[Vision2020] Nationalism In Iraq

[Bob Hoffmann]

At 12:18 PM 3/29/2003 -0800, you wrote:
>Dana Lewis on MSNBC is reporting that (Iraqi civillian) men with bullet 
>holes in their
>heads are being found.

Editor & Publisher Magazine, one of the top trade magazines in the news 
business, has a story in their March 27 edition called "15 Stories They've 
Already Bungled."  The article starts, "The war is only a week old and 
already the media has gotten at least 15 stories wrong or misreported a 
sliver of fact into a major event. Television news programs, of course, 
have been the prime culprits."  See
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/editorandpublisher/headlines/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1850208

So is the MSNBC report a reflection of reality, or is it another bungled 
story?  If you are a skeptic, as I am, you are likely to think that the 
story should be viewed with caution until confirmed by overwhelming 
evidence, and at worst, a piece of propaganda fed to a naive U.S. media 
like the myth of Iraqi troops removing babies from incubators.  If you take 
the pronouncements of the U.S. administration and media at their face 
value, then you believe the story, but you were also probably sucked in by 
the following fifteen bungled stories:

1. Saddam may well have been killed in the first night's surprise attack 
(March 20).
2. Even if he wasn't killed, Iraqi command and control was no doubt 
"decapitated" (March 22).
3. Umm Qasr has been taken (March 22).
4. Most Iraqis soldiers will not fight for Saddam and instead are 
surrendering in droves (March 22).
5. Iraqi citizens are greeting Americans as liberators (March 22).
6. An entire division of 8,000 Iraqi soldiers surrendered en masse near 
Basra (March 23).
7. Several Scud missiles, banned weapons, have been launched against U.S. 
forces in Kuwait (March 23).
8. Saddam's Fedayeen militia are few in number and do not pose a serious 
threat (March 23).
9. Basra has been taken (March 23).
10. Umm Qasr has been taken (March 23).
11. A captured chemical plant likely produced chemical weapons (March 23).
12. Nassiriya has been taken (March 23).
13. Umm Qasr has been taken (March 24).
14. The Iraqi government faces a "major rebellion" of anti-Saddam citizens 
in Basra (March 24).
15. A convoy of 1,000 Iraqi vehicles and Republican Guards are speeding 
south from Baghdad to engage U.S. troops (March 25).


Bob Hoffmann
820 S. Logan St.
Moscow, ID  83843

Tel: 208 883-0642