Over the weekend Americans saw a fairly sanitized version of the war, and even after the ambush/POW episode were spared the more ghastly photos of dead Marines. Instead they heard breathless accounts of cruise missiles so accurate that they sometimes land in Iran and Turkey, and saw snazzy 3D images of the Patriot missile system that sometimes shoots down British airplanes.
Meanwhile, the Arab world saw what it's like to be on the receiving end of this neato technology, showing pictures of casualties from U.S. bombing in Basra, most grotesquely the pictures of an Iraqi boy with the back of his head blown off that will scar any viewer for life.
Perhaps motivated by the imagery from al-Jazeera, or perhaps just really pissed off, the past several days have seen a seething "Arab Street," with large and often violent protests in Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Bahrain, and Lebanon. Yesterday in Lahore Pakistan (they gots nukes!) 100,000 people showed up to shout "Kill America," burn flags, and generally get fired up about jihad. Heck, even the kids looked to be having a good time.
Allah only knows what new terrorist attacks are cookin' in the "Arab Basement."
We're doomed.
Posted by: bob on March 24, 2003 08:52 AM
US TROOPS CAPTURE CHEMICAL PLANT
The statement said reports describing the discovery as a chemical weapons factory were "premature." [msnbc.com]