April 08, 2003

War is ... surreal

Minister of Silly Walks
"I have no gate key"
One of the strangest parts of all the media coverage of the War on Iraq has got to be, without a doubt, the Iraqi (Mis)Information Minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf. First he insisted that Coalition forces were making no headway into the country at all. He referred to a car bomber (that did, in fact, kill four US soldiers) having blown up four or five Abrams tanks, a few armored personnel carriers, and a bunch of soldiers (perhaps the car bomb was a nuke ... no, wait, Iraq doesn't have those). Then, as US forces began rolling onto the runway at Saddam International, he insisted that US troops weren't within 100 miles of Baghdad and were all "nailed down". OK, well, they were at the airport, having evidently dropped several tanks from passing airplanes (since they couldn't have travelled the 100 feet miles that quickly -- and, after all, they were nailed down), but were being "destroyed" by Iraqi forces.
A very clever illusion indeed
A US tank in front of a clever mock-up of one of Saddam's palaces
Even now, as US troops recline in one of Saddam's palaces, he insists that there are no US troops anywhere in the city. Of course, he had to give that briefing at a hotel. He couldn't give it at the Information Ministry building, because US troops had taken it over it was closed for renovation and remodeling. One report I read noted that he had to speak loudly to be heard over the gunfire. Presumably someone in the city was using an AK-47 to shoot a chicken for dinner.

Seriously, what's the point? He's going to give a briefing soon about how there are no US troops in Baghdad that will be interrupted by the sight of an Abrams tank rolling by in the background. His briefings have become surreal beyond words. Is it just that the government there is so used to lying that they don't know how to do anything else??

Posted by Mike at April 8, 2003 12:16 AM
Comments

Hi!

I'm from Portugal, a country which enjoys an immensely greater freedom of the press than the USA - a truth that has been made glaringly obvious during the Invasion of Iraq, in which the US media coverage of the war sunk to Soviet levels.

My point about al-Sahaf is: is it even conceivable that the discourse of the official spokesman of a country at war could be other than to proclaim victory at all times? Are you all suggesting that if the war turned out badly for the "coallition", the Pentagon spokesdrones would be informing us faithfully of US defeats in the field?

What you don't realize is that, by making fun of al-Sahaf, you're just showing to the world the obscene spectacle of racist minds at work.

And, hey: how many times did the "coallition" forces capture Basra? How many dozen top iraqui generals surrendered in the first week of war? How many times WMDs were discovered? Etc., etc.

One last thing: living in a free country, and having followed the Invasion of Iraq with much interest, I got to know, by watching TV in the comfort of my living room, the true Private Lynch story - and, I tell you, it is very, very different than the cheap propaganda you're beeing fed...

Take care.

Luis Fontes

Posted by: Luis on April 13, 2003 04:43 AM