| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Abu Ali" |
| Date: |
28 Apr 2004 03:10:08 AM |
| Object: |
IRAQ IS A WAR OF NATIONAL LIBERATION |
IRAQ IS A WAR OF NATIONAL LIBERATION
John Pilger.
Four years ago, I travelled the length of Iraq, from the hills where St
Matthew is buried in the Kurdish north to the heartland of Mesopotamia, and
Baghdad, and the Shia south. I have seldom felt as safe in any country.
Once, in the Edwardian colonnade of Baghdad's book market, a young man
shouted something at me about the hardship his family had been forced to
endure under the embargo imposed by America and Britain. What happened next
was typical of Iraqis; a passer-by calmed the man, putting his arm around
his shoulder, while another was quickly at my side. "Forgive him," he said
reassuringly. "We do not connect the people of the west with the actions of
their governments. You are welcome."
At one of the melancholy evening auctions where Iraqis come to sell their
most intimate possessions out of urgent need, a woman with two infants
watched as their pushchairs went for pennies, and a man who had collected
doves since he was 15 came with his last bird and its cage; and yet people
said to me: "You are welcome." Such grace and dignity were often expressed
by those Iraqi exiles who loathed Saddam Hussein and opposed both the
economic siege and the Anglo-American assault on their homeland; thousands
of these anti-Saddamites marched against the war in London last year, to the
chagrin of the warmongers, who never understood the dichotomy of their
principled stand.
Were I to undertake the same journey in Iraq today, I might not return
alive. Foreign terrorists have ensured that. With the most lethal weapons
that billions of dollars can buy, and the threats of their cowboy generals
and the panic-stricken brutality of their foot soldiers, more than 120,000
of these invaders have ripped up the fabric of a nation that survived the
years of Saddam Hussein, just as they oversaw the destruction of its
artefacts. They have brought to Iraq a daily, murderous violence which
surpasses that of a tyrant who never promised a fake democracy.
Amnesty International reports that US-led forces have "shot Iraqis dead
during demonstrations, tortured and ill-treated prisoners, arrested people
arbitrarily and held them indefinitely, demolished houses in acts of revenge
and collective punishment".
In Fallujah, US marines, described as "tremendously precise" by their
psychopathic spokesman, slaughtered up to 600 people, according to hospital
directors. They did it with aircraft and heavy weapons deployed in urban
areas, as revenge for the killing of four American mercenaries. Many of the
dead of Fallujah were women and children and the elderly. Only the Arab
television networks, notably al-Jazeera, have shown the true scale of this
crime, while the Anglo-American media continue to channel and amplify the
lies of the White House and Downing Street.
"Writing exclusively for the Observer before a make-or-break summit with
President George Bush this week," sang Britain's former premier liberal
newspaper on 11 April, "[Tony Blair] gave full backing to American tactics
in Iraq... saying that the government would not flinch from its 'historic
struggle' despite the efforts of 'insurgents and terrorists'."
That this "exclusive" was not presented as parody shows that the propaganda
engine that drove the lies of Blair and Bush on weapons of mass destruction
and al-Qaeda links for almost two years is still in service. On BBC news
bulletins and Newsnight, Blair's "terrorists" are still currency, a term
that is never applied to the principal source and cause of the terrorism,
the foreign invaders, who have now killed at least 11,000 civilians,
according to Amnesty and others. The overall figure, including conscripts,
may be as high as 55,000.
That a nationalist uprising has been under way in Iraq for more than a year,
uniting at least 15 major groups, most of them opposed to the old regime,
has been suppressed in a mendacious lexicon invented in Washington and
London and reported incessantly, CNN-style. "Remnants" and "tribalists" and
"fundamentalists" dominate, while Iraq is denied the legacy of a history in
which much of the modern world is rooted. The "first-anniversary story"
about a laughable poll claiming that half of all Iraqis felt better off now
under the occupation is a case in point. The BBC and the rest swallowed it
whole. For the truth, I recommend the courageous daily reporting of Jo
Wilding, a British human rights observer in Baghdad
(www.wildfirejo.blogspot.com).
Even now, as the uprising spreads, there is only cryptic gesturing at the
obvious: that this is a war of national liberation and that the enemy is
"us". The pro-invasion Sydney Morning Herald is typical. Having expressed
"surprise" at the uniting of Shias and Sunnis, the paper's Baghdad
correspondent recently described "how GI bullies are making enemies of their
Iraqi friends" and how he and his driver had been threatened by Americans.
"I'll take you out quick as a flash, *****!" a soldier told the
reporter. That this was merely a glimpse of the terror and humiliation that
Iraqis have to suffer every day in their own country was not made clear; yet
this newspaper has published image after unctuous image of mournful American
soldiers, inviting sympathy for an invader who has "taken out" thousands of
innocent men, women and children.
What we do routinely in the imperial west, wrote Richard Falk, professor of
international relations at Princeton, is propagate "through a
self-righteous, one-way moral/legal screen positive images of western values
and innocence that are threatened, validating a campaign of unrestricted
violence". Thus, western state terrorism is erased, and a tenet of western
journalism is to excuse or minimise "our" culpability, however atrocious.
Our dead are counted; theirs are not. Our victims are worthy; theirs are
not.
This is an old story; there have been many Iraqs, or what Blair calls
"historic struggles" waged against "insurgents and terrorists". Take Kenya
in the 1950s. The approved version is still cherished in the west - first
popularised in the press, then in fiction and movies; and like Iraq, it is a
lie. "The task to which we have set our minds," declared the governor of
Kenya in 1955, "is to civilise a great mass of human beings who are in a
very primitive moral and social state." The slaughter of thousands of
nationalists, who were never called nationalists, was British government
policy. The myth of the Kenyan uprising was that the Mau Mau brought
"demonic terror" to the heroic white settlers. In fact, the Mau Mau killed
just 32 Europeans, compared with the estimated 10,000 Kenyans killed by the
British, who ran concentration camps where the conditions were so harsh that
402 inmates died in just one month. Torture, flogging and abuse of women and
children were commonplace. "The special prisons," wrote the imperial
historian V G Kiernan, "were probably as bad as any similar Nazi or Japanese
establishments." None of this was reported. The "demonic terror" was all one
way: black against white. The racist message was unmistakable.
