Don't Believe What You Hear & Half of What You See
"They're afraid," the official said.
--"Official Says Shi'ite Party Suppressed Body Count," Washington Post, March 9, 2006
Okay, I know some of you reading this are probablay rolling your eyes and saying, Mills, what's up with you? You're still writing about the war in Iraq when there are so many other things that affect our lives here in this country that should be taking up our attention. You did a seven-part series on the civil war in Iraq. WE GET IT ALREADY, so leave us alone! Write about something that actually INTERESTS us!
Yes, it's true that I do have a stack of research material at my elbow as we speak on all kinds of issues that directly touch our lives, both things that we can and should do something about, to things we need to be thinking about, to things that are just plain good to know. And yes, I will be writing about some of those things in the coming days and weeks.
I don't mean to draw you into my magnificent obsession with this war, since I know most of you are not directly affected by it the way my family is.
Still. There are some things that I do think we all need to know, in order not just to make informed decisions about which information we can trust, but to learn to think critically and analyze objectively, so that our emotions do not cloud our judgement when we make these decisions.
The correct figure for the amount of Iraqi civilians who have died in the days of violence and bloodshed following the bombing of the Golden Mosque does not have any bearing on yours or my daily life. Frankly, most Americans really don't care. Let them kill each other off and bring our boys and girls home is pretty much the given attitude in this country.
But it is important that we take a closer look at this issue, not just because, as Christians, we should feel compassion for those anywhere on this globe who meet violent ends for whatever reasons, but because it is crucial that we understand how information is packaged and presented to us by those who want to manipulate our opinions on issues of life and death.
Body count-manipulation in times of war is nothing new. Many of you may remember, back during the Vietnam war, that on the evening news every single Friday, the war's body count was listed. And every single week, there were thousands more Viet Cong announced as having been killed than the amount of American soldiers and Marines. This was to give us the clear indication that the war was going well and that our troops were winning. Those figures may or may not have been accurate.
But the war was not going well and our troops--who were winning decidedly on the ground--proved unable, in the end, to claim victory in the war itself. Blame politicians, blame whoever, but the fact remains that Vietnam is still a communist country, through no fault of our military troops.
Still, the military and the politicians in charge of running that war had a vested interest in manipulating public opinion in such a way that would validate their (poor) decisions and thus prolong their commitment--which dragged on a total of twenty years, ten of which resulted in a significant loss of American life and tore this country damn near in half.
As I pointed out in Part II of my series on the civil war in Iraq, Sects & Violence: Death Squads & Militias, in the days following the bombing that were marked by massive civil unrest, the Iraqi Interior Ministry insisted on announcing a death toll that never went any higher than 379.
The American military reported the same figures, and as recently as just this past Sunday, on NBC's Face the Nation, the top U.S. commander in Iraq , Gen. George Casey, repeated those figures and added that the media had exaggerated the numbers.
The television news broadcasts continued to report the Iraqi civilian deaths as in the range of 350. They took the numbers that had been reported by the Interior Ministry and echoed by the American military and reported those numbers as fact on evening news broadcasts. I saw it myself, on all three major networks, and read those numbers reiterated in both Time and Newsweek.
Recently, Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari, (a Shi'ite), flat-out denied that the numbers were any higher and accused the media of over-reporting.
It is important to note here, that when the Iraqi government and the American military complained about "exaggerations" in the media--they were complaining that the figures were higher than 200.
But of all the media outlets reporting these figures, only the Washington Post, who has reporters on the ground in Baghdad, actually took the step of visiting the morgue.
The reporters were horrified and shocked to discover literally hundreds and hundreds of unclaimed corpses, "blood-caked men who had been shot, knifed, garroted, or apparently suffocated with plastic bags still over their heads."
Many of the bodies witnessed by the reporters, which overflowed into hallways and onto floors, still had their hands tied behind their backs. And it was a morgue official who gave them a far more likely toll of the violently dead: 1300.
For several days, the Post was the only news source reporting this figure, and then gradually, other news sources began to report "more than 1,000."
