At war with reality

If K is the key to success in Hindi TV dramas, the alphabet D is the coalition8217;s lucky letter in Iraq. Notice the words used to describ...

If K is the key to success in Hindi TV dramas, the alphabet D is the coalition8217;s lucky letter in Iraq. Notice the words used to describe their purpose in Saddam country: 8216;8216;decapitate8217;8217; the leadership, 8216;8216;degrade8217;8217; the Republican Guard, 8216;8216;debrief8217;8217; the media, 8216;8216;demoralise8217;8217; Saddam Hussein and 8216;8216;demonstrate8217;8217; their military superiority.

8226; Bushspeak: Pentagon briefings often seem to issue directly from President Bush8217;s lips. Listen to the Pentagon on US incursions into Baghdad, Monday morning; 8216;8216;This is to demonstrate US resolve pause8230; to demonstrate to the Iraqi regime pause8230; that we can strike whenever we want pause, wherever we want.8217;8217;

Iraqi Information Minister Saeed al Sahaf, reads only his own lips before speaking and therefore, sounds reassuringly like himself. Spitting defiance, midday Monday, he said the American 8216;8216;scoundrels8217;8217; would be defeated in Baghdad, a few moments after Fox News heard from an US soldier inside one of Saddam8217;s palaces that he was enjoying a shower in the presidential bathroom! The battle for Baghdad, crowed the anchor, 8216;8216;sounds like it is virtually over.8217;8217; Has it even begun?

8226; The real thing: The first drop of blood we8217;ve been allowed to see 8212; and it8217;s a journalist8217;s. BBC8217;s John Simpson was part of a Kurdish convoy, hit by a bomb. There was a single bloodstain on the camera lens 8212; injured and dead bodies lay strewn on the roadside.

How ironic that our first cheek and jowl encounter with the war should have been one in which coalition forces attacked their own.

8226; Casualties call: There has been a sudden spurt of interest in the civilian casualties. The Marines moved into Baghdad, and were back to the war rather than its victims. DD showed us some truly disturbing pictures of children with burnt faces, amputated arms and legs.

Iraq TV and other Arab channels such as Al Jazeera revel in injured kids because it is far more emotive than showing old people. On Sunday, CNN gave figures for the dead and interviewed Roland Benjamin of the Red Cross.

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However, after so much of fierce fighting, we hear and see virtually nothing of coalition casualties.