Action figures and coalition forces

AIM THIS PAGE

9:30 p.m. CDT

It appears a Danbury, Connecticut-based company called Herobuilders has issued a series of action figures based on Iraqi war personalities.

This is the same guy who sells an action figure of Osama bin Laden. In a pink dress.

His most recent produce is a replica of the Iraqi Information Minister - AP says it's Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, but darned if I can remember his
name - that reportedly comes in "dumb" and "dumber" versions.

The "dumber" one talks. Get it?

Tasteless, perhaps. But I'll bet it's a big seller. Apparently the owner, Emil Vicale, receives so much hate e-mail that he actually posts it on his web site.

Here's the original AP story.

A really interesting piece by Elisabeth Bumiller in the Sunday New York Times took a closer look at the way some say the administration successfully "spun" news and events of the war.

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I was fascinated with this bit:

Many critics say the most blatant use of loaded language was the term "coalition forces," repeated on television and in the pages of newspapers, including this one, to describe what was principally a coalition of only two armies, from the United States and Britain, with help from small numbers of Scud-hunting Australian commandos in western Iraq and Polish troops assisting Navy Seals in the south.

I agree with that one very much. As I was building my daily
map/highlight boxes, I tried hard to not use the term "coalition forces"
because it sort of seemed odd to me. I preferred more precise terms like
"U.S. troops," "British Marines" and so on.

It's fair to note, however, that the U.S. forces did, in fact, work in
the south with - as Bumiller says - British and Australian troops and in
the north with Kurdish forces.

Still, that may be a good lesson to remember for next time.

charles.apple@pilotonline.com