From the Wiki:
Minarets (Arabic manara منارة, but more usually مئذنة) are distinctive architectural features of Islamic mosques. Minarets are generally tall, graceful spires, with onion-shaped crowns, usually either free standing or much taller than any surrounding support structure.
From General Peter Pace, military genius:
In Baghdad, Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish political leaders resumed negotiations on forming a new government Tuesday, a day after the talks were interrupted by Shiites’ outcry over a U.S.-Iraqi raid Sunday on what the U.S. military said was an armed faction and what the Shiites said were Shiite men at prayer in a mosque.
In Washington, top Pentagon officials said Tuesday that Sunday’s raid did not mark the start of a broader crackdown on Shiite militias and said U.S. troops were unaware until after breaching the compound that it contained a place of worship.
At a Pentagon briefing, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the raid targeted a kidnapping ring. He said an Iraqi counterterrorism unit and its U.S. Special Forces advisers discovered an Iraqi hostage and numerous weapons inside the compound, as well as a small minaret and prayer room. U.S. forces “did not know that that minaret was there on the way in,” Pace said.
You can’t make this shit up. Of all the things I hate about the Bush administration, it is the way they constantly insult my intelligence that I take the most personally.
Go read the whole thing over at the Asian Tribune (perhaps a distant cousing of the BooMan Tribune?)…it’s very interesting.
I’ve never been one of these guys that is enamored of the military, especially since I was in it. This seems about par for these guys. Really, it is the well-educated military man or woman that is the exception. It would be odd if bushco were to search out the best brains in the military to promote, since they would likely not be in agreement as to either policies or tactics.
They’re insulting all of our intelligences. It’s not just you.
Basically, as far as I can tell, they’ve bought into the “strong father” myth so deep that they treat the rest of us like five-year-olds. Except that when I had five-year-olds, I gave them credit for more intelligence than they give us.
i looked around for examples of ‘small minarets’. The smallest I’ve found is 20 meters high.
in western media, and for that reason probably had not done a lot of advance work preparing their statements, and the mainstream opposition to crimes against humanity is very low, even among those who oppose how the crusade is being run, so it would not be a task to which the more skilled presentation specialists would be assigned.
Maybe the author of “we didn’t see the minaret” was new in his job, having been recently transferred there after his Zawahiri letter did not get high ratings.
Maybe.
I think they probably made the mistake of claiming the arms cache was discovered in the minaret, leading to the obvious question of how they mistook a minaret for a non-mosque indicator.
Then followed the absurdity about the invisibility of the minaret from outside the compound.
.
Must have been a foreign contingent, perhaps Kurdish, who do not know their own places of worship in Baghdad and cannot distinguish a minaret from a tower?? Or were the American advisors perhaps armed soldiers taking the lead to demonstrate U.S. determination, efficiency and results!
In Baghdad, an aide to Mr Sadr accused the US of killing unarmed people at the mosque. “The American forces went into Mustafa mosque at prayers and killed more than 20 worshippers,” Hazim al-Araji told Reuters news agency.
But the US military statement denied that any troops had entered the mosque and said the US special forces troops were on hand only as advisers to the Iraqi troops. “No mosques were entered or damaged during this operation.”
● Raid on mosque sparks call for US to loosen grip
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
It seems the other obvious stupidity would be this continual saying that the US troops were in an adviser capacity only therefore what…the Iraqi troops didn’t know this was a mosque or bother to tell our troops..yeah right. Our military has already told about 4 or more variations on this story already haven’t they?
I suppose the only thing we can be glad about is that this whole administration tells so many blatantly stupid lies that even the most brain dead are starting to catch on to this horseshit..and historians are going to have a field day when writing about this administration because it will be so easy to document all these lies..and of course wonder why this country let them stay in power during all of this.
It must’ve been some of that “Fog o’ War” that we hear so much about that screwed’em up.
anyone want to play find the minaret?