Thursday, May 13, 2004
Who are they killing – apparitions?
As mentioned previously, body counts are now back in vogue in the U.S. military. Can’t say I blame them – they do need to be able to point to some signs of progress, don’t they?
Unfortunately, there is a down side to the body counts – they make the propaganda spouted by the U.S. military much more apparent. This is best shown by example.
For the past couple of weeks the U.S. army has been fighting the militia of the Shiite cleric Moktada as-Sadr in cities throughout southern Iraq. And day after day we hear that the U.S. killed 40 of his militia in one engagement, 20 in another, and 60 in still another. If one were to keep a tally of all the militia supposedly killed by the U.S. it would probably total a close to a thousand. But there is a problem with this. You see, the U.S. has always insisted that Sadr’s militia is tiny – certainly no more than a thousand or so people. If fact in an article in the New York Times today Sadr’s militia was said to number no more than “several hundred”.
Well, if that is case, and the body counts are to be believed, then we have most certainly killed everyone in the Sadr militia. This leaves me a little confused as to who the U.S. is still fighting in Najaf, Karbala, Basra, and Sadr city. Apparitions maybe?
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Unfortunately, there is a down side to the body counts – they make the propaganda spouted by the U.S. military much more apparent. This is best shown by example.
For the past couple of weeks the U.S. army has been fighting the militia of the Shiite cleric Moktada as-Sadr in cities throughout southern Iraq. And day after day we hear that the U.S. killed 40 of his militia in one engagement, 20 in another, and 60 in still another. If one were to keep a tally of all the militia supposedly killed by the U.S. it would probably total a close to a thousand. But there is a problem with this. You see, the U.S. has always insisted that Sadr’s militia is tiny – certainly no more than a thousand or so people. If fact in an article in the New York Times today Sadr’s militia was said to number no more than “several hundred”.
Well, if that is case, and the body counts are to be believed, then we have most certainly killed everyone in the Sadr militia. This leaves me a little confused as to who the U.S. is still fighting in Najaf, Karbala, Basra, and Sadr city. Apparitions maybe?
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