Target Centermass

Day: April 8, 2005

  • NATO Sees U.S. Military Changing Strategy

    This piece is particularly interesting for its inclusion of Africa into plans for restructuring overseas deployment of U.S. forces.

    U.S. forces stationed in Europe will increasingly shift their stance toward Africa and the former communist countries in eastern Europe as they move to counter terror threats in those areas, the top European commander said.

    […]

    “The difference between the EUCOM of the 20th century — which I regard as the Cold War century — and the EUCOM of the 21st century is the family of threats that it faces, ranging from terrorism to radical fundamentalism to narcoterrorism to illegal trafficking of all sorts,” [NATO supreme commander Marine Gen. James. L.] Jones said at EUCOM headquarters in Stuttgart.

    […]

    Many of the changes, like consolidating different Army headquarters under one roof in Wiesbaden, are simply a continuation of post-Cold War cutback that began in the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

    But deeper changes are on the way, as the U.S. looks less to large, fixed bases like those it has had for decades in Germany, to smaller, more bare-bones installations where troops could be moved quickly for training or to deal with a crisis.

    […]

    The large air bases at Ramstein and Spangdahlem, as well the nearby support community of Kaiserslautern, will remain hubs. The Army will concentrate on existing posts in Wiesbaden and Grafenwoehr. EUCOM headquarters will remain in Stuttgart, while both the Army and Air Force will remain in Aviano, Italy.

    But increasingly the focus is shifting toward Africa, seen as a potential haven for Islamic extremists who have been ousted from places like Afghanistan.

    Already five such agreements exist with countries in Africa, including the predominantly Muslim nations of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.

    In Europe, the focus in increasingly turning to the new NATO members of the former Warsaw Pact. A special Eastern Europe Task Force would involve rotating troops on a regular basis for training exercises, including some with local militaries.

    Bases in Bulgaria and Romania, both of which hosted the U.S. military during the Iraq war, have been earmarked to host forces, but would differ from those in Germany in that they would offer only skeletal infrastructure and no families would accompany troops there on their tours of duty.

    Excellent. This shows that we are not just looking one or two steps down the road in the war against the Islamist terrorists. We are already game-planning and laying the groundworks to prepare for a possible theater shift many turns down the road. Just doing so may be sufficient to head off the threat before the proverbial pass.

    However, many dangers have always awaited in the Dark Continent.

  • When the Journalists Become the News

    Here’s a news flash — a good number of them aren’t on our side, or even just neutrally out to get a story.

    CBS Stringer Arrested in Iraq

    A CBS stringer has been arrested as a suspected insurgent, U.S. military officials said Friday.

    The video cameraman was wounded during a firefight in northeastern Mosul between U.S. troops and insurgents Tuesday.

    U.S. military officials said the man’s camera held footage of a number of roadside bomb attacks against American troops, and they believe he was tipped off to those attacks.

    A U.S. military statement said troops believe the man “poses an imperative threat to coalition forces” and that he “will be processed as any other security detainee.”

    Greyhawk at the Mudville Gazette has been on this story since it first broke this afternoon, including a number of updates from several sources showing the morphing media coverage of the incident.

    According to CBS when he was shot he was a “cameraman employed by CBS News” shot “while working” – when he was arrested he was “A cameraman carrying CBS press credentials.”

    Wow.

    Chad at In the Bullpen chimes in with his two cents.

    While journalists have every right to roam the country-side of Iraq looking for stories, doing so without an extensive bodyguard escort or through embedding with the enemy who are firing upon U.S. soldiers has proven time and time again to be rather foolish.

    Are the journalists actually embedding with the terrorists? Dr. Rusty Shackleford at the Jawa Report thinks a couple of the recently-named Pulitzer winners prove it.

    Everyone Is Looking At the Wrong Pulitzer Prize Photos

    The Washington Times does a half-ass job of questioning the Pulitzer Prize in this editorial. The article raises important questions, but like most of the blogosphere and those in conservative circles, they examine a single photo.

    But there were 20 photos in the series. As we have been arguing from the beginning, what is troubling is the totality of the story those photos show. The story those photos tell is of an empowered insurgency, demoralized U.S. troops, and American brutality.

    Several of the photos are disgusting, such as the one in question which shows the execution of Iraqi election officials and another which shows the residents of Fallujah celebrating the murder of American civilians as their charred bodies hang from a bridge, but it may be the case that these photos were taken by Iraqi photojournalists who were anonymously tipped off or who just happened to be at the right place at the right time.

    We have also noted in the past that the photo in question is not nearly as damning as two others which clearly indicate something like ’embedding’ with the isurgency is (or was) going on with AP stringers in Iraq.

    Go look — the photos make a pretty persuasive case that not only were the photogs with the insurgents but also were quite willing to try to capture those trying to kill Americans in a brave or noble light.

    Perhaps, with all this, today wasn’t the best day for journalists to push their luck with the U.S. military. But they did anyway.

    Journalists Seek Info on 2003 Iraq Deaths

    The International Federation of Journalists on Friday urged U.S. officials to provide credible evidence American troops did not intentionally kill two television cameramen at a Baghdad hotel in 2003.

    The two were killed April 8, 2003, when an American tank fired at the Palestine Hotel, where scores of journalists were based during the U.S. invasion of Iraq. U.S. officials insist the soldiers believed they were being shot at when they opened fire.

    Jose Couso, cameraman for Spanish television network Telecinco, and Taras Protsyuk, Ukrainian TV cameraman for Reuters, were killed by the U.S. tank.

    But critics say the journalists were targeted by U.S. troops moving in on Baghdad, and the IFJ said Friday a report on the killings was a “whitewash.”

    In a letter to President Bush, IFJ General Secretary Aidan White wrote, “the United States stands accused of failing to meet its obligations to deliver justice and fair treatment to the victims of violence by its own soldiers.”

    Following the Palestine incident, then-U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said American troops opened fire after drawing hostile fire from the hotel. He said a U.S. review of the incident found the of force was justified.

    Here’s a little tip for y’all journalists in a warzone: weapon fire may be fairly easy to see through a tank’s thermal sights, but press credentials are not.