[Askan Nightbringer]

The amount of spin being generated and then quoted is quite staggering at the moment. Its like everybody suddenly forgot what the first casualty of war is.

I remember in the first gulf war when the world was awed of the Patriot missiles, and the way they shot down Scuds. Several years later I saw a US miltary commander say the Patriots didn't account for a single Scud, that the whole thing was to give the impression that Israel was in no real danger so they would not worsen the conflict by entering it.

I also remember the Kosovo/Serbia conflict. An Australian aid worker had been captured by the Serbs and was accused of being a NATO spy. This was of course denied by the west, and Malcom Fraser (an ex Australian Prime Minister) travelled to Yugoslavia and negotiated the release. When the aid worker was safely back in Sydney, Fraser admitted that the worker had been caught with maps where he was marking the location of Serbian troops. Yet during the whole incident the media was making out it was Serbian propaganda.

Now as both sides seem to have access to some media the amount of utter sh!t spouting out from both sides is staggering. The pro-Iraqi claims are dismissed until hard evidence turns up, the pro-Coalition claims are set as fact until disproven. Then I can go to an Arab news site and the opposite is true.
Either all journalists are morons or they all slant their work based on their chosen team or that just repeat what "leaked" documents and "unidentified" military officals are saying.

I'm not going to believe anything for at least another five years, cause thats how long it'll take for any truth to come out.

Askan