Asymmetrical Information

Unlikely.

"We have destroyed 2 tanks, fighter planes, 2 helicopters and their shovels - We have driven them back." Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf

"On this occasion, I am not going to mention the number of the infidels who were killed and the number of destroyed vehicles. The operation continues." Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf

I could just about believe 3.5. But not 35.

The Chinese Government's news arm is saying that the insurgents are saying that 35 Americans have been captured. Between them, they are about as believable as our old friend Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf.

http://www.brainyquote.com/infominister.html

Do these people reporting this story have any idea what kind of damage and destruction 35 Marines can cause? I assume all the military in Falluja are combat ready and not supply fold like Jessica Lynch, so the liklihood of 35 of them surrendering is pretty outlandish.

Then again, these are probably the same people who report that every time we launch a strike we kill nothing but babies. You would figure that at least once a bomb might kill a combatant?

These people are morons. They have no clue. Saying something like this is the equivalent of a criminal in the US bragging that he is a cop killer. Result? No mercy. None whatsoever. I wonder how many prisoners we shall take in this battle? With any luck the number will be represented by a single digit.

They have been lying about military victories over us since all this started. Come to think of it, the whole history of the Arabs in the Middle East has been one huge lie after another. I started thinking about this after three hotels full of Israeli's were suicide bombed in Taba last month, and various Arabs blamed Israel for bombing their own people for "PR".

Arafats death, if he's dead, was surrounded by lying, a fitting end to one of the biggest liars in world history.

Consider the source. Always consider the source.

They did, however, have some nice photos of Kate Winslet. ;)

The latest reports claim that an economist named "Jane Galt" was captured along with the marines. They claim that Jane fought most fiercely of anyone in the unit, picking up weapons the marines had discarded, and firing accurately at the enemy until every bit of ammunition was exhausted. Then she took a knife from a surrendering marine and killed 15 insurgents, nearly severing their heads, before she was overpowered by a gang of 1500 Sunni deadenders.

Tcobb:

Yes, I think the digit in question will be the middle one.

The BBC has several reports of insurgents in Falluja using false surrenders to draw US troops out. I don't suppose we'll be hearing much about this war crime?

Mike: Nobody will be putting the bullet-riddled corpses of those war criminals on trial, so I doubt you'll hear too much about it from the media.

Note however that this kind of thing doesn't always mean treacherous intent; it can happen from a difference of opinion among the defeated troops. It was an all-too common occurrence in WWII from D-Day on - hundreds of troops in German uniform would be surrendering en masse, and then machine guns would open up on the Americans from somewhere behind them. Usually, the surrendering troops weren't actually German, but had been drafted from one of the conquered nations, such as Poland. The most rigid and fanatical German Nazi NCO's available had been assigned to lead them (from the rear, as much as possible). The Poles or whatever just wanted to surrender (or even to change sides), but the fanatics behind them would fight to the death...

Note the first paragraph states that two Marines were killed early. They accidently drove their bulldozers into the Euphrates and drowned.

Nice to have Baghdad Bob back in charge of the news. I thought he'd been hired by CBS.

I like to peruse the G**gle web news site. For some odd reason I tend to not click on the links to anything by Xinhua.

Having posted that silly message may I ask why the name of the most popular search engine around is rejected as questionable content in a post?

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