Comments on: US lying about violence in Iraq!? Say it ain’t so. http://arabist.net/archives/2007/09/08/us-lying-about-violence-in-iraq-say-it-aint-so/ Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:13:41 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Paul http://arabist.net/archives/2007/09/08/us-lying-about-violence-in-iraq-say-it-aint-so/#comment-389486 Paul Thu, 13 Sep 2007 08:06:24 +0000 http://arabist.net/archives/2007/09/08/us-lying-about-violence-in-iraq-say-it-aint-so/#comment-389486 There was something on Jazeera yesterday about how the military classifies deaths, i.e. if a person was shot in the front it counts as a criminal killing, while if it's in the back it's a sectarian killing -- brings down the death tolls by separating them into categories. I don't know if that's true, but they were doing much the same thing when I was there a year ago. Their numbers were always much lower than the news agencies because they would classify things differently so they wouldn't show up in their lists and statistics. Ever since the sectarian killings started in 2006, the death tolls have been very politicized, with the health ministry for a while not allowed to provide statistics any more. Police - the main daily source of tolls - often inflated numbers in friendly neighborhoods and decreased them in unfriendly neighborhoods. So 25 people died in a mortar strike in Shiite Sadr City but only 2 in Sunni Adhamiyah. And while I like Packer's piece, he's being rather Fiskian in his I-am-the-truth approach: "The media have largely followed the Administration’s myopic approach to the war, and there is likely to be intense coverage of the congressional testimony. But the inadequacy of the surge is already clear, if one honestly assesses the daily lives of Iraqis." Come on! The media doesn't do daily life pieces about Iraqis? There aren't stories about the continuing death tolls despite the "surge"? Bullshit. Since the surge started there have been non stop articles about it's efficacy or lack there of. It is possible to write a good article without calling everyone else crap. There was something on Jazeera yesterday about how the military classifies deaths, i.e. if a person was shot in the front it counts as a criminal killing, while if it’s in the back it’s a sectarian killing — brings down the death tolls by separating them into categories. I don’t know if that’s true, but they were doing much the same thing when I was there a year ago. Their numbers were always much lower than the news agencies because they would classify things differently so they wouldn’t show up in their lists and statistics.

Ever since the sectarian killings started in 2006, the death tolls have been very politicized, with the health ministry for a while not allowed to provide statistics any more. Police - the main daily source of tolls - often inflated numbers in friendly neighborhoods and decreased them in unfriendly neighborhoods. So 25 people died in a mortar strike in Shiite Sadr City but only 2 in Sunni Adhamiyah.

And while I like Packer’s piece, he’s being rather Fiskian in his I-am-the-truth approach: “The media have largely followed the Administration’s myopic approach to the war, and there is likely to be intense coverage of the congressional testimony. But the inadequacy of the surge is already clear, if one honestly assesses the daily lives of Iraqis.”

Come on! The media doesn’t do daily life pieces about Iraqis? There aren’t stories about the continuing death tolls despite the “surge”? Bullshit. Since the surge started there have been non stop articles about it’s efficacy or lack there of. It is possible to write a good article without calling everyone else crap.

]]> By: A http://arabist.net/archives/2007/09/08/us-lying-about-violence-in-iraq-say-it-aint-so/#comment-389345 A Sat, 08 Sep 2007 13:43:19 +0000 http://arabist.net/archives/2007/09/08/us-lying-about-violence-in-iraq-say-it-aint-so/#comment-389345 The Iraqi crisis is less complex than what it seems. Americans sooner or later will leave. They pose no long term strategic threat, mainly because of the Arab/Muslim solid structure of the middle east renders it very immune. The enemy is Iran,as it is quite capable due to geographic proximity to cause cultural and demographic changes in Iraq. Iranians are being entrenched everywhere in Iraq, governmental forms in the south are writen out in Persian, Iranians are settling in Basrah and and the south. The IRANISED traitors and pro Iran miltias in the south are displacing Sunnis and shiites who hate Iran. The Iraqis who faught with Iran against their own country during the 8 years war are not Iraqis ,they are Iranians and they are monority among the shiite-. And Iran is not synonmous with shiites. The Iraqi shiites are Arabs and it was them who defeated Iran and forced their medival leader Khomeini to sip poison. Highlighting again a secualr Arab nationalist discourse in Iraq mixed with vehement anti Iranian feelings will bring th sunnis and shiites together, and preserve the Arab identity of Iraq. It seems to me that most Arab writers are taken in by medival rhetoric of the bloody criminal the retards who rule Iran, or else they might be bored and find in the inferior non middle-eastern Indian/turko-persian culture an amusing theme The Iraqi crisis is less complex than what it seems. Americans sooner or later will leave. They pose no long term strategic threat, mainly because of the Arab/Muslim solid structure of the middle east renders it very immune.

