[Serious] Men and Women who lived or are living in war zones, what shit really went down that the media can't cover?

Most of the media coverage is wrong regardless. Here is one story.

On my second tour in Iraq we were stationed in a very volatile area. The was a "legitimate" political party that spoke for the most extreme elements in the area. We usually gave their headquarters a wide birth because it could easily play into their hands politically or propaganda wise. Also since they were supposed to be legitimate they were giving a measure "diplomatic immunity" in the name of free speech. One day we given VERY strong intel that this political HQ had just received a large shipment of weapons. We quickly moved in and recovered a large numbers of weapons and explosives. Most very new and still in their original manufactures packaging (I'll return to that later). We also arrested everyone in the building.

A nice quick successful raid with no conflict. Or so we thought. Several hours later we heard several large explosions and some gunfire, but there was no allied units in the area so we were sent back in to find out what was happening. When we arrived at the HQ, it was gone. What had been 3 stories of brick building was now a pile of rubble that seemed far too small for how large it had been. At the time the best we could figure out was they were so pissed off that we took their new toys they destroyed their own political HQ in a fit of rage.

Later that day we returned to base and for the only time in my career my LT was debriefed by a CIA agent. This NEVER happens. Remember that packaging? Well in the news at the time Iran had been making loud and frequent claims that they never supplied the insurgents in any way and they were angry at our baseless claims. The packaging and most of the RPG warheads were stamped in both English and Arabic with "Made in Iran" and the production date which was only two weeks old. These were fresh from Iran months after they started claiming they didn't sent supplies to Iraq.

Later that evening Al Jazeera released a "news" report that my unit had attacked the completely "peaceful" political headquarters for no reason and that we had razed it to the ground. Annoying but not surprising considering the source. What was surprising was the next day when CNN released an nearly identical "news" report. They don't investigate they just report whatever inflammatory story that will get viewership.

Personally I think they destroyed their building and got Al Jezerra to report it to muddy the issue of where the weapons came from and when. It worked perfectly if that was the case.

/r/AskReddit Thread