[lit-ideas] Iraq: more mistakes
- From: Eric Yost <eyost1132@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 06 Apr 2006 15:23:14 -0400
Omar: WASHINGTON - Last week's attack by US-led Iraqi
paramilitary forces on a building that Shi'ite leaders
claim was a mosque...
Note the "claim [it] was a mosque." This is a
classic example of the Propaganda War going on in
Iraq. Apparently a "mosque" is whatever people say
it is. Most accounts discuss a successful raid on
an insurgent hideout, the capture of weapons...but
before the troops even returned to base, the Iraq
radio was describing "an attack on a mosque."
A mosque? Huh? What mosque?
See how cleverly the various Islamic factions play
the Propaganda War. People who don't bother
comparing accounts immediately think, "More
mistakes." And the uncritical buy into this
bullbleap because it reinforces their
anti-American or anti-Bush views.
Here's a different account of the same incident.
___________________
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200603/s1602415.htm
US accuses Shiites of mosque assault 'misinformation'
US commanders in Iraq have accused powerful Shiite
groups of moving the corpses of gunmen killed in
battle to encourage accusations that US-led troops
massacred unarmed worshippers in a mosque.
"After the fact, someone went in and made the
scene look different from what it was. There's
been huge misinformation," Lieutenant General
Peter Chiarelli, the second-ranking US commander
in Iraq, said.
He rejects the accusations of a massacre that
prompted the Shiite-led Government to demand US
forces cede control of security but declined to
spell out which group he believed moved the bodies.
Government-run television has shown footage of
bodies lying without weapons in what Shiite
ministers say is a mosque compound run by radical
cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
The security minister accuses Iraqi and US troops
of killing 37 unarmed men.
Giving the first US military briefing on Sunday's
events in Baghdad, Lt Gen Chiarelli says the raid
by about 50 Iraqi special forces troops backed by
some 25 US "advisers" had been the fruit of long
intelligence work.
He says they arrived to raid the site at nightfall
and were immediately fired on from a number of
buildings around the compound.
The troops "cleared the compound", he says,
killing or capturing those inside.
All the dead were killed by Iraqi fire, Lt Gen
Chiarelli says.
He does not know the religious affiliation of 16
"insurgents" who were killed and he insists the
compound was not a mosque but an office complex.
Neighbours and aides to Mr Sadr call it a mosque
and say it was once offices for Saddam Hussein's
Baath party.
Major General JD Thurman, whose division controls
Baghdad, said: "If it was a mosque, why are they
using it as a place to hold hostages".
He added that weapons, including 34 assault rifles
and rocket-propelled grenades were also found.
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