Self Censorship
This indicates that the Iraqis were hiding heavy weaponry within residential areas. I wonder what the US military’s urban defence doctrine has to say about artillery placement and residential areas? But I digress. Anyway, I think journalists are prone to declare every large missile platform they see a “Scud” – I am not aware of any confirmed Scud sightings. If she is correct in her description of the Pentagon’s statement, then they obviously later backed away from admitting deliberately targeting civilian areas to avoid responsibity for any of the marketplace massacres.
After the first marketplace bombing we heard there had been a hit and we were able to go there in our own vehicle. We got lost and a couple of blocks from where the two missiles had hit there was a Scud missile launcher with a Scud on top. We then realised the Iraqis were hiding Scuds in residential areas. If I’d said that I think we would have been thrown out the next day” … the American military issued a statement about the marketplace bombing, saying they had been aiming at eight or nine missile launchers in the area. However, the Americans later retracted this statement.
And what happened to the “investigations” that the Pentagon promised, repeatedly, were ongoing?
WHENEVER REPORTERS asked about civilian deaths in the invasion of Iraq, US military officials reflexively plunged into a numbing prattle about the precision of our weaponry, precaution to avoid needless carnage, and promises to investigate possible mistakes.
…
Two and a half months after the prattle, we now have the terrible truth. There never was an investigation. That fact was embedded (pun intended) in an Associated Press report this week that it has so far counted 3,240 Iraqi civilians killed in the invasion, including nearly 1,900 in Baghdad. The AP quoted Central Command spokesman John Morgan confirming the nonexistence of an investigation.