Killed in Action

Over at Hullabaloo, Tristero follows up on a story reported a while ago concerning an American military helicopter that went down, and how the Pentagon reported the downing as due to "mechanical failure" without getting too specific. Now, of course, the truth emerges that it was shot down. What he writes concerning the way the story is managed deserves repeating as often as fellow-Hullabaloo writer Digby's dictum, "They lie as easily as they breathe":

[The Pentagon] just didn't want to tell you when it [i.e., the downing of the helicopter] was on the front pages.
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More misinformation. More time wasted arguing over the patently obvious.
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[I]n the real world, when a helicopter crashes and burns in a war zone, it's because it was attacked.
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My God, to be the loved ones o f the people that got killed and have to listen to your government's bullshit about their deaths...

Could it be that the Clinton Adminsitration's experience in Somalia, Blackhawk Down and all that, has convinced the Bush Pentagon that reporting a helicopter downing could possibly be viewed badly in the United States? Any less well than the deaths of 3100 Americans for no reason whatsoever, based in lies and the constitution-shredding vehemence of lying, power-hungry maniacs?

I shall say it again, with Digby (repeat this mantra five times a day, especially as you prepare to view or read news reports): The lie as easily as they breathe.