American and Iraqi Versions Differ in Latest Chapters of War’s Story

[unhappycamper]

American and Iraqi Versions Differ in Latest Chapters of War’s Story
By TIM ARANGO
Published: August 1, 2010

BAGHDAD — When gunmen ambushed Iraqi security checkpoints in a large Sunni neighborhood of Baghdad last Thursday, terrorized residents said the attack reminded them of the worst days of the war. The United States military said it was unaware of any gunfighting.

On Sunday, when The Associated Press reported that July was the worst month for Iraqi casualties in more than two years, the United States military denied it. Yes, Iraqis are still dying, the American command said, but in strikingly fewer numbers than Iraqi government ministries have told the news media.

As American forces exit Iraq, with only 50,000 to remain by the end of this month and all to be withdrawn in a year, the American military command is accentuating the positive. The Americans also say they are increasingly relying on Iraqis for information they use in the story they tell, that the country they are leaving behind is steadily improving and on the path to becoming a safe and stable democracy.

But it is also an axiom of conflict that competing stories emerge about the same events. The “fog of war” still shrouds this country more than seven years after the American-led invasion, at a time when America’s war is largely complete, even as its legacy remains unfinished.

This was apparently the case Thursday in the Adhamiya neighborhood of Baghdad, a Sunni enclave that once symbolized sectarian bloodletting. Witnesses on the street and a local hospital recounted a brazen assault by gunmen on Iraqi security posts that recalled the not-too-distant past.