In his first news conference today on the new US conflict, Centcom chief General Lloyd Austin claimed Iraq is “incrementally recapturing” territory it lost to ISIS, saying it showed the US strikes are having an impact on the ground.
Gen. Austin’s example was the retaking of the Mosul Dam, which happened almost two months ago, and which involved Kurdish, not Iraqi, troops. US officials have been hyping this success since mid-August.
Absent from Austin’s assessment of the “recaptured” ground is that since retaking that dam, the Iraqi government has lost numerous towns to ISIS advances, particularly in the Anbar Province, where they’ve also lost several forward operating bases.
The value of the Mosul Dam is undeniable, but the Pentagon is playing fast and loose with the facts to claim that the retaking of that two months ago is vindication for their current war strategy, or that it suggests a momentum shift in the conflict.
That is the false message relayed in many reports on current fighting in the popular corporate media. While ISIS continues to gain ground and is slowly creeping into western Baghdad the popular corporate media ignores or diminishes the reports. I think all of Washington and their scribes in big media are in a serious state of denial about their precarious position.
Our corporate rich own all of the entertainment industry and use it to brainwash the public into the greed driven illusion that everyone deserves to be made rich upon the misery of the “lazy uneducated laboring-class.”
Then, as the rich also own all of mainstream media, like puppets on a string does our public vote for the most war-hawk politician that promise’s to make them the most war plundering wealthy.