Americans in Iraq

Discarded Lies:

My tactical battalion group had just finished dog-slicing detail in the outpost perimeter, when one of the guys, who had a reputation as something of a crank-yanker, took off his ACU pants, revealing his tan underwear. We thought it was only mildly amusing, until he told us to look closer, to reveal that his underwear was not made of cloth, but hundreds of Iraqi heart valves, stitched together.

Wow, that must have been some intricate work.

Comments

[Josh Scholar]

I'm certain that plenty of people won't recognize this as parody, but I wonder if anyone will be stupid enough to not recognize it as fiction.

[Isaac Schrödinger]

I can see some Muslims mass emailing this as "THE TRUTH ABOUT THE INFIDEL AMERICANS IN IRAQ!!! MAY ALLAH CURSE THEM!"

[Josh Scholar]

The wife of a friend of mine once sent me a link to this">http://www.bonsaikitten.com/">this site, quite alarmed, and I had to explain to her that it was a well known internet hoax.

By the way, thank god for the internet way back machine.

[Josh Scholar]

And of course Peta has a petition to shut the hoax site down.

[Saul Wall]

If people will believe the actual Beauchamp writings they will believe anything. I like the one's he wrote likely before he got to Iraq and definitely before he became the TNR man of mystery entitled I make me feel stupid. He ends the insane ramble by explaining that he needs to get up very early to distribute Bibles in the market - part of the rules of engagement in Bush's army no doubt.

[Saul Wall]

I will give Beauchamp one point; he knows his audience. American troops giving out Bibles, casually assassinating children, swerving over IED littered roads to kill dogs and mocking disfigured people while Iraqi kids have dehydration seizures en mass and others wade waste deep through neighborhoods filled with sewage to watch US troops change a tire in this same sewage on a vehicle that can run on flat tires. When people say their is no reason yet to suspect that anything he says is untrue it demonstrates that there is a large market for Brooklyn bridges and Okefenokee real estate out there. If you were to ask many peace activists or Democrat opportunists what Iraq is like these days you would get a description not much different than Beauchamps. Thus I can see why TNR was so eager to go to print with it since confirming people's ignorance is a profitable endeavor. Not to say they did not know what they were doing but just because you are lying to people for what you believe is a good cause does not mean you can't try to boost your sagging ratings while you are at it.

Come to think of it, I wonder if the story was not aimed at Iraqis themselves. Many understand English and others would translate. Many of them would not have a very clear window into America, its army or its people so this kind of narrative would be far easier to swallow. Maybe they were not pandering to their anti-war audience but are instead trying to motivate Iraqis on the fence to join the insurgency - thus promoting a return to conflict in Anbar and such. Or is that giving TNR too much credit? It seems much more clever than I would have thought they were capable of being. Especially after, with all their Human Resource department problems, someone there thought it would be funny to impersonate the fired employee in a chat room to insult her. These guys don't seem like the sharpest bunch of nails.