> The text of this story says that a Catholic archbishop and
>member of the Pope's Council of Peace and Justice acquired
>information from Italian sources about the delivery of body bags and
>coffins to the US air base in Catania, Sicily. The archbishop,
>Renato Martino, then goes on to say, "I am very apprehensive about
>this. War brings only destruction, misery and hate. It doesn't
>resolve anything and is always like this. A true preventative action
>would be to try and avoid war. The consequences of this war will
>make themselves all too obvious on the American people when they
>start to see coffins with loved ones in them returning home.". In
>this Martino sounds like the Pope himself, who has strongly
>condemned the planned US aggression in Iraq. Both figures part of
>Rumsfeld's "old Europe".
If the US government was trying to use the casualty issue for some propaganda purpose, wouldn't it be announced on network TV and the NY Times, instead of what would appear to be an extremely circuitous route?
Wouldn't such a propaganda ploy be very risky and prone to backfire? Wouldn't it easily lead to more antiwar activity, a decrease in volunteers for the military, and dissension within the military itself?
More likely, Bush, Cheney and company expect significant US casualties and are planning for them, but want to avoid talking about the issue.
MP
>The Mirror
>Feb 10 2003
>
>http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12624416&method=full&
>siteid=50143