Sunday, November 25, 2012

Hejira

Tonight Xinhua reports on US efforts to beef up their presence in Iraq, US military efforts.  They note Independent Press Agency has quoted an Iraqi government source stating, "Dozens of giant U.S. airplanes C-130 Hercules had carried out successive flights to the once second largest U.S. military airbase al-Asad in Iraq's western province of Anbar."  They include the official government denial.  While Buratha News Agency has noted a Special Ops unit has come into Iraq in recent weeks and that there are negotiations going on to send more in.  Then the report notes:

 On Sept. 24, the New York Times newspaper quoted Lt. Gen. Robert L. Caslen Jr., an American commander in charge of speeding up weapons sales to Iraq, as saying that Iraq and the United States are negotiating an agreement that could result in the return of small units of American soldiers to Iraq on training missions.
According to Caslen, "A unit of Army Special Operations soldiers was recently deployed to Iraq to advise on counterterrorism and help with intelligence," the newspaper.



Back in September,  Tim Arango (New York Times) reported:

 
 Iraq and the United States are negotiating an agreement that could result in the return of small units of American soldiers to Iraq on training missions. At the request of the Iraqi government, according to General Caslen, a unit of Army Special Operations soldiers was recently deployed to Iraq to advise on counterterrorism and help with intelligence.




That's the New York Times report Xinhua is referring to.  And please note, 'fact checker' and corpulent TV personality Candy Crowley felt no need to tell debate watchers that very real fact.  But China's Xinhua can note what NBC News, CBS News and ABC News all ignored.  But it wasn't just television news that was ignorant of Tim Arango's report.  Mere weeks ago the editorial board of the New York Times wrote an editorial on Iraq that made clear they hadn't read what one of their own reporters had written.  And when 'fact checking' the presidential debates, the New York Times team repeatedly came up stupid when it had to do with the US government in negotiations to send more US troops into Iraq. 

Well the elections are over, so maybe the US news outlets can finally find a way to report that which they have ignored so steadfastly since Tim Arango's report first appeared?

But don't hold your breath.  This is the same industry that enlisted to sell the war on Iraq.  This is the same industry that told one lie after another to bring war down on Iraq.  This is the same industry that continued to tell lies after the illegal war started to keep the war going.  And now we expect this industry to tell the truth?

Truth is, they only dropped their coverage because the American people had overwhelmingly turned on the Iraq War and the 'news' industry figured that with no coverage, the American people would forget about Iraq.


Wars may be started by governments but they are sold by a compliant press.


Yesterday in Iraq, AFP reported, "Shiite Muslims marching during Ashura rituals in the Iraqi shrine city of Karbala on Saturday mixed mourning the death of Imam Hussein over 1,300 years ago with politics, making it the first time Ashura pilgrims incorporate their daily sociopolitical sufferings to religious chants.  The numbers of pilgrims are expected to reach three million on Sunday, Karbala provincial governor told AFP."  AFP reports millions did take part today and that a Diyala Province bombing injured ten of them.



I'm traveling in some vehicle
I'm sitting in some cafe
A defector from the petty wars
That shell shock love away
-- "Hejira," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her album of the same name

 The number of US service members the Dept of Defense states died in the Iraq War is [PDF format warning] 4488.



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