Psst. There's good news coming out of Iraq. Don't tell anybody.
Posted by Eric Berlin
According to Trevor Snyder, a soldier in Iraq who works with the media, the following letter was read to the press corps during a weekly briefing. The letter is from the mayor of an Iraqi town, Tall Afar:
[O]ur city was overrun by heartless terrorists, Zarqawi
and his followers, who unloaded their bloodthirsty and
voracious action of evil on this city for several months
by indiscriminately killing men, women and children. Tall
Afar was a human slaughterhouse. Simple services were not
possible, causing the people to suffer, till the day you
dispatched your troops, who were our lion-hearted
saviors. Your troops came to rescue Tall Afar led by our
heroes, whom Tall Afar will never forget. After the major
operation, your wonderful soldiers started nursing the
wounds of this city by rebuilding the damaged lives and
buildings with great compassion and speed. These soldiers
have done more than their original mission required of
them. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Doesn't that seem the slightest bit newsworthy? You know, at all? And yet, according to Trevor, nobody at the briefing asked a single question about the letter, and as of this writing, news of the U.S. accomplishment hasn't been reported in any major news outlet. Why do I think this isn't the only good news out of Iraq we haven't heard?
Update: Oh, look, someone else wrote about this! Alas, that someone is Scott Ritter, who puts the word terrorist in scare quotes and makes it sound like the U.S. rolled in there for the sheer joy of killing Iraqis:
<<< "As [Colonel H.R.] McMasters and others know, the vast majority of the "terrorists" killed and detained during the fight for Tall Afar were natives of that town simply fighting to defend their homes... There can be little doubt about what will motivate them for the foreseeable future -- a burning desire to drive out an occupying force, that destroyed their homes and slaughtered their fellow townspeople.
In an effort to win back the "hearts and minds" of the citizens of Tall Afar, Col. McMasters' 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment participated in a program in mid-November 2005 to distribute blankets to help ward off the cold of the coming winter. This action was reported by the Department of Defense's new "Defend America" website, part of a propaganda effort to feed to the American people the "good news" coming from Iraq. Tell that to the citizens of Tall Afar, who know that a few blankets and repaired schools can't undo the damage done by a brutal occupation run by officers like Col. McMasters who have lost all sense of history or responsibility when it comes to waging war in Iraq." >>>
What a fine fellow. I just don't know who to believe... Scott Ritter or the mayor of Tall Afar. I'll have to think about it.
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