[Peace-discuss] Yes, we need more Amy Goodmans

[Morton K.Brussel]

Crushing Fallujah, 2
When asked to pity courageous American soldiers caught in the 
"unfortunate" morass of Iraq, and then reading reports such as is given 
below, by David Edwards, on ZNet, I can hardly restrain a deep anger. 
These soldiers, and their leaders, must be condemned for what they 
represent, the dregs of humanity. Fallujah is an atrocity, and it is 
not the only one.  The Iraeli soldiers seen in Jenin, Jenin, the film 
shown last week at the University, but witnessed by only a relative 
few, were of a similar breed. Men becoming vicious animals.

by David Edwards
Media Lens
  April 23, 2004
  Target Rich Slums

  Sniping specialists say of Falluja that there may not have been such a 
"target rich" battlefield for that kind of killing since the World War 
II battle for Stalingrad. The Los Angeles Times reports that US snipers 
have been killing hundreds of insurgents:

  "Sometimes a guy will go down, and I'll let him scream a bit to 
destroy the morale of his buddies," a Marine corporal said, "then I'll 
use a second shot." ('For Marine snipers, war is up close and 
personal', Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times, April 19, 2004)

  In nearly two weeks of conflict in Falluja, the unnamed corporal has 
emerged as the top sniper, with 24 confirmed kills. By comparison, the 
top Marine Corps sniper in Vietnam killed 103 people in 16 months. "I 
couldn't have asked to be in a better place," the corporal said. "I 
just got lucky: to be here at the right time and with the right 
training."

  Others have been less fortunate. As ever, dissident Jo Wilding is all 
but alone in providing some of the missing detail:

  "In the street there's a man, face down, in a white dishdasha, a small 
red stain on his back. As we roll him on to the stretcher, my colleague 
Dave's hand goes through his chest, through the cavity left by the 
bullet that entered so neatly through his back and blew his heart out. 
There's no weapon in his hand. When we arrive, his sons come out, 
crying, shouting. 'He was unarmed,' they scream. 'He just went out the 
gate and they shot him.' None of them has dared come out since. Nobody 
had dared come to get his body, horrified, terrified, forced to violate 
the traditions of treating the body immediately... The people seem to 
pour out of the houses now in the hope we can escort them safely out of 
the line of fire, kids, women, men anxiously asking us whether they can 
all go, or only the women and children." (Wilding, 'Eyewitness in 
Fallujah', Sunday Herald, April 18, 2004. See also 
:http://www.wildfirejo.blogspot.com")

  The truth of this bloodbath has not been told by our media. The tone 
says it all: US "contracted civilians", in fact mercenaries, were 
"horribly butchered" by insurgents in Falluja while Iraqi civilians 
were merely "killed" or "caught in crossfire" (ITN Lunchtime News, 
April 7-10). The taking of Western hostages was "horrific", "one of the 
dirtiest tactics of war", ITN reported - the US devastation of Falluja 
was "fierce fighting". The media's heavy emphasis on the taking of 
hostages suggested that even the threat of Westerners dying was 
considered more important than the actual deaths of Iraqis.

Etc.
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