illumin8's Journal: Hearts and Minds: The real war is being lost

Today our military has suffered yet another defeat in Iraq. Not on the battlefield; it is clear that our troops have military superiority, yet they are losing the war that really matters: The war for the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people.

On Sunday the Associated Press received a videotape that clearly shows the wedding celebration which was destroyed by the US military 5 miles from the Syrian border. I can't believe that after the overwhelming evidence that we killed innocent women and children during a wedding celebration, a coalition officer says "We still don't believe there was a wedding going on."

The war for the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people cannot be won by lies and deceit. It must be won through honesty and transparency. When innocent targets are struck, there must be accountability in our military. Again and again we are seeing that this war is different. In past wars, the propaganda machine could always gloss over the innocent casualties by feeding whatever lies were necessary to the news media. It is clear that in this war, the internet and international media has brought us a much less biased and propagandized story than we see on the "party news source", aka "Faux News". The lies told to the American people and the rest of the world cause even more damage when the truth is uncovered.

I can almost certainly guarantee you that other incidents like this will happen. War is a terrible business, and other innocent civilians will be killed. The only thing we can do is be honest with the American public and the rest of the world. Only by doing this can we save face and prove to the Iraqi people that we are more honorable than the insurgency which is gaining in popularity.