[Newspoetry] The Ari Watch

[Mike Lehman]

And he bears watching.

from the Progressive Review website:

RUSSELL MOKHIBER: Ari, yesterday, there were reports in the British
press that a catastrophic error by U.S. Air Force bombers killed 150
Afghan civilians. Does the administration have any numbers on how many
civilians have been killed by U.S. bombs since the bombing started? 

Ari Fleischer: Let me make two points on that. One is that I don't think
you will ever witness a nation that has worked so hard to avoid civilian
casualties as the United States has. It's part of the training, part of
the mission, part of the professionalism of the men and women who serve
in the armed forces, who work so hard to conduct a war, and who work so
hard to protect innocent lives on the ground. If you are asking for more
specific operational questions, including numbers, you would have to
talk to DOD. 

Mokhiber: In his book Veil, Bob Woodward reported a couple of years ago
that a CIA sponsored car-bomb killed 80 innocent civilians in Beirut.
You talk about terror and the war on evil. Does the war on terror and
evil include U.S. sponsored terror and U.S. sponsored deaths - civilian
deaths? 

Fleischer: I am not going to accept the premise of that question, we are
talking about the United States acting in self-defense. And I'm not
referring to the question of anything that was written in Mr. Woodward's
book. If you are suggesting an equivalence in the United States
protecting itself in the war in Afghanistan and the terrorism practiced
against the United States, I don't accept the premise of that question,
the moral equivalence that you are suggesting. 

Mokhiber: I'm talking about the car bomb -