>John Bizwas wrote:
>
>>Ever wonder just how many DID live in Fallujah? I believe the population
>>has been seriously misstated to make it a smaller figure. US mainstream
>>(right wing) media stay away from estimates that say Fallujah, at one
>>time, had nearly 500,000 people. Imagine if an invading army forced an
>>evacuation of Cleveland so they could destroy the city in order to fight
>>10,000 'rebels'.
>
>Does it really matter if it's 200,000 or 500,000? The U.S. attack was
>barbaric in either case.
>
>Also: mainstream is most certainly not right wing. Our "mainstream" may be
>pretty far right by non-U.S. standards, but our right wing is really
>really right wing. Conservatives here think that the NYT and CBS are
>communist, and I'm not exaggerating. I once talked with someone who taught
>at a college in Savannah, Georgia, and required that the class read the
>NYT every day. They complained because it was so left wing.
>
>Doug
The number does matter but where it matters is in the reconstruction costs and any possible reparations demand made later. If the population displaced is set at an artificially low number today that will work to minimize any restitution later should it come to that. Invaders and colonizers have historically reported their victims numbers lower than they actually were when it suits their purpose.
I assume John Bizwas is not in the US? It is sad but true about the NYT being considered a liberal publication by millions of Americans. I have heard it referred to as communist, socialist, extreme left-wing, etc. I imagine the story of the instructor at the Savannah Georgia college has been replayed thousands of time in colleges and universities all across the country. At the community college where I sometimes teach students complained about having to any major daily as they were all liberal in their minds. I gave them copies of ISR, Z magazine, Dollars & Sense, and Extra! to show them examples of publications to the left of the NYT, LA Times, and the Boston Globe. They were required to read one news article per week from one of those three newspapers and comment on it.
John Thornton