By Robert Parry
April 9, 2010
"The next time CNN’s Wolf Blitzer boasts about George W. Bush’s “successful surge” in Iraq or Newsweek hails “Victory at Last,” you should think of the video released by Wikileaks.org this week showing the killing of a group of Iraqi men, including two Reuters newsmen, as they walked nonchalantly through the streets of Baghdad.
Not only did a U.S. military helicopter gunship mow them down amid macho jokes and chuckling – after mistaking a couple of cameras for weapons – but the American attackers then blew away several Iraqis who arrived in a van and tried to take one of the wounded newsmen to a hospital. Two children in the van were badly wounded. “Well, it’s their fault for bringing their kids into a battle,” one American remarked.
The videotaped incident – entitled “Collateral Murder” by Wikileaks – occurred on July 12, 2007, in the midst of President Bush’s much-heralded troop “surge,” which the U.S. news media has widely credited for reducing violence in Iraq and bringing something close to victory for the United States.....
Terror Can Work
The indiscriminate use of military force has been cited by many analysts as a factor in the anti-Americanism that has fueled the Iraqi insurgency, but terror also has its advantages. As tyrants have learned throughout history, at some point violent repression does work.
With the total Iraqi death toll estimated in the hundreds of thousands and many more Iraqis horribly maimed, the society has been deeply traumatized.
The kind of U.S. firepower on display in the Wikileaks video – after having been concentrated on alleged Iraqi insurgents and civilian bystanders for more than five years – might well have slaughtered enough Iraqis to convince others to look to their own survival.
Yet, today’s conventional wisdom in Washington is celebratory. The “surge” is hailed as Bush’s finest hour as he showed the steely resolve needed to pull victory out of the jaws of defeat. After all, most of the U.S. news media stars supported the Iraq invasion....."
April 9, 2010
"The next time CNN’s Wolf Blitzer boasts about George W. Bush’s “successful surge” in Iraq or Newsweek hails “Victory at Last,” you should think of the video released by Wikileaks.org this week showing the killing of a group of Iraqi men, including two Reuters newsmen, as they walked nonchalantly through the streets of Baghdad.
Not only did a U.S. military helicopter gunship mow them down amid macho jokes and chuckling – after mistaking a couple of cameras for weapons – but the American attackers then blew away several Iraqis who arrived in a van and tried to take one of the wounded newsmen to a hospital. Two children in the van were badly wounded. “Well, it’s their fault for bringing their kids into a battle,” one American remarked.
The videotaped incident – entitled “Collateral Murder” by Wikileaks – occurred on July 12, 2007, in the midst of President Bush’s much-heralded troop “surge,” which the U.S. news media has widely credited for reducing violence in Iraq and bringing something close to victory for the United States.....
Terror Can Work
The indiscriminate use of military force has been cited by many analysts as a factor in the anti-Americanism that has fueled the Iraqi insurgency, but terror also has its advantages. As tyrants have learned throughout history, at some point violent repression does work.
With the total Iraqi death toll estimated in the hundreds of thousands and many more Iraqis horribly maimed, the society has been deeply traumatized.
The kind of U.S. firepower on display in the Wikileaks video – after having been concentrated on alleged Iraqi insurgents and civilian bystanders for more than five years – might well have slaughtered enough Iraqis to convince others to look to their own survival.
Yet, today’s conventional wisdom in Washington is celebratory. The “surge” is hailed as Bush’s finest hour as he showed the steely resolve needed to pull victory out of the jaws of defeat. After all, most of the U.S. news media stars supported the Iraq invasion....."
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