Iraq: May 21, 2000

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Iraq's media machine constantly broadcasts images of Iraq civilians killed and injured by US bombing. Much of this stuff is made up, and recently there was an opportunity to show how that works. The Iraqis showed foreign reporters a recent crated of "an American bomb" that was dropped the day before and injured civilians. But the US was able to prove that this crated was that of an Iraqi anti-aircraft missile fired unsuccessfully at US aircraft. The media tends to forget that all the antiaircraft fire eventually comes back to earth and has historically been a major cause of civilian casualties. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December, 1941, it was later realized that most of the civilian injuries came from anti-aircraft bullets that fell back to earth. 

 

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