It was the same in Vietnam. In 1969, the discovery of the American massacre
in the village of My Lai was described on the cover of Newsweek as "An
American tragedy", not a Vietnamese one. In fact, there were many massacres
like My Lai, and almost none of them was reported at the time.
The real tragedy of soldiers policing a colonial occupation is also
suppressed. More than 58,000 American soldiers were killed in Vietnam. The
same number, according to a veterans' study, killed themselves on their
return home. Dr Doug Rokke, director of the US army depleted uranium project
following the 1991 Gulf invasion, estimates that more than 10,000 American
troops have since died as a result, many from contamination illness. When I
asked him how many Iraqis had died, he raised his eyes and shook his head.
"Solid uranium was used on shells," he said. "Tens of thousands of Iraqis -
men, women and children - were contaminated. Right through the 1990s, at
international symposiums, I watched Iraqi officials approach their
counterparts from the Pentagon and the Ministry of Defence and ask, plead,
for help with decontamination. The Iraqis didn't use uranium; it was not
their weapon. I watched them put their case, describing the deaths and
horrific deformities, and I watched them rebuffed. It was pathetic." During
last year's invasion, both American and British forces again used
uranium-tipped shells, leaving whole areas so "hot" with radiation that only
military survey teams in full protective clothing can approach them. No
warning or medical help is given to Iraqi civilians; thousands of children
play in these zones. The "coalition" has refused to allow the International
Atomic Energy Agency to send experts to assess what Rokke describes as "a
catastrophe".
When will this catastrophe be properly reported by those meant to keep the
record straight? When will the BBC and others investigate the conditions of
some 10,000 Iraqis held without charge, many of them tortured, in US
concentration camps inside Iraq, and the corralling, with razor wire, of
entire Iraqi villages? When will the BBC and others stop referring to "the
handover of Iraqi sovereignty" on 30 June, although there will be no such
handover? The new regime will be stooges, with each ministry controlled by
American officials and with its stooge army and stooge police force run by
Americans. A Saddamite law prohibiting trade unions for public sector
workers will stay in force. Leading members of Saddam's infamous secret
police, the Mukhabarat, will run "state security", directed by the CIA. The
US military will have the same "status of forces" agreement that they impose
on the host nations of their 750 bases around the world, which in effect
leaves them in charge. Iraq will be a US colony, like Haiti. And when will
journalists have the professional courage to report the pivotal role that
Israel has played in this grand colonial design for the Middle East?
A few weeks ago, Rick Mercier, a young columnist for the Free-lance Star, a
small paper in Virginia, did what no other journalist has done this past
year. He apologised to his readers for the travesty of the reporting of
events leading to the attack on Iraq. "Sorry we let unsubstantiated claims
drive our coverage," he wrote. "Sorry we let a band of self-serving Iraqi
defectors make fools of us. Sorry we fell for Colin Powell's performance at
the United Nations... Maybe we'll do a better job next war."
Well done, Rick Mercier. But listen to the silence of your colleagues on
both sides of the Atlantic. No one expects Fox or Wapping or the Daily
Telegraph to relent. But what about David Astor's beacon of liberalism, the
Observer, which stood against the invasion of Egypt in 1956 and its
attendant lies? The Observer not only backed last year's unprovoked, illegal
assault on Iraq; it helped create the mendacious atmosphere in which Blair
could get away with his crime. The reputation of the Observer, and the fact
that it published occasional mitigating material, meant that lies and myths
gained legitimacy. A front-page story gave credence to the bogus claim that
Iraq was behind the anthrax attacks in the US. And there were those unnamed
western "intelligence sources", all those straw men, all those hints, in
David Rose's two-page "investigation" headlined "The Iraqi connection", that
left readers with the impression that Saddam Hussein might well have had a
lot to do with the attacks of 11 September 2001. "There are occasions in
history," wrote Rose, "when the use of force is both right and sensible.
This is one of them." Tell that to 11,000 dead civilians, Mr Rose.
It is said that British officers in Iraq now describe the "tactics" of their
American comrades as "appalling". No, the very nature of a colonial
occupation is appalling, as the families of 13 Iraqis killed by British
soldiers, who are taking the British government to court, will agree. If the
British military brass understand an inkling of their own colonial past, not
least the bloody British retreat from Iraq 83 years ago, they will whisper
in the ear of the little Wellington-*****-Palmerston in 10 Downing Street:
"Get out now, before we are thrown out."
.
|
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| User: "ArKLyte_" |
|
| Title: Re: IRAQ IS A WAR OF NATIONAL LIBERATION |
28 Apr 2004 03:16:08 AM |
|
|
On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 13:10:08 +0500, "Abu Ali" <kingshirov@yahoo.com> wrote:
IRAQ IS A WAR OF NATIONAL LIBERATION
John Pilger.
I have seldom felt as safe in any country.
Well, let's all pray that nothing really bad
happens to the old commie.
--
( W W P D ) - What Would Patton Do?
http://www.marianland.com/Patton/PattononTerrorists.gif
.
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| User: "Dore" |
|
| Title: Re: IRAQ IS A WAR OF NATIONAL LIBERATION |
06 May 2004 09:16:04 PM |
|
|
"ArKLyte_" <ArkLyte_@Now.Net> wrote in message
news:t7qu801nbhjbf605qd7qc0akd9lc8uvb8i@4ax.com...
