“USAF Intel Guy” here again…
While this is the same type of thing that got Geraldo run out on a rail since we generally do not want the enemy to know where we are, there are times when such statements can be tactically advantageous.
Say there are reporters with 1MEF saying “We are rolling up Highway X, within striking distance of Baghdad” and you have reporters with 3ID saying “We just rolled through Karbala, and are X miles from Baghdad”.
First, this will be a decisive signal to the rest of the regimes forces that we are rolling through the Republican Guards like butter. Such a signal may ultimately cause the remaining forces to capitulate.
Second, such statements can help fix the enemy in place if they do indeed intend to fight. If we can make so much noise about our strong advance from the south, it could very well cause the regime to focus entirely on that…and then perhaps not notice another assault from another direction where defenses are not so strong. This is *entirely* hypothetical since I have no insight into CENTCOM’s planning..but it worked in the first Gulf War. Lots of noise in Kuwait, and here comes the ‘Left Hook’
While the military has always had a tendency to control all operational information very tightly, it is finding that release of some can have very strong impact in the realm of ‘Information Operations” and Psychological Operations.
Information *can* be a weapon….