Oooops, except there aren't any lines. It's a guerilla war, morons! I was arguing with moon or not really moon about how absurd the big lies can be when there is only cheerleading and no journalism left in the mainstream media. That Yahoo/AP headline is about as bad as it gets. And hey, look at the video game worthy pic. Propagandapallooza!
Marines push 'The Breacher' against Taliban lines
By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU
Associated Press Writer
Thu Feb 11, 9:44 am ET
Here's another dumb headline:
Major Afghan battle looms
Here's another:
US and Afghan troops ring Taliban stronghold
By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU and CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press Writers
Thu Feb 11, 6:34 pm ET
NEAR MARJAH, Afghanistan
[Is Marjah a fortress-like 'stronghold' or a poor but proud overgrown village?]
U.S. and Afghan forces ringed the Taliban stronghold of Marjah on Thursday, sealing off escape routes and setting the stage for what is being described as the biggest offensive of the nine-year war.
["Afghan forces"? In action, pics? And try "biggest civilian massacre of the nine-year war."]
Taliban defenders repeatedly fired rockets and mortars at units poised in foxholes along the edge of the town, apparently trying to lure NATO forces into skirmishes before the big attack.
"They're trying to draw us in," said Capt. Joshua Winfrey, 30, of Tulsa, Okla., commander of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines.
[No they're not, they're trying to get you to set off IEDs. The resistance/Taliban won't be there when you go in, just civilians who'll you'll kill. Guerilla War 1A, morons.]
Up to 1,000 militants are believed holed up in Marjah, a key Taliban logistics base and center of the lucrative opium poppy trade. But the biggest threats are likely to be the land mines and bombs hidden in the roads and fields of the farming community, 380 miles (610 kilometers) southwest of Kabul.
The precise date for the attack has been kept secret. [emphasis added] U.S. officials have signaled for weeks they planned to seize Marjah, a town of about 80,000 people in Helmand province and the biggest community in southern Afghanistan under Taliban control.
[Genius! You're signaling for weeks so the Taliban can get its IED and evacuation plans well in order!? The U.S. war machine is already lumbering personified, weighed down by crap the for-profit military forces its soldiers to carry around, but you're now signaling where you're about to move, for weeks, to your enemy? This is embarrassing: at least read Guerilla War for Dummies (but expect the Taliban to have long passed that level).]