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The US mediaowned and controlled by a handful of huge corporate conglomeratesplay an indispensable role in the mass murder of Iraqi men, women and children. Together with the Bush administration and the two major parties of US imperialismthe Democratic Party and its presidential candidate John Kerry, no less than their Republican rivalsthe media are complicit in a crime against humanity of immense proportions, one that dwarfs any crimes committed by the various political leaders who have been targeted for destruction by the American ruling elite in recent years: from Panamas Noriega, to Serbias Milosevic, to Saddam Hussein himself.
One can stare at the 24-hour cable news networks from sunup to sundown and get no sense of the carnage in towns and cities from Baghdad, to Fallujah, to Ramadi, to Hilla in the south and Tal Afar in the north that is left in the wake of US rockets, bombs, tank shells and sniper rounds. The evening news reports of the major networks provide at most a fleeting image of the death and destruction, inevitably hedged with absurd avowals from the US military that precision attacks were carried out against terrorist and anti-Iraqi targets.
As for the press, one days front-page report of US helicopter attacks on unarmed civilians or air strikes against urban centers is eclipsed the next day by the latest hurricane threat or new poll numbers on the upcoming electionan election in which no discussion of the legitimacy of the US subjugation of Iraq or the real war aims behind the bogus ones used to promote the war is permitted.
No countrys media is more cowardly, or more artful in churning out the official line and excluding any serious criticism or analysis, than that of the USA. It would be absurd to hold up the British media as a model of conscientious and objective reporting, but even there, articles occasionally appear that provide some insight into the reality of the situation in Iraq.
The Guardian newspaper, for example, on Tuesday carried an eyewitness account on its front page of the American helicopter attack on unarmed Iraqis that occurred Sunday in central Baghdad. Thirteen Iraqis were killed and dozens were wounded when US copters repeatedly fired rockets into a crowd that had gathered around a disabled American armored vehicle on Haifa Street, near the Green Zone that houses the US and British embassies and the offices of Washingtons puppet government.
For the benefit of our readers around the world, and especially in the US, we give here some excerpts from the chilling and tragic account provided by Guardian columnist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, who was himself wounded while covering the US assault.
Abdul-Ahad describes at least four separate rocket strikes by American helicopters against the unarmed Iraqisdocumenting that the helicopters returned several times to fire on those seeking to remove the dead and wounded from the first missile strike.
When I was 50 m away I heard a couple of explosions and another cloud of dust rose across the street from where the first column of smoke was still climbing, he writes. People started running towards me in waves. A man wearing an orange overall was sweeping the street while others were running. A couple of helicopters in the sky overhead turned away.
He runs for cover, and then: A few seconds later, I heard people screaming and shoutingsomething must have happenedand I headed towards the sounds, still crouching behind a wall. Two newswire photographers were running in the opposite direction and we exchanged eye contact.
About 20 m ahead of me, I could see the American Bradley armoured vehicle, a huge monster with fire rising from within. It stood alone, its doors open, burning. I stopped, took a couple of photos and crossed the street towards a bunch of people. Some were lying in the street, others stood around them. The helicopters were still buzzing, but further off now.
The reporter continues: I felt uneasy and exposed in the middle of the street, but lots of civilians were around me. A dozen men formed a circle around five injured people, all of whom were screaming and wailing.
Abdul-Ahads belief that the presence of so many unarmed civilians afforded protection from a further US strike was shattered in short order. I had been standing there taking pictures for two or three minutes when we heard the helicopters coming back. Everyone started running, and I didnt look back to see what was happening to the injured men. We were all rushing towards the same place: a fence, a block of buildings and a prefab concrete cube used as a cigarette stall.
I had just reached the corner of the cube when I heard two explosions. I felt hot air blast my face and something burning on my head. I crawled to the cube and hid behind it. Six of us were squeezed into a space less than two metres wide. Blood started dripping on my camera but all that I could think about was how to keep the lens clean. A man in his 40s next to me was crying. He wasnt injured, he was just crying.
I was so scared I just wanted to squeeze myself against the wall. The helicopters wheeled overhead, and I realised that they were firing directly at us.
The helicopters moved away, and the reporter went back onto the street to record the carnage and help the wounded and dying. Then: More kids ventured into the street, looking with curiosity at the dead and injured. Then someone shouted Helicopters! and we ran. I turned and saw two small helicopters, black and evil. Frightened, I ran back to my shelter where I heard two more big explosions.... I reached a building entrance when someone grabbed my arm and took me inside. Theres an injured man. Take picturesshow the world the American democracy, he said.
