Two ways of looking at a battle

I've added a Canadian blog, Milnews.ca, to my list to check more or less daily. This in honor of its recent post about a gory "battle" in Helmand province, Afghanistan. Here is how the Taliban reported it:

HELMAND, May 11 – As many as 55 Americans have been killed and 37 terribly injured with their three Chinook-like helicopters shot down in clashes with Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate in Helmand’s Nowzad district through much of Monday, Mujahideen officials said. According to the details, the deadly battle erupted as about hundreds of American cowardly soldiers, airdropped by some 20 helicopters into the different areas of Nowzad district, wanting to carry out a large scale operation in the area, came under simultaneous attacks by Mujahideen from every directions that caused a daylong face-to-face fighting which started on Monday afternoon (May 10) and continued till late night hours, in which the enemy, after suffering deadliest losses and severest damages, fled the areas carrying the engines of the helicopters shot down by Mujahideen during the fighting along with them, while the wreckage of the struck helicopters including their wings and other parts of the helicopters and the mutilated parts of the bodies of the American soldiers still exist at the sites. No Mujahids have, by the virtue of Allah’s bounty and His mercy, been harmed, while Mujahideen have taken the abondoned arms and ammo. Jahidic officials say it is the first operation which has been so much perfect and successful since the invasion of US cowardly troops in 2001, and one of the luckiest operations since the operation al-Fath ( The Victory) commenced throughout the country.

And here's what actually happened:

KABUL, Afghanistan (May 10) – An MH-60 helicopter made a controlled landing after being hit by enemy fire in Helmand Province this afternoon. All crewmembers have been safely returned to base. The helicopter was supporting a combined Afghan-international assault force on a targeted compound near Nangazi, in the Sangin district, and had just begun its return flight when it was hit by enemy fire and forced to make a controlled landing. After landing, the helicopter crew was immediately picked up by additional aircraft. The helicopter could not be recovered and was destroyed in place with close air support. Multiple enemy fighters were engaged by the combined force and several suspected militants were captured at the targeted compound. The assault force and remaining crew have safely returned to base.

Blue skies! -- Dan Ford