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Dahr Jamail: As U.S. Forces Raided a Mosque
BAGHDAD, Nov 19 (IPS) - An eyewitness commentary to IPS through a U.S. raid on a Baghdad mosque Friday gives a vivid picture of what a 'successful raid' can be like.
U.S. soldiers raided the Abu Hanifa mosque in Baghdad during Friday prayers, killing at least four and wounding up to 20 worshippers.
At 12:30 pm local time, just after Imam Shaikh Muayid al-Adhami concluded his talk, about 50 U.S. soldiers with 20 Iraqi National Guardsmen (ING) entered the mosque, a witness reported.
U.S. soldiers raided the Abu Hanifa mosque in Baghdad during Friday prayers, killing at least four and wounding up to 20 worshippers.
At 12:30 pm local time, just after Imam Shaikh Muayid al-Adhami concluded his talk, about 50 U.S. soldiers with 20 Iraqi National Guardsmen (ING) entered the mosque, a witness reported.
”Everyone was there for Friday prayers, when five Humvees and several trucks carrying INGs entered,” Abu Talat told IPS on phone from within the mosque while the raid was in progress. ”Everyone starting yelling 'Allahu Akbar' (God is the greatest) because they were frightened. Then the soldiers started shooting the people praying!”
Talat said he was among a crowd of worshippers being held back at gunpoint by U.S. soldiers. Loud chanting of 'Allahu Akbar' could be heard in the background during his call. Women and children were sobbing, he said.
”They have just shot and killed at least four of the people praying,” he said in a panicked voice. ”At least 10 other people are wounded now. We are on our bellies and in a very bad situation.”
Talat gave his account over short phone calls. He said he was witnessing a horrific scene.
”We were here praying and now there are 50 here with their guns on us,” he said. ”They are holding our heads to the ground, and everyone is in chaos. This is the worst situation possible. They cannot see me talking to you. They are roughing up a blind man now.” He evidently could talk no further then.
The soldiers later released women and children along with men who were related to them. Abu Talat was released because a boy told him to pretend to be his father.
Other witnesses gave similar accounts outside the mosque. ”People were praying and the Americans invaded the mosque,” Abdulla Ra'ad Aziz from the al-Adhamiya district of Baghdad told IPS. He had been released along with his wife and children. ”Why are they killing people for praying?” He said that after the forces entered ”they went to the back doors and we heard so many bullets of the guns -- it was a gun bigger than a Kalashnikov. There were wounded and dead, I saw them myself.”
Some of the people who had been at prayer were ordered by soldiers to carry the dead and wounded out of the mosque, he said.
”One Iraqi National Guardsmen held his gun on people and yelled, 'I will kill you if you don't shut up',” said Rana Aziz, a mother who had been trapped in the mosque.. ”So they made everyone lie down, then people got quiet, and they took the women and children out.”
She said someone asked the soldiers if they would be made hostages. A soldier used foul language and asked everyone to shut up, she said. Suddenly, she laughed amid her tears. ”The Americans have learnt how to say shut up in Arabic, 'Inchev'.”
Soldiers denied Iraqi Red Crescent ambulances and medical teams access to the mosque. As doctors negotiated with U.S. soldiers outside, more gunfire was heard from inside.
About 30 men were led out with hoods over their heads and their hands tied behind them. Soldiers loaded them into a military vehicle and took them away around 3.15 pm.
A doctor with the Iraqi Red Crescent confirmed four dead and nine wounded worshippers. Pieces of brain were splattered on one of the walls inside the mosque while large blood stains covered carpets at several places.
A U.S. military spokesperson in Baghdad did not respond to requests for information on the raid.
http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/hard_news/000125.php#more
Talat said he was among a crowd of worshippers being held back at gunpoint by U.S. soldiers. Loud chanting of 'Allahu Akbar' could be heard in the background during his call. Women and children were sobbing, he said.
”They have just shot and killed at least four of the people praying,” he said in a panicked voice. ”At least 10 other people are wounded now. We are on our bellies and in a very bad situation.”
Talat gave his account over short phone calls. He said he was witnessing a horrific scene.
