April 08, 2003
POOR Robert Fisk. Now he's
POOR Robert Fisk. Now he's even being fisked by his fellow reporters in Iraq. Here's how Baghdad Bob previewed the March of the Infidels upon Saddam's fortified city:
The road to the front in central Iraq is a place of fast-moving vehicles, blazing Iraqi anti-aircraft guns, tanks and trucks hidden in palm groves, a train of armored vehicles ... Anyone who doubts that the Iraqi Army is prepared to defend its capital should take the highway south of Baghdad.
How, I kept asking myself, could the Americans batter their way through these defenses? For mile after mile they go on, slit trenches, ditches, earthen underground bunkers, palm groves of heavy artillery and truck loads of combat troops in battle fatigues and steel helmets. Not since the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War have I seen the Iraqi Army deployed like this.
The SMH's Paul McGeough happened to accompany Fisk when the massed might of Hussein's supermen was displayed before them. Asked about Fisk's claims, McGeough told the ABC's Mark Colvin:
Robert gets a bit windy from time to time, Mark. I was on the same bus as him and we saw some tanks, you wouldn't say that we saw an army of tanks.
We saw two or three tanks on that bus run. We saw multiple rocket launchers. We saw a convoy of two or three trucks of soldiers pausing to wash and eat by a creek. But we didn't see an army forming up for war.
Only Robert Fisk was able to see the gigantic phantom army. That's because it existed solely inside his head.
(Via Bargarz and Gareth Parker, both of whom have lots more to check out.)
Posted by Tim Blair at April 8, 2003 11:10 AM