“Our opponents in the main are Iraqi nationalists, and are most concerned with their own needs – jobs, money, security, hope. And the majority, therefore, I would suggest are not bad people.”
General Sir Richard Dannatt, head of the British Army, speaking about the Iraqi resistance (via) during a recent speech at the Institute for International Studies (IISS) in London.
Channel Four news showed a film of him making the remarks:
(via lenin)
When the head of the British Army describes the “majority” of the Iraqi resistance as “Iraqi nationalists” and “not bad people”, thereby totally deflating the official government narrative about the ‘insurgency’ being primarily composed of crazy al-Qaeda/takfiri fanatics, it’s surely big news.
However, whilst a search for ‘general richard dannatt’ on Google News brings up plenty of articles discussing his speech, a search for ‘general richard dannatt “not bad people”‘ produces but a single Guardian article, which buries the quote in a passing mention three paragraphs from the end.
It seems inconceivable that the mainstream press would report a speech so heavily and yet almost unanimously fail to mention one of its most important details, but it appears that this is what has happened. A Google search for ‘general richard dannatt “not bad people”‘ confirms this.
Who needs censorship when you have a press that is perfectly willing to ignore statements from a top military official in order to preserve the official government line all by itself?
Cross-posted at The Heathlander
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can be viewed here.
For more on this, see DKos, The Memory Hole blog and A Complex System of Pipes.
For info on the Iraqi resistance more generally, I wrote quite a long article about it a while ago, and lenin’s “Iraqi Resistance Dossier” is a really excellent resource.
and traditional media throws its collective paper to hide the embarrassment.
for speaking his mind, as was his forerunner Mike Jackson.
The hand of Murdoch is up the bum of far too much of the UK media.
That portion of the media without suppositorous antipodean influence is open to control from other quarters
There is the possibility of a snap October General Election. God forbid that the press should be denied for any reason access to the limp clammy fingered faux handshakes of the New Labrat Lordlings. They’ll regret it though. Blair’s Bollinger Blowouts have been replaced by Darjeeling and Dundee Cake. They’ve taken the covers from the toilet cisterns. The Yaparazzi won’t like that. Somebody might even remember how to do the reporting.