This is a copy of a letter I just sent to AP.
There is an interview now available on the Web, attributed to AP, which allows DDO CENTCOM Holmes to spout every brass-hard line of propaganda the US maintains about its armada in the Persian Gulf region.
Since the piece is unattributed, I don't know where to direct my criticism. However, if the interviewer were one of my students, I would chastise him or her for allowing that sort of boilerplate to go by without question. How can Holmes maintain with a straight face that the carrier groups (including the Bataan and soon the Nimitz), in the context of US military and logistic aid to Baluchi insurgents and a massive buildup of land-based air weaponry, merely represent a comfort to "our allies?" The US has, historically, undertaken war efforts while maintaining a falsely defensive posture in the press. The logistical weight of the current buildup is too expensive to be a mere feint--surely the AP reporter knows that.
Or is that not so? Do AP reporters read history? Could it me that the interviewer is not versed in military affairs and technology? Or does he or she wish to be the General's friend?
Why no questions?
Theresa Mitchell/KBOO
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