Press, political pressure helped 'lose' Fallujah, report says - - The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

I am so shocked. Really.

It is about time that someone admitted that the media influences the politicians and public who then can order the military to change the way it operates. Which can lead to additional deaths.

Press, political pressure helped 'lose' Fallujah, report says - - The Washington Times, America's Newspaper: "A secret intelligence assessment of the first battle of Fallujah shows that the U.S. military thinks that it lost control over information about what was happening in the town, leading to 'political pressure' that ended its April 2004 offensive with control being handed to Sunni insurgents.

'The outcome of a purely military contest in Fallujah was always a foregone conclusion — coalition victory,' read the assessment, prepared by analysts at the U.S. Army's National Ground Intelligence Center, or NGIC.

'But Fallujah was not simply a military action, it was a political and informational battle. ... The effects of media coverage, enemy information operations and the fragility of the political environment conspired to force a halt to U.S. military operations,' concluded the assessment."