HEY CHIVERS, HAVEN'T YOU FORGOTTEN SOMETHING?

This is again a couple of days old, learned about it via LGF naturellement, and it blew me such that I felt I had to spill some words on it. I'm talking about that Zarqawi blooper video, which most of us have seen, isn't it? If you haven't yet, here is the link. Zarkman being unable to operate a SAW is one thing. But reading how a NYT correspondent, C.J. Chivers, runs to his defense is another. I couldn't believe it. And the guy - Chivers - is even a former Marine! The following is an excerpt from hisarticle in the New York Times:

Not All See Video Mockery of Zarqawi as Good Strategy

By C. J. CHIVERS
Published: May 6, 2006

An effort by the American military to discredit the terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi by showing video outtakes of him fumbling with a machine gun — suggesting that he lacks real fighting skill — was questioned yesterday by retired and active American military officers.
...
The American military, which said it captured the videotapes in a recent raid, released selected outtakes in an effort to undermine MISTER Zarqawi’s image as leader of the Council of Holy Warriors, formerly Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, and suggested that his fighting talents and experience were less than his propaganda portrays. But several veterans of wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, as well as active-duty officers, said in telephone interviews yesterday that the clips of MISTER Zarqawi’s supposed martial incompetence were unconvincing.
The weapon in question is complicated to master, and American soldiers and marines undergo many days of training to achieve the most basic competence with it. Moreover, the weapon in MISTER Zarqawi’s hands was an older variant, which makes its malfunctioning unsurprising. The veterans said MISTER Zarqawi, who had spent his years as a terrorist surrounded by simpler weapons of Soviet design, could hardly have been expected to know how to handle it.
...

Golly yeah, MISTER Zarqawi. Good God. The way that Chivers guy is talking about Al Qaeda in Iraq's ceo makes you wonder what they put in the coffee machines over at the New York Times. Now, I ain't a Marine and I never operated a SAW, or, I'm sorry to say, whatever gun anyway - although that may change soon. But what I do know is that Z-Man is the guy who ordered his creeps to blow themselves up among schoolchildren - amongst others - and Jesus, when it comes to using the prefix "Mr." for adressing members of that motley crew of Baathists, Sadrists, Badrists, al Qaedists and other sadists, Mr. Baghdad Bob is about the sole individual I'm willing to bestow the honor. Well guess what Mr. Chivers? Luckily for MISTER Zarqawi there are other weapons which are less complicated to master, and even though they are old, when they malfunction it's actually surprising. I'm talking about rusty scimitars e.g.. Like the one a compatriot of yours, Mr. Nick Berg from Philadelphia, was beheaded with. Guess you had forgotten about that when you talked about Zarkman the way you'd talk about your son-in-law.


MFBB.