Comments on: Mistaken Identity http://www.davejustus.com/2005/05/31/mistaken-identity/ None Sine Causa Sun, 12 Oct 2008 16:58:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: Dave Justus http://www.davejustus.com/2005/05/31/mistaken-identity/#comment-1292 Dave Justus Tue, 31 May 2005 19:56:00 +0000 http://www.davejustus.com/2005/05/31/mistaken-identity/#comment-1292 Actually, I believe Chalabi was cleared of providing bogus intelligence, or at least of purposefully doing so. Intelligence is of course a difficult thing to gain, and one can never get 'perfect' information or be entirely sure the other side hasn't duped you. Raids a house is of course very dangerous. Certainly when that is heppening people don't knock politely and ask to sit down and discuss the situation over coffee. While the case of mistaken identity is extremely unfortunate, the situation described does not seem much different from domestic law enforcement in a drug raid for example. Other than going after someone who should not have been a target to begin with, I don't see that the soldiers did anything wrong in this event. Let me ask you a question Probligo, and try to answer it honestly: Would you prefer to see a free, democratic Iraq and this war a success, or would you prefer to see the U.S. humbled and forced to abandon Iraq leaving chaos in it's wake? Actually, I believe Chalabi was cleared of providing bogus intelligence, or at least of purposefully doing so.

Intelligence is of course a difficult thing to gain, and one can never get ‘perfect’ information or be entirely sure the other side hasn’t duped you.

Raids a house is of course very dangerous. Certainly when that is heppening people don’t knock politely and ask to sit down and discuss the situation over coffee. While the case of mistaken identity is extremely unfortunate, the situation described does not seem much different from domestic law enforcement in a drug raid for example.

Other than going after someone who should not have been a target to begin with, I don’t see that the soldiers did anything wrong in this event.

Let me ask you a question Probligo, and try to answer it honestly: Would you prefer to see a free, democratic Iraq and this war a success, or would you prefer to see the U.S. humbled and forced to abandon Iraq leaving chaos in it’s wake?

]]> By: The probligo http://www.davejustus.com/2005/05/31/mistaken-identity/#comment-1291 The probligo Tue, 31 May 2005 17:44:00 +0000 http://www.davejustus.com/2005/05/31/mistaken-identity/#comment-1291 "While we will probably not know exactly how this happened (for a variety of reasons the investigation will probably be classified) I suspect that we were the victims of an intelligence operation specifically designed to get us to make this mistake." Dave, I agree 100%. If only because of the previous examples led (as one might expect) by the "intelligence" provided to the US back before Iraq2 by one Chalabhai. It is interesting to read the comment from (discredited by some) Iraqi bloggers on this. Riverbend gives her thoughts - "The Americans are saying Muhsin was “detained and interviewed”, which makes one think his car was gently pulled over and he was asked a few questions. What actually happened was that his house was raided early morning, doors broken down, windows shattered and he and his three sons had bags placed over their heads and were dragged away. They showed the house, and his wife, today on Arabiya and the house was a disaster. The cabinets were broken, tables overturned, books and papers scattered, etc. An outraged Muhsin was on tv a few minutes ago talking about how the troops pushed him to the floor and how he had an American boot on his neck for twenty minutes. " An isolated incident? I doubt it. And, as you have said, I also doubt that the truth will ever out. Anything close to the truth will be met by the platitude "War is hell. Whatcha expect?" “While we will probably not know exactly how this happened (for a variety of reasons the investigation will probably be classified) I suspect that we were the victims of an intelligence operation specifically designed to get us to make this mistake.”

Dave, I agree 100%. If only because of the previous examples led (as one might expect) by the “intelligence” provided to the US back before Iraq2 by one Chalabhai.

It is interesting to read the comment from (discredited by some) Iraqi bloggers on this. Riverbend gives her thoughts -

“The Americans are saying Muhsin was “detained and interviewed”, which makes one think his car was gently pulled over and he was asked a few questions. What actually happened was that his house was raided early morning, doors broken down, windows shattered and he and his three sons had bags placed over their heads and were dragged away. They showed the house, and his wife, today on Arabiya and the house was a disaster. The cabinets were broken, tables overturned, books and papers scattered, etc. An outraged Muhsin was on tv a few minutes ago talking about how the troops pushed him to the floor and how he had an American boot on his neck for twenty minutes. ”

An isolated incident? I doubt it. And, as you have said, I also doubt that the truth will ever out. Anything close to the truth will be met by the platitude “War is hell. Whatcha expect?”

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