The reason this misrepresentation is important is that the Iraqi Interior ministry, as I reported in my series on the civil war in Iraq, has been taken over by Shi'ite militias loyal to several American-hating imams, including Moqtada al Sadr. Over the past few months there have been hundreds of firings, assassinations, and murders nation-wide of security forces NOT loyal to Sadr and the others--especially Sunnis--and they have been REPLACED by black-clad commandoes who have been on a death squad orgy since last April, rounding up hundreds of Sunni men and families and executing them, often by torture.
So the Interior Ministry has a vested interest in lying about the amount of people who have died at the hands of the militias who run, well, the Interior Ministry.
The American military has a vested interest in backing up the Interior Ministry because if they don't, they will be admitting that civil war has already broken out in Iraq and that it is impossible to put the genie back in the bottle once you've let him out.
And that, furthermore, our troops are caught right in the crossfire, and therein lies the rub.
According to an article in today's Washington Post, leading Shi'ite government officials in the Health Ministry, Interior Ministry, and Defense Ministry have ordered officials to stop tabulating execution-style shootings and other acts of militia violence. They are to report deaths in only two categories: "military operations" and "terrorist attacks."
"Terrorist attacks," you see, would fall under the category of Sunni violence. Everybody knows that the ranking terrorist Sunni, Abu Musab al-Zarkawi, routinely orders bombings on Shi'ite and even some Sunni civilians, if they appear to the working with the Americans or other Coalition forces. Those deaths can be reported. But towering stacks of Sunni bodies found outside remote villages and trucked into the morgue in Baghdad can no longer be tabulated, since they were probably killed by Shi'ite militias.
In fact, at the time the Post reporters visited the Baghdad morgue in the days following the bombing, family members were allowed to come into the morgue and identify their loved one's bodies through computer photographs projected on a screen. Once identified, those deaths were then reported.
Now, NO ONE is allowed access to the morgue, according to the Post, and names of the dead are merely posted on a wall for family members to read. They are not reported. Officials do not report them now because they fear reprisals. They fear winding up in the morgue where they work.
The Post has confirmed its report with three separate sources, and other news organizations as well as the Post can confirm that at least three Thermo King refrigerated trailers have been parked outside the morgue to handle the overflow of corpses.
Meanwhile, American military brass continues to echo the reports made by the Interior Ministry of Iraq, and repeated attempts to garner more accurate death tolls from military sources go unanswered, according to the Post.
"This is part of the campaign that the enemies of Iraq and the Iraqi people are still trying to lead to confuse the situation," stated an Iraqi government spokesperson.
"Now, it appears that the crises has passed," said Gen. Casey on news programs.
I must point out here that, to the Iraqi way of thinking, militia violence is only payback, not only for the Sunni acts of terrorism against Iraqis for the past three years, but the many years of Sunni oppression under Saddam before it. And, to the Iraqi way of thinking, the militia "protection" is necessary because the American and Coalition forces did not protect the Iraqi civilians from those acts of violence.
Since my son is over there risking his life, I most certainly do not mean to imply that they are RIGHT. Our Marines and soldiers have fought bravely to get rid of the terrorists over there--YOU know it and *I* know it, but to the people trying to raise families in a violent land, it's hard to see it.
Furthermore, we could have done a far better job of providing that necessary protection if only the politicians and their henchmen over here in the U.S. had paid attention to the requests by the people on the ground in Iraq for more troops. But Rumsfeld wanted a lean war and this is the lean war he got.
The bottom line is this: If thousands of people are being tortured and mutilated by militias sanctioned by the Iraqi government and supplied by American tax dollars, then the American people would have good reason to grow increasingly upset with what is happening in Iraq, to the tune of almost one billion dollars a week and more than 2300 American dead.
If, however, the OFFICIAL COUNT is much, much less, then it would seem there IS no civil unrest over there and all is well. We can eat our Wheaties and watch sports and not think about it any more.
After all, Gen. Casey SAID that things were going "very very well" in Iraq.
--"Official Says Shi'ite Party Suppressed Body Count," Washington Post, March 9, 2006
Okay, I know some of you reading this are probablay rolling your eyes and saying, Mills, what's up with you? You're still writing about the war in Iraq when there are so many other things that affect our lives here in this country that should be taking up our attention. You did a seven-part series on the civil war in Iraq. WE GET IT ALREADY, so leave us alone! Write about something that actually INTERESTS us!