On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 13:10:08 +0500, "Abu Ali" <kingshirov@yahoo.com>
wrote:
IRAQ IS A WAR OF NATIONAL LIBERATION
Yea, they liberated Iraqi oil into the hands of greedy Americans.
--
Dore
www.dorewilliamson.com
"ArKLyte_" <ArkLyte_@Now.Net> wrote in message
news:t7qu801nbhjbf605qd7qc0akd9lc8uvb8i@4ax.com...
On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 13:10:08 +0500, "Abu Ali" <kingshirov@yahoo.com>
wrote:
IRAQ IS A WAR OF NATIONAL LIBERATION
John Pilger.
I have seldom felt as safe in any country.
Well, let's all pray that nothing really bad
happens to the old commie.
--
( W W P D ) - What Would Patton Do?
http://www.marianland.com/Patton/PattononTerrorists.gif
.
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| User: "Michael Gray" |
|
| Title: Re: IRAQ IS A WAR OF NATIONAL LIBERATION |
28 Apr 2004 04:54:25 AM |
|
|
On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 08:16:08 GMT, ArKLyte_ <ArkLyte_@Now.Net> wrote:
On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 13:10:08 +0500, "Abu Ali" <kingshirov@yahoo.com> wrote:
IRAQ IS A WAR OF NATIONAL LIBERATION
John Pilger.
I have seldom felt as safe in any country.
Well, let's all pray that nothing really bad
happens to the old commie.
Well, I'm impressed.
What a truly well researched, and thoroughly scholarly rebuttal.
.
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| User: "peter" |
|
| Title: Re: IRAQ IS A WAR OF NATIONAL LIBERATION |
28 Apr 2004 05:32:18 AM |
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This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
------=_NextPart_000_1490_01C42CEA.AEB42EF0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
What a truly well researched, and thoroughly scholarly rebuttal.
YEAH YOU LITTLE ***** YOU WANT A REBUTTAL GO SEARCH NON COMMIES THAT WENT =
TO IRAQ.
=20
PETER
If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more =
violence.
If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel.
"Michael Gray" <fleetg@newsguy.spam.com> wrote in message =
news:7nvu801f5ip89t1mae0vvbvdanqpqb2efi@4ax.com...
On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 08:16:08 GMT, ArKLyte_ <ArkLyte_@Now.Net> wrote:
On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 13:10:08 +0500, "Abu Ali" <kingshirov@yahoo.com> =
wrote:
IRAQ IS A WAR OF NATIONAL LIBERATION
John Pilger.
I have seldom felt as safe in any country.
Well, let's all pray that nothing really bad=20
happens to the old commie.
Well, I'm impressed.
What a truly well researched, and thoroughly scholarly rebuttal.
------=_NextPart_000_1490_01C42CEA.AEB42EF0
Content-Type: text/html;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=3DContent-Type content=3D"text/html; =
charset=3Diso-8859-1">
<META content=3D"MSHTML 6.00.2800.1400" name=3DGENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=3D#ffffff>
<DIV>What a truly well researched, and thoroughly scholarly =
rebuttal.</DIV>
<DIV><STRONG></STRONG> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG>YEAH YOU LITTLE ***** YOU WANT A REBUTTAL GO SEARCH NON =
COMMIES THAT=20
WENT TO IRAQ.</STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG></STRONG> </DIV>
<DIV> <BR>PETER</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more=20
violence.<BR>If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no =
more=20
Israel.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE=20
style=3D"PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; =
BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV>"Michael Gray" <<A=20
=
href=3D"mailto:fleetg@newsguy.spam.com">fleetg@newsguy.spam.com</A>> =
wrote in=20
message <A=20
=
href=3D"news:7nvu801f5ip89t1mae0vvbvdanqpqb2efi@4ax.com">news:7nvu801f5ip=
89t1mae0vvbvdanqpqb2efi@4ax.com</A>...</DIV>On=20
Wed, 28 Apr 2004 08:16:08 GMT, ArKLyte_ <<A=20
href=3D"mailto:ArkLyte_@Now.Net">ArkLyte_@Now.Net</A>> =
wrote:<BR><BR>>On=20
Wed, 28 Apr 2004 13:10:08 +0500, "Abu Ali" <<A=20
href=3D"mailto:kingshirov@yahoo.com">kingshirov@yahoo.com</A>>=20
wrote:<BR>><BR>>>IRAQ IS A WAR OF NATIONAL=20
LIBERATION<BR>>><BR>>>John =
Pilger.<BR>>><BR>>>I have=20
seldom felt as safe in any country.<BR>><BR>>Well, let's all =
pray that=20
nothing really bad <BR>>happens to the old commie.<BR><BR>Well, I'm =
impressed.<BR>What a truly well researched, and thoroughly scholarly=20
rebuttal.</BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>
------=_NextPart_000_1490_01C42CEA.AEB42EF0--
.
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| User: "Michael Gray" |
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| Title: Re: IRAQ IS A WAR OF NATIONAL LIBERATION |
28 Apr 2004 07:08:20 AM |
|
|
On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 10:32:18 GMT, "peter" <peterusa@optonline.net>
wrote:
What a truly well researched, and thoroughly scholarly rebuttal.
YEAH YOU LITTLE ***** YOU WANT A REBUTTAL GO SEARCH NON COMMIES THAT WENT TO IRAQ.
PETER
If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence.
If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel.
Top posting, cursing, capital letters, hysterical stereotypical
ranting, name-calling and racist.
All that's left to make the top of the unthinking idiot list would be
if it were in green biro.
Well done.
By the way, I did follow your advice and search on
"NON COMMIES THAT WENT TO IRAQ"
Top of Google's list was:
"http://www.counterpunch.org/issam03132003.html"
As you suggested the action, I presume you have read it.
It supports John Pilger's article.
.
