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Tal Afar Afield

http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110008358

Several readers had interesting elaborations on our item yesterday on a terrorist attack at Tal Afar, Iraq, which, as a Bloomberg report noted, is "a city that President George W. Bush has cited as an example of progress in fighting rebels in Iraq." Cliff May writes:

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To win--in the eyes of the media--the insurgents don't have to take the city or the airport or the radio station. All they have to do is commit an act of random terrorism. They can count on the media directing outrage not at them but at President Bush. Bush--not they--is responsible for the carnage.

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And reader Marv Benson:

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The al Qaeda document you reported on

http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110008358#paradise described the media strategy as one in which al Qaeda bombs and the media blames the U.S. and Iraqi forces for not stopping it. Sure enough, that is exactly the spin that the Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/09/AR2006050900811.html

puts on the Tal Afar story. Shouldn't they at least acknowledge that they are following the enemy's script?

Just to be different, how about discussing the wickedness of fooling noncombatants into thinking they are getting bargain flour so that they can be murdered and be part of a story attacking people not responsible for their murder?

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On a cheerier note, reader Robert Novak (no relation) writes: "If the enemy is now reduced to injuring and killing 'mostly' innocent women and children, how strong can they really be? And how long can it be before the Iraqis completely reject these terrorists?"