The number of US deaths in Iraq has just reached 4000, more than those killed on 9/11 (not that the two are in any way linked, except in the minds of those who just want vengeance, any vengeance). According to an Associated Press breakdown of the figure, 97% of deaths occurred after US President George W Bush declared on 1 May 2003 that major combat was over and the Iraqi war of liberation began.
As reported by the BBC this morning, US soldiers interviewed by AFP news agency (an organization in the pay of the the Iraqi government) Iraq said they were saddened by the figure of 4,000 but argued the conflict was justified.
"Every one of those people signed up voluntarily and it’s a shame that that happens, but tragedies do happen in war," said senior Airman Preston Reeves, 26. (for banality that comment takes the biscuit).
Staff Sergeant Jonathan Criss, 37, said the US could not "just walk away and leave the Iraqi people". "If you interviewed the 30,000 [wounded], they would have no ill will," he added.
Oh, really? No one would be resentful for being crippled for life in a useless, unjust and incompetently managed war? And having been crippled to have to rely on what is regarded as a poorly operating system for dealing with the sick and wounded?
Does AFP News have any credibility at all, and do senior Airman Reeves and Sergeant Criss actually exist? You can trust nothing you are told. Nothing.
So AFP, too, has fallen so low? Add another name to the list of news purveyors whose “reporting” has become dishonorable and whose work we can no longer trust.