Yes, it's true that I do have a stack of research material at my elbow as we speak on all kinds of issues that directly touch our lives, both things that we can and should do something about, to things we need to be thinking about, to things that are just plain good to know. And yes, I will be writing about some of those things in the coming days and weeks.
I don't mean to draw you into my magnificent obsession with this war, since I know most of you are not directly affected by it the way my family is.
Still. There are some things that I do think we all need to know, in order not just to make informed decisions about which information we can trust, but to learn to think critically and analyze objectively, so that our emotions do not cloud our judgement when we make these decisions.
The correct figure for the amount of Iraqi civilians who have died in the days of violence and bloodshed following the bombing of the Golden Mosque does not have any bearing on yours or my daily life. Frankly, most Americans really don't care. Let them kill each other off and bring our boys and girls home is pretty much the given attitude in this country.
But it is important that we take a closer look at this issue, not just because, as Christians, we should feel compassion for those anywhere on this globe who meet violent ends for whatever reasons, but because it is crucial that we understand how information is packaged and presented to us by those who want to manipulate our opinions on issues of life and death.
Body count-manipulation in times of war is nothing new. Many of you may remember, back during the Vietnam war, that on the evening news every single Friday, the war's body count was listed. And every single week, there were thousands more Viet Cong announced as having been killed than the amount of American soldiers and Marines. This was to give us the clear indication that the war was going well and that our troops were winning. Those figures may or may not have been accurate.
But the war was not going well and our troops--who were winning decidedly on the ground--proved unable, in the end, to claim victory in the war itself. Blame politicians, blame whoever, but the fact remains that Vietnam is still a communist country, through no fault of our military troops.
Still, the military and the politicians in charge of running that war had a vested interest in manipulating public opinion in such a way that would validate their (poor) decisions and thus prolong their commitment--which dragged on a total of twenty years, ten of which resulted in a significant loss of American life and tore this country damn near in half.
As I pointed out in Part II of my series on the civil war in Iraq, Sects & Violence: Death Squads & Militias, in the days following the bombing that were marked by massive civil unrest, the Iraqi Interior Ministry insisted on announcing a death toll that never went any higher than 379.
The American military reported the same figures, and as recently as just this past Sunday, on NBC's Face the Nation, the top U.S. commander in Iraq , Gen. George Casey, repeated those figures and added that the media had exaggerated the numbers.
The television news broadcasts continued to report the Iraqi civilian deaths as in the range of 350. They took the numbers that had been reported by the Interior Ministry and echoed by the American military and reported those numbers as fact on evening news broadcasts. I saw it myself, on all three major networks, and read those numbers reiterated in both Time and Newsweek.
Recently, Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari, (a Shi'ite), flat-out denied that the numbers were any higher and accused the media of over-reporting.
It is important to note here, that when the Iraqi government and the American military complained about "exaggerations" in the media--they were complaining that the figures were higher than 200.
But of all the media outlets reporting these figures, only the Washington Post, who has reporters on the ground in Baghdad, actually took the step of visiting the morgue.
The reporters were horrified and shocked to discover literally hundreds and hundreds of unclaimed corpses, "blood-caked men who had been shot, knifed, garroted, or apparently suffocated with plastic bags still over their heads."
Many of the bodies witnessed by the reporters, which overflowed into hallways and onto floors, still had their hands tied behind their backs. And it was a morgue official who gave them a far more likely toll of the violently dead: 1300.
For several days, the Post was the only news source reporting this figure, and then gradually, other news sources began to report "more than 1,000."
The reason this misrepresentation is important is that the Iraqi Interior ministry, as I reported in my series on the civil war in Iraq, has been taken over by Shi'ite militias loyal to several American-hating imams, including Moqtada al Sadr. Over the past few months there have been hundreds of firings, assassinations, and murders nation-wide of security forces NOT loyal to Sadr and the others--especially Sunnis--and they have been REPLACED by black-clad commandoes who have been on a death squad orgy since last April, rounding up hundreds of Sunni men and families and executing them, often by torture.
