The Student Room Group

Coalition Soldiers Shooting Old Woman's House



Wait a minute....

They aren't giving our troops guns anymore?

"MCKLOWSKI! TAKE THIS HANDFUL OF BULLETS AND THROW THEM AT THAT HOUSE, OUR INTEL SAYS IT'S JUST PACKED FULL OF HAJIS!"

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So the question is this: How much of this war is actually being fought on the ground, and how much in the press? We all know that the press can make a massive difference, but at the end of the day, if your boys are coming back in body bags and the situation isn't getting any better, how much of that lack of success can be attributed to the media?

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Everytime someone speaks of success in Iraq, some crazy terrorist wahhabi does this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6946028.stm
Reply 2
DanGrover
So the question is this: How much of this war is actually being fought on the ground, and how much in the press? We all know that the press can make a massive difference, but at the end of the day, if your boys are coming back in body bags and the situation isn't getting any better, how much of that lack of success can be attributed to the media?


The media certainly hinder our attempts both directly and indirectly. Directly by occasionally revealing more than they should about plans. Most of the damage they do is indirect by eroding the will of the electorate. They certainly tend to exaggerate failures and dramatise things in order to sell papers.

However, the major cause for lack of success still remains the tactics used on the ground since the beginning of the war. It would be difficult to claim that without the media the war would be over without a hitch (unless the coalition would resort to the kind of tactics that are illegal but thinking they can get away with it because no ones watching).

It would be nice, though, if the media used some common sense or at least had some integrity for a change: Why report her claim when it is so clearly a lie?
the funny thing is, it needn't be a lie, you can show photos of people blown to pieces in sadr city by US troops. What this is I don't know. Maybe they dropped some bullets.
haha, that picture is hilarious. but seriously i think a hell of a lot of it is to do with the media. i mean, while loss of life is a terrible thing, what is it, something like 200 British troops dead since the start of the war? i think thats pretty damn good going compared to the casualty figures during the world wars, and even vietnam. hell maybe we could even compare it to how many cops get killed in the line of duty in america. the media just blows things out of proportion because if they reported that everything is fine noone would care.
Reply 5
Re-usable rounds ay? Nifty :p:.

Reminds me of those used shell casings that the Israeli's were apparently 'writing messages on'. Bit late I would have thought...
Reply 6
rich2606
haha, that picture is hilarious. but seriously i think a hell of a lot of it is to do with the media. i mean, while loss of life is a terrible thing, what is it, something like 200 British troops dead since the start of the war? i think thats pretty damn good going compared to the casualty figures during the world wars, and even vietnam. hell maybe we could even compare it to how many cops get killed in the line of duty in america. the media just blows things out of proportion because if they reported that everything is fine noone would care.


It's funny, but worrying that most people wouldn't think anything amiss in this photograph.
tehjonny
Re-usable rounds ay? Nifty :p:.

Reminds me of those used shell casings that the Israeli's were apparently 'writing messages on'. Bit late I would have thought...


err., those were real.
Reply 8
tehjonny
Re-usable rounds ay? Nifty :p:.

Reminds me of those used shell casings that the Israeli's were apparently 'writing messages on'. Bit late I would have thought...


Yeah, last year's war would have to be the prime example of the media fighting for one side of the conflict.
Reply 9
Dirac Delta Function
err., those were real.


Let's not go down that road - we'll be knee-deep in "green helmet guys" before you know it. :eek:
Reply 10
Dirac Delta Function
err., those were real.


Yeah. They'd also already been fired.
tehjonny
Yeah. They'd also already been fired.


Except that they were photographed in Israel, by the Israeli barracks.
i'm trying to find this video i saw ages ago of faked news reports in palestine. people pretending to get hit by bullets, faking injuries (one guy even changing his limp to the other leg he was apparently shot in), militia pretending to shoot at things when there was actually noone there. i shall try harder to find it...

EDIT: UniOfLife found it, cheers.
Dirac Delta Function
Except that they were photographed in Israel, by the Israeli barracks.


He did say they were shell casings.

But guys do you really wanna get into this here?
rich2606
i'm trying to find this video i saw ages ago of faked news reports in palestine. people pretending to get hit by bullets, faking injuries (one guy even changing his limp to the other leg he was apparently shot in), militia pretending to shoot at things when there was actually noone there. i shall try harder to find it...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_B1H-1opys
Reply 15
:rofl:
Reply 16
Dirac Delta Function
Except that they were photographed in Israel, by the Israeli barracks.


You really don't understand how artillery works do you?

Just like bullets, artillery shells leave behind their casings (which holds the charge), whilst the actual bullet/shell travels towards the target upon firing. The pictures taken of Israeli children 'writing messages' were of shell casings. The entirety of the projectile does not leave the barrel.

Opposite to the current picture, which shows apparently 'fired' bullets that quite evidently haven't been fired out of a gun.
UniOfLife
He did say they were shell casings.

But guys do you really wanna get into this here?


yes, and what do you think they case?

oh ffs, I'll attach the image
Dirac Delta Function
yes, and what do you think they case?

oh ffs, I'll attach the image


I'm not saying he's right or wrong only that casings remain behind after firing the shell. Personally, I don't think this is the right thread to rehash all the fake pictures etc from last year.
Reply 19
UniOfLife
He did say they were shell casings.

But guys do you really wanna get into this here?


Sorry, I'm not trying to draw attention to Israel etc. Just pointing out how the media often distort the truth to get a story. Personally I think it is particularly despicable when the story is about warfare.

Just at the time it annoyed me, with so many people bleating on about how barbaric it was, when the entire story was concocted out of a photograph they knew most people would see nothing amiss in...such as the fact those were dead casings :p:.

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