”We were here praying and now there are 50 here with their guns on us,” he said. ”They are holding our heads to the ground, and everyone is in chaos. This is the worst situation possible. They cannot see me talking to you. They are roughing up a blind man now.” He evidently could talk no further then.
The soldiers later released women and children along with men who were related to them. Abu Talat was released because a boy told him to pretend to be his father.
Other witnesses gave similar accounts outside the mosque. ”People were praying and the Americans invaded the mosque,” Abdulla Ra'ad Aziz from the al-Adhamiya district of Baghdad told IPS. He had been released along with his wife and children. ”Why are they killing people for praying?” He said that after the forces entered ”they went to the back doors and we heard so many bullets of the guns -- it was a gun bigger than a Kalashnikov. There were wounded and dead, I saw them myself.”
Some of the people who had been at prayer were ordered by soldiers to carry the dead and wounded out of the mosque, he said.
”One Iraqi National Guardsmen held his gun on people and yelled, 'I will kill you if you don't shut up',” said Rana Aziz, a mother who had been trapped in the mosque.. ”So they made everyone lie down, then people got quiet, and they took the women and children out.”
She said someone asked the soldiers if they would be made hostages. A soldier used foul language and asked everyone to shut up, she said. Suddenly, she laughed amid her tears. ”The Americans have learnt how to say shut up in Arabic, 'Inchev'.”
Soldiers denied Iraqi Red Crescent ambulances and medical teams access to the mosque. As doctors negotiated with U.S. soldiers outside, more gunfire was heard from inside.
About 30 men were led out with hoods over their heads and their hands tied behind them. Soldiers loaded them into a military vehicle and took them away around 3.15 pm.
A doctor with the Iraqi Red Crescent confirmed four dead and nine wounded worshippers. Pieces of brain were splattered on one of the walls inside the mosque while large blood stains covered carpets at several places.
A U.S. military spokesperson in Baghdad did not respond to requests for information on the raid.
http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/hard_news/000125.php#more
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. . . when you are losing a war.
You inflict as much indiscriminate death and barbarity until you are forced out of the country.
--Richard Estes
Davis, CA
You inflict as much indiscriminate death and barbarity until you are forced out of the country.
--Richard Estes
Davis, CA
Sorry, we are not losing. The terrorists are. Zarqawi, like cowards everywhere, incites everyone around him to attack the Americans, and then he runs away leaving the rest to die. What a thug. This mosque, if you would bother to read something other than Leftist drivel, was a center of incitement to violence against our troops as well as Iraqis who are trying to rebuild their country. It's too bad you hate your own country so much.
the people who launched this war in Iraq based upon lies about WMDs and connections to al-Qaeda, and then allowed their circle of corporate associates, like Halliburton and Bechtel, to loot the country by receiving payments for work that was never performed, as they continue to do, while Iraqis lack the basic necessities of life, experiencing a degree of economic deprivation even worse than under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein
now, facing the fact that the Iraqis will never accept being colonized by the US, we have escalated the conflict into a massive form of collective punishment, depriving Iraqis of water, electricity and emergency assistance, even as we indiscriminately kill them with air and artilliery strikes, sometimes burning them to death with chemical weapons like white phosphorous
and, there is even the horrible prospect that we are actually engaging in the summary execution of wounded Iraqi resistance fighters, as Kevin Sites says that he believes that the Marines he observed shot 4 of them, while AFP discovered the bodies of 27 dead Iraqi males lined up and shot in the back of the head
as a result, we have killed tens of thousands of Iraqis, possibly as many as 100,000
meanwhile, surprise, surprise, the military is saying that al-Zarqawi may have never been to Falluja (which was the reason why we attacked, you may recall, as we demanded, in the face of Fallujans denying his presence in the city, that they turn him over to the occupation authority), and, instead, may currently be residing in Mosul, which is awfully convenient, awfully coincidental, as Mosul is the anticipated next city on the list for attack by the US
sfres, I have some questions for you: How many Arabs do we need to kill before you are satisfied? How many is enough? Is there any chance that the bloodlust of Americans after 9/11 will ever be satisfied?
