LOOKING FOR LIES

Tim Dunlop reckons the Bush administration and its supporters "lie about everything". As proof of Bush's ongoing campaign of lies Dunlop links to a Huff & Puff post linking ultimately to a Think Progress post based on an Anderson Cooper interview (see original CNN transcripts here and here).

Here's the Think Progress excerpt Dunlop offers as proof of Bush's lies:

Yesterday, President Bush claimed that Iraqi security forces “primarily led” the assault on the city of Tal Afar. Bush highlighted it as an “especially clear” sign of the progress Iraq security forces were making in Iraq.

The progress of the Iraqi forces is especially clear when the recent anti-terrorist operations in Tal Afar are compared with last year’s assault in Fallujah. In Fallujah, the assault was led by nine coalition battalions made up primarily of United States Marines and Army — with six Iraqi battalions supporting them…This year in Tal Afar, it was a very different story. The assault was primarily led by Iraqi security forces — 11 Iraqi battalions, backed by five coalition battalions providing support.

TIME Magazine reporter Michael Ware, who is embedded with the U.S. troops in Iraq who participated in the Tal Afar battle, appeared on Anderson Cooper yesterday. He said Bush’s description was completely untrue:

I was in that battle from the very beginning to the very end. I was with Iraqi units right there on the front line as they were battling with al Qaeda. They were not leading. They were being led by the U.S. green beret special forces with them.

It's outrageous that Time's Baghdad Bureau Chief publicly, effectively calls the President a liar, especially when it's Ware who's twisting the truth – the guy should be immediately fired. Bush's point is that where Iraqi forces once supported American forces, it is now Iraqi forces who are taking the fight to the enemy supported by Americans. This should be obvious from Bush's reference to the involvement of 11 Iraqi battalions supported by five coalition battalions. Ware acknowledges that Iraqi forces were out front when he says, "I was with Iraqi units right there on the front line as they were battling with al Qaeda".

The full Ware quote, which Dunlop chose not to use, is at Think Progress:

I was in that battle from the very beginning to the very end. I was with Iraqi units right there on the front line as they were battling with al Qaeda. They were not leading. They were being led by the U.S. green beret special forces with them. Green berets who were following an American plan of attack who were advancing with these Iraqi units as and when they were told to do so by the American battle planners. The Iraqis led nothing.

So, according to Ware, Bush is a liar because Americans planned the Tal Afar operation and Green Berets had operational command of it. Ware, who was there, should be able to give us vital details about the extent and nature of the operational roles of the Green Berets and Iraqis but doesn't. Instead, he engages in absurd hair-splitting in attempting to paint Bush a liar. That Dunlop cites and links to such pathetic crap is no surprise given his recent form.

(As there are only some 4,000 US Special Forces operating worldwide, it is unlikely a large number of Green Berets were involved. If a company of Green Berets was involved, this would amount to 72 Americans amongst a force of over 5,500 Iraqis. If anyone can correct these estimated numbers, please feel free.)

Probably because the Bush lied aspect of the post is so weak, Dunlop aims for a big anti-Bush conclusion:

They lie about nearly everything. They even pay millions of dollars to plant slanted stories in the press. In short, they deploy the largest propaganda apparatus ever assembled (one example) to, by turns, tell lies and smear their opponents. They are supported in this by influential sections of media and by a commentariat willing to take the Kool Aid through every outward-facing orifice in their body and then say, please sir, may I have some more?

Soon after telling us Bush and his supporters "lie about everything", Dunlop contradicts himself by saying, "They lie about nearly everything". Using Dunlop's flimsy hair-splitting criterion this makes him a liar.

Dunlop offers no evidence that the Pentagon's efforts to plant slanted but fact-based stories in Iraqi media amounts to the largest propoganda apparatus ever assembled. Without offering proof the Pentagon's propoganda effort is larger than those operated by the Soviet Union, China or Nazi Germany it's safe to assume he's lying about this too. Typical lying lefty.