From Tina Susman at the Los Angeles Times Blogs site:
There was something interesting missing from Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner's introductory remarks to journalists at his regular news briefing in Baghdad on Wednesday: the word "Iran," or any form of it. It was especially striking as Bergner, the U.S. military spokesman here, announced the extraordinary list of weapons and munitions that have been uncovered in recent weeks since fighting erupted between Iraqi and U.S. security forces and Shiite militiamen.
....
A plan to show some alleged Iranian-supplied explosives to journalists last week in Karbala and then destroy them was canceled after the United States realized none of them was from Iran. A U.S. military spokesman attributed the confusion to a misunderstanding that emerged after an Iraqi Army general in Karbala erroneously reported the items were of Iranian origin.
When U.S. explosives experts went to investigate, they discovered they were not Iranian after all.
Whoops! Oh well. It's understandable. Mistakes are made. It's like the weapons of mass destruction that were not there. Who could have known?
I an continually appalled by the number of people in this country who apparently accepted "Who could have known?" as an excuse for so very many things over the last eight years.
ReplyDeleteAnd I share your hate for the situation we all find ourselves in.
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ReplyDelete(apologies for deleting, an ugly typo in the first line of my comment offended me.)
ReplyDelete"Mistakes were made" my fat white uh never mind, but I don't believe it this time either. My guess is that someone looked at a calendar and saw that the deadline had expired to get a good war going before a change of administration. And one of the smarter ones in the administration convinced the rest an "incident" and middle of the night responding attack by us would never be believed by anyone.
C.W.S, "Who could have known?" is their mantra.
ReplyDeleteJanet, no problem about the correction. I don't take a word that the members of the Bush maladministration utter at face value. I do believe that there are, at present, a few sane folks in the Pentagon.
Or the Blair crew.
ReplyDeleteI've never been a single issue voter, but this damnable "war", now largely ignored by the chattering classes and the MSM, is the closest thing yet to being a sole determiner of my presidential vote.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your continuing diatribes against the needless carnage.
DP, it's still amazing to me that Bush found such an obliging enabler as Blair.
ReplyDeleteJohn, how is it that the media don't have more coverage of the war? Especially the tee vee folks. It's close to a blackout. I do what I can do, not having any illusions that it counts for anything, except that like Willy Loman's wife, Linda, I think, "Attention must be paid!"
We're taking a short jaunt to D.C. in June. We asked my almost-seven-year-old son what he was interested in seeing, and he replied, "The Iraq War Memorial." What he meant was the Vietnam Memorial. My husband and I just looked at each other for a minute.
ReplyDeleteLord have mercy.
PJ, your son knows there's a war. He must overhear his parents' conversations. He won't catch much about it on the tee vee.
ReplyDeleteLord, have mercy, indeed!
Heard on BBC radio 4's news today (you should listen to R4 if you can get it on the interwebthingy,it is public service broadcasting at its best) that Blair nearly resigned over the war in 2004.
ReplyDeleteOne of the local NPR stations (WSHU) has been fundraising this week, and I heard something quite astonishing while shaving yesterday morning.
ReplyDelete"Remember - we need your support to bring you updated and objective news from the wars in Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan."
Iran?!!!!!
I nearly cut myself!
DP, nearly? I wonder what would have changed in the history of the war had he gone ahead and done so.
ReplyDeleteI'll check out R4. I had it on my new car radio for a while free, but the bill for satellite radio was too high for me to keep it.
RR, I remember the Gulf of Tonkin before the all-out pursuit of the Vietnam War. Perhaps, NPR knows something we don't know. I hang on to the hope that there are a few in the Pentagon who may be able to prevent such a thing from happening again.
Imagine my surprise on learning the weapons were not from Iran.
ReplyDeleteAnother example, among thousands, demonstrating their inability to tell a truth, any truth.
My current theory as to the manner of Bush's demise: he will say something true and explode.
Paul, I've been living in Bush's Land of Lies for so long that I would be shocked if he or his minions told the truth. I would likely explode.
ReplyDeleteThen Mj Gen Bergner could use you as an example.
ReplyDeleteDP, I had not thought of that.
ReplyDeleteOff topic, but I want you to know that I got a headache from your site. I have come to the conclusion that theology gives me a headache.