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"[...] But the U.S. government is horrified by the idea of releasing
more photos and videos of torture in Abu Ghraib. It seems that
direct, personal violence, even short of murder, is seen as more
offensive than mass-murder by aerial assault.
<p>I think these weaknesses in how visual documentation of killing
in war is perceived can be overcome, and that in fact a greater
volume of videos and photos obtained more rapidly could have a
qualitative impact. Most Americans imagine a video like <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0">collateral
murder</a><span style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 0px 5px"></span>
to be an exception. Most have no idea at all that U.S. wars are
one-sided slaughters killing primarily civilians and
overwhelmingly the people who live where the wars are fought. <b>One
video of a family being dismembered by a bomb could be dismissed
as accidental. Tens of thousands of such videos could not be."</b></p>
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<td>[ufpj-activist] The Video That Could Indict the Pentagon
for Murder</td>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">Date: </th>
<td>Thu, 9 Apr 2015 21:57:11 -0400</td>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">From: </th>
<td>David Swanson <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:davidcnswanson@gmail.com"><davidcnswanson@gmail.com></a></td>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">To: </th>
<td><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:media@lists.mayfirst.org">media@lists.mayfirst.org</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:media@lists.mayfirst.org"><media@lists.mayfirst.org></a></td>
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<h1 class="">The Video That Could Indict the Pentagon for Murder</h1>
By David Swanson<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://warisacrime.org/content/video-could-indict-pentagon-murder">http://warisacrime.org/content/video-could-indict-pentagon-murder</a><br>
<p>As Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://us10.campaign-archive1.com/?u=8c573daa3ad72f4a095505b58&id=913422cb5a&e=cc624ad699">points
out</a>, until a video surfaced of South Carolina policeman
Michael Slager murdering Walter Scott, the media was reporting
a package of lies manufactured by the police: a fight that
never occurred, witnesses who didn't exist, the victim taking
the policeman's taser, etc. The lies collapsed because the
video appeared.</p>
<p>I find myself asking why videos of missiles blowing children
into little bits and pieces can't dissolve the stories churned
out by the Pentagon. With several qualifications, I think part
of the answer is that there are not enough videos. The
struggle for the right to videotape the police at home in the
United States should be accompanied by a campaign to provide
video cameras to populations targeted for wars. Of course the
struggle to videotape people dying under a bombing campaign is
at least as great a challenge as videotaping a murderous
policeman, but enough cameras would produce some footage.</p>
<p>There are other parts to the answer as well, of course. One
is complexity, exacerbated by intentional obfuscation. To
explain the current war in Yemen, the <em><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/saudi-air-war-struggles-to-make-gains-as-yemen-fragments/2015/04/09/1a045766-ddf6-11e4-b6d7-b9bc8acf16f7_story.html">Washington
Post</a></em> finds someone to quote saying, "nobody can
figure out either who started this fight or how to end it."</p>
<p>Really? Nobody? The second U.S.-armed dictator in the past
few years is overthrown by militants empowered by opposition
to U.S.-armed dictatorship. This after a Yemeni man <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtQ_mMKx3Ck">told</a><span
style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 0px 5px"></span> the U.S.
Congress to their faces that the U.S. drone strikes were
empowering terrorists. A larger neighboring U.S.-armed
dictatorship in Saudi Arabia starts bombing and threatening to
take over, as in nearby U.S.-armed dictatorship Bahrain. Saudi
U.S. weapons are destroying piles of Yemeni U.S. weapons, and
nobody can figure anything out?</p>
<p>Here are some U.S. children hiding from Soviet nukes many
years ago, and a Yemeni child hiding from U.S. drone strikes
more recently (<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1403/S00093/fear-is-fear-no-matter-where-you-are-from.htm">source</a>).
How does that alone not indict anyone?</p>
<p><br>
<img moz-do-not-send="true" alt=""
src="http://warisacrime.org/sites/afterdowningstreet.org/files/duck___cover_us_yeme.jpg"
style="height: 280px; width: 800px;"></p>
<p>Here are <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://supportyemen.org/airstrike-stories/">photos and
stories</a> of innocent children murdered with U.S. drones
in Yemen. How does that not indict anyone?</p>
<p>Beyond complexity and obfuscation and the justification of
pretended rationales and euphemized explanations like
"collateral damage," lies the problem of getting Americans to
give a damn about people far away. But the U.S. government is
horrified by the idea of releasing more photos and videos of
torture in Abu Ghraib. It seems that direct, personal
violence, even short of murder, is seen as more offensive than
mass-murder by aerial assault.</p>
<p>I think these weaknesses in how visual documentation of
killing in war is perceived can be overcome, and that in fact
a greater volume of videos and photos obtained more rapidly
could have a qualitative impact. Most Americans imagine a
video like <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0">collateral
murder</a><span style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 0px 5px"></span>
to be an exception. Most have no idea at all that U.S. wars
are one-sided slaughters killing primarily civilians and
overwhelmingly the people who live where the wars are fought.
One video of a family being dismembered by a bomb could be
dismissed as accidental. Tens of thousands of such videos
could not be.</p>
<p>Of course, logically, war victim selfie videos ought not to
be needed. It's no secret that the U.S. wars on Iraq and
Afghanistan and Pakistan and Yemen and Libya have fueled
greater violence and failed utterly to drop little baskets of
liberty and democracy on the people being burned to death. It
ought to be no secret that 80 to 90 percent of the weapons in
the supposedly inherently violent region of the Middle East
are U.S.-made. The White House does not deny that it has
significantly increased weapons sales to that region among
others. With no plan for success and open confession that
"there is no military solution" it rushes more weapons into
war after war with no end in sight.</p>
<p>But words don't seem to do the job. Explaining that police
were getting away with murder wasn't producing any
indictments. A video finally indicted a cop. Now we need the
video that can indict the world's policeman.</p>
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<p><b>David Swanson </b>is an author, activist,
journalist, and radio host. He is director of <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://WorldBeyondWar.org" target="_blank">WorldBeyondWar.org</a>
and campaign coordinator for <a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://RootsAction.org"
target="_blank">RootsAction.org</a>. Swanson's books
include <i><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://warisalie.org/" target="_blank">War
Is A Lie</a></i>. He blogs at <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://davidswanson.org/" target="_blank">DavidSwanson.org</a>
and <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://warisacrime.org/" target="_blank">WarIsACrime.org</a>.
He hosts <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://davidswanson.org/taxonomy/term/41"
target="_blank">Talk Nation Radio</a>.<b> </b>He is
a <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://davidswanson.org/node/4682"
target="_blank">2015 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee</a>.<br>
</p>
<p>Follow him on Twitter: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://twitter.com/davidcnswanson"
target="_blank">@davidcnswanson</a> and <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/David-Swanson/297768373319#"
target="_blank">FaceBook</a>. </p>
<p>Sign up for occasional important activist alerts here
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://davidswanson.org/signup"
target="_blank">http://davidswanson.org/signup</a></p>
<p>Sign up for articles or press releases here <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://davidswanson.org/lists" target="_blank">http://davidswanson.org/lists</a></p>
<p>This email may be unlawfully collected, held, and
read by the NSA which violates our freedoms using the
justification of immoral, illegal wars absurdly
described as being somehow<i> for </i>freedom.<br>
</p>
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