing smoke up Ace's ass yesterday -- alternative sources like Ace are poised to rip the Old Media apart. It's only just started, but they all know what's coming.

To paraphrase Ace, this is not a blog. It's an operating table.

[Tet] was a PR stunt, magnified enormously in importance by the diligent efforts of a news media eager to smear the US. The only reason Tet had any effect on our position in the war was because of the relentless, nearly unanimous propaganda campaign that was waged by the US media at the time.

My reading of it is that it was a very serious offensive which the VC had high hopes for and were bitterly disappointed. The general in charge was disgraced, casualties and shotages of material were so bad after it that the VC were not able to mount another major attack for two years.

Of course, we weren't told that. But it wasn't completely the fault of the Liberal Media. Under Lyndon Johnson's administration, lying to the press and getting caught at it had become a commonplace enough occurence in the military that no one believed them anymore. And we have been living with the fallout from it all ever since.

FWIW, on the John Batchelor radio show last night, they said the reason the "insurgents" on the Syrian border are better trained and equipped than normal, is they are Syrian army units.

I'd be happy as hell to have another Tet for the reasons several have noted - when guerillas stand and fight, they die. Tet was devastating for the Viet Cong.

All this happy horseshit about "the insurgents seem well trained and well prepared" doesn't mean jack when you're fighting Marines. I hope the assholes are well prepared to die. More media hyperventilating (Kronkite-ing?)

My reading of it is that it was a very serious offensive which the VC had high hopes for and were bitterly disappointed.

Sure, that may all be true. My point is that it doesn't matter, because Tet could not have gone any better for the VC/NVA than if the true objective all along was to achieve a political, propaganda victory. As a propaganda victory, it was a great success. And in the long run, that is always more important.

The only reason that propaganda victory was possible was that the Old Media helped them achieve it.

That can never happen again, because of the rise of alternative non-Leftist news and opinion, which is really an amazing development.

"Raiding a terrorist stronghold used to transport men and material across the Syrian border to the US ..."

Not to be overly nitpicky, but you probably meant the Syrian/Iraq border, eh?

p.s. No, I'm not Canadian.