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| User: "SMChristenson" |
|
| Title: Re: IRAQ IS A WAR OF NATIONAL LIBERATION |
28 Apr 2004 09:40:45 PM |
|
|
On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 13:10:08 +0500, Abu Ali wrote:
IRAQ IS A WAR OF NATIONAL LIBERATION
John Pilger.
Well, Dubya is a uniter. Unfortunately, it will be an Islamic state.
.
|
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| User: "peter" |
|
| Title: Re: IRAQ IS A WAR OF NATIONAL LIBERATION |
28 Apr 2004 04:30:56 AM |
|
|
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
------=_NextPart_000_13E2_01C42CE2.1B7DB230
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="Windows-1252"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
"Foreign terrorists have ensured that. "
DOES HE HAPPEN TO MENTION WHO THESE FOREIGN TERRORISTS ARE.=20
"thousands of these anti-Saddamites marched against the war in London =
last year,"
HE'S FULL OF ***** IN THE U.S THOUSANDS OF IRAQI EXILES CHEERED.
PETER
If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more =
violence.
If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel.
"Abu Ali" <kingshirov@yahoo.com> wrote in message =
news:c6nosv$e4sg0$1@ID-31123.news.uni-berlin.de...
IRAQ IS A WAR OF NATIONAL LIBERATION
John Pilger.
Four years ago, I travelled the length of Iraq, from the hills where =
St
Matthew is buried in the Kurdish north to the heartland of =
Mesopotamia, and
Baghdad, and the Shia south. I have seldom felt as safe in any =
country.
Once, in the Edwardian colonnade of Baghdad's book market, a young man
shouted something at me about the hardship his family had been forced =
to
endure under the embargo imposed by America and Britain. What happened =
next
was typical of Iraqis; a passer-by calmed the man, putting his arm =
around
his shoulder, while another was quickly at my side. "Forgive him," he =
said
reassuringly. "We do not connect the people of the west with the =
actions of
their governments. You are welcome."
At one of the melancholy evening auctions where Iraqis come to sell =
their
most intimate possessions out of urgent need, a woman with two infants
watched as their pushchairs went for pennies, and a man who had =
collected
doves since he was 15 came with his last bird and its cage; and yet =
people
said to me: "You are welcome." Such grace and dignity were often =
expressed
by those Iraqi exiles who loathed Saddam Hussein and opposed both the
economic siege and the Anglo-American assault on their homeland; =
thousands
of these anti-Saddamites marched against the war in London last year, =
to the
chagrin of the warmongers, who never understood the dichotomy of their
principled stand.
Were I to undertake the same journey in Iraq today, I might not return
alive. Foreign terrorists have ensured that. With the most lethal =
weapons
that billions of dollars can buy, and the threats of their cowboy =
generals
and the panic-stricken brutality of their foot soldiers, more than =
120,000
of these invaders have ripped up the fabric of a nation that survived =
the
years of Saddam Hussein, just as they oversaw the destruction of its
artefacts. They have brought to Iraq a daily, murderous violence which
surpasses that of a tyrant who never promised a fake democracy.
Amnesty International reports that US-led forces have "shot Iraqis =
dead
during demonstrations, tortured and ill-treated prisoners, arrested =
people
arbitrarily and held them indefinitely, demolished houses in acts of =
revenge
and collective punishment".
In Fallujah, US marines, described as "tremendously precise" by their
psychopathic spokesman, slaughtered up to 600 people, according to =
hospital
directors. They did it with aircraft and heavy weapons deployed in =
urban
areas, as revenge for the killing of four American mercenaries. Many =
of the
dead of Fallujah were women and children and the elderly. Only the =
Arab
television networks, notably al-Jazeera, have shown the true scale of =
this
crime, while the Anglo-American media continue to channel and amplify =
the
lies of the White House and Downing Street.
"Writing exclusively for the Observer before a make-or-break summit =
with
President George Bush this week," sang Britain's former premier =
liberal
newspaper on 11 April, "[Tony Blair] gave full backing to American =
tactics
in Iraq... saying that the government would not flinch from its =
'historic
struggle' despite the efforts of 'insurgents and terrorists'."
That this "exclusive" was not presented as parody shows that the =
propaganda
engine that drove the lies of Blair and Bush on weapons of mass =
destruction
and al-Qaeda links for almost two years is still in service. On BBC =
news
bulletins and Newsnight, Blair's "terrorists" are still currency, a =
term
that is never applied to the principal source and cause of the =
terrorism,
the foreign invaders, who have now killed at least 11,000 civilians,
according to Amnesty and others. The overall figure, including =
conscripts,
may be as high as 55,000.
That a nationalist uprising has been under way in Iraq for more than a =
year,
uniting at least 15 major groups, most of them opposed to the old =
regime,
has been suppressed in a mendacious lexicon invented in Washington and
London and reported incessantly, CNN-style. "Remnants" and =
"tribalists" and
"fundamentalists" dominate, while Iraq is denied the legacy of a =
history in
which much of the modern world is rooted. The "first-anniversary =
story"
about a laughable poll claiming that half of all Iraqis felt better =
off now
under the occupation is a case in point. The BBC and the rest =
swallowed it
whole. For the truth, I recommend the courageous daily reporting of Jo
Wilding, a British human rights observer in Baghdad
(www.wildfirejo.blogspot.com).
Even now, as the uprising spreads, there is only cryptic gesturing at =
the
obvious: that this is a war of national liberation and that the enemy =
is
"us". The pro-invasion Sydney Morning Herald is typical. Having =
expressed
"surprise" at the uniting of Shias and Sunnis, the paper's Baghdad
correspondent recently described "how GI bullies are making enemies of =
their
Iraqi friends" and how he and his driver had been threatened by =
Americans.
"I'll take you out quick as a flash, *****!" a soldier told the
reporter. That this was merely a glimpse of the terror and humiliation =
that
Iraqis have to suffer every day in their own country was not made =
clear; yet
this newspaper has published image after unctuous image of mournful =
American
soldiers, inviting sympathy for an invader who has "taken out" =
thousands of
innocent men, women and children.