--Richard Estes
Davis, CA
now, facing the fact that the Iraqis will never accept being colonized by the US, we have escalated the conflict into a massive form of collective punishment, depriving Iraqis of water, electricity and emergency assistance, even as we indiscriminately kill them with air and artilliery strikes, sometimes burning them to death with chemical weapons like white phosphorous
and, there is even the horrible prospect that we are actually engaging in the summary execution of wounded Iraqi resistance fighters, as Kevin Sites says that he believes that the Marines he observed shot 4 of them, while AFP discovered the bodies of 27 dead Iraqi males lined up and shot in the back of the head
as a result, we have killed tens of thousands of Iraqis, possibly as many as 100,000
meanwhile, surprise, surprise, the military is saying that al-Zarqawi may have never been to Falluja (which was the reason why we attacked, you may recall, as we demanded, in the face of Fallujans denying his presence in the city, that they turn him over to the occupation authority), and, instead, may currently be residing in Mosul, which is awfully convenient, awfully coincidental, as Mosul is the anticipated next city on the list for attack by the US
sfres, I have some questions for you: How many Arabs do we need to kill before you are satisfied? How many is enough? Is there any chance that the bloodlust of Americans after 9/11 will ever be satisfied?
--Richard Estes
Davis, CA
"Is there any chance that the bloodlust of Americans after 9/11 will ever be satisfied? "
Sure...once moslems cease their assault on humanity and civilization...
Sure...once moslems cease their assault on humanity and civilization...
What would you do if in the middle of the night a heavily armed and armored goon squad invaded your sanctuary called home and terrorized you and your family with threats and beatings, and maybe even raped the females, killed one of your family members or took them away never to be seen or heard from again?
What would you do if your child was in the backyard playing and suddenly you see his head explode from a psychopathic snipers' bullet?
What would you do if you saw a picture of your best friend lying dead in a partially wrapped body bag and a foreign soldier posing gleefully giving the thumbs up signal?
What would you do if a car full of neighbors drove by and suddenly their car was riddled to pieces by .50 caliber gunfire and the shooters then walked up to the mangled mass of metal and finished off those who managed to survive the unprovoked attack?
What would you do if newborns in your family and community were born with hideous defects as a result of the all the depleted uranium contamination left behind by the spent munitions that liberated you?
What would you do if you had to watch a loved one die a slow agonizing death due radiation poisoning from the same depleted uranium contamination?
What would you do if you had to recant your religious beliefs, or face the possibility of sick and perverted sexual humiliation or a tortuous death?
What would you do if your unwitting child curiously picked up an unexploded cluster bomb and was killed or maimed?
What would you do if you found out your daughter felt she had to become a prostitute in order to help the family afford the basic necessities of life?
What would you do if a local family was having a wedding party and they were torn to pieces by foreign troops firing bullets and bombs, and had no regard as to whether or not they killed innocent men, women or children?
What would you do if foreign corporations came into your country and plundered your natural resources?
What would you do if you were coming home only to find arrogant bullies had demolished it with bulldozers?
What would you do if those who act less than human treated you as if you were less than human?
What would you do if constant fear, suffering and death caused by foreigners, with no end in sight, came to visit your neighborhood and country?
Take a moment or two and try to imagine yourself in these conditions, and then ask yourself, what would you do? That is, if you dare.
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Commentary/070604Becker/070604becker.html
Good luck to Fallujah's minutemen, defending their homes and loved ones. Iraq never attacked us. "Our" troops fight for Bush, Cheney, and Halliburton: NOT FOR THEIR COUNTRY!
What would you do if your child was in the backyard playing and suddenly you see his head explode from a psychopathic snipers' bullet?
What would you do if you saw a picture of your best friend lying dead in a partially wrapped body bag and a foreign soldier posing gleefully giving the thumbs up signal?
What would you do if a car full of neighbors drove by and suddenly their car was riddled to pieces by .50 caliber gunfire and the shooters then walked up to the mangled mass of metal and finished off those who managed to survive the unprovoked attack?
What would you do if newborns in your family and community were born with hideous defects as a result of the all the depleted uranium contamination left behind by the spent munitions that liberated you?
What would you do if you had to watch a loved one die a slow agonizing death due radiation poisoning from the same depleted uranium contamination?
What would you do if you had to recant your religious beliefs, or face the possibility of sick and perverted sexual humiliation or a tortuous death?
What would you do if your unwitting child curiously picked up an unexploded cluster bomb and was killed or maimed?
What would you do if you found out your daughter felt she had to become a prostitute in order to help the family afford the basic necessities of life?
What would you do if a local family was having a wedding party and they were torn to pieces by foreign troops firing bullets and bombs, and had no regard as to whether or not they killed innocent men, women or children?
What would you do if foreign corporations came into your country and plundered your natural resources?
What would you do if you were coming home only to find arrogant bullies had demolished it with bulldozers?
What would you do if those who act less than human treated you as if you were less than human?
What would you do if constant fear, suffering and death caused by foreigners, with no end in sight, came to visit your neighborhood and country?
Take a moment or two and try to imagine yourself in these conditions, and then ask yourself, what would you do? That is, if you dare.
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Commentary/070604Becker/070604becker.html
Good luck to Fallujah's minutemen, defending their homes and loved ones. Iraq never attacked us. "Our" troops fight for Bush, Cheney, and Halliburton: NOT FOR THEIR COUNTRY!
For more on this lamer's stance, click:
http://www.jerusalem.indymedia.org/news/2004/11/140993_comment.php#141960
http://www.jerusalem.indymedia.org/news/2004/11/140993_comment.php#141960
A New York Diary
The Crushing of Fallujah
By JAMES PETRAS
I am reading William Shirer's Berlin Diary, a journalist's account of Nazi political propaganda during the 1930's, as I watch the US 'news' reports of the violent assault on Fallujah. The US mass media 'reports', the style, content and especially the language echo their Nazi predecessor of 70 years ago to an uncanny degree. Coincidence? Of course! In both instances we have imperialist armies conquering countries, leveling cities and slaughtering civilians--and the mass media, private in form, state appendages in practice, disseminate the most outrageous lies, in defense and praise of the conquering 'storm troopers'--call them SS or Marines. Both in Nazi Germany and contemporary US, we are told by the mass media that the invading armies are "freeing the country" of "foreign fighters", "armed terrorists", who are preventing "the people" from going about their everyday lives. Yet we know that of the 1,000 prisoners there are only 4 foreigners (3 Iranians and 1 Arab); Iraqi hospitals report less than 10% of foreign fighters. In other words over 90% of the fighters are Iraqis--most of who were born, educated, and raised families in the cities in which they are fighting.
Like the Nazi media, the major US radio and TV networks only report what they call "military casualties"--failing to report the civilians killed since the war started and the thousands of women and children killed and wounded since the assault of Fallujah began. Like in Nazi Germany, the US mass media feature unconfirmed reports by the US military of the bloody murders, beheadings and kidnapping "by the foreign terrorists". The unconditional support of Nazi/US mass media of the killing fields is best captured in their reports of the massive bombing of densely populated city districts. For the US network NBC, the dropping of 500-pound bombs in the city of Fallujah is described as targeting an "insurgent tunnel network in the city". And the houses, markets, stores--the mothers and children above those tunnels--vaporized into "pink mist". Their existence never acknowledged by the leading reporters and broadcasters.
Almost the entire population of non-Kurdish Iraq is opposed to the US military and its puppet regime--yet the media refer to the patriots defending their country from the imperial invaders as--'insurgents' minimizing the significance of a nation-wide patriotic liberation movement. One of the most surreal euphemisms is the constant reference to the 'coalition forces'--meaning the US colonial conquerors and the mercenaries and satraps that they direct and control.
The terror bombing of homes, hospitals and religious buildings by hundreds of airplanes and helicopter gunships are described by the media as 'securing the city for free elections'.
'Freeing the city of insurgents' includes the systematic murder of friends, neighbors and relatives of every Iraqi living in the city of Fallujah.
'Surrounding the insurgents' means cutting off water, electricity, medical aid for 200,000 civilians in the city and putting tens of thousands who fled under threat of a typhoid epidemic. 'Pacifying the city' involves turning it to absolute desolate poisoned rubble.
