A game of teleclick
: Watch a meme try to sprout…
Scott Rosenberg links to Josh Marshall who links to Juan Cole who quotes an email from Tom Collier on the battle in Samarra.
By the time it reaches Rosenberg, he’s hinting at body-count inflation and credibility gaps and other juicy Vietnam nostalgia: “54 Saddam loyalists dead? Or American soldiers firing on Iraqi civilians? It would be so much more reassuring to believe our side’s version of the story. If only our side had a better track record of telling the truth. But we’re too busy making up stories about our president’s bravery.” Marshall links to the BBC and says the story gets “muddier.”
But, get this: The consistently, militantly one-sided (anti-Iraq-war) Cole is less one-sided on this than these links would indicate. He gives a reason why the fighters would have removed bodies (rather than have their fallen buried by us infidels) and he and Collier emphasize that Collier’s email is “pure speculation.” That caveat didn’t stick to the meme as it passed through the blogstream.
: UPDATE: Rosenberg says I misinterpret. No, I stand by my interpretation. But you judge.