What we do routinely in the imperial west, wrote Richard Falk, =
professor of
international relations at Princeton, is propagate "through a
self-righteous, one-way moral/legal screen positive images of western =
values
and innocence that are threatened, validating a campaign of =
unrestricted
violence". Thus, western state terrorism is erased, and a tenet of =
western
journalism is to excuse or minimise "our" culpability, however =
atrocious.
Our dead are counted; theirs are not. Our victims are worthy; theirs =
are
not.
This is an old story; there have been many Iraqs, or what Blair calls
"historic struggles" waged against "insurgents and terrorists". Take =
Kenya
in the 1950s. The approved version is still cherished in the west - =
first
popularised in the press, then in fiction and movies; and like Iraq, =
it is a
lie. "The task to which we have set our minds," declared the governor =
of
Kenya in 1955, "is to civilise a great mass of human beings who are in =
a
very primitive moral and social state." The slaughter of thousands of
nationalists, who were never called nationalists, was British =
government
policy. The myth of the Kenyan uprising was that the Mau Mau brought
"demonic terror" to the heroic white settlers. In fact, the Mau Mau =
killed
just 32 Europeans, compared with the estimated 10,000 Kenyans killed =
by the
British, who ran concentration camps where the conditions were so =
harsh that
402 inmates died in just one month. Torture, flogging and abuse of =
women and
children were commonplace. "The special prisons," wrote the imperial
historian V G Kiernan, "were probably as bad as any similar Nazi or =
Japanese
establishments." None of this was reported. The "demonic terror" was =
all one
way: black against white. The racist message was unmistakable.
It was the same in Vietnam. In 1969, the discovery of the American =
massacre
in the village of My Lai was described on the cover of Newsweek as "An
American tragedy", not a Vietnamese one. In fact, there were many =
massacres
like My Lai, and almost none of them was reported at the time.
The real tragedy of soldiers policing a colonial occupation is also
suppressed. More than 58,000 American soldiers were killed in Vietnam. =
The
same number, according to a veterans' study, killed themselves on =
their
return home. Dr Doug Rokke, director of the US army depleted uranium =
project
following the 1991 Gulf invasion, estimates that more than 10,000 =
American
troops have since died as a result, many from contamination illness. =
When I
asked him how many Iraqis had died, he raised his eyes and shook his =
head.
"Solid uranium was used on shells," he said. "Tens of thousands of =
Iraqis -
men, women and children - were contaminated. Right through the 1990s, =
at
international symposiums, I watched Iraqi officials approach their
counterparts from the Pentagon and the Ministry of Defence and ask, =
plead,
for help with decontamination. The Iraqis didn't use uranium; it was =
not
their weapon. I watched them put their case, describing the deaths and
horrific deformities, and I watched them rebuffed. It was pathetic." =
During
last year's invasion, both American and British forces again used
uranium-tipped shells, leaving whole areas so "hot" with radiation =
that only
military survey teams in full protective clothing can approach them. =
No
warning or medical help is given to Iraqi civilians; thousands of =
children
play in these zones. The "coalition" has refused to allow the =
International
Atomic Energy Agency to send experts to assess what Rokke describes as =
"a
catastrophe".
When will this catastrophe be properly reported by those meant to keep =
the
record straight? When will the BBC and others investigate the =
conditions of
some 10,000 Iraqis held without charge, many of them tortured, in US
concentration camps inside Iraq, and the corralling, with razor wire, =
of
entire Iraqi villages? When will the BBC and others stop referring to =
"the
handover of Iraqi sovereignty" on 30 June, although there will be no =
such
handover? The new regime will be stooges, with each ministry =
controlled by
American officials and with its stooge army and stooge police force =
run by
Americans. A Saddamite law prohibiting trade unions for public sector
workers will stay in force. Leading members of Saddam's infamous =
secret
police, the Mukhabarat, will run "state security", directed by the =
CIA. The
US military will have the same "status of forces" agreement that they =
impose
on the host nations of their 750 bases around the world, which in =
effect
leaves them in charge. Iraq will be a US colony, like Haiti. And when =
will
journalists have the professional courage to report the pivotal role =
that
Israel has played in this grand colonial design for the Middle East?
A few weeks ago, Rick Mercier, a young columnist for the Free-lance =
Star, a
small paper in Virginia, did what no other journalist has done this =
past
year. He apologised to his readers for the travesty of the reporting =
of
events leading to the attack on Iraq. "Sorry we let unsubstantiated =
claims
drive our coverage," he wrote. "Sorry we let a band of self-serving =
Iraqi
defectors make fools of us. Sorry we fell for Colin Powell's =
performance at
the United Nations... Maybe we'll do a better job next war."
Well done, Rick Mercier. But listen to the silence of your colleagues =
on
both sides of the Atlantic. No one expects Fox or Wapping or the Daily
Telegraph to relent. But what about David Astor's beacon of =
liberalism, the
Observer, which stood against the invasion of Egypt in 1956 and its
attendant lies? The Observer not only backed last year's unprovoked, =
illegal
assault on Iraq; it helped create the mendacious atmosphere in which =
Blair
could get away with his crime. The reputation of the Observer, and the =
fact
that it published occasional mitigating material, meant that lies and =
myths
gained legitimacy. A front-page story gave credence to the bogus claim =
that
Iraq was behind the anthrax attacks in the US. And there were those =
unnamed
western "intelligence sources", all those straw men, all those hints, =
in
David Rose's two-page "investigation" headlined "The Iraqi =
connection", that
left readers with the impression that Saddam Hussein might well have =
had a
lot to do with the attacks of 11 September 2001. "There are occasions =
in
history," wrote Rose, "when the use of force is both right and =
sensible.
