BBC bias by omission and false statements

In Analysis: Iraq's military landscape the BBC's Neil Arun attempts an analysis of the Iraq military situation before the handover. Arun obviously skipped the BBC's new "core value" training seminars.

First notice the picture used for this article and the caption under it. The picture shows a bloodied American soldier and caption reads "The US came to Iraq looking for banned weapons - but found none". The picture is obviously intened to convey the impression that America is getting its' butt kicked. The caption is down right false.

Tests Confirm Sarin in Iraqi Artillery Shell

Wednesday, May 19, 2004
By Liza Porteus

NEW YORK — Tests on an artillery shell that blew up in Iraq on Saturday confirm that it did contain an estimated three or four liters of the deadly nerve agent sarin (search), Defense Department officials told Fox News Tuesday. [...]

Another shell filled with mustard gas (search), possibly also part of an improvised explosive device (IED) was discovered on May 2, Defense Dept. officials said.

Not to mention all the other banned weapons that have been found.

Look at how Arun frames his entire so called analysis.

As a string of audacious attacks and assassinations suggest a catastrophic outlook for Iraq, BBC News Online examines the military landscape against which the coalition plans its 30 June handover to an interim government.

Arun is framming his entire analysis around the idea that the coalition is going to hand the Iraqis a catastrophy on 30 June.

Next he talks about reasons why we are here in the first place.

The invasion of Iraq was inspired by claims about Saddam Hussein's banned arsenal;...

Notice the words he uses here very carefully.

First, he uses "inspired by claims". Now the online Webster dictionary defines inspired as "Moved or animated by, or as by, a supernatural influence; affected by divine inspiration; as, the inspired prophets;" Arun is trying to portray Bush as being possesed when he decided to invade Iraq.

Second, notice the use of "arsenal". Here Arun is trying to move the goal posts.

Like most journalist, Arun touts WMDs as the main reason for invading Iraq. When in fact in his speech to the UN, Bush noted the 18 UN resolutions that Saddam had ignored since the end of the first Gulf war. Bush's UN speech here.

Arun goes on the attack and points out what he calls the coalitions biggest mistake of the occupation.

With coalition forces and Iraqi security services battling an insurgency, correspondents say last year's decision to dissolve the defeated Iraqi army may have been the single biggest mistake of the occupation.

"Corrrespondents say". And they would be the military experts then?

The 400,000 Iraqis fighting for Saddam Hussein made up what was reputed to be one of the most formidable forces of the Middle East.

They have been replaced by 160,000-odd soldiers from a coalition of more than 30 countries.

America's 138,000 troops form the backbone of the coalition.

Here Arun is saying the US disbanned the most formidable force in the Middle East and replaced it with a rag tag army. If Saddam's 400,000 were such a formidable force, why were they defeated by a rag tag army in just a few weeks?

And who does Arun credit with the violence in Iraq?

Insurgents and coalition soldiers may account for most of the violence in Iraq - but they are not the only gunmen on the landscape.

That's right, coalition soldiers lumped in with insurgents may account for most of the violence.

Arun ends up trying to use Falluja as a blueprint for how the rest of Iraq will go. And it is here that he shows why jounalist just do not have a clue what they are talking about when it comes to military matters.

It was a hasty solution, says the BBC's Paul Adams, and an imperfect one - Falluja is now a no-go area for Americans.

Says the BBC's Paul Adams. Another jounalist and not an expert on military matters. How does Adams know that the Americans "want" to go into Falluja? How does he know it is an imperfect solution or hasty for that matter?

If it succeeds, the Falluja formula will be hailed as an innovative way of correcting a cardinal error of the occupation - the summary disbanding of the Iraqi army.

If it fails, the formula will resemble not so much a settlement, as a surrender.

I don't know how much training Arun has in tactics, so let me see if I can help him out.

Lesson on how to defeat terrorists

The third lesson to learn is the strategy of forcing the terrorists into fixed positions before moving against them. The terrorist constantly seeks anonymity, like fish in water.

But he also needs safe havens, hospitals, recreation centers, places to hide his bigger weapons, and facilities to train new recruits or imprison potential defectors. All this means a loss of mobility which is the terrorist’s key advantage over the state.

In both Algeria and Peru, and to some extent even in Turkey and Egypt, the state decided to actually help the terrorists become fixed targets. In Algeria, for example, the anti-terror units deliberately stayed out of some areas, notably the Mitidja plain and the town of Blida, thus shooing the terrorists there. On some occasions the security forces even refused to intervene to stop terrorist operations that took place under their noses, so to speak. The idea was to convince the terrorists that they had a safe haven. In time this meant that the terrorists became fixed targets while the security forces enjoyed the advantage of mobility and the choice of the time to attack.

Arun and the BBC are prime examples of why journalist should stick to news reporting and leave the fighting to the military.

Notice what Arun has omitted? He completely leaves out the the defeat and surrender of Muqtada al-Sadr. A milita once touted as being over 10,000 strong and set to start an uprising and civil war that would end the coaltions occupation of Iraq. Astonishingly, that huge coalition victory escaped Arun's attention. But then, he did miss the BBC's much vaulted "core values" training.
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