If it hadn't been for the heli—borne assault footage that allowed  the antique media to have an Apocalypse Now moment as they fondled their Vietnam war template, there wouldn't have been any coverage of Operation Swarmer.  As it is, they've not only covered it in some depth, they've continued their reporting on it this morning. The objective of the combined air—ground assault is to clear a suspected terrorist operating area northeast of Samarra.

The pull quote from the initial Multi—National Force Iraq website press release, is its last paragraph:

'Operation Swarmer follows closely the completion of a combined Iraqi—Coalition operation west of Samarra in early March that yielded substantial enemy weapons and equipment caches.'

Don't tell the antique media, but joint Iraqi—coalition forces Operations such as Swarmer have been ongoing, executed as part of the US strategy to kill and/or capture terrorists and their cells, especially those suspected of having anything to do with bomb making or bomb attacks.  Let's go back a year, to March 7, 2005, when a combined force of Iraqi police commandos, Public Order Battalion personnel and local Iraqi police conducted an operation near Samarra that netted 54 suspected terrorists, a large weapons cache and several vehicles.  It was Day One of a 3—day anti—terrorist operation.  (Go here for the whole story.)

If they were doing their jobs, these anti—war mediacrats would have been reporting that:

Coalition—Iraqi forces captured terror cell leader Abu Qatada on Dec. 27, 2005.  Subsequent interrogation led to the capture of several more terrorists.  Qatada, responsible for IED bombings, assassinations & kidnappings, has close ties to most wanted terrorist Abu Ayman, who has direct ties to Zarqawi.  Since Jan. 5, 2006, 122 key terrorists have been captured or killed throughout Iraq.

In the ongoing Operation Sayyid, Al Anbar province, coalition forces planned a & executed a raid that led to the capture of 61 members of Zarqawi's Al Qaeda in Iraq organization holed up inside a training & bomb—making facility.  Among those captured were several high—level operatives.

Task Force Band of Brothers unearthed a large cache of weapons & explosives in a house south of Tikrit March 14. At the same house, on Feb. 10, soldiers from 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division found mortar rounds to be used for IEDs.  The homeowner was detained.  In the most recent raid, soldiers found artillery shells, hand grenades, home—made bomb components, a sniper rifle and several thousand rounds of small arms ammunition.

Since March 12, Iraqi police have captured a member of the Omar Bin Khatab terror cell, while police in Baghdad's Qoria district detained a woman suspected of using her home as a terrorist safe haven.  In another community, children told police about some weapons stashed in a garbage bin.  In it, police found 18 fuses and more than 20 explosive rounds.

These are but a few examples of the ongoing, successful operations the media will not report because such successes violate their All Negative, All The Time commandment. 

John B. Dwyer     3 17 06