The Free View-- weblog of a presidential candidate

Orange Propaganda Alert

In today's daily Central Command Briefing, Brigadier General Vincent Brooks referred to the overpowering nature of the coalition's military actions (in this case, the battle for the Baghdad airport, and the hundreds of Iraqi troops that were killed). He said, "We don't ever seek a fight on fair terms. We will always seek an advantage."

How does that fit in with their constant complaints that the Iraqis are cheating by using guerrilla tactics?

General Brooks just said that the newest car bombing of soldiers (regardless of whether it was voluntarily done or not) was a "terrorist act. It was not a military act."

Can anyone explain to me how an act which is not directed at civilians -- either at hurting them or at causing them fear -- and which is instead directed at invading military forces, is a terrorist act? The car bombers aren't trying to send a political message by ripping the populace a new one -- the terrorist modus operandi -- they are trying to kill an enemy which is attempting to take over their country. To brand those acts with that label is Orwellian doublespeak at its most eloquent.

In response to a question about the numbers of civilian casualties, General Brooks said (after explaining how we've all seen clearly that they focus on precision and minimizing potential loss of civilian life, and after hinting that Iraq was doing most of the civilian killing), "I can't say for absolutely sure that there haven't been any civilians killed by coalition actions. I suspect that there may have been some."

In other words, he wouldn't even go so far as to admit that they've killed even one civilian Iraqi.

From scanning most of the relevant media, the researchers at Iraq Body Count have come up with a minimum of 574 confirmed civilian casualties. General Brooks apparently seems to maintain that there's a possibility that every single one of those people were either forced to be human shields, killed for not fighting by Saddam's people, or are terrorists.

Though maybe...it's a slight possibility...that some civilians have been killed by coalition forces. He's willing to grant that, so at least he's not being unreasonable or anything.

One final thought: You know how we keep getting visions of welcoming Iraqis, smiling and waving? I'm willing to bet that they used to smile and wave when Saddam's troops drove by too. After all, if you had no weapon or defense and were faced with threatening amounts of military force, what would you do?

Me, I'd either hide...or smile and wave.