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March 30, 2006
Iraqi Commander: 'We Didn't Find a Mosque'
Topics: IraqFrom Time.com comes the question, "When is a mosque not a mosque?"
Under US military rules of engagement it's when it's used to house weapons, hostages and gunmen firing on American-backed Iraqi special forces, or when it's not even a mosque in the first instance, and most especially when it's a building that has been through several incarnations in past years - from political party branch under Saddam, to an office space to what is said to have been a school - to what local Shi'ite leaders claim is now a hussaniyah, a Shi'ite mosque, that has weapons, hostages and gunmen.
So it was in Sunday's explosive raid in a Baghdad quarter controlled by a Shi'ite, anti-American militia. Primed to bust up a vicious kidnapping cell linked to an insurgent group, Iraqi commandos and elite counterterrorism force members, with their US counterparts in a supporting role, swooped on a target building they insist was bristling with armed fighters. By the time they'd left a hostage had been rescued, 16 men were dead, three wounded, and 18 taken prisoner. But what followed took everyone by surprise.Be sure to read the entire story.In the 30 minutes it took the soldiers to drive back to their heavily-fortified compound their raid was in the spotlight, splashing across television with claims that the 16 men had been butchered as they gathered prayerfully in a mosque. Soon pictures showed bloodied bodies broken and prone over prayer mats, without a weapon in sight (US army photos showed the exact opposite; dead men, weapons draped, not a prayer mat to be seen). Any military success the men of the 1st and 2nd Battalions, 1st Iraqi Special Operations Forces Brigade had was quickly swamped by a political and propaganda firestorm.
It turns out that most media outlets ran with the story fed out by Shias loyal to Sadr and put out by Iraqi television, without proper investigation, the story that we now know to be completely false:
Reuters still maintains it was a mosque that was hit inserting quotes around the word 'terrorist' as opposed to the word 'mosque.' They have since written on the TIME report. CBC distorts the number killed and calls the location a mosque. The Chicago Tribune was also duped and showed their loyalties when it came to conflicting reports. The Daily Telegraph bites the false story and reports 16 were murdered in a mosque. The Age continues the same trend and reports the location was a mosque while mentioning the U.S. military denied the venue was a mosque, but they still run with with it being a mosque. There are just too many more to continue to name each media outlet that has been duped.You'll find additional interesting commentary at In The Bullpen.
It's the "hearts and minds" that we need to win, just as importantly as the military operations. Iran knows it, the insurgents know it, Al-Qaeda knows it, the Sadr Shi'ites "get it". We and the Iraqi government need to get it, and do a hell of a lot better job at it than our enemies!
Posted by Richard at March 30, 2006 10:24 AM
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