This is one of them." Tell that to 11,000 dead civilians, Mr Rose.
It is said that British officers in Iraq now describe the "tactics" of =
their
American comrades as "appalling". No, the very nature of a colonial
occupation is appalling, as the families of 13 Iraqis killed by =
British
soldiers, who are taking the British government to court, will agree. =
If the
British military brass understand an inkling of their own colonial =
past, not
least the bloody British retreat from Iraq 83 years ago, they will =
whisper
in the ear of the little Wellington-*****-Palmerston in 10 Downing =
Street:
"Get out now, before we are thrown out."
------=_NextPart_000_13E2_01C42CE2.1B7DB230
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<DIV>"Foreign terrorists have ensured that. "</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG>DOES HE HAPPEN TO MENTION WHO THESE FOREIGN TERRORISTS ARE. =
</STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><BR>"thousands of these anti-Saddamites marched against the war in =
London=20
last year,"</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG>HE'S FULL OF ***** IN THE U.S THOUSANDS OF IRAQI EXILES=20
CHEERED.</STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG></STRONG><BR>PETER</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more=20
violence.<BR>If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no =
more=20
Israel.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE=20
style=3D"PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; =
BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV>"Abu Ali" <<A=20
href=3D"mailto:kingshirov@yahoo.com">kingshirov@yahoo.com</A>> =
wrote in=20
message <A=20
=
href=3D"news:c6nosv$e4sg0$1@ID-31123.news.uni-berlin.de">news:c6nosv$e4sg=
0$1@ID-31123.news.uni-berlin.de</A>...</DIV>IRAQ=20
IS A WAR OF NATIONAL LIBERATION<BR>John Pilger.<BR><BR><BR>Four years =
ago, I=20
travelled the length of Iraq, from the hills where St<BR>Matthew is =
buried in=20
the Kurdish north to the heartland of Mesopotamia, and<BR>Baghdad, and =
the=20
Shia south. I have seldom felt as safe in any country.<BR>Once, in the =
Edwardian colonnade of Baghdad's book market, a young man<BR>shouted =
something=20
at me about the hardship his family had been forced to<BR>endure under =
the=20
embargo imposed by America and Britain. What happened next<BR>was =
typical of=20
Iraqis; a passer-by calmed the man, putting his arm around<BR>his =
shoulder,=20
while another was quickly at my side. "Forgive him," he =
said<BR>reassuringly.=20
"We do not connect the people of the west with the actions of<BR>their =
governments. You are welcome."<BR><BR>At one of the melancholy evening =
auctions where Iraqis come to sell their<BR>most intimate possessions =
out of=20
urgent need, a woman with two infants<BR>watched as their pushchairs =
went for=20
pennies, and a man who had collected<BR>doves since he was 15 came =
with his=20
last bird and its cage; and yet people<BR>said to me: "You are =
welcome." Such=20
grace and dignity were often expressed<BR>by those Iraqi exiles who =
loathed=20
Saddam Hussein and opposed both the<BR>economic siege and the =
Anglo-American=20
assault on their homeland; thousands<BR>of these anti-Saddamites =
marched=20
against the war in London last year, to the<BR>chagrin of the =
warmongers, who=20
never understood the dichotomy of their<BR>principled =
stand.<BR><BR>Were I to=20
undertake the same journey in Iraq today, I might not return<BR>alive. =
Foreign=20
terrorists have ensured that. With the most lethal weapons<BR>that =
billions of=20
dollars can buy, and the threats of their cowboy generals<BR>and the=20
panic-stricken brutality of their foot soldiers, more than =
120,000<BR>of these=20
invaders have ripped up the fabric of a nation that survived =
the<BR>years of=20
Saddam Hussein, just as they oversaw the destruction of =
its<BR>artefacts. They=20
have brought to Iraq a daily, murderous violence which<BR>surpasses =
that of a=20
tyrant who never promised a fake democracy.<BR><BR>Amnesty =
International=20
reports that US-led forces have "shot Iraqis dead<BR>during =
demonstrations,=20
tortured and ill-treated prisoners, arrested people<BR>arbitrarily and =
held=20
them indefinitely, demolished houses in acts of revenge<BR>and =
collective=20
punishment".<BR><BR>In Fallujah, US marines, described as =
"tremendously=20
precise" by their<BR>psychopathic spokesman, slaughtered up to 600 =
people,=20
according to hospital<BR>directors. They did it with aircraft and =
heavy=20
weapons deployed in urban<BR>areas, as revenge for the killing of four =
American mercenaries. Many of the<BR>dead of Fallujah were women and =
children=20
and the elderly. Only the Arab<BR>television networks, notably =
al-Jazeera,=20
have shown the true scale of this<BR>crime, while the Anglo-American =
media=20
continue to channel and amplify the<BR>lies of the White House and =
Downing=20
Street.<BR><BR>"Writing exclusively for the Observer before a =
make-or-break=20
summit with<BR>President George Bush this week," sang Britain's former =
premier=20
liberal<BR>newspaper on 11 April, "[Tony Blair] gave full backing to =
American=20
tactics<BR>in Iraq... saying that the government would not flinch from =
its=20
'historic<BR>struggle' despite the efforts of 'insurgents and=20
terrorists'."<BR><BR>That this "exclusive" was not presented as parody =
shows=20
that the propaganda<BR>engine that drove the lies of Blair and Bush on =
weapons=20
of mass destruction<BR>and al-Qaeda links for almost two years is =
still in=20
service. On BBC news<BR>bulletins and Newsnight, Blair's "terrorists" =
are=20
still currency, a term<BR>that is never applied to the principal =
source and=20
cause of the terrorism,<BR>the foreign invaders, who have now killed =
at least=20
11,000 civilians,<BR>according to Amnesty and others. The overall =
figure,=20
including conscripts,<BR>may be as high as 55,000.<BR><BR>That a =
nationalist=20
