Smith began the segment by implying that U.S. troops randomly kill civilians:
"We talked to General Casey just a few hours ago. We asked him about the alleged atrocity, and we asked him when American troops can start coming home. If you have have U.S. troops killing innocent civilians, how do you win the peace when a story like that is known here?"
After General Casey reminded Mr. Smith that the Haditha incident is still under investigation and that the vast majority of coalition forces are "doing great things, helping the Iraqi people." Smith followed up by trying to connect the massacre with the atrocities at Abu Ghraib:
"But, if it comes to light that this, in fact, did happen and these charges are, in fact, filed against these marines, is this not a black eye at least equivalent to Abu Ghraib?"
Again, General Casey reminded Smith that the alleged incident is still under investigation, and that the investigation should "take it’s course before we make any judgements on the relevance of it."
Smith then made a fuss over the fact that the Commandant of the Marine Corps was in Iraq to talk to marines about becoming indifferent to human life:
"Marine Corps Commandant has come into country; he is addressing his guys, even as we speak, and I want to get the quote correctly because I don't want to misquote him. He wants to talk to them about the risk of becoming indifferent to the loss of human life. Is that risk real?"
Casey again shrugged off this question as something senior officers routinely talk to their men about:
"I think it's something that we all wrestle with here, and we all talk to our soldiers about it periodically, becasue we can't allow ourselves to become so hardened by the difficulties of the environment that we become hardened to the loss of civilian life."
After Smith got done with questions that paint American troops as being savages, he turned his attention to security. Smith claimed the murder rate in Baghdad is 100 per day, a number he says he got from a British Colonel. General Casey disputes this saying the number is 100 per week.
Harry Smith: "I talked to a British Colonel the other day who works every day with the Baghdad police. He said the murder rate in that town is over 100 a day. How do you begin to --"
George Casey: "A hundred a week."
Harry Smith: "A hundred a day from his --"
George Casey: "That's not right."
Harry Smith: "Well, this is what he told me. He works with the Iraqi police every day."
George Casey: "A hundred a week is what we have, around there."
Harry Smith: "All right."
At the end of Smith’s piece, Rene Syler, one of Smith’s co-hosts of "The Early Show" followed up with Smith about how violent today has been in Baghdad:
"You mentioned a second ago with General Casey about the murder rate in Baghdad. How deadly a day has it been there so far, Harry?"
Smith’s reply gave the impression that General Casey’s number was accurate, as there were far fewer deaths, murders, than 100 today in Baghdad.
"Here's the daily police blotter from Baghdad. Car bomb exploded in central Baghdad killing at least nine, wounding 31. In another part of Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded injuring some 20 people. Up in Baquba, which is about 40 miles north of here, they took employees from the Diala television station, brought them out, made them witness an execution of two policemen, and then released them. This remains a very, very deadly place."
Even if you count the 2 police officers killed in Baquba, there have been 11 deaths today. Extrapolating those numbers would suggest that there are 77 murders a week in Baghdad, so General Casey’s information that there are 100 deaths a week in Baghdad appears to be accurate.
However, no interview would be complete without talking about troop withdrawals, which Smith did in between his suggestion that our troops are savages and the discussion of the murder rate in Baghdad. Smith inquired of General Casey:
"George Bush and Tony Blair meeting in Washington, and they asked them both last night when's the drawdown start, when will we reduce troop levels, and the President had said, well, it's up to General Casey, so I'm going to transfer the question from Washington to Iraq this morning."
In his response, Casey pointed out the willful blindness of the media, that is that troop level draw downs have already begun:
"Harry, I think it's interesting. It's a misperception. When is the drawdown going to start? It's already begun. We delayed, we had two brigades right before Christmas that didn't come into Iraq, and my troop levels now are just under 130,000. I was about 160,000 at the time of the election, so we have already begun the process of a gradual reduction in coalition forces as Iraqi capabilities continue to grow."
Troop levels and violence are legitimate questions, but where were the questions about progress. Are they not also legitimate? What impact does General Casey feel the new Iraqi government will have on the security situation? I know that’s a question I’m curious about, unfortunately, I won’t find this out watching "The Early Show."
