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MARC HEROLD'S LYING EYES, vol.

MARC HEROLD'S LYING EYES, vol. 5 -- EDWARD HERMAN ACCEPTS "4,000" ESTIMATE

In the Nation, this week, in a letters-page debate between Chomsky's frequent collaborator and Christopher Hitchens:

Mark Herold's careful study concluded that US bombs had killed at least 3,767 civilians in eight and a half weeks, which he explained as a result of the "apparent willingness of U.S. military strategists to fire missiles into, and drop bombs upon, heavily populated areas of Afghanistan."

I've known two year-olds that were less gullible. Every time a quote like this appears, any belief I might have had that its author has any respect for factual accuracy is shaken a little bit more. Herman has written some powerful things before now, on Kosovo, and before that Southeast Asia, and Iraq, and Central America. But Herold's flaws are transparent to anyone with just a little book learning. You therefore have to conclude one of two things:

1) Herman believes everything he reads, or is at least intellectually incapable of telling truth from lies; or
2) Herman can see through Herold as well as anyone, but has no moral problem labelling it a "careful study" solely because it supports his argument.

In the same way a lot of people are looking at Stephen Ambrose askance, one can have no choice in the light of this to reevaluate everything Herman has put his name to. The only question remaining is whether, through creeping dementia or whatever, he's become useless only recently (as Hitchens has publicly suggested previously), or he's always been useless, even when he was writing books with Chomsky. Your pick.

THIS IS RATHER DISTURBING. AND

THIS IS RATHER DISTURBING. AND GRATIFYING, BUT ALSO DISTURBING

This current piece of footage is flitting its way around U.S. armed forces circles. (I believe the source is good, but obviously confirmation beyond that is impossible.) It is allegedly footage of an attack by one or more F-14 Tomcats on a Taliban BTR (Russian-made personnel carrier), as seen by the pilots' Special Forces ground controllers. There's the initial massive explosion, which I'm told is one or more GBU-16 laser guided bombs, followed by some kind of secondary explosion on the road among the, um, bodies. (NOTE: it's a fairly large file, so do be patient on the download. It's worth it.)

UPDATE: a serving captain writes in to say he's seen this footage before, and it's actually a mine strike (location and provenance unknown). Anyone who has any more information, write it on in, so we can get to the bottom of this 'un.