Matthew Bargainer notes that “the deadliest day for U.S. forces since the March 2003 invasion” and “the most American servicemembers to die in a single incident in Iraq” (via Cursor) went virtually unnoticed by premiere warbloggers with the exception of Jeff Jarvis who wrote it’s “ ridiculous, even offensive” to “pay more attention when more people die.”
But it’s not ridiculous to call 31 of the deaths “accidental” before an investigation is conducted?
Dahr Jamail reports on a state of heightened fear in Iraq as election day nears and a PR stunt carried out in Fallujah:
A contact of mine just returned from spending a week in Fallujah. We shared some of the food brought from my friend in Baquba.
“I’d been in Fallujah for a week and all I’d seen was tough military tactics,” he tells me, “They are arresting people and putting them in these trucks, blindfolded and tied up. Everywhere I looked all I saw was utter devastation.”
He spoke with many families who told him one horror story after another, death after death after death.
“Then today, the military brings in a dozen Humvees and ground troops to basically seal off a small area near a market,” he continues, “In the middle of them is a CNN camera crew filming troops throwing candy to kids and these guys in orange vests start cleaning the streets around them.”
He laughs while holding up his arms and says, “I’d never seen those guys anywhere in the city before. I don’t know where they came from.”
After a pause to take a drink of soda he adds, “I’d never seen any boots on the ground at all, and all of the sudden there are all these marines standing around like everything was ok. It was the first time I’d seen any soldier not in a Humvee or a Bradley. I was really surprised.”
“All of it was 100% staged. Good PR before the election,” he says. Then in a reference to mainstream America he adds, “Fallujah is fine, now go back to sleep.”
Updated @ 13:05 01/27/05: It’s possible not all Americans have an aversion to noticing the dead so long as the remains are Iraqi. Joe uncovers the link to a website reported by The Australian as being used by American soldiers and featuring grisly photos of the dead. The home page suggests the soldiers e-mail photos to the web manager.
Captions include “splater’s worsethen hitting a cow at 50 in a 72′ pickup” which can be viewed where this type of commentary begins at Gallery 52.
Joe read about it here.
Jalan-Jalan takes note of a tsunami parody aired last week on station Hot 97 FM in NYC.
Offensive doesn’t begin to touch it.