[sjdflghd]

"This is all a war of perceptions." And are we perceived as liars?

[RicardoHun]

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[tropicana]

Are they saying it is officially a town and not a city or something?

[maniaringsq]

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Due east of Lake Puzak, unless they say the lake doesn't exist either.
They may say Afghanistan doesn't exist.

[OEMCHEAPSOFTDOWNLOAD]

Compare Los Angeles and NYC. Good comparison.

NYC: 305 square miles
LA: 469.1 square miles

NYC has a buttload more people.

[BronUVT]

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Looks like there actually is a Marjah. What's che talking about?

[Nekas48]

Do 80,000 people live in the area?

[jisee]

Do 80,000 people live in the area?

80K - 125k people live in the area.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marja,_Afghanistan

[HBPujWBe]

Wiki gets info from Users. If the User has bad info, Wiki has bad info.

[Jueqelyl]

If I'm wrong, I'll say so. This likely won't be the last time.

[Patabeamn]

This is all a war of perceptions.


Jeez, that's a first.

[Pippoles]

From the OP article:

According to Gareth Porter, writing on Counterpunch, the earliest references in news stories to Marjah as a city with a large population have a common origin in a briefing given on February 2 by officials at Camp Leatherneck, the U.S. Marine base there.

The media fell into line at once. The Associated Press published an article the same day quoting "Marine commanders" as saying that they expected 400 to 1,000 insurgents to be "holed up" in the "southern Afghan town of 80,000 people." Feb. 28, AP:
town of Marjah http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100228/D9E5D6PG4.html

Financial Times (Feb. 18, 19) calls it a town too.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6754b44a-1...44feab49a.html


I couldn't find an article that calls it a city.

[aparneioninny]

I couldn't find an article that calls it a city.

Here's a couple:

Mar 4:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...ccPJgD9E80MT80
NATO saw Marjah — a Taliban logistics center and drug-smuggling hub and the largest southern city under Taliban rule — as a key prize in Helmand, the southern Afghan province they've struggled to reclaim from the insurgents. Mar 7:
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/as...hanistan.main/
Afghan President Hamid Karzai made an unannounced visit to Marjah on Sunday to see the gains made after a massive military offensive by Afghan and international troops to wrest control of the southern city from the Taliban. Mar 12:
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news...-87539397.html
Mr. Obama and his team praised Afghan and international forces' military achievements in Marja, a major city in the Taliban stronghold of Helmand province.
On the other hand, Gareth Porter's claim is hard to assess because he conflates the question of the terminology (city/town/agro district/bunch of villages/nothing) and the claim to a large population. I had no trouble finding a UPI article from May 21 of last year that calls Marjeh a city. For sure it is not explicit about Marjeh's population size, but the claim in the OP's article that the word choice shows intentional distortion in connection with operation Moshtarak seems weak indeed. It is more likely to be the result of careless translation.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/05/...9101242930071/
The operation in the city of Marjeh by Afghan National Army Commandos and coalition forces also resulted in the discovery of a cache of military weapons, including 10 rocket-propelled grenades and six mortars.

[samanthalueus]

Or used the right terminology in a silly, misleading way. Remember all those stories about scary men with (gasp) "semi-automatic weapons?"

[Necedofer]

I wonder if Afghanistan exists.

[tramdoctorsss]

Latest report from Afghanistan says things arent going so well for the U.S. military there. Says they may not be able to make the 2011 troop withdrawals promised by our executive figurehead. A shocking development.

Also says no one in their operation speaks the local language, Pashtun.

The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction recently blasted the State Department's oversight of a $2.5 billion contract with DynCorp to train Iraq's police force, saying invoices were paid with no assurance the work was done correctly. The problem is being repeated in Afghanistan, this new report says.
Afghanistan continues to own marauding empires.

[detskpit]

Wow, they used the wrong terminology. I totally would not have expected that of them. This is at least as exciting as Watergate.

Exactly! In a commie's world, if someone makes a mistake in terminology, it MUST mean that teh evil-capitalist-imperialist conspiracy is in full throttle!