[Peace-discuss] A letter to the editor that would not be printed in the NYT

[Morton K.Brussel]

The Siege of Falluja

By Mike Whitney

  Al-Jazeerah, April 12, 2004

 

“As of noon today coalition forces have a unilateral suspension of 
offensive operations in Falluja” Proconsul Paul Bremer.

Minutes after Bremer's announcement, US forces carried out a fresh 
offensive on Falluja bombing the town from the air. Scores of residents 
were injured in the attack. Reported on Al Jazeerah.

  “Make the enemy reveal himself as the true, hated criminal.”

  Che’ Guevara

  The siege of Falluja establishes the United States Military as the 
foremost terrorist organization in the world today. No one else even 
comes close.

  In the hands of the Bush Administration the Army has morphed into a 
carpet bagging institution designed to purloin and protect foreign 
resources and, now, to carry out personal vendettas against civilian 
populations.

  This is the real meaning of Falluja; revenge, pure and simple.

  The battle itself was designed to respond to the brutal killing of 
military contractors in Falluja last week.

  4 Americans were killed.

  In retaliation more than 400 Iraqis have been killed and more than 
1000 injured.

  Unfortunately, the massive loss of life has not yet satisfied the 
bloodlust of those in Washington, so the onslaught continues.

  We can only wonder how much devastation will have to occur and how 
many Iraqis will have to die to atone for the death of 4 mercenaries?

  Perhaps, when the tally of dead Iraqis approaches the 1000 mark and 
the city is left in rubble, the score will be considered settled.

  The operation has been conducted with mathematical precision to 
inflict the maximum amount of pain. We’re not talking about liberation 
any more; this is all about “payback.” The entire city of 300,000 has 
been surrounded with razor wire, cutting off both medical and food 
supplies. This allows the Marines to pick and choose their fights and 
crush the resistance on their own timetable.

  As one anonymous Marine said, “We have engaged the enemy in many 
firefights, and not lost one of them.”

  Indeed.

  The “strategic bombing” of the Abdul-Aziz al-Samarrai Mosque compound 
which killed an estimated 40 people (many of them at prayer) 
articulated the primary rule of engagement under the Bush 
Administration: there are no rules.

  It makes no difference if a Mosque is violated, or if prisoners are 
brutalized during interrogation, or if a wedding party is bombed. (as 
was the case in Afghanistan) It can all be rationalized under rubric of 
the war on terror.

  This is how the killing of innocent people and the collective 
punishment of 300,000 (in Falluja ) can be justified without blinking 
an eye.

  This is how helicopter gun ships, F-16’s, laser guided missals, Abrams 
Tanks and the full array of high-tech military hardware can be employed 
against a civilian population without fear of criticism in the press.

  We count on the likes of Wolf Blitzer and Tom Freidman to transform 
these conspicuous acts of barbarity into a narrative of personal 
heroism and commitment to democratic principle.

  There’s no doubt that if Freidman had covered the My Lai Massacre in 
Vietnam, we would still be talking about the “Great Victory of My Lai” 
some 30 years later.

  The unevenness of these battles never seems to bother the American 
public. The fact that that $400 billion a year Goliath, like the US 
Military, can rain down 500lb bombs on city streets, killing guilty and 
innocent alike, is never within the range of public debate.

  Instead, our sympathies are shifted to the great sacrifice the 
occupiers are making in crushing nationalist movements.

  Yes, the American soldiers are victims in this game of imperial 
expansion, too. But that certainly does not justify the suffering of 
the Iraqi people or the enormous disparity of weaponry between the 
warring factions.

  Do we need to be reminded that Iraq does not have an army?

  The current campaign is the equivalent of an adult man beating a child 
with a baseball bat; there’s no parity whatsoever.

  Again, the media portrays this disadvantage in glowing terms, as 
though God, in his infinite wisdom, chose the schoolyard bully to be 
his agent in the world.

  Nonsense.

  By any standard, the townspeople who are defending their city are the 
real heroes. They are armed with nothing more than a few Kalashnikovs 
and their steely resolve. They know they have no chance of winning, but 
they continue the struggle regardless.

  It illustrates both their love of country and their brazen defiance of 
oppression.

  Certainly there is no one in the Bush Administration who even 
approaches this standard of bravery.

  As for the American servicemen, even the dumbest American “grunt” must 
know by now that this war has nothing to do with “God and Country.” 
They know we were hoodwinked into this conflict, and they’re probably 
just trying to stay alive until they finish their tour of duty.

  Regrettably, “the Americans who died in Iraq, did not die for their 
country”, as historian Howard Zinn has said. “They died for their 
government.”

  Some have suggested that what we are seeing in Iraq is the inevitable 
decline of America’s fortunes.

  This may be so, but it is no less painful to see the application of 
these brutish theories translate into cold-blooded murder.

  Falluja is a particularly heinous example of the criminality that 
flows from Washington disguised as policy. Already, the ghoulish 
pictures of dead babies are crowding the pages and web sites of the 
Arab press.

  These are Iraqi children, who were ruthlessly killed in their own 
country at the hands of invaders.

  They won’t be forgotten.
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