Politics

Fooled You! The Military Floats PR Fib About the Afghan War

By Anne Landman

The U.S. media told the public for weeks that a big, offensive battle in Afghanistan was taking place in Marja, a "city of 80,000 people," in Helmand province, which was also the logistical hub of the Taliban. The description created the impression that the U.S. presence in Marja was a major strategic objective, and that the city was more important than other district centers in the province. But the picture of Marja painted by the military and duly reported by a biddable news media was one of the most dramatic pieces of misinformation so far in the entire war, aimed at hyping the offensive as a big turning point in the conflict. In reality, Marjah is not a city or even a town, but either a few groups of farmers' homes or a large farming area that encompasses much of the southern Helmand River Valley. The area is sparsley populated and completely rural area with no incorporated city or town, so how did the fiction that Marjah was a city of 80,000 get started? References to Marjah as a populous city originated at a briefing given by officials on February 2 at the U.S. Marine base there called Camp Leatherneck. The Associated Press put out an article that same day saying they expected up to 1,000 insurgents to be "holed up" in the "southern Afghan town of 80,000 people," a statement that evoked a picture of house-to-house, urban street fighting. ABC News perpetuated the myth the next day, in a story that referred to the "city of Marja" and claiming that the city and its surrounding area were "more heavily populated, urban and dense than other places the Marines so far have been able to clear and hold." The rest of the news media fell in line with the fake description of a densely populated, urban Marja, often using the terms "city" and "town" interchangeably, without fact-checking the descriptions. On February 22, the Washington Post reported that the decision to launch the big offensive against Marja was intended largely to impress U.S. public opinion with the military's effectiveness in Afghanistan by showing that it could achieve a "large and loud victory." The false idea that Marja was a significantly large city center was an essential part of that message.

Full post as published by PR Watch on March 09, 2010 (boomark / email).