Pics

Is it just me, or could these pictures be anybody? Certainly, the reporters on CNN, even on the defense dept. beat, didn’t have a clue which son the pictures were supposed to represent when they came over the wire. They dutifully reported the identity when told, however, as if it had been obvious all along. Wolf Blitzer made the identification himself based upon Uday’s “trademark short haircut.” There’s an unimpeachable identification for you.

Clearly, the reason the administration declined to release the photos at first was not because of their great sensitivity to our delicate feelings. It was because they were likely to raise more questions than they answered.

And again, a bigger problem for us generally is that the new US reputation for hyping, spinning and lying on important matters of national security, intelligence and military matters makes it a little bit difficult to persuade people that they should just take our word for it.

Via Eschaton I see that the decision to kill the sons outright (rather than make a serious effort to capture them) is beginning to see some criticism. This operation seems to me to be the very thing that Rummy’s vaunted fast moving Special Forces are designed to do. Apparently, some of the Special Forces guys agree:

“The whole operation was a cockup,” said a British intelligence officer. “There was no need to go after four lightly armed men with such overwhelming firepower. They would have been much more useful alive.”

[…]

“Bollocks,” said one former Special Forces soldier. “A SWAT team could have taken them. It didn’t need a company.” …