I am exhausted. I have been working non-stop and will continue to do so for quite some time. I have had little time to keep up with the news and blog; however, I've had a post idea this week that I wanted to be sure to share with the blogging community... Here goes:

As the battle for the "hearts and minds" rages in Falluja, the battle over public opinion continues in the US.

(Ken reading between the lines) via the NYT's: Sides in Falluja Fight for Hearts and Minds

By ROBERT F. WORTH
(NYT)

FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 16 - In the days before the invasion began here last week, American jets swooped over the city, dropping more than a million leaflets urging the city's insurgents not to fight.

...

Not far away, the insurgents were busy distributing their own propaganda.

...

The ground war in Falluja may be mostly finished, but the battle over its meaning rages on.

...

The insurgents will no doubt continue the soft war they have been running for months alongside their campaign of terror, using many of the same tools as the Americans, military intelligence officials say.

...

The insurgents may have lost the physical battle, but Islamist Web sites have already begun using the events of the past week as a recruiting tool, presenting distorted accounts of the action in which American troops commit atrocities and insurgents inflict devastating losses on their attackers.

...

Falluja was a center not only of military resistance but also of propaganda that has helped fuel the insurgency throughout Iraq.

How sad... if you replace the word insurgents and references to Islamofascist-terrorists with mainstream media, the story still holds up. For instance, via Reuters: Falluja insurgents fighting to the end

FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - Groups of diehard insurgents are holding out to the last in the week-long battle for Falluja as U.S. warplanes, artillery and mortars strike areas across the city.

The U.S. military says it has taken full control of Falluja, but scattered spots of resistance remain, particularly in southern parts.

...

A Reuters correspondent who drove from north to south saw bloated and decomposing bodies in the streets, smashed homes, ruined mosques and power and telephone lines hanging uselessly.

Iraq's Red Crescent group has sent seven truck-loads of food and medicine to the city, but the U.S. forces have held up the aid at Falluja's main hospital, on the western outskirts.

...

Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has said he doesn't believe any civilians were killed in the offensive ... witness accounts contradicted him.

... five were found in one house as well as two children whose ages did not exceed 15 and a man with an artificial leg," Mohammed Farhan Awad said.

... Aid agencies have described the situation as as a humanitarian disaster, ...

... at least 150 families trapped inside Falluja in desperate need of aid. ... children were sick ... not eaten for days.

Also by way of Reuters Alertnet (which alerts "humanitarians to emergencies" a.k.a. it misinforms uppity liberals) Falluja a sea of rubble and death after offensive

FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov 14 (Reuters) - After six days ...U.S. ... left behind a shattered landscape of gutted buildings, crushed cars and charred bodies.

A drive through the city reveals a picture of utter destruction, with concrete houses flattened, mosques in ruins, telegraph poles blown over, power and phone lines hanging slack and rubble and human remains littering the empty streets.

U.S. ... gains have turned large areas of the city to brick and dust.

"The only good muj is a dead muj," said U.S. Marine Gunnery Sergeant Christopher Garza, using the slang term for mujahideen (holy warriors) as his Humvee drove past a bloated, burned body.

...

As Marines pointed their M-16 rifles down abandoned streets, they found reminders of the days when parents took their children to Falluja's simple amusement park, now deserted.

...

"Long live the mujahideen," read the graffiti.

Nothing could be further from the truth....

Four bloated and burned bodies lay on the main street, not far from U.S. army tanks and soldiers. The stench of the remains hung heavy in the air, mixing with the dust.

Another body lay stretched out on the next block, its head blown off, perhaps in one of the countless explosions which rent the city day and night for nearly a week.

Some bodies were so mutilated it was impossible to tell if they were civilians or militants.

I am not done with this post... I am just too tired to finish it; that and I can't find the story from earlier in the week from the AP about how the US attacks in Falluja are not deterring/breaking the will of the insurgents. I think you get the point, though. There are some in the US and World Media hell bent on doing everything they can to pump up support for the insurgents and detract support for the Coalition forces. Nothing new, I know, but reading between the lines shows just how low the media is willing to go to support the terrorists.