Lies Make the War Go Round
Question: When is truth relative?
Answer: In war - especially counterinsurgency - always.
With photographers in tow, armed helicopters overhead, and a heavily armed escort, generals and politicians can stroll down selected streets without helmets or flak vests, declaring that security has improved.
To one battalion of the 1st Infantry Division assigned to Baghdad’s Sadiyah neighborhood, this is a lie. “The higher-ups…only go to the safe places, places with a little bit of gunfire” (Washington Post, October 27). The administration hypes these snapshots of “progress” by trumpeting the post-” troop surge” fall-off in Iraqi and coalition fatalities - which is real - but conveniently omitting the cost: some 40,000 (not 29,000) additional troops.
The very dangerous Baghdad that these 1st Division “grunts” see is a world - and 20 deaths - apart. When they arrived fourteen months ago, Sadiyah bustled with business and traffic. Today, after continuous assaults on Sunni residents by Shi’a militias and intimidation by a Shi’a police brigade, street life is largely limited to starving dogs and American patrols - reminiscent of Kipling’s refrain: “only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noon-day sun.”
The irony is that the Bush administration, like the British in World War I, did not have to get mixed up in the maze of contradictions and civil unrest that are rife in Iraq and the entire Gulf region. Introducing foreign occupation forces into the mix simply compounds the opacity of motives and alliances that, in turn, can tip the balance of power in contested areas in unpredictable ways.
Conversely, the existence of a UN mandate authorizing foreign troops as a “stabilizing force” reduces some ambiguity as this implies a degree of self-governance through which the Iraqi people’s voices can be heard. And what the UN is hearing from more and more Iraqis and from Afghans through their parliaments and presidents is frustration bordering on outright hatred of western ground and - increasingly - air forces. The reality seen by those people on the ground is the disproportionate if not unaccountable and unregulated use of air power.
On October 28 - and not for the first time -Afghan President Hamid Kharzai publicly protested to the UN and U.S. the increasing use of coalition attack planes. Unverified targeting has killed more than 300 Afghan non-combatants so far this year - about the same number of non-combatants killed by the Taliban - that is making 2007 the bloodiest year of this war.
In Iraq the UN Security Council resolution authorizing the coalition presence must be renewed in December. The last time it was renewed, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki requested an early vote by the Council to pre-empt plans by Iraqi parliamentarians to attach conditionsl. This time parliament is working on mandatory conditionality: e.g., geographic limits such as no air operations in urban areas and restrictions on types of activity such as training and border security. (Separately, the UN plans to look into recent incidents in which U.S. aircraft struck supposed al-Qaeda and Taliban “hideouts” but subsequent ground reports raised questions about the accuracy of the military’s press release describing the incident.)
Governments, especially governments at war, are adept at holding hearings and developing policies that get to “the truth” - or their version of the truth. Individuals, however, especially those in a battle zone, don’t need “truth.” For them, truth has nothing to do with policy and politics and everything to do with simply staying alive.
That is also the “truth” that confronts soldiers - a most apt thought for Veterans Day. No one wants to be the last one killed or injured in their unit, most particularly when, as now, it is clear that a war was started and is being continued on the basis of mistakes, errors, and lies by politicians, many of whom have no experience of war. And that is how Iraq (and Afghanistan) likely will end: with the lie that U.S. objectives have been reached.
It is a lie that Americans might embrace. The U.S. battalion in Sadiyah, with 20 dead and a month to go, undoubtedly would. One soldier put it succinctly: “I don’t think this place is worth another soldier’s life.”
Colonel Daniel M. Smith (Ret.), a West Point graduate and Vietnam veteran is the Senior Fellow for Military Affairs at the Friends Committee on National Legislation, a Quaker-based public interest lobby founded in 1943. www.fcnl.org
Distributed by MinutemanMedia.org
It’s my belief that publicizing the civilian death and maiming due to missile strikes from the air would be a major component for amplifying the call to end the “war” (murderous privatization occupation), as well as the call to impeach.
At my weekly vigil site this week it was stated that someone knows a person who said, “I’m for war, but not with the bombing of children”. This comment was sparked by my poster of a child with scorched skin.
Peace.
With the US Secretary of Spin (Condi) keeping the war propaganda machine well lubricated, it continues to be difficult to counter the neocon stories.
One of the most important lessons the government learned from the Vietnam War was to control the media. It took awhile but once the American public found out the truth about the Vietnam War they got active and joined protests. The media was responsible for this and as such has been tightly controlled ever since. It’s too bad that our government didn’t learn the real lessons of the Vietnam War. We are paying for this ignorance today in Iraq.
Hoa binh
The military industrial complex learned the lessons alright. Their existence depends on a war now and then—how else to justify their bloated budgets? SO the only lesson they ever intended to learn, was how to keep the taxpayers ignorant of the human costs of their ghastly wars since to do otherwise would be to threaten their very existence. If one third of the US population still thinks Saddam had someting to do with 911 and supported Bin Laden, no wonder it has been relatively easy for the propaganda machine to suppress the real human cost of this war on the Iraqi people. When I talk about the millions of displaced and perhaps a million dead in Iraq, people shut down and just assume I’m lying. How does one break through the walls of distortion and lies?????
Peace is only possible in a liberal society.