uprising has been under way in Iraq for more than a year,<BR>uniting =
at least=20
15 major groups, most of them opposed to the old regime,<BR>has been=20
suppressed in a mendacious lexicon invented in Washington =
and<BR>London and=20
reported incessantly, CNN-style. "Remnants" and "tribalists"=20
and<BR>"fundamentalists" dominate, while Iraq is denied the legacy of =
a=20
history in<BR>which much of the modern world is rooted. The =
"first-anniversary=20
story"<BR>about a laughable poll claiming that half of all Iraqis felt =
better=20
off now<BR>under the occupation is a case in point. The BBC and the =
rest=20
swallowed it<BR>whole. For the truth, I recommend the courageous daily =
reporting of Jo<BR>Wilding, a British human rights observer in =
Baghdad<BR>(<A=20
=
href=3D"http://www.wildfirejo.blogspot.com">www.wildfirejo.blogspot.com</=
A>).<BR><BR>Even=20
now, as the uprising spreads, there is only cryptic gesturing at=20
the<BR>obvious: that this is a war of national liberation and that the =
enemy=20
is<BR>"us". The pro-invasion Sydney Morning Herald is typical. Having=20
expressed<BR>"surprise" at the uniting of Shias and Sunnis, the =
paper's=20
Baghdad<BR>correspondent recently described "how GI bullies are making =
enemies=20
of their<BR>Iraqi friends" and how he and his driver had been =
threatened by=20
Americans.<BR>"I'll take you out quick as a flash, *****!" a =
soldier=20
told the<BR>reporter. That this was merely a glimpse of the terror and =
humiliation that<BR>Iraqis have to suffer every day in their own =
country was=20
not made clear; yet<BR>this newspaper has published image after =
unctuous image=20
of mournful American<BR>soldiers, inviting sympathy for an invader who =
has=20
"taken out" thousands of<BR>innocent men, women and =
children.<BR><BR>What we=20
do routinely in the imperial west, wrote Richard Falk, professor=20
of<BR>international relations at Princeton, is propagate "through=20
a<BR>self-righteous, one-way moral/legal screen positive images of =
western=20
values<BR>and innocence that are threatened, validating a campaign of=20
unrestricted<BR>violence". Thus, western state terrorism is erased, =
and a=20
tenet of western<BR>journalism is to excuse or minimise "our" =
culpability,=20
however atrocious.<BR>Our dead are counted; theirs are not. Our =
victims are=20
worthy; theirs are<BR>not.<BR><BR>This is an old story; there have =
been many=20
Iraqs, or what Blair calls<BR>"historic struggles" waged against =
"insurgents=20
and terrorists". Take Kenya<BR>in the 1950s. The approved version is =
still=20
cherished in the west - first<BR>popularised in the press, then in =
fiction and=20
movies; and like Iraq, it is a<BR>lie. "The task to which we have set =
our=20
minds," declared the governor of<BR>Kenya in 1955, "is to civilise a =
great=20
mass of human beings who are in a<BR>very primitive moral and social =
state."=20
The slaughter of thousands of<BR>nationalists, who were never called=20
nationalists, was British government<BR>policy. The myth of the Kenyan =
uprising was that the Mau Mau brought<BR>"demonic terror" to the =
heroic white=20
settlers. In fact, the Mau Mau killed<BR>just 32 Europeans, compared =
with the=20
estimated 10,000 Kenyans killed by the<BR>British, who ran =
concentration camps=20
where the conditions were so harsh that<BR>402 inmates died in just =
one month.=20
Torture, flogging and abuse of women and<BR>children were commonplace. =
"The=20
special prisons," wrote the imperial<BR>historian V G Kiernan, "were =
probably=20
as bad as any similar Nazi or Japanese<BR>establishments." None of =
this was=20
reported. The "demonic terror" was all one<BR>way: black against =
white. The=20
racist message was unmistakable.<BR><BR>It was the same in Vietnam. In =
1969,=20
the discovery of the American massacre<BR>in the village of My Lai was =
described on the cover of Newsweek as "An<BR>American tragedy", not a=20
Vietnamese one. In fact, there were many massacres<BR>like My Lai, and =
almost=20
none of them was reported at the time.<BR><BR>The real tragedy of =
soldiers=20
policing a colonial occupation is also<BR>suppressed. More than 58,000 =
American soldiers were killed in Vietnam. The<BR>same number, =
according to a=20
veterans' study, killed themselves on their<BR>return home. Dr Doug =
Rokke,=20
director of the US army depleted uranium project<BR>following the 1991 =
Gulf=20
invasion, estimates that more than 10,000 American<BR>troops have =
since died=20
as a result, many from contamination illness. When I<BR>asked him how =
many=20
Iraqis had died, he raised his eyes and shook his head.<BR>"Solid =
uranium was=20
used on shells," he said. "Tens of thousands of Iraqis -<BR>men, women =
and=20
children - were contaminated. Right through the 1990s, =
at<BR>international=20
symposiums, I watched Iraqi officials approach their<BR>counterparts =
from the=20
Pentagon and the Ministry of Defence and ask, plead,<BR>for help with=20
decontamination. The Iraqis didn't use uranium; it was not<BR>their =
weapon. I=20
watched them put their case, describing the deaths and<BR>horrific=20
deformities, and I watched them rebuffed. It was pathetic." =
During<BR>last=20
year's invasion, both American and British forces again =
used<BR>uranium-tipped=20
shells, leaving whole areas so "hot" with radiation that =
only<BR>military=20
survey teams in full protective clothing can approach them. =
No<BR>warning or=20
medical help is given to Iraqi civilians; thousands of =
children<BR>play in=20
these zones. The "coalition" has refused to allow the =
International<BR>Atomic=20
Energy Agency to send experts to assess what Rokke describes as=20
"a<BR>catastrophe".<BR><BR>When will this catastrophe be properly =
reported by=20
those meant to keep the<BR>record straight? When will the BBC and =
others=20
investigate the conditions of<BR>some 10,000 Iraqis held without =
charge, many=20
of them tortured, in US<BR>concentration camps inside Iraq, and the=20