It is hardly necessary to point out that no major US media outlet has taken note of the Guardians damning account of Sundays bloodletting in the center of Baghdad. Most US newspapers on Tuesday relegated to their inside pages news reports of yet another round of US air and artillery attacks on Fallujah, carried out Monday.
The Iraqi Health Ministry said 20 were killed and 39 wounded in the strikes. Aljazeera reported that those killed included the driver of an ambulance and six passengers, whose vehicle was struck by a jet-fired missile near the northern gate of the city. Every time we send out an ambulance, it gets targeted, the director of the Fallujah hospital told the Arab newspaper.
Aljazeera also reported that US missiles destroyed three homes in the citys al-Shurta neighborhood, American shells hit a market place, and US tanks fired on homes in the al-Jughaivi neighborhood near the citys northern gate.
The Washington Post, in a page-19 article, noted the attacks on Fallujah neighborhoods and the ambulance fatalities, but reported without comment the official US line that the attacks were directed against a suspected hideout of associates of Abu Musab Zarqawi. It printed the Goebbels-like handout from the US military: Based on the analysis of these [intelligence] reports, Iraqi Security Forces and multi-national forces effectively and accurately targeted these terrorists while protecting the lives of innocent civilians.
The New York Times ran a front-page commentary focused not on the death and suffering being inflicted on the Iraqi people, but rather on the danger that the US militarys bloodletting against insurgent towns could backfire. It warned of the classic dilemma faced by governments battling guerrilla movements: ease up, and the insurg
Granted, there are tons of former Soldiers and veterans who get out and get back their sense of selves and have mixed feelings about what's going on in Iraq, Afghan., etc etc....everyone has their right to voice their opinions and such, but basing it off of media reports is a fallacy within itself...
I'm first going to take a stance on this as a Soldier...Do I think there's unnecessary bloodshed in the middle east? Yes. DO I think Soldiers' sometimes make bad judgments that cost innocent civilians their lives? Yes. But that's just it with me...we are all HUMAN...we are all prone to FREE WILL...so no matter how much military experience and training you go through, you are still prone AND STILL WILL make mistakes that might cost someone their lives....
On the other side of the coin, when all of these major conflicts in Iraq started and Bush got involved, the Iraqi people had just as many mixed opinions as we did. While I have a problem with the taking of innocent lives (based on my upbringing, my beliefs, etc)...as a Soldier when we looked to the Iraqi people to help us and join us in the "War on Terror", there was no response. I remember both the first AND secon times I deployed, Iraqi troops were supposed to be training with us....all I saw Iraqi troops do is drive around the US army installations on the backs of their pickups, looking up at the sky or looking at our military women (even some men), but what I did NOT see is training.
While the sad story of innocent lives being taken continues, I still feel Iraqi people could have played a much bigger part....when the war first broke out, everyone nicknamed it the 'New Vietnam' because we were introduced to a new type of urban warfare we were not trained for up until that point. Insurgents knew this, and accurately disguised themselves as common everyday people to avoid gettin killed, AND to boast of the horrible killing of innocent victims whenever there was such. This war is and always has been more of POLITICAL/RELIGOUS IDEOLOGY than it ever has been about whoopin the other countrie's ass with military might...Insurgents know this, so the minute we stepped foot on their grounds it became a war of politics that transferred through military regiments and brigades....
Where were the Iraqi people then?? I feel If you're in close-knit communities and suddenly there's an influx of insurgent activity, you cant' tell me that SOMEONE or GROUP of people cannot be identified....it's the same concept as a new family going to a remote, small village, where everyone knows everyone...if someone new pops up, they get pointed out...they get discovered...the Iraqi people could have just as easily rebelled against the insurgents by marking them and cooperating with US Troops, but they chose not to for the very same reason we continue to see reports of innocent blooshed...
But let's not forget too, US TROOPS are also the victim of innocent bloodshed...since this is a war on politics, it could have been fought without any military presence, in my opinion...leave it up to the politicians of the nations and have an independent country evalute and make the decision....don't just act like because innocent iraqis are being killed that it's the US's fault..they kill just as many of us, so before taking an opinion look at the sources and look at both sides of the coin...
I'm jus sayin....
