CENTCOM's Spc. Patrick A. Ziegler is watching me!
OK, I've been sitting on this for a while, but it is really freaky/cool/fun/strange/paranoia inducing. I recently posted that Iraq is in the process of a de facto partition that is happening via intimidation and ethnic cleansing. If you look in the comments of that post you will see the following message (edited to remove excess whitespace):
Of course, my first question was "Is this guy for real?" A quick Google Search brought up numerous hits. This guy gets around. Mostly similar "drive-by spam" posts. Some other bloggers have commented on this. Here's Needlenose, who seemed to get the exact same text from Spc. Ziegler that I did. (He also posted a diary on Kos about this.) Here on Jesus' General, Spc. Ziegler is shown to be part of an operation dubbed "Operation Keyboard Warrior" by the author. Probably the best info on this new "engagement practice" can be found here. Your tax dollars at work! And remember, this is the military. Shouldn't domestic propaganda be part of the civilian bureaucracy? Oh well, the military org chart is far too byzantine for me to fathom.
Sadly, I suspect Spc. Ziegler didn't actually read my blog. He could have even been using a script or bot. He does appear to be a real person though, because he's involved in other blog outreach projects. I guess I'm flattered that the Pentagon considers blogs (even low traffic ones like this one) worth engaging, but they're going to have to do better if they want to win "hearts and minds" in the lefty blogosphere.
As to the substance of Spc. Ziegler's post (I'm assuming Spc. is "specialist"), I think he's falling into the classic Vietnam-era "body count" fallacy. He says: "Every day the Coalition kills, captures and detains more terrorists and seizes more weapons caches." I certainly don't dispute this. I don't even dispute that these things aren't reported that often. What I do dispute is the implication that these kills, captures, arrests, and seizures mean that we are in any way winning. How fast are "terrorists" (a word lumping together all manner of insurgents, militia fighters, Al Qaeda terrorists, Saddam Loyalists, criminals, revenge seekers, and occupation resisters) being created? How fast are weapons pouring in to Iraq? What is the difference between how many we get and how many are made, and in what direction is that number going?
If you're going to convince me that things are better than the media is portraying, you're going to have to have something better than "We're stopping a lot of bad guys and you haven't heard about it." Of course there have been numerous small victories. Our troops are incredibly valiant and well trained, and we have many outstanding officers. But that doesn't mean the strategic and political situations aren't going to hell. I'm sure we killed a lot of Viet Kong and seized a lot of their weapons, too, right up until we got out of there (which was long after we already knew we had lost).
Next Question: was it really Henry Kissenger who left the comment on my blog here? I'm skeptical, but who knows? The Columbia Journalism Review Daily featured that post prominently, and maybe he reads it. Maybe I should ask him a few questions about his past actions. Or maybe I should offer him a chance at redemption and get him to engineer a coup against our government. (Heck, from what I hear the CIA would gladly participate, unless its already been purged and stuffed with cronies.) Too bad there's no way to verify the identity of the poster.
Terrorists would like you to believe there is or will be civil war in Iraq, which is why they are targeting innocent men, woman and children – to create sectarian strife, create fear and to try and derail democracy.Wow, the U.S. Central Command is reading my blog! Maybe they need Maniak's expert missle/hardware analysis. Or maybe they fear I'm undermining war morale or something. Did they bother looking at my Site Meter stats first?
We would like to draw your attention to the widely unreported efforts of the coalition. Every day the Coalition kills, captures and detains more terrorists and seizes more weapons caches. For the most part these events go un-reported.
Please, visit the CENTCOM website at www.centcom.mil and look in the Newsroom for press releases covering these day to day events.
V/R
Spc. Patrick A. Ziegler
U.S. Central Command
Public Affairs
Of course, my first question was "Is this guy for real?" A quick Google Search brought up numerous hits. This guy gets around. Mostly similar "drive-by spam" posts. Some other bloggers have commented on this. Here's Needlenose, who seemed to get the exact same text from Spc. Ziegler that I did. (He also posted a diary on Kos about this.) Here on Jesus' General, Spc. Ziegler is shown to be part of an operation dubbed "Operation Keyboard Warrior" by the author. Probably the best info on this new "engagement practice" can be found here. Your tax dollars at work! And remember, this is the military. Shouldn't domestic propaganda be part of the civilian bureaucracy? Oh well, the military org chart is far too byzantine for me to fathom.
Sadly, I suspect Spc. Ziegler didn't actually read my blog. He could have even been using a script or bot. He does appear to be a real person though, because he's involved in other blog outreach projects. I guess I'm flattered that the Pentagon considers blogs (even low traffic ones like this one) worth engaging, but they're going to have to do better if they want to win "hearts and minds" in the lefty blogosphere.
As to the substance of Spc. Ziegler's post (I'm assuming Spc. is "specialist"), I think he's falling into the classic Vietnam-era "body count" fallacy. He says: "Every day the Coalition kills, captures and detains more terrorists and seizes more weapons caches." I certainly don't dispute this. I don't even dispute that these things aren't reported that often. What I do dispute is the implication that these kills, captures, arrests, and seizures mean that we are in any way winning. How fast are "terrorists" (a word lumping together all manner of insurgents, militia fighters, Al Qaeda terrorists, Saddam Loyalists, criminals, revenge seekers, and occupation resisters) being created? How fast are weapons pouring in to Iraq? What is the difference between how many we get and how many are made, and in what direction is that number going?
If you're going to convince me that things are better than the media is portraying, you're going to have to have something better than "We're stopping a lot of bad guys and you haven't heard about it." Of course there have been numerous small victories. Our troops are incredibly valiant and well trained, and we have many outstanding officers. But that doesn't mean the strategic and political situations aren't going to hell. I'm sure we killed a lot of Viet Kong and seized a lot of their weapons, too, right up until we got out of there (which was long after we already knew we had lost).
Next Question: was it really Henry Kissenger who left the comment on my blog here? I'm skeptical, but who knows? The Columbia Journalism Review Daily featured that post prominently, and maybe he reads it. Maybe I should ask him a few questions about his past actions. Or maybe I should offer him a chance at redemption and get him to engineer a coup against our government. (Heck, from what I hear the CIA would gladly participate, unless its already been purged and stuffed with cronies.) Too bad there's no way to verify the identity of the poster.
Comments
Yours sincurly,
Presudent G.W. Bush