Marine's Point of View vs U.S. Media Coverage

From U.S. Senator Jon Kyl It's all too common that when we turn on the news, we hear about the violence occurring in Iraq. The truth can often be lost in news reports. A recent e-mail from a Marine serving in Iraq provides an interesting point of view that contrasts with U.S. media coverage of the war in Iraq. I'd like to share excerpts from his e-mail: "[D]ue to aggressive patrolling by Iraqi forces [a] bomber who doubtless wanted to target the civilians at the headquarters itself in order to cause the most catastrophic effects, was forced to detonate his vest almost a half-mile away when he was halted by police. He succeeded in causing superficial wounds to one Iraqi civilian, as well as killing himself. No one else was injured, no other damage caused, and in the aftermath of the incident, the precinct signed up an additional 75 recruits for police service. This bomber failed - he failed to kill innocents and he failed to deter the progress of standing up Iraqi police. "Later that afternoon, from my temporary station at an Iraqi Army outpost, co-located with U.S. advisor personnel, I was checking the [I]nternet headlines when a ËœBreaking News' alert appeared: ËœSuicide Attack in Fallujah kills 25; Police Recruits Targeted.' Shocked, and initially very concerned that perhaps the outpost command center was out of the loop on a major incident, I read on: A suicide bomber detonated outside of a police recruiting drive in Fallujah, killing 25 and wounding at least 50 others. According to unnamed sources within the Police Department, the bomber was able to gain access to the recruit line where he detonated a vest filled with explosives. An official at Fallujah General Hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that he had treated at least 50 people with severe injuries in the aftermath. "Literally running to the command center, I asked if anyone had heard of a second attack. Radio checks went around the horn, and everyone came back in the negative there had been no further attacks, other than the completely ineffective one earlier. This was, in every way, a false report. "Yet, I checked the other headlines: CNN, AP Newswire, BBC, Yahoo - all picked up the same story. Over the next several hours, I was nervous that maybe we'd missed something, or possibly that the attack had happened somewhere else nearby in Anbar province, and that the location of ËœFallujah' was simply misreported. But, in the aftermath, we found out that no other attack that day could possibly have been referenced. Those headlines referred to the failed attack - but depicted a dramatically different outcome. "[Recently], Iraqi Police, Iraqi Army, and U.S. forces won two decisive battles in Fallujah. The enemy was intercepted, denied, and in both cases, outright killed. The results of these engagements are as follows: one civilian wounded, no civilians killed; one Iraqi policeman wounded, no other Iraqi Security forces wounded; no coalition force casualties of any kind; eight enemy combatants confirmed killed, four enemy suspected wounded, at least two enemy suicide operatives discovered and killed before they could carry out their attacks (with a third forced to detonate early and to no substantial effect), at least two enemy suicide trucks discovered before their construction was complete, four foreign fighters detained, 200 Iraqi police recruits signed up for duty, and a new precinct headquarters was established. "Western media reports for the same time period and area indicated no enemy killed, 28 civilians killed (including three children as the result of U.S. action), upwards of fifty civilians wounded, and an investigation underway. "Make no mistake: the one area in which we are absolutely, positively, and without a doubt LOSING this war is in information operations. We are getting demolished, both by nefarious enemy media outlets, moles, and reporters (FYI - we know of plenty of instances where Ëœreporters' or Ëœsources' for Arab and other news agencies are either on insurgent payrolls, or have known sympathies with insurgent organizations), AND by a collective Western media that either fails to realize, or worse fails to care, that they are often being manipulated by enemy elements. What incredible economy of effort the enemy is afforded when U.S. media is their megaphone! Why spend precious resources on developing your own propaganda machine when you can make your opponent's own news outlets scream your message louder than you could ever have hoped to do independently?"