The enemy is Iran,as it is quite capable due to geographic proximity to cause cultural and demographic changes in Iraq. Iranians are being entrenched everywhere in Iraq, governmental forms in the south are writen out in Persian, Iranians are settling in Basrah and and the south.

The IRANISED traitors and pro Iran miltias in the south are displacing Sunnis and shiites who hate Iran. The Iraqis who faught with Iran against their own country during the 8 years war are not Iraqis ,they are Iranians and they are monority among the shiite-.

And Iran is not synonmous with shiites. The Iraqi shiites are Arabs and it was them who defeated Iran and forced their medival leader Khomeini to sip poison.

Highlighting again a secualr Arab nationalist discourse in Iraq mixed with vehement anti Iranian feelings will bring th sunnis and shiites together, and preserve the Arab identity of Iraq.

It seems to me that most Arab writers are taken in by medival rhetoric of the bloody criminal the retards who rule Iran, or else they might be bored and find in the inferior non middle-eastern Indian/turko-persian culture an amusing theme

]]> By: Amre El-abyad http://arabist.net/archives/2007/09/08/us-lying-about-violence-in-iraq-say-it-aint-so/#comment-389344 Amre El-abyad Sat, 08 Sep 2007 13:42:10 +0000 http://arabist.net/archives/2007/09/08/us-lying-about-violence-in-iraq-say-it-aint-so/#comment-389344 The Iraqi crisis is less complex than what it seems. Americans sooner or later will leave. They pose no long term strategic threat, mainly because of the Arab/Muslim solid structure of the middle east renders it very immune. The enemy is Iran,as it is quite capable due to geographic proximity to cause cultural and demographic changes in Iraq. Iranians are being entrenched everywhere in Iraq, governmental forms in the south are writen out in Persian, Iranians are settling in Basrah and and the south. The IRANISED traitors and pro Iran miltias in the south are displacing Sunnis and shiites who hate Iran. The Iraqis who faught with Iran against their own country during the 8 years war are not Iraqis ,they are Iranians and they are monority among the shiite-. And Iran is not synonmous with shiites. The Iraqi shiites are Arabs and it was them who defeated Iran and forced their medival leader Khomeini to sip poison. Highlighting again a secualr Arab nationalist discourse in Iraq mixed with vehement anti Iranian feelings will bring th sunnis and shiites together, and preserve the Arab identity of Iraq. It seems to me that most Arab writers are taken in by medival rhetoric of the bloody criminal the retards who rule Iran, or else they might be bored and find in the inferior non middle-eastern Indian/turko-persian culture an amusing theme The Iraqi crisis is less complex than what it seems. Americans sooner or later will leave. They pose no long term strategic threat, mainly because of the Arab/Muslim solid structure of the middle east renders it very immune.

The enemy is Iran,as it is quite capable due to geographic proximity to cause cultural and demographic changes in Iraq. Iranians are being entrenched everywhere in Iraq, governmental forms in the south are writen out in Persian, Iranians are settling in Basrah and and the south.

The IRANISED traitors and pro Iran miltias in the south are displacing Sunnis and shiites who hate Iran. The Iraqis who faught with Iran against their own country during the 8 years war are not Iraqis ,they are Iranians and they are monority among the shiite-.

And Iran is not synonmous with shiites. The Iraqi shiites are Arabs and it was them who defeated Iran and forced their medival leader Khomeini to sip poison.

Highlighting again a secualr Arab nationalist discourse in Iraq mixed with vehement anti Iranian feelings will bring th sunnis and shiites together, and preserve the Arab identity of Iraq.

It seems to me that most Arab writers are taken in by medival rhetoric of the bloody criminal the retards who rule Iran, or else they might be bored and find in the inferior non middle-eastern Indian/turko-persian culture an amusing theme

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