Weapons of mass deception

[struggle4progress]

<snip> It is said that truth is the first casualty of war. Even when it is inescapable, necessary, or a war brought unasked to your doorstep (like the war on your doorstep if you are an Iraqi citizen), war is an abomination, an utter failure of the spirit, heart and intelligence of humanity. To claim that war is honorable, glorious, ennobling or anything but an unmitigated evil is to engage in profound deception. Whether that dishonesty is limited to the self or to a broader audience it is a matter of serious moral, practical and social consequence.

At this writing nearly 1900 Americans have lost their lives in Iraq. Another 15,000 Americans have been wounded, many of them horribly. At least 25,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed, though the toll is likely much higher, and an unknown and unknowable number of Iraqis have been wounded, many of them dreadfully. A primary reason it is difficult to get an exact figure on the carnage in Iraq was succinctly summed up by American General Tommy Franks who said, "We don't do body counts."

Body counts are perhaps the ultimate truth of war. We don't do body counts. We don't do truth. The last time the United States immersed itself in the bright shining lie of a war it could neither justify nor win, we did body counts. That was in Vietnam, and the American public's awareness of the numbers of bodies piling up in Vietnam was a key element in shaming the country into shutting that war down. The more the citizenry knows about the reality and true cost of war the less willing they are to support it. We don't do body counts in Iraq because deception is easier than truth. Deception is integral to the American strategy of war in Iraq. It always was. <snip>

http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?issue_date=09-21-2005&ID=2005105406