Roll Over George Orwell,
And Give Goebbels the News!
We’re Winning – Don’t Ask Where!
Foss Tighe
We now take you live and direct to a news briefing during a future
U.S. military action.
Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen, I’ll make a short statement,
then Admiral Hirtrigger and myself will entertain your questions.
During the last twenty – four hours of Operation White Hat massive
air assaults continue on all types of enemy targets including troop
concentrations, bridges, roads, air bases, as well as command, control,
communications and intelligence facilities.
To date over 24,000 sorties have been flown and our success rate
has been well over ninety percent. During these sorties a wide array
of ordnance has been used, including some really small missiles
and bombs all the way up to some really big missiles and bombs.
We continue to do our best to limit collateral damage. In fact we
have a little video footage to show you.
You’ll notice the light gray square area in the center of the screen.
You can make it out because the surrounding area is a darker gray.
Now see the white X, that is the targeting mechanism. Now watch
here as the light gray area explodes. That was one of the thousands
of enemy targets destroyed in these first few days of the operation.
On the ground our troops have initiated a series of probing operations.
As you can understand, I cannot inform of the details of these operations,
but let it suffice to say that they are going very well and exactly
as planned.
The Admiral and I will now take a few questions.
General, in that spectacular video piece could you provide more
details on the weapon system involved?
Yes, I’d be happy to. That is a George Bush – 12 missile, which
uses a system that combines laser tracking, heat–seeking, infra–red
and wire guidance techniques. Operation White Hat is the first time
this weapon system has been used and it has performed flawlessly.
As you know the GB–12 is manufactured by General Dynamics. You’ll
find literature and ordering information at the table in the back.
They run about $2 million each. Next question.
General, also related to the video, can you tell us exactly what
kind of target we saw being hit. Was that some kind of building?
Actually, Bob, the image was electronically altered to make the
target unrecognizable. We do not want information from this video
to in any way aid the enemy. It could have been any of the series
of things, a building, a tank, a bridge, an airport, a cemetery
etc. But if we identified it for you now, it would help the enemy
determine how much damage we have done to them.
General, now that this operation has been on for several days is
it possible for you to give us some indication of who White Hat
is directed against?
As you know, we want to work with the media to provide as much
detail the American public as possible. However, At this point we
feel that revealing who it is that we are attacking could limit
the element of surprise, and therefore play into the hands of the
enemy.
I repeat again that the president has determined that these are
bad people and that operation White Hat was needed to decisively
defeat them. That is all I can say at this time regarding the nature
of the enemy forces.
I have a follow up... In various European capitals there have been
rumors that the operation is somewhere in sub–Saharan Africa. There
was also a report from Bangkok that the operation was in Bangladesh.
Can you confirm or deny either of these?
No, I am sorry I cannot. I can only repeat that at this time we
cannot provide you with any information related to the location
of Operation White Hat. Dan...
During your statement you mentioned air and ground forces, can
we assume by the presence of general Hurtrigger with you today,
that naval forces are also involved?
I’m afraid that this question also relates to not giving away the
location of the operation. By revealing that air and ground forces
are involved, we reveal little information about the location of
this operation. But if we were to tell you that the navy was or
was not involved, it might make it possible for the enemy to more
closely to figure out who they were You should assume nothing based
on the presence of the admiral.
Yes, next question...
Without going into detail, you repeated the President’s assertion
that the enemy are bad people, and the President wants them decisively
defeated. Can you be a little more specific to the political if
not the military, goals of the operation? Are we removing an evil
dictator, destroying a military machine, liberating an occupied
nation, or securing the free world’s supply of some vital resource?
Even if we could tell you the political goals without giving away
who the operation was directed against, these goals would still
have to remain secret for another reason.
We learned an important lesson from the U.S. operation in the Persian
Gulf in 1991. During a critical stage of that operation, the President’s
policy of attempting to articulate justifiable goals, almost brought
the whole operation to a premature end.
Making public the operation’s political goals can provide would–be
peace–makers with the information they need to negotiate a peaceful
way out of the war. Such peaceful solutions leave unsatisfied the
real, less justifiable motivations for U.S policy, which include:
testing new weapons systems, battle training troops and officers,
distracting Americans from domestic troubles, demonstrating to the
little nations of the world that they better behave and lastly,
flexing a little military muscle once in a while to show our rival
industrialized nations that though we cannot compete economically
head to head with them any more, we still carry a bigger stick than
they do.
General, could you tell us...
I’m sorry, that will be all for today. Good day.
This article appeared in The Connexion
Digest #54, February 1992.
(CX4356)
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