Baghdad surrounded? Not quite -- there are no US troops immediately to the north of the city yet. But it's a matter of time and US troops are staging rolling patrol reconnaissance raids within the city limits, primarily for psychological effect. Reuters cites a UK official: "US Tanks have gone into Baghdad to make it clear to the people that whatever the regime may say, coalition forces are advancing and there is a determination to see the job through". You can anticipate major media madness when the first US tanks become visible to the TV news cameras in downtown Baghdad.
Because it's largely a war of images, words -- "perceptions" -- now. There's a slipperiness to language in this Looking-Glass world.
i) Baghdad Radio claims some allied paratroops landed at the airport and are surrounded: that's propaganda, of course.
ii) US Central Command says it doesn't matter whether Saddam is dead or alive, or ever found: wishful thinking, at best.
iii) US troops claim to move "freely" in Baghdad: exaggeration, by any common definition of freedom.
Hysteria creeps into each side's claims: desperation on one side, giddy anticipation of victory on the other.
Both surrenders and desertions continue in and around Baghad. But Ba'athist militia, cadres and SRG bodyguards and secret police guys and cousins from Tikrit, of whom there are very many, probably don't have the option to just melt away into the civilian population. Never mind would-be "martyrs."
Lagniappe: Why a Lebanese cleric may be most important to the actions of Iraq's Shiite population and those of the mysterious Badr Brigade.
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Because it's largely a war of images, words -- "perceptions" -- now. There's a slipperiness to language in this Looking-Glass world.
i) Baghdad Radio claims some allied paratroops landed at the airport and are surrounded: that's propaganda, of course.
ii) US Central Command says it doesn't matter whether Saddam is dead or alive, or ever found: wishful thinking, at best.
iii) US troops claim to move "freely" in Baghdad: exaggeration, by any common definition of freedom.
Hysteria creeps into each side's claims: desperation on one side, giddy anticipation of victory on the other.
Both surrenders and desertions continue in and around Baghad. But Ba'athist militia, cadres and SRG bodyguards and secret police guys and cousins from Tikrit, of whom there are very many, probably don't have the option to just melt away into the civilian population. Never mind would-be "martyrs."
Lagniappe: Why a Lebanese cleric may be most important to the actions of Iraq's Shiite population and those of the mysterious Badr Brigade.
- bruno 4-05-2003 6:36 pm