The Belmont Club has an excellent analysis of the "wedding party" story that has been making the media rounds today. No conclusions can be made at this point, obviously, but there were some questions the newsmedia should have asked (and answered) to begin with:
Why was a wedding party in full swing at 02:45 am in the middle of the desert? A glance at the map would show the area in which the wedding took place was 250 kilometers from "Dr. Salah al-Ani, who works at a hospital in Ramadi," and who "put the death toll at 45." A long way to go for medical treatment or burial when Qusabayah is 50 kilometers away. Under normal circumstances, there are two wounded for every dead. By the normal ratios there should have been at least 90 injured. There was a videotape of "showing a truck containing bodies of people who were allegedly killed in the incident. Most of the bodies were wrapped in blankets and other cloths, but the footage showed at least eight uncovered, bloody bodies, several of them children. One of the children was headless." A video of the dead, but where were the wounded?
Read the rest of his analysis.
Hopefully we'll get a clearer picture soon. The media has already decided what it wants to believe, and run away with the first story.
