Slowly.....the facts emerge about the Iraq War - the source being the rather unlikely Iraq Study Group report and a recently released book by veteran journalist Patrick Coburn.
As Patrick Cockburn writes in this piece in AlterNet [from The Independent]:
"During the Opium Wars between Britain and China in the 19th century, eunuchs at the court of the Chinese emperor had the problem of informing him of the repeated and humiliating defeat of his armies. They dealt with their delicate task by simply telling the emperor that his forces had already won or were about to win victories on all fronts.
For three and a half years White House officials have dealt with bad news from Iraq in similar fashion. Journalists were repeatedly accused by the US administration of not reporting political and military progress on the ground. Information about the failure of the US venture was ignored or suppressed.
Manipulation of facts was often very crude. As an example of the systematic distortion, the Iraq Study Group revealed last week that on one day last July US officials reported 93 attacks or significant acts of violence. In reality, it added, "a careful review of the reports ... brought to light 1,100 acts of violence."
Cockburn's recently written book "The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq (Verso Books,
2006] deals with the mismangement of the Iraq War and includes these sometimes quite remarkable, and prevously unreported facts:
"One place where the US might have hoped for a sympathetic hearing was among the brokers on the Baghdad stock exchange. But in 2003 control of the exchange was given to a 24-year-old American whose main credential for the job was his family’s contributions to the Republican Party. He allegedly failed to renew the lease on a building housing the exchange, which consequently stayed shut for a year."
"None of the succulent tomatoes or the crisp cucumbers grown in Iraq made it into the salad bar. US Government regulations dictated that everything, even the water in which hot dogs were boiled, be shipped in from approved suppliers in other nations. Milk and bread were trucked in from Kuwait, as were tinned peas and carrots. The breakfast cereal was flown in from the United States: made-in-the-USA. Froot Loops and Frosted Flakes at the breakfast table helped boost morale."
"Within weeks [of ‘liberation’], Iraqis found they were being ruled by a classic colonial occupation. Young Americans, whose only credentials were their links to the Administration, poured into Baghdad. The country became a feeding trough for politically well-connected American companies and individuals. No money could be spent without an American counter-signature. In one mental asylum patients did not eat for a day because the appropriate American could not be found to permit the spending of US$360 on food."
As Patrick Cockburn writes in this piece in AlterNet [from The Independent]:
"During the Opium Wars between Britain and China in the 19th century, eunuchs at the court of the Chinese emperor had the problem of informing him of the repeated and humiliating defeat of his armies. They dealt with their delicate task by simply telling the emperor that his forces had already won or were about to win victories on all fronts.
For three and a half years White House officials have dealt with bad news from Iraq in similar fashion. Journalists were repeatedly accused by the US administration of not reporting political and military progress on the ground. Information about the failure of the US venture was ignored or suppressed.
Manipulation of facts was often very crude. As an example of the systematic distortion, the Iraq Study Group revealed last week that on one day last July US officials reported 93 attacks or significant acts of violence. In reality, it added, "a careful review of the reports ... brought to light 1,100 acts of violence."
Cockburn's recently written book "The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq (Verso Books,
2006] deals with the mismangement of the Iraq War and includes these sometimes quite remarkable, and prevously unreported facts:
"One place where the US might have hoped for a sympathetic hearing was among the brokers on the Baghdad stock exchange. But in 2003 control of the exchange was given to a 24-year-old American whose main credential for the job was his family’s contributions to the Republican Party. He allegedly failed to renew the lease on a building housing the exchange, which consequently stayed shut for a year."
"None of the succulent tomatoes or the crisp cucumbers grown in Iraq made it into the salad bar. US Government regulations dictated that everything, even the water in which hot dogs were boiled, be shipped in from approved suppliers in other nations. Milk and bread were trucked in from Kuwait, as were tinned peas and carrots. The breakfast cereal was flown in from the United States: made-in-the-USA. Froot Loops and Frosted Flakes at the breakfast table helped boost morale."
"Within weeks [of ‘liberation’], Iraqis found they were being ruled by a classic colonial occupation. Young Americans, whose only credentials were their links to the Administration, poured into Baghdad. The country became a feeding trough for politically well-connected American companies and individuals. No money could be spent without an American counter-signature. In one mental asylum patients did not eat for a day because the appropriate American could not be found to permit the spending of US$360 on food."
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