They've lost me this time

[Howell]

I'm starting to believe, hell...I do believe that media is the root of evil between nations.

I watch maybe 3 hours of TV a month and that's all at once. I almost never remember to turn on the radio.

Lately I have been religiously monitoring Google News. It pulls in news reports from media across the globe.

I have checked in on this site from time to time.

I have to agree that it is annoying how easily the media can leave out information and color a situation. The recent post to a news org. by time is an example.

Also funny is how ill informed reporters are. I've not heard it myself (see above) but my brother was telling me about reporters talking about the so-and-so three divisions of so-and-so regiment. Three years ago they changed the structure so that there were 5/6 divisions in a regiment.

 

[Tannin]

reporters talking about the so-and-so three divisions of so-and-so regiment. Three years ago they changed the structure so that there were 5/6 divisions in a regiment.

Yeah, right. And is is six gallons in a pint? Or eight? I forget.

 

[Mercutio]

IIRC 3 operational battalions with SOP to place 1 additional battalion in reserve and one which serves for HQ/Logistics/rear echelon types (the HQ battalion is usually the biggest one, too).

... and that makes a division.
Three divisions make a brigade. 3 brigades make a corps, which, all together contains roughly 25,000 soldiers.

At this point I'm utterly skeptical of all media. I don't think it's possible to get fair coverage of this. US sources rely on "embedded" journalists who only get to see what they're allowed to, and end up with personal relationships with the unit they're associated with, and I have no filter to decide how much foreign coverage is BS or propaganda, and I'm left with, er... no good way to follow along. That's a sad statement. At least, I think it is.

 

[Howell]

reporters talking about the so-and-so three divisions of so-and-so regiment. Three years ago they changed the structure so that there were 5/6 divisions in a regiment.

Yeah, right. And is is six gallons in a pint? Or eight? I forget.

Don't even start with the stones!

 

[Tannin]

Pin this on your wall.

Regiment or battalion: 600 to 1000 troops. Usually led by a Colonel.

Brigade: typically three battalions (or regiments in the USA, USSR - different names, same thing). 2000 to 5000 troops. Led by a Brigadier General.

Division: Usually three brigades, anywhere between 10,000 to almost 30,000 men. Led by a Major General, a division is the smallest unit that is normally expected to be a complete, organic all-arms force: i.e., a division has its own infantry, tanks, artillery, engineers, transport, and everything else required to make up an entire fighting force. The classic "triangular" formulation (as used by Napoleon, who was one of the first to make use of this concept, and still used by the majority of armies today is to have three brigades, plus a regiment each of artillery, cavalry, and engineers, which are more-or-less permanantly attached to the division.

Some armies, notably the German Army in the second half of WW2, have only two brigades to the division. This is mainly designed, for any given number of troops, to make the overall force look larger. "Look!" Hitler could scream at his generals, "We have 7 divisions investing Minsk! Why are we not seeing more progress!" Alternatively, some armies (notably the US Army during WW1) have "square" divisions: 4 brigades per division. This makes each division very powerful. On the other hand, you don't get to have so many of them. The classic division, however, is the "triangular" division: 3 brigades. This is the usual practice. Generally, in modern armies (like the US Army in the 1991 Gulf War), you have 1 infantry + 2 cavalry brigades for an "armour heavy" division, or else 1 cavalry + 2 infantry for a "infantry heavy" division. Commanders tend to swap brigades over between different divisions depending on the type of fighting expected - more infantry for house to house stuff or congested terrain, more tanks for battles of movement in open country.

One of the great advantages of the triangular division is that it is so easy to have a balanced force structure: typically "two up and one down" - i.e., two brigades in the front line, the third in reserve to be commited as needed. (But sometimes the other way about.) Napoleon was no fool.

Corps: Two or more divisions. Commanded by a lieutenant general.

Army: Two or more corps. Commanded by a full general.

There will be a short test after class.

 

[mubs]

Israeli soldiers kill British television cameraman carrying white flag. Found this on Google news.

 

[Pradeep]

Disgraceful. IIRC there was also a Palestinian cameraman shot dead a few weeks ago.

It looks like a new age of censorship in Israel. They don't like the stories that are being broadcast (houses being bulldozed etc), they kill the reporters.

Perhaps now that the Iraq effort is pretty much over, the media can expose such atrocities once more.

 

[Tea]

They are pretty good at this PR ztuff. Maybe they should write a book. They could call it ... oh ... something like: "How to win friends and influence people."

 

[James]

Good on the Rape of Nanking, is it James?

Don't knock it until you've seen it.

 

[time]

Isn't a 32-day delay in responding some kind of record for you, James?

 

[Tannin]

Actually I have seen it. But that was ... er ... nearly 30 years ago, so I don't think it counts. :wink:

 

[James]

Isn't a 32-day delay in responding some kind of record for you, James?

Yeah, probably. Sort of like thinking of that great comeback to the guy that pushed in front of you in line, only weeks too late.

I've just been flat out at work...

 

[skeet]

I've just waded through most of the postings on this subject. Northern Ireland will be resolved by political will eventually and that is significant. Israel/Palestine probably can't get any worse which means it will get better. Also, there is good journalism going on in their now (try some Robert Fisk - he'll get you thinking). Even the Palestinians are finally countering the Israeli PR machine, which like most things Jewish, is incredibly well done (no shortage of clever people there).
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the big development in all this seems to be the rift between the US Pentagon and State Dept. There seems to be a lot of US energy being brought to bear on this much travelled Middle Eastern route for a change. Is this the State Departments reward for support during the Iraq war. They are usually the Doves (or as Dovish as US foreign policy will allow) and Powell fronted the UN push for Resolutions when it was looking like an all Rumsfeld playing field. I wonder if the price that Rumsfeld payed for unilateral support for the war within the administration was two fingers to the powerful US Jewish lobby and a free hand for the doves to ring the changes with regards to US support for Israels increasingly desperate methods of "regional stabilisation".
We have just finished a series of films at work for a UK based charity, Islamic Relief. The main reporter, Adrian, has just come back from Syria, Iran, Iraq and Israel shooting footage to bolster the purses of the needy. He is a thoroughly descent chap who can't stand any of the people from the above countries except the Iranians, who he describes as the nicest people on the planet. Kind, respectful, thoughtful and just fun to be with. The people are happy to speak their mind on politics, the current government and US sport. Hows that for an Axis of Evil!
As a final note: someone once asked me what I thought was the best course of action in Iraq in 1989. I didn't really know war, a quit life in Australia had left me naive even to Vietnam. I assumed my worldly mate would be dovish, what with him being the only union member to work at McDonalds and all. "Nuke the bastards" was his reply. It seemed a little extreme and I'm sure most of the sentiment was for impact. He was adament that any military action should complete, not decisive, complete. We botched it the first time because of the Un Resolution forbidding advance past the Basra Road and we have had to go back and finish it. Only the French would make that kind of military blunder again.
Time for a spot of Tea!

 

[Tea]

I am alwayz in favour of a spot of Tea. :wink: