Kabul, October 200l: A father grieves for his 2-year-old son, who was among four children killed in an airstrike outside Kabul on Sunday.
October 30, 2007
Iraq Body Count, a "divisive" issue
The list of Iraq Body Count’s supporters is getting longer by the day. Just three examples may help you to get the picture:
- The Weekly Standard - the voice of the Neo-Con in Washington and whose Editor, William Kristol, is also Chairman of the Project for the New American Century – used IBC to attack actor and anti-war activist Tim Robbins
- The Washington Post used IBC to attack MoveOn.org
- The right-wing American Spectator used IBC to attack Codepink While the mainstream media are continuing to use figures provided by the website Iraq Body Count (IBC) to sell the public a number for total post-invasion deaths of Iraqis that is perhaps 5-10% of the true death toll, too many "on the left" and within the so-called "anti-war movement" keep being silent when not openly defending Iraq Body Count and attacking those who have been trying to highlight this bloody scandal. It’s a "divisive" issue, they say. One day maybe genetics will tell us why these people always happen to be born "on the left" but till then one is free to speculate on the real reasons behind such a shameful behavior.
Amerika and its allies are responsible for GENOCIDE in Iraq. This thought may be unpleasant to many but removing it from that little open debate we are still allowed to have just add to the already rich genocide denial business. As Edward S. Herman recently wrote:
"It should also be noted that there is a systematic "genocide [or holocaust] denial" when it comes to treating Western-based genocidal operations, but this is invisible because the West does it. The most prominent illustration at present is the U.S. and "coalition of the willing" mass killing in Iraq. The million Iraqi deaths from the "sanctions of mass destruction" of the 1990s is unmentioned in Samantha Power’s ludicrous treatise on genocide ("A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide), just as she fails to deal seriously with the Indonesian massacres in East Timor. The U.S.-coalition invasion-occupation of Iraq from 2003 has added another million to the Iraqi toll, but the idea that this is "genocide" is inexpressible in the U.S. mainstream media, which is focused on the more politically convenient killings in Darfur—attributable to a Western target, the Arab government of the Sudan, hence subject to the invidious word genocidal. This is implicit but real denial, which follows from the political basis of naming and concern." So far, too many on the "left" and within the so-called "anti-war movement" have been reluctant - and I’m being polite here - to inform the vast majority of the population on the real extent of the carnage inflicted upon the Iraqi people. That too is real denial.
60 Minutes of shame: Afghanistan and the Amerikan’s efforts "to win the Afghan people"
The hypocrisy is unbearable. CBS News, one of the major brainwash networks in Amerika, plays the compassionate soul, with the help of puppet Karzai and an "old friend" of this blog.
CBS News reports:
"After six years, the liberation of Afghanistan has become a triumph without victory. The fighting is the greatest it has been since the beginning of the war and more civilians are dying. In fact, 60 Minutes was surprised to hear this: while the enemy has killed hundreds of civilians this year, a similar number of civilians have been killed by American forces. With relatively few troops there, the U.S. and NATO rely on air power. The number of civilians killed in air strikes has doubled." And then the cherry on the cake:
"60 Minutes wondered whether civilian deaths are undermining the effort to win the Afghan people." Translation:
"60 Minutes wonders if killing civilians is bad to us" CBS News’ correspondent Scott Pelley asked Amerika’s puppet Karzai:
"Why are so many Afghan civilians being killed by U.S. forces?" The puppet replied:
"The United States and the Coalition Forces are not doing that deliberately. The United States is here to help the Afghan people. The Afghan people understand that mistakes are made. But five years on, six years on, definitely, very clearly, they cannot comprehend as to why there is still a need for air power". The Afghan people understand indeed, since the Afghan Resistance is now winning a war of liberation of their country invaded and occupied by the Amerikan Empire upon lies and preposterous excuses. Of course the high price paid by the people of Afghanistan is all on our consciences.
But let’s go back to the CBS’ 60 Minutes of shame.
"Of course the Taliban are killing civilians too, targeting them deliberately. By contrast, 60 Minutes watched American airmen calculate how to minimize civilian casualties with the choice of timing, weapon, and direction of attack." To make this compassionate point, the CBS’ correspondent gets the help of an "old friend" of this blog, Mark Garlasco, Senior Military Analyst at Human Rights Watch.
"I don't think people really appreciate the gymnastics that the U.S. military goes through in order to make sure that they're not killing civilians," Garlasco points out.
"If so much care is being taken why are so many civilians getting killed?" Pelley asks.
"Because the Taliban are violating international law," says Garlasco, "and because the U.S. just doesn't have enough troops on the ground. You have the Taliban shielding in people's homes. And you have this small number of troops on the ground. And sometimes the only thing they can do is drop bombs." Have you appreciated this perfect waltz? Maybe you should read it again and this time you may be interested to know that before landing at Human Rights Watch, Marc Garlasco was Senior Intelligence Analyst at the Pentagon and, as such, he "recommended thousands of aimpoints on hundreds of targets during operations in Iraq and Serbia [and] also participated in over 50 interrogations as a subject matter expert". If you want to know more - and there is more to know indeed - click here.
Business as usual indeed!
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