Iraq - BBC: Democracy is root of violence

You may recall Paul Adams, the BBC's defence correspondent, complained that the BBC was lying in its coverage of Iraq.

"I was gobsmacked to hear, in a set of headlines today, that the coalition was suffering 'significant casualties'. This is simply not true," Adams said in the memo.

"Nor is it true to say - as the same intro stated - that coalition forces are fighting 'guerrillas'. It may be guerrilla warfare, but they are not guerrillas," he stormed.

"Who dreamed up the line that the coalition are achieving 'small victories at a very high price?' The truth is exactly the opposite.

That didn't stop the BBC's John Simpson from lying about Iraq war casualties. After he was caught out, the BBC Admitted it Lied About Iraq War Casualties Also see here and here.

You might also remember that it was John Simpson who called the 7/7 Muslim terrorists "misguided criminals" and al Qaeda the "resistance".

I'll say one thing for Simpson, he's consistent and consistently wrong.

Here Simpson tries to fool you with the you broke it you fix argument.

What happened was that US and British forces invaded Iraq in 2003 and smashed the state, causing an anger and bitterness which the Bush administration and the Blair government have never acknowledged.

Yes, I'm sure they long for the good ole days of Saddam. The problem with this argument is that Iraq was already broke and is in fact now being rebuilt - thanks to Blair and Bush.

Guess what Simpson blames as the reason he thinks things are bad in Iraq? Democracy!

Looking back on the events of the past year, it is clear that the three different popular votes which were held in Iraq, two elections and one referendum, played a big part in whipping up the violence. [...]

The act of voting was as divisive as it was empowering, and the fact that it happened three times in 11 months added to the intensity of the problem.

Unbelievable. Hey, it gets worse.

At first, the resistance movement held off its attacks, anxious to see what would happen and worried that it might find itself running completely counter to the feelings of the Iraqi population.

Al Qaeda is the "resistance movement" and not terrorist group.

And now for the big lie.

Yet all this is history now - just like the rights and wrongs of the original decision to invade Iraq, and the non-existence of the weapons of mass destruction, and the fact that there never were enough American troops to do the job properly, and all the rest of it.

What do you call these Simpson?

Nobody disputes the tapes' authenticity. On them, Saddam talks openly of programs involving biological, chemical and, yes, nuclear weapons.

War foes have long asserted that Saddam halted his WMD programs in the wake of his defeat in the first Gulf War in 1991. Saddam's abandonment of WMD programs was confirmed by subsequent U.N. inspections.

Again, not true. In a tape dating to April 1995, Saddam and several aides discuss the fact that U.N. inspectors had found traces of Iraq's biological weapons program. On the tape, Hussein Kamel, Saddam's son-in-law, is heard gloating about fooling the inspectors.

"We did not reveal all that we have," he says. "Not the type of weapons, not the volume of the materials we imported, not the volume of the production we told them about, not the volume of use. None of this was correct."

There's more. Indeed, as late as 2000, Saddam can be heard in his office talking with Iraqi scientists about his ongoing plans to build a nuclear device. At one point, he discusses Iraq's plasma uranium program — something that was missed entirely by U.N. weapons inspectors combing Iraq for WMD.

Perhaps Simpson should read, Jeremy Paxman's, his BBC co-worker, book wherein Paxman describes Saddam's WMD's in detail.

Or, perhaps listen to this ABC News broadcast detailing WMDs and Saddam's connections to terrorists including al Qaeda.

Hell, Simpson would even do well to read my post on the subject.

One thing is certain, if it's from the BBC, you can bet your not getting the truth - especially if John Simpson's name is on it.

UPDATE

Looks like Simpson's longed for civil war isn't going to happen and things therefore are not as dire as Simpson hopes.
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