Operation Rolling Thunder - It's Not A New Bob Dylan Tour*

AreThereKnownKnownsThatWeDon'tKnow?
WhoKnowsVille


There was a breathless account of something called 'Operation Rolling Thunder' in Saturday's Globe and Mail from reporter Katherine O'Neill:

"Code-named Operation Rawa Tander, Pashto for Rolling Thunder, the joint Canada and Afghan military mission was aimed at disrupting insurgent activity in one of Kandahar province's most dangerous areas, Pashmul.

{snip}

The operation, which involved multiple platoons, started before day-break on Tuesday and, by 6:15 a.m., bullets were already ripping through Pashmul, a collection of small, ancient villages and farmland. The few locals still living in the area either fled by foot or hunkered down in their compounds before the fighting started. Most are poor farmers."


Which I found heartening.

After all we sure wouldn't want to be 'ripping bullets' through the houses and huts of civilians.

Or Hellfire missiles:

"Canadian and Afghan soldiers were able to sneak up on a suspect compound and take the militants by surprise. The insurgents, toting AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, returned fire for about half an hour from a grape hut.

The battle ended a short time later after the Canadians called on U.S. military air support to drop several bombs, including Hellfire missiles, on the area."

Yes that's right, Hellfire, with a capital 'H', the good old 'fire and forget' ordinance.

So, enough of all that..... Who won the Battle of Rolling Thunder (is that what you hear when the Hellfires scream?)

Well, according to Ms. O'Neill, we did.

Overwhelmingly:

About 8 a.m. Friday, a large number of insurgents began shooting at the soldiers from several positions. The terrain, which was mainly lush grape fields and small groves of dense trees, made it difficult at first to tell exactly where the militants were hiding.

For about two hours, the two sides exchanged fire, with the Canadian and Afghan forces calling in air and artillery support. More than 30 rounds of artillery fire whistled through the hot, spring morning air and hit mud grape huts and compounds where the insurgents were positioned.

By 11 a.m., the shooting had largely stopped. A short time later, Afghan National Army soldiers followed a trail of blood into one compound. Four insurgents were inside; only one was alive. He was later detained.

During the lengthy operation, several insurgents were killed or injured. Only one Afghan soldier was hurt; he accidentally shot himself in the foot. No Canadians were injured.

But here's the thing - as of midnight Sun June 1st there was only a single 'on the ground' report of 'Operation Rolling Thunder'.

And that report was from Ms. O'Neill

So, does that mean Ms. O'Neil was embedded with the Canadian Forces?

I do not know this for certain.

I searched the Globe and Mail's website in vain. However, their 'Witness Afghanistan' blog does make mention that Ms. O'Neill's predecessor, Colin Freeze, acted as an embedded.

And Ms. O'Neill herself mentions thar 'Operation Rolling Thunder' was a 'top-secret military mission'.

Thus, given that there is also a picture of a Canadian Forces soldier firing his rifle during the 'top-secret' operation that was taken by Ms. O'Neill herself, I think it is reasonable to assume that she was likely embedded.

Now, I'm not attempting to impugn the work of Ms. O'Neill here.

But if she was embedded there are many, many 'instructions' and 'ground rules' she had to follow (careful: pdf).

And after reading these carefully I have come to the conclusion that many of them are designed to curtail the independence of the embedded reporter.

Regardless, in the end the person in charge of the embedded reporter is no longer their editor.

Instead, it is the Canadian Forces commander, as per #37 of the 'instructions':

37. Commander CEFCOM is the final authority, through the chain of command, for the provision of support to embedded media and may add supplementary instructions or rules for embedded media.

Given this, I believe it is imperative that every single story by every single embedded journalist be labelled as such, at the story's outset.

After all, how else are we going to know when to take things like overwhelming operational successes and/or 'official' source casualty numbers after the firing of Hellfire missiles into areas where the locals still living in the area either fled by foot or hunkered down in their compounds' with a grain of salt.

OK?



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*Or a motorcycle ride into the heart of Mr. Bush's tribal compound.

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