Afghan City Liberated By NATO Doesn't Exist

[DinoDoc]

Do 80,000 people live in the area?

80K - 125k people live in the area.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marja,_Afghanistan

[chequita guevara]

Some of you geniuses might want to do a little something called, zooming in on the map.

[SlowwHand]

Wiki gets info from Users. If the User has bad info, Wiki has bad info.

[chequita guevara]

I, for one, applaud Sloww's doing research and changing his position when confronted by new data. Hat is off to you, sir. I take back most of the things I've ever said about you.

[SlowwHand]

If I'm wrong, I'll say so. This likely won't be the last time.

[Kitschum]

Some of you geniuses might want to do a little something called, zooming in on the map.

To be precise, Marjeh is the irrigated square to the south of where Google put its red indicator.

That changes nothing, because it's still a rural district, not a city.

[ricketyclik]

This is all a war of perceptions.

Jeez, that's a first.

[Wezil]

The real problem is the journalists that apparently didn't had a clue about what they were reporting.

"Embedded" journalists are virtually worthless. Their pay should come directly from the military, not their regular employers to properly reflect their true allegiance.

[Ecofarm]

From the OP article:

According to Gareth Porter, writing on Counterpunch, the earliest references in news stories to Marjah as a city with a large population have a common origin in a briefing given on February 2 by officials at Camp Leatherneck, the U.S. Marine base there.

The media fell into line at once. The Associated Press published an article the same day quoting "Marine commanders" as saying that they expected 400 to 1,000 insurgents to be "holed up" in the "southern Afghan town of 80,000 people."

Feb. 28, AP:

town of Marjah

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100228/D9E5D6PG4.html

Financial Times (Feb. 18, 19) calls it a town too.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6754b44a-1d2e-11df-b12e-00144feab49a.html

I couldn't find an article that calls it a city.

[Elok]

Wow, they used the wrong terminology. I totally would not have expected that of them. This is at least as exciting as Watergate.

[Kitschum]

I couldn't find an article that calls it a city.

Here's a couple:

Mar 4:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gnabjliweUaTMSoDf-x_79_ccPJgD9E80MT80

NATO saw Marjah — a Taliban logistics center and drug-smuggling hub and the largest southern city under Taliban rule — as a key prize in Helmand, the southern Afghan province they've struggled to reclaim from the insurgents.

Mar 7:

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/03/07/afghanistan.main/

Afghan President Hamid Karzai made an unannounced visit to Marjah on Sunday to see the gains made after a massive military offensive by Afghan and international troops to wrest control of the southern city from the Taliban.

Mar 12:

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/usa/US-Reports-Steady-Progress-in-Afghanistan-87539397.html

Mr. Obama and his team praised Afghan and international forces' military achievements in Marja, a major city in the Taliban stronghold of Helmand province.

On the other hand, Gareth Porter's claim is hard to assess because he conflates the question of the terminology (city/town/agro district/bunch of villages/nothing) and the claim to a large population. I had no trouble finding a UPI article from May 21 of last year that calls Marjeh a city. For sure it is not explicit about Marjeh's population size, but the claim in the OP's article that the word choice shows intentional distortion in connection with operation Moshtarak seems weak indeed. It is more likely to be the result of careless translation.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/05/21/Afghan-operation-leaves-16-militants-dead/UPI-29101242930071/

The operation in the city of Marjeh by Afghan National Army Commandos and coalition forces also resulted in the discovery of a cache of military weapons, including 10 rocket-propelled grenades and six mortars.

[Kidlicious]

Wow, they used the wrong terminology. I totally would not have expected that of them. This is at least as exciting as Watergate.

I can't remember the last time the media used the wrong terminology.

[Elok]

Or used the right terminology in a silly, misleading way. Remember all those stories about scary men with (gasp) "semi-automatic weapons?"

[Theben]

The point I think is to sell the public on the results. Saying we ran the bad guys out of a few hundred mud huts scattered about in a given area doesn't sound as decisive as driving bad guys out of a city of 80,000. And since Obama made Afghanistan one of his foreign priorities + it's an election year... well, the idea of winning public support based on a stretched truth here or there doesn't seem far-fetched.

[BeBMan]

I wonder if Afghanistan exists.