corralling, with razor wire, of<BR>entire Iraqi villages? When will =
the BBC=20
and others stop referring to "the<BR>handover of Iraqi sovereignty" on =
30=20
June, although there will be no such<BR>handover? The new regime will =
be=20
stooges, with each ministry controlled by<BR>American officials and =
with its=20
stooge army and stooge police force run by<BR>Americans. A Saddamite =
law=20
prohibiting trade unions for public sector<BR>workers will stay in =
force.=20
Leading members of Saddam's infamous secret<BR>police, the Mukhabarat, =
will=20
run "state security", directed by the CIA. The<BR>US military will =
have the=20
same "status of forces" agreement that they impose<BR>on the host =
nations of=20
their 750 bases around the world, which in effect<BR>leaves them in =
charge.=20
Iraq will be a US colony, like Haiti. And when will<BR>journalists =
have the=20
professional courage to report the pivotal role that<BR>Israel has =
played in=20
this grand colonial design for the Middle East?<BR><BR>A few weeks =
ago, Rick=20
Mercier, a young columnist for the Free-lance Star, a<BR>small paper =
in=20
Virginia, did what no other journalist has done this past<BR>year. He=20
apologised to his readers for the travesty of the reporting =
of<BR>events=20
leading to the attack on Iraq. "Sorry we let unsubstantiated =
claims<BR>drive=20
our coverage," he wrote. "Sorry we let a band of self-serving=20
Iraqi<BR>defectors make fools of us. Sorry we fell for Colin Powell's=20
performance at<BR>the United Nations... Maybe we'll do a better job =
next=20
war."<BR><BR>Well done, Rick Mercier. But listen to the silence of =
your=20
colleagues on<BR>both sides of the Atlantic. No one expects Fox or =
Wapping or=20
the Daily<BR>Telegraph to relent. But what about David Astor's beacon =
of=20
liberalism, the<BR>Observer, which stood against the invasion of Egypt =
in 1956=20
and its<BR>attendant lies? The Observer not only backed last year's=20
unprovoked, illegal<BR>assault on Iraq; it helped create the =
mendacious=20
atmosphere in which Blair<BR>could get away with his crime. The =
reputation of=20
the Observer, and the fact<BR>that it published occasional mitigating=20
material, meant that lies and myths<BR>gained legitimacy. A front-page =
story=20
gave credence to the bogus claim that<BR>Iraq was behind the anthrax =
attacks=20
in the US. And there were those unnamed<BR>western "intelligence =
sources", all=20
those straw men, all those hints, in<BR>David Rose's two-page =
"investigation"=20
headlined "The Iraqi connection", that<BR>left readers with the =
impression=20
that Saddam Hussein might well have had a<BR>lot to do with the =
attacks of 11=20
September 2001. "There are occasions in<BR>history," wrote Rose, "when =
the use=20
of force is both right and sensible.<BR>This is one of them." Tell =
that to=20
11,000 dead civilians, Mr Rose.<BR><BR>It is said that British =
officers in=20
Iraq now describe the "tactics" of their<BR>American comrades as =
"appalling".=20
No, the very nature of a colonial<BR>occupation is appalling, as the =
families=20
of 13 Iraqis killed by British<BR>soldiers, who are taking the British =
government to court, will agree. If the<BR>British military brass =
understand=20
an inkling of their own colonial past, not<BR>least the bloody British =
retreat=20
from Iraq 83 years ago, they will whisper<BR>in the ear of the little=20
Wellington-*****-Palmerston in 10 Downing Street:<BR>"Get out now, =
before we are=20
thrown out."<BR><BR><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>
------=_NextPart_000_13E2_01C42CE2.1B7DB230--
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| User: "Mark F" |
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| Title: Re: IRAQ IS A WAR OF NATIONAL LIBERATION |
28 Apr 2004 11:28:34 AM |
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What a load of chickenshit. "Witnesses on the ground said insurgents
were hiding behind women and children during the firefight" was
broadly reported in the news. In other words, the Baathist remnants
bet on Americans putting more worth in the life of Iraqi women and
children than themselves, "national heroes". National liberation my
*****. But then of course the Coomunist-Nazi Western whores of Pilger,
Chomsky and (at the amoeba level) Mark D ("Phillipic")'s ilk offer
their "full services" hoping that when the Islamic terrorists had
enough of their services they won't kill them.
-Mark
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: IRAQ IS A WAR OF NATIONAL LIBERATION |
28 Apr 2004 01:38:19 PM |
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Yes, to liberate iraq from islam.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3667515.stm
'New Sharia law' in Nigeria state
The northern Nigerian state of Zamfara has introduced a new package of
Islamic, or Sharia, laws.
All businesses in the state will have to shut down during the five
daily Muslim prayers.
The state government also says that all "unauthorised" places of
worship will be shut down under "Sharia phase two".
Zamfara was the first Nigerian state to introduce strict Sharia laws
in 2000 and thousands turned out to welcome the new measures on
Wednesday.
Death sentences
The BBC's Yusuf Sarki Muhammad in the state capital, Gusau, says it is
not clear whether churches will be targeted for closure under the new
measures.
He says there are many unauthorised places of worship in Zamfara, as
elsewhere in Nigeria.
Most other states in the predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria
followed Zamfara by introducing Sharia laws.
Thieves have had their hands amputated and several women have been
sentenced to death by stoning for having extra-marital sex.
But no death sentences have yet been carried out.
The new laws led to clashes between Christians and Muslims, in which
thousands of people died.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/3667515.stm
Published: 2004/04/28 16:21:25 GMT
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