UPDATED - ColdType

demoralized by the enemy’s fierce resistance
and high losses.”
Again, I am not accepting all this as fact, just
showing how other authoritative accounts can
be offered up to challenge all the “authoritative”
reports we are hearing. Meanwhile, a debate
about the war rages in Russia too. Eurasianet
reports: “While most in Moscow believe that an
Iraq war will damage Russian interests, a split is
developing among Russia’s policy-making elite
over how to respond to the outbreak of war. One
side is ready to continue its opposition to war,
while the other says that Russia ought to cooperate
with the inevitable.”
My point is that even the blow by blow of war
reporting can be distorted. That happened in
Vietnam with U.S. forces under pressure to exaggerate
“enemy kills” and downplay their losses.
Last night, former Nixon and Reagan aide Gen.
Alexander “I am in charge here” Haig was back
on Fox News where he called for “more violence.”
Honestly, that is what he told Sean Hannity,
who sat by approvingly. It was another
bloodthirsty performance on the War network.
Better dying through chemistry
LAST night the airwaves crackled with reports
that the Iraqi forces may have chemical
weapons. According to CNN at 10:46 this morning,
Iraqi troops in Baghdad were issued gas-carrying
artillery shells and gas masks, and were
ordered to use those weapons if the allied troops
crossed into the city. No evidence was produced
to substantiate the fear, but it appeared in all the
promos. Remember, the goal of this war,
allegedly, is to disarm Iraq and divest it of its
weapons of mass destruction. The seizure of
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what was described as a chemical plant was cited
initially as PROOF. Former inspector and now
NBC consultant David Kay suggested he believed
that was what the plant was and said the Iraqis
have never declared it. The Jerusalem Post also
claimed it as a smoking gun. Slowly, some information
is trickling out to encourage us to be
more cautious. Remember, the initial reports
were not making the claims we later heard on
NBC or Fox:
“WASHINGTON (CNN) – Pentagon officials on
Sunday said the U.S. military has secured a facility
in southern Iraq that may have been used to
produce chemical weapons. The officials cautioned
that it was not clear what suspected materials
may still be at the plant, which is located in
Najaf, some 90 miles south of Baghdad.”
This can be just in a war where propaganda is
pervasive. (Digression: Quote of the day from
Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter: “The popularity of
this war so far is at least partly due to the human
face of the coverage, a brilliant PR contrast to the
antiseptic briefing-room videogames of what is
now called Gulf War I.” End of Digression.) Leith
Elder writes:
“The discovery of the huge chemical weapons
factory in Najaf is not a discovery. This facility
has been known since about 1991 (document
below).
“. . . Summary: [deleted] Several sites in Iraq
with the capability to produce and store BW
weapons. Although the capability exists, no evidence
of current production or storage was
found. Enclosures. Text 1. Background [deleted]
suspected biological warfare sites. Among the
sites were the Al-Kindi company, An-Najaf, Taji,
the Serum and Vaccine institute, the Agriculture
Research and Water Resources Center, and the