"Coalition" forces kill 70 voters insurgents

An hour ago, the CNN headline read "Iraq forces kill 70 insurgents." That was apparently so patently absurd that they have now changed the headline to "70 dead in strikes on suspected insurgents." The article starts of saying it was "coalition" forces that did the killing, although it mentions no involvment by anyone in the operation except US jets and helicopters. As usual, anyone killed by this massive firepower is termed an "insurgent" or "terrorist." The people who came 8000 miles for no legitimate reason to bomb the crap out of the place are supposedly the good guys.

Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, director of the Combined Press Information Center, said great care is taken in coalition operations to avoid civilian casualties.

"We do careful targeting to insure minimum civilian casualties in the areas that the insurgents are operating. Targets are continually vetted to insure that we are hitting the proper and intended targets.

"As many know, the terrorists/insurgents have used urban areas and civilians as human shields. We are determined to go after them wherever they hide," he added.

When Boylan says "careful targeting," he really means "careful counting," making sure that every dead body is labelled an "insurgent."

By the way, Condiliar thinks that some unknown version of the supposed constitution "has probably passed." She was immediately contradicted by a State Department spokesman:

[M]inutes after Rice made the comments, a State Department spokesman said Rice also wanted to emphasize that "we don't know" how the referendum will turn out.

Spokesman Sean McCormack said Rice had talked to Khalilzad after the press briefing, and her later clarification that the final outcome was unknown was not backtracking from her earlier assessment.

Of course, you've got to get up awfully early to be the stupidest member of this administration:

President Bush hailed the Iraqi referendum vote, saying Sunday the apparently strong turnout and decrease in violence from the last election were signs of "progress toward peace."

"This is a very positive day for the Iraqis and as well for world peace," he said. "Democracies are peaceful countries."

Bush said the referendum "stands in stark contrast to the attitudes and philosophy and strategy of al Qaeda and its terrorist friends and killers."

I know he's had plenty of practice saying ridiculous things, but how can he say "Democracies are peaceful countries" without cracking up and choking on his pretzel? The US, a supposed democracy, has invaded three countries in just the past five years, and threatens half a dozen others. It spends far more on war than any other nation. Since he's been so heavily involved in this, you'd think that at least these pieces of information would have penetrated aWol's bubble.