So the Interior Ministry has a vested interest in lying about the amount of people who have died at the hands of the militias who run, well, the Interior Ministry.
The American military has a vested interest in backing up the Interior Ministry because if they don't, they will be admitting that civil war has already broken out in Iraq and that it is impossible to put the genie back in the bottle once you've let him out.
And that, furthermore, our troops are caught right in the crossfire, and therein lies the rub.
According to an article in today's Washington Post, leading Shi'ite government officials in the Health Ministry, Interior Ministry, and Defense Ministry have ordered officials to stop tabulating execution-style shootings and other acts of militia violence. They are to report deaths in only two categories: "military operations" and "terrorist attacks."
"Terrorist attacks," you see, would fall under the category of Sunni violence. Everybody knows that the ranking terrorist Sunni, Abu Musab al-Zarkawi, routinely orders bombings on Shi'ite and even some Sunni civilians, if they appear to the working with the Americans or other Coalition forces. Those deaths can be reported. But towering stacks of Sunni bodies found outside remote villages and trucked into the morgue in Baghdad can no longer be tabulated, since they were probably killed by Shi'ite militias.
In fact, at the time the Post reporters visited the Baghdad morgue in the days following the bombing, family members were allowed to come into the morgue and identify their loved one's bodies through computer photographs projected on a screen. Once identified, those deaths were then reported.
Now, NO ONE is allowed access to the morgue, according to the Post, and names of the dead are merely posted on a wall for family members to read. They are not reported. Officials do not report them now because they fear reprisals. They fear winding up in the morgue where they work.
The Post has confirmed its report with three separate sources, and other news organizations as well as the Post can confirm that at least three Thermo King refrigerated trailers have been parked outside the morgue to handle the overflow of corpses.
Meanwhile, American military brass continues to echo the reports made by the Interior Ministry of Iraq, and repeated attempts to garner more accurate death tolls from military sources go unanswered, according to the Post.
"This is part of the campaign that the enemies of Iraq and the Iraqi people are still trying to lead to confuse the situation," stated an Iraqi government spokesperson.
"Now, it appears that the crises has passed," said Gen. Casey on news programs.
I must point out here that, to the Iraqi way of thinking, militia violence is only payback, not only for the Sunni acts of terrorism against Iraqis for the past three years, but the many years of Sunni oppression under Saddam before it. And, to the Iraqi way of thinking, the militia "protection" is necessary because the American and Coalition forces did not protect the Iraqi civilians from those acts of violence.
Since my son is over there risking his life, I most certainly do not mean to imply that they are RIGHT. Our Marines and soldiers have fought bravely to get rid of the terrorists over there--YOU know it and *I* know it, but to the people trying to raise families in a violent land, it's hard to see it.
Furthermore, we could have done a far better job of providing that necessary protection if only the politicians and their henchmen over here in the U.S. had paid attention to the requests by the people on the ground in Iraq for more troops. But Rumsfeld wanted a lean war and this is the lean war he got.
The bottom line is this: If thousands of people are being tortured and mutilated by militias sanctioned by the Iraqi government and supplied by American tax dollars, then the American people would have good reason to grow increasingly upset with what is happening in Iraq, to the tune of almost one billion dollars a week and more than 2300 American dead.
If, however, the OFFICIAL COUNT is much, much less, then it would seem there IS no civil unrest over there and all is well. We can eat our Wheaties and watch sports and not think about it any more.
After all, Gen. Casey SAID that things were going "very very well" in Iraq.
posted by Deanie Mills at 4:48 AM
2 Comments:
Sorry I have been so quiet. I will catch up, may take me a while because I see you have been a busy lady!
As you know our boys with the 3/7 are soon on their way home. OOH-RAH .. I hope your son is doing well too!
hugs
Tami aka Marine Mom
I'm counting the days for you lady, and my "sister" Kay (so much more than a mere sister-in-law) until my sweet nephew is home once again. The downward stretch is the hardest, I think, for all of you.
Dustin is in an extremely remote area. When they're in to their primitive post, there is no PX and no chow hall. They eat MREs all week and get hot food trucked in once a week. But they did find a huge weapons cache last week so they're staying busy.
Love,
Deanie
Post a Comment
<< Home