Posted on 07/26/2005 11:23:30 AM PDT by Mobile Vulgus
Shortly before the war in Iraq started, a small outfit named Iraq Body Count (IBC) coalesced in the ether of cyberspace with a singular goal: to tabulate the civilian deaths resulting from a U.S. invasion. The group predicted famines and plagues, citing U.N. surveys that said there would be "starvation and homelessness for millions," and at least "two million refugees." Within weeks IBC web counters, replete with the image of bombs dropping from a plane, peppered left-wing websites and noted the escalating civilian casualties, updated as soon as the now-massive IBC database was.
Two years later, those same counters are still omnipresent on the web, and theyve just pushed past the 25,000 mark. But its a recently released IBC report parsing thousands of clips thats getting all the mainstream media attention. Even though IBC is as partisan as they come, the media took the bait hook, line, and sinker. And in the rush to publish the blaring headers of the report U.S. forces killed four times as many civilians as "anti-occupation forces"! hardly anyone examined the underlying data.
None of this is to belittle the sobering fact that civilians have been and continue to be killed in Iraq. The problem, however, is that an organization with an obvious axe to grind is getting attention from numerous media organizations and people are actually taking it seriously. Hard-and-fast numbers on civilian deaths would certainly be a boon to the national and international discourse on Iraq, but IBC is doing nothing more than blindly throwing darts at a dartboard. Unfortunately, the target this latest go-round was media attention and widespread disinformation. And Iraq Body Count hit the bulls eye.
bump
I'm so surprised. I always thought the 'media' was disinterested and objective. It's almost as if this is a cooperative venture. What a shock.
If you look at the numbers, then it means that we are supposed to be killing 40 civilians day in and day out. Such a figure is obviously incredible. Only those who want to be fooled would fall for it.
"fickle mob" found a good tidbit here
Thanks for the ping!
Catch 22?:"I apologize(lie) for apoligizing(lie) for aplogizing(lie)...infinitum
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.