Why do Washington and the mass media resort to gross, systematic lying and euphemisms? Basically to reinforce mass support at home for mass murder in Iraq. The mass media fabricates a web of lies to secure a gloss of legitimacy for totalitarian methods in order that the US armed forces continue to destroy cities with impunity. The technique perfected by Goebbels in Germany and practiced in the US is to repeat lies and euphemism until they become accepted 'truths', and embedded in everyday language. The mass media by effectively routinizing a common language implicates the listeners. The tactical concerns of the Generals, the commanders directing the slaughter (pacification), and the soldiers murdering civilians are explained (and consumed by the millions listening and watching) by the unchallenged authorities to the compliant journalists and famous news anchors. The unity of purpose between the agents of mass murder and everyday US public is established via 'news reports': The soldiers 'paint the names' of their wives and sweethearts on the tanks and armored vehicles which destroy Iraqi families and turn Fallujah into ruins. Returning soldiers from Iraq are 'interviewed' who want to return to 'be with their platoon' and 'wipe out the terrorists'. Not all of US combat forces experienced the joys of shooting civilians. Medical studies report that one out of five returning soldiers are suffering from severe psychological trauma, no doubt from witnessing or participation in the mass killing of civilians. The family of one returned soldier, who recently committed suicide, reported that he constantly referred to his killing an unarmed child in the streets of Iraq--calling himself a 'murderer'. Aside from these notable exceptions, the mass propaganda media practice several techniques, which assuage the 'conscience' of US soldiers and civilians. One technique is 'role reversal' to attribute the crimes of the invading force to the victims: It is not the soldiers who cause destruction of cities and murder, but the Iraqi families who 'protect the terrorists' and "bring upon themselves the savage bombardment". The second technique is to only report US casualties from 'terrorist bombs'--to omit any mention of thousands of Iraqi civilian killed by US bombs and artillery. Both Nazi and US propaganda glorify the 'heroism', 'success' of their elite forces (the SS and the Marines)--in killing 'terrorists' or 'insurgents'--every dead civilian is counted as a 'suspected terrorist sympathizer'.
The US and German military have declared every civilian building a 'storehouse' or 'hiding place' for 'terrorists'--hence the absolutely total disregard of all the Geneva laws of warfare. The US and Nazi practice of 'total war' in which whole communities, neighborhoods and entire cities are collectively guilty of shielding 'wanted terrorists'--is of course the standard operating military procedure of the Israeli government.
The US publicizes the cruel and unusual punishment of Iraqi 'suspects' (any male between 14-60 years) taken prisoner: photos appear in Time and Newsweek of barefoot, blindfolded and bound young men led from their homes and pushed into trucks to be taken to 'exploitation centers' for interrogation. For many in the US public these pictures are part of the success story--they are told these are the 'terrorists' who would blow up American homes. For the majority who voted for Bush, the mass propaganda media has taught them to believe that the extermination of scores of thousands of Iraqi citizens is in their best interests: they can sleep sound, as long as 'our boys' kill them 'over there'.
Above all the mass propaganda media has done everything possible to deny Iraqi national consciousness. Everyday in every way the reference is to religious loyalties, ethnic identities, past political labels, 'tribal' and family clans. The purpose is to divide and conquer, and to present the world with a 'chaotic' Iraq in which the only coherent, stable force is the US colonial regime. The purpose of the savage colonial assaults and the political labeling is to destroy the idea of the Iraqi nation--and in its place to substitute a series of mini-entities run by imperial satraps obedient to Washington.
Sunday morning: November 14 .Today Fallujah is being raped and razed,captured
Wounded prisoners are shot in the mosques .In New York the mega malls are crowded with shoppers .
Sunday afternoon: the Marines have blocked food ,water,and medicine from entering Fallujah..Throughout the US millions of men sit in front of the television watching football.
Shirer reported that while the Nazis invaded and ravaged Belgium and bombed Rotterdam.,in Berlin the cafes were full,the symphony played and people walked their dogs in the park on sunny Sunday afternoons
Sunday night November 14, 2004, I turn on the television to 60 Minutes and watch a replay of Mike Wallace's 'interviews' with Yasser Arafat. Like all US mass media 'stars', he ignores the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and Sharon's murder of thousands of Palestinians, the military occupation of Palestine and the wanton destruction of Jenin and Gaza City. Wallace accuses Arafat of being a liar, a terrorist, of being corrupt and devious. Thirty million US households watch this ugly spectacle of a self-righteous Zionist apologist flaunting the 'Western ideals', which are so useful in razing cities, bombing hospitals and exterminating a nation.