As bad as Iraq is what will Iran be like? Shouldn’t we be telling the good people of Iran that although they think only an insane nation would attack them that they don’t realize the insanity and evil that is embodied in Bush & Cheney? How do we warn them that if at all possible take safe haven in some other country till the bombs stop falling on Iran!
Starofthesea,
The propaganda works very well, as evidenced by all the Americans who so willingly audition and pimp themselves to be a part of pop culture. And I’m not just talking about the reality show contestants. I see Americans all over the country playing “Good Germans” all the time. They seem to especially love to perform in the security lines at the airports. We got to be the best dressed sheep in the world. Our media is full of examples of brain dead Americans who become the talk of the town. Someone needs to make a movie based on Jack London’s “IRON HEEL”.
Hoa binh
“Colonel” Dan makes no mention of the utter illegality of the US occupation of Iraq. He apparently sees no obstacle to US domination of Iraq (except that it is being done incompetently, and thus “we” are losing).
Regarding the US puppet regime in Baghdad:
“a.. The US-led occupation of Iraq is explicitly prohibited under international law from instituting changes aimed at permanently altering the foundational structures of the Iraqi state, including its judiciary, economy, political institutions and social fabric.[i] Further, and given that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was unequivocally illegal under international law, not only are the US-designed Iraqi permanent constitution and National Assembly illegal, every law, treaty, agreement and contract signed in Iraq since the illegal invasion and subsequent occupation began is illegal. All states are obliged under international law not to recognize as legal the consequences of illegal acts by other states.[ii]”
–Only resistance is legal, Hana Albayaty, Abdul Ilah Albayaty, Ian Douglas (BRussells Tribunal Committee) (05 October 2006) http://www.brusselstribunal.org/ResistanceLegal.htm
“[ii] Article 41(2) of the United Nations International Law Commission’s Draft Articles on State Responsibility, representing the rule of customary international law (and adopted in UN General Assembly Resolution 56/83 of 28 January 2002, “Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts”), prevents states from benefiting from their own illegal acts: “No State shall recognize as lawful a situation created by a serious breach [of an obligation arising under a peremptory norm of general international law]” (emphasis added); Section III(e), UN General Assembly Resolution 36/103 of 14 December 1962, “Declaration on the Inadmissibility of Intervention and Interference in the Internal Affairs of States”.
“Colonel” Dan also ignores the 1.2 million murders as a result of the March 2003 Crime Against the Peace, and comments only that recent developments (”surge”) have been met with vocal criticism from the occupied puppet regimes. The fact of US war crimes continuing from day one gets no mention. The Nazi like obliteration of Fallujah, and other less extreme exercises in collective punishment are not new to the occupied peoples.
Colonel Dan admits, “mistakes, errors, and lies.” But he does not take it to the next logical step: CRIMES.
John Doreami publishes Crimes of the State Blog
since 1492,
Apart from the obvious “circus of distractions”, I fear that the propaganda machine has become so sophisticated that many mind control technigues are being used everyday on the population at large. Which is why I do not watch any TV. In my opinion, it is there to try to steal the soul from all of us. The military industrial complex has billions to squander on R&D of mind control devices and techniques. I fear we don’t know the half of it. And with the total collapse of the Fourth Estate with a very few exceptions, the only way to alleviate the damage is to convince everyone we know to stop tuning in. Fat chance, I fear.
STAR OF THE SEA: Excellent 4:15 posting! I totally agree, and also killed my television, albeit by turning it off.
Hey Siouxrose, nice to hear your voice (well sorta. You know what I mean.) Never thought my virtual circle would start to mean so much. It’s not that I’m so afraid of what we are facing, rather that it gets alittle lonely sometimes. And while I know there are many out there on the planet anchoring Light/Love, still my little corner of the world can seem mighty dark sometimes. I appreciate knowing you are alive and well and hope you never stop posting on this site.
Must confess, I do use it and a DVD player to watch some fanatastic film from Netflicks, otherwise nothing.
Well, it is a shame if you missed Keith Olbermann’s Special Monday night. And the new Caveman show.
Uh, ___ kiddin about the Cavemen.
Gee, that battalion in Sadiyah has had a death rate that might be more than half the death rate of Iraqi civilians. Then again, maybe not. At least they have home to go to.
STAR OF THE SEA: I, too, feel a bond with kindred spirits on this site. Lately I am so taken aback by the insanity mis-governing our nation that I say whatever I damn please even to obvious conservatives and those ‘good Christians’ who make up the Bible belt where I reside. They recoil a bit from the bold direct honesty, but I can see (and sometimes their affirmative comments shock me) that they HEAR the truth, and are not so blind as we would think.
Even when I was overseas in India/Nepal/Singapore in 2004, I looked for opportunities to find an Internet cafe (or dump) and check CD to the extent time would permit.
Narcissus gazed into the waters in search of his own image, and in a spiritually resonant way, those who see through the dense fog of darkness that’s come over our nation seek in this forum, affirmation of the Light that is. I hope its power grows as a result… perhaps this new Dark Age will pass more rapidly?
Fox News reports every day that the US is not responsible for many civilian deaths in Iraq. Since the beginning of the war they have kept us in the dark.
When I argue this point with most Americans they believe American bombs and soldiers and mercenaries have done far more good in Iraq than harm.
Any way possible to get the word out will help end the war!