A tour through Baghdad

04.05.2003

I just got back from brunch w/ my good friend Apu. Turned the TV on and met a shock. A column of the 3rd Infantry Division was taking a leisurely tour of downtown Baghdad. Downtown Baghdad?! The embedded reporter was giving a voiceover of the film footage.

"We're passing by the presidential complex now, Kent. If you look to your left, you'll see the Iraqi Information Ministry building."

What?! Sure, there's some sporadic fighting. It was bayonet work for the marines (mostly against Hamas and Hezbollah volunteers) in the southern outskirts. Other marines were greeted w/ Coca-Cola and cigarettes at Aziziyah. But.

They're giving us a tour of downtown Baghdad! On TV. Live. What about the "million Mogadishus" Columbia professor De Genova hoped for so much? Too bad. I guess you don't get to see 1 billion dead Iraqis (do the math, 1,000 Somalis died in Mogadishu).

Add this to the long list of reasons for the war. British troops just discovered hundreds of boxes of (mutilated) human remains.

Associated Press Television News video showed the boxes stacked five high on one side of the warehouse, and other boxes were lined up on the other side. The video showed one skull that was missing front teeth and had a large hole in the nasal area. A British soldier held up folders containing lists written in Arabic.

British soldiers also discovered a catalogue of photographs of the dead. The relationship between the photographs and the remains was not immediately clear.

Still, Susan Sarandon can sleep comfortably; none of the bodies are American. "What has Iraq done to us?" Indeed.

Posted by Miguel at 12:41 PM

Comments

Add this to the long list of reasons for the war. British troops just discovered hundreds of boxes of (mutilated) human remains.

Why? These could be the remains from soldiers from Iran who died in the Iraq-Iran war, according to a speaker of the Iranian government. The delivery to Iran was delayed and then never happened due to the beginning of this war.

I also find it interesting that the German journalist in Bagdhad says that he cannot find any eyewitnesses for U.S. being in the center of Baghdad, he says they may have been in the southern outskirts, but he cannot confirm they have been in the center. He thinks CNN exaggerated. I wonder, how much of this "tour through Baghdad" is propaganda and what is not.

Posted by: Melli at April 6, 2003 10:38 AM

I think it's to the credit of the British soldiers that they were skeptical about the nature of the dead bodies. But they also found mass graves w/ bodies long dead. I think we're looking at something in the style of the Khmer Rouge.

Also, the German journalist in Baghdad - like most other journalists in Baghdad - was taken on a tour w/ Iraqi information ministry "minders." He has also, I believe, since changed his mind. I saw the video of the US moving through Baghdad. I've been watching enough video footage of this war to recognize the presidential complex when I see it.

Posted by: miguel at April 6, 2003 02:24 PM