CNN: Iraqi man loses entire family, but still supports the war

[Cocoa]

Aaron Brown on CNN last night ran a story reported by Jane Arraf, about an Iraqi man whose entire family was killed when American troops fired on their car. The five children burned in the car, but the man's wife managed to get out, but was shot dead when she ran toward the troops at the checkpoint.

The twist is, that the man is "not bitter." He actually looked kind of happy, talking to Arraf. He said he felt sorry for the Americans who have to live with what they've done.

He even said he thinks what the U.S. is doing is good.

Did anyone else see this?

My email to Aaron Brown:

Dear Aaron,

Jane Arraf's report last night on the Iraqi man whose whole family was killed by Americans, but who still was not "bitter", was fascinating.

It struck me that this is the kind of story that the American propaganda people would really want to get out there.

After all, their job is to raise support for our war, especially on the eve of a massive offensive that is likely to cause a large number of innocent Iraqis to die.

Americans watching the story of this man could go to sleep imagining that all the families of the people that die that day would be as sanguine about it as this man.

I wonder if this struck you the same way it struck me. Did you wonder how it happened that CNN broadcast a story that is a little hard to take at face value, but which fits perfectly into the goals of American propaganda? Did you wonder if maybe those propaganda people had a hand in introducing CNN to this man, and if this man's lack of bitterness was somehow enabled by the American authorities?

These questions are interesting enough to warrant a follow up story, about how this story came about.

[aden_nak]

1. PsyOps plant, perhaps?

Like the people we brought in to topple Saddam's statue?

[phantom power]

2. I wonder what the families of the other 100,000 people we've killed

think? Maybe we should interview a couple hundred of them, and see how the stats fall out....

[ewagner]

3. My wife and I watched the story

and afterwards, just looked at each other and rolled our eyes. I thought Aaron's crytic grin at the end of the story said a lot. I think he knew the story was pure propaganda and was inviting us to recognize it too.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. How do we even know that the story is true, and if it is,

how do we know that it's the same man?

I just know that if I had five innocent family members burned alive, I wouldn't just shrug and say, "Them's the breaks."

[Cocoa]

6. this man is a better man than you

he's the idealized "good Iraqi" that exist mainly in the neocons' imaginations, and in Tom Friedman columns.

[bread_and_roses]

5. the children BURNED and

this man is not bitter? I don't believe it for one second, unless he has lost his mind with grief.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. propaganda and Arroron brown does not

get it or wants to get it,

Stop watching that shit

[eleonora]

8. How much was he paid, heh?

Or was he guaranteed protection?

[Cocoa]

10. yep

a couple of thousand American dollars will buy you a whole lot of "not bitter."

[bowens43]

9. pure bullshit

[Goldmund]

11. My take on this...

...is that this context -- of the man not being bitter and supporting the war -- is what gives the story cover to be publishable by the likes of CNN. The real story is that the kids burned, the woman died, and all at the hands of US troops. They wanted to give some attention to the civilian casualties, but the only way they could get it past McGoebbels is to frame it as a war-supporting story. The whole report struck me as slightly subversive.

[LibInternationalist]

12. Propaganda, straight up

they should talk to the hundreds of other people who have lost their whole families and don't think so highly of the US occupation

[chiffon]

13. Absolutely unbelievable

I saw this story last night and could not help but notice that the husband/father did not appear to be in ANY state of grief. As a matter of fact, he appeared to have a smile on his face throughout the friggin' interview. Was he just happy to have his 15 minutes of fame or was it not really a big deal to lose his wife and daughters? Perhaps it was not a big deal since he still has his two sons.

Unbelievable!

[Cocoa]

14. he was smiling the most when showing pictures of his kids

poster-sized prints of his beautiful kids, approx. 10 yrs old, who'd died in a horrible act of violence. Huge smile on his face. This in a culture that expresses their grief outwardly in a way we never do here, women shrieking and tearing at their faces. But this man, very stoic.

[chiffon]

15. It was so unreal Cocoa

I watched in total disbelief. He wavered between a smirk and a smile. I was totally stunned. Thanks for posting this. I thought I was the only one amazed by this troubling story.