This started showing up last night, but I’ll jump on the bandwagon as this is a developing story, and an obviously wacky one at that. Check out this AFP photo that appeared on Yahoo News:
The accompanying caption read:
An elderly Iraqi woman shows two bullets which she says hit her house following an early coalition forces raid in the predominantly Shiite Baghdad suburb of Sadr City. At least 175 people were slaughtered on Tuesday and more than 200 wounded when four suicide truck bombs targeted people from an ancient religious sect in northern Iraq, officials said.(AFP/Wissam al-Okaili)
But, yeah, if you’ve ever seen any action movie ever made (save for the percentage that never require their heroes to reload) then you know what’s wrong with these bullets. They haven’t been fired. Yet they’re being pumped around as if they somehow reinforce the notion of how evil the Iraq War is by showing how this innocent old lady almost got wasted by our guys. (If you doubt their value as propaganda, though you’d be foolish to do so, Hot Air says that Andrew Sullivan was passing the picture around, though the link is no longer valid)
Still, if our guys were tossing those things at her like that, she should be happy- turn around and sell them to raise your standard of living. Or use them to kill terrorists; you know, either way.
BLACKFIVE (where I first noticed the story) noticed that the woman in the photo looked familiar, and it turns out that a similar looking old lady had been the subject of previous bullet photo-ops.
For a bit of humor on this one (they beat me to the punch) check out The People’s Cube, where you can purchase your own ready-made horrified faux-victim:
Updates as necessary.
Others noticing this include Ace of Spades, Snapped Shot, The Jawa Report, The Autonomist, Gateway Pundit, Captain’s Quarters, and DPGI.
Update:
Do your part to fight propaganda like this over at BLACKFIVE.
Confederate Yankee has a lot more discussion on not only the photographer, but also the ammunition type. (It doesn’t match any U.S. rounds currently used)
Update 8/16/07:
Cassy Fiano picks up on this too, and has some more links.