Yes, there are differences between Shirer's account of Nazi propaganda in defense of the conquest of Europe and the US media's apology for the invasion of Iraq and Israel's slaughter of the Palestinians: One is committed in the name of the Fuehrer and the Fatherland, the other in the name of God and Democracy. Go tell that to the bloated corpses gnawed by dogs in the ruins of Fallujah.
Viva la Fallujah!
The Crushing of Fallujah
By JAMES PETRAS
I am reading William Shirer's Berlin Diary, a journalist's account of Nazi political propaganda during the 1930's, as I watch the US 'news' reports of the violent assault on Fallujah. The US mass media 'reports', the style, content and especially the language echo their Nazi predecessor of 70 years ago to an uncanny degree. Coincidence? Of course! In both instances we have imperialist armies conquering countries, leveling cities and slaughtering civilians--and the mass media, private in form, state appendages in practice, disseminate the most outrageous lies, in defense and praise of the conquering 'storm troopers'--call them SS or Marines. Both in Nazi Germany and contemporary US, we are told by the mass media that the invading armies are "freeing the country" of "foreign fighters", "armed terrorists", who are preventing "the people" from going about their everyday lives. Yet we know that of the 1,000 prisoners there are only 4 foreigners (3 Iranians and 1 Arab); Iraqi hospitals report less than 10% of foreign fighters. In other words over 90% of the fighters are Iraqis--most of who were born, educated, and raised families in the cities in which they are fighting.
Like the Nazi media, the major US radio and TV networks only report what they call "military casualties"--failing to report the civilians killed since the war started and the thousands of women and children killed and wounded since the assault of Fallujah began. Like in Nazi Germany, the US mass media feature unconfirmed reports by the US military of the bloody murders, beheadings and kidnapping "by the foreign terrorists". The unconditional support of Nazi/US mass media of the killing fields is best captured in their reports of the massive bombing of densely populated city districts. For the US network NBC, the dropping of 500-pound bombs in the city of Fallujah is described as targeting an "insurgent tunnel network in the city". And the houses, markets, stores--the mothers and children above those tunnels--vaporized into "pink mist". Their existence never acknowledged by the leading reporters and broadcasters.
Almost the entire population of non-Kurdish Iraq is opposed to the US military and its puppet regime--yet the media refer to the patriots defending their country from the imperial invaders as--'insurgents' minimizing the significance of a nation-wide patriotic liberation movement. One of the most surreal euphemisms is the constant reference to the 'coalition forces'--meaning the US colonial conquerors and the mercenaries and satraps that they direct and control.
The terror bombing of homes, hospitals and religious buildings by hundreds of airplanes and helicopter gunships are described by the media as 'securing the city for free elections'.
'Freeing the city of insurgents' includes the systematic murder of friends, neighbors and relatives of every Iraqi living in the city of Fallujah.
'Surrounding the insurgents' means cutting off water, electricity, medical aid for 200,000 civilians in the city and putting tens of thousands who fled under threat of a typhoid epidemic. 'Pacifying the city' involves turning it to absolute desolate poisoned rubble.
