For what it's worth, the pertinent parts of the two stories read as follows. First, the Task Force Baghdad 3rd Infantry Division statement released after a car bombing on July 13:
QUOTE
"The terrorists are attacking the infrastructure, the children and all of Iraq," said one Iraqi man who preferred not to be identified. "They are enemies of humanity without religion or any sort of ethics. They have attacked my community today and I will now take the fight to the terrorists."
Then the US military statement following the car bombing in Baghdad on Sunday:
QUOTE
"The terrorists are attacking the infrastructure, the ISF and all of Iraq. They are enemies of humanity without religion or any sort of ethics. They have attacked my community today and I will now take the fight to the terrorists," said one Iraqi man who preferred not to be identified.
Was this a simple one time mistake or are we possibly being led astray by the US military on other events?I don't know if we're particularly being "led astray" (at least, no more than usual), but I think it's fairly clear that there's definite spin going on. What else is new? I wouldn't be at all surprised if the military had a whole set of stock statements from "Iraqi men who preferred not to be identified" that can be dropped into press releases as required. Someone slipped up and used the same one twice. News - especially official press releases - is nine-tenths invention, so I don't find this partuclarly surprising.
Nor does it mean that I take either report any more or less seriously. When I see a story that goes out of its way to mention that some ordinary bloke "prefers not to be identified" (as opposed to, say, an unnamed "military spokesman" or "administration official"), I pretty much tend to treat it as fiction in any event. "Some people say..." is the stock media phrase for injecting the opinion of a reporter. Similarly, the above quotes are a way of injecting the opinion of a story's source. The military PR machine clearly wants us to think that ordinary Iraqis present some sort of united front against "the terrorists" - and that said terrorists aren't human. That's how propaganda works.