Why do Washington and the mass media resort to gross, systematic lying and euphemisms? Basically to reinforce mass support at home for mass murder in Iraq. The mass media fabricates a web of lies to secure a gloss of legitimacy for totalitarian methods in order that the US armed forces continue to destroy cities with impunity. The technique perfected by Goebbels in Germany and practiced in the US is to repeat lies and euphemism until they become accepted 'truths', and embedded in everyday language. The mass media by effectively routinizing a common language implicates the listeners. The tactical concerns of the Generals, the commanders directing the slaughter (pacification), and the soldiers murdering civilians are explained (and consumed by the millions listening and watching) by the unchallenged authorities to the compliant journalists and famous news anchors. The unity of purpose between the agents of mass murder and everyday US public is established via 'news reports': The soldiers 'paint the names' of their wives and sweethearts on the tanks and armored vehicles which destroy Iraqi families and turn Fallujah into ruins. Returning soldiers from Iraq are 'interviewed' who want to return to 'be with their platoon' and 'wipe out the terrorists'. Not all of US combat forces experienced the joys of shooting civilians. Medical studies report that one out of five returning soldiers are suffering from severe psychological trauma, no doubt from witnessing or participation in the mass killing of civilians. The family of one returned soldier, who recently committed suicide, reported that he constantly referred to his killing an unarmed child in the streets of Iraq--calling himself a 'murderer'. Aside from these notable exceptions, the mass propaganda media practice several techniques, which assuage the 'conscience' of US soldiers and civilians. One technique is 'role reversal' to attribute the crimes of the invading force to the victims: It is not the soldiers who cause destruction of cities and murder, but the Iraqi families who 'protect the terrorists' and "bring upon themselves the savage bombardment". The second technique is to only report US casualties from 'terrorist bombs'--to omit any mention of thousands of Iraqi civilian killed by US bombs and artillery. Both Nazi and US propaganda glorify the 'heroism', 'success' of their elite forces (the SS and the Marines)--in killing 'terrorists' or 'insurgents'--every dead civilian is counted as a 'suspected terrorist sympathizer'.
The US and German military have declared every civilian building a 'storehouse' or 'hiding place' for 'terrorists'--hence the absolutely total disregard of all the Geneva laws of warfare. The US and Nazi practice of 'total war' in which whole communities, neighborhoods and entire cities are collectively guilty of shielding 'wanted terrorists'--is of course the standard operating military procedure of the Israeli government.
The US publicizes the cruel and unusual punishment of Iraqi 'suspects' (any male between 14-60 years) taken prisoner: photos appear in Time and Newsweek of barefoot, blindfolded and bound young men led from their homes and pushed into trucks to be taken to 'exploitation centers' for interrogation. For many in the US public these pictures are part of the success story--they are told these are the 'terrorists' who would blow up American homes. For the majority who voted for Bush, the mass propaganda media has taught them to believe that the extermination of scores of thousands of Iraqi citizens is in their best interests: they can sleep sound, as long as 'our boys' kill them 'over there'.
Above all the mass propaganda media has done everything possible to deny Iraqi national consciousness. Everyday in every way the reference is to religious loyalties, ethnic identities, past political labels, 'tribal' and family clans. The purpose is to divide and conquer, and to present the world with a 'chaotic' Iraq in which the only coherent, stable force is the US colonial regime. The purpose of the savage colonial assaults and the political labeling is to destroy the idea of the Iraqi nation--and in its place to substitute a series of mini-entities run by imperial satraps obedient to Washington.
Sunday morning: November 14 .Today Fallujah is being raped and razed,captured
Wounded prisoners are shot in the mosques .In New York the mega malls are crowded with shoppers .
Sunday afternoon: the Marines have blocked food ,water,and medicine from entering Fallujah..Throughout the US millions of men sit in front of the television watching football.
Shirer reported that while the Nazis invaded and ravaged Belgium and bombed Rotterdam.,in Berlin the cafes were full,the symphony played and people walked their dogs in the park on sunny Sunday afternoons
Sunday night November 14, 2004, I turn on the television to 60 Minutes and watch a replay of Mike Wallace's 'interviews' with Yasser Arafat. Like all US mass media 'stars', he ignores the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and Sharon's murder of thousands of Palestinians, the military occupation of Palestine and the wanton destruction of Jenin and Gaza City. Wallace accuses Arafat of being a liar, a terrorist, of being corrupt and devious. Thirty million US households watch this ugly spectacle of a self-righteous Zionist apologist flaunting the 'Western ideals', which are so useful in razing cities, bombing hospitals and exterminating a nation.
Yes, there are differences between Shirer's account of Nazi propaganda in defense of the conquest of Europe and the US media's apology for the invasion of Iraq and Israel's slaughter of the Palestinians: One is committed in the name of the Fuehrer and the Fatherland, the other in the name of God and Democracy. Go tell that to the bloated corpses gnawed by dogs in the ruins of Fallujah.
Viva la Fallujah!
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