[Peace-discuss] The Air War in Iraq

[jencart at mailstation.com]

Yes, and predicted to get worse as troops are brought home.  We know that the current US admin has NO intention of ending the war or leaving Iraq.  "Bring the troops home now" is becoming code for replacing the unwinnable ground war -- that at least looks like a war, keeps the public aware and worried and has the "advantage" of killing fewer Iraqi civilians -- w/ air strikes that will take fewer American lives, be ignorable and ignored and will -- indiscriminately -- kill far more Iraqi civilians...  Does anyone actually think otherwise??  

Are there enough of us to elect politicians who can and will change US policy for the better?  

Jenifer   

-----Original Message-----
>From: David Green <davegreen84 at yahoo.com>
>Sent: Jan 3, 2006 5:37 PM
>To: Peace Discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
>Subject: [Peace-discuss] The Air War in Iraq
>
>A submission to the Chicago Tribune:
>
>Date: Tue, 3 Jan 2006 03:35:36 EST
>
>From: Annette Jacobson 
>
>To: ctc-COMMENT at tribune.com 
>
>Sent: Wednesday, December 28, 2005 10:58 PM
>
>Subject: Air War in Iraq
>
>Op-Ed Page, The Chicago Tribune                       
>                       
>                         December 29, 2005
>
>
>Dear Editor,
>
>A small news headline, "US Air Strikes Take Toll on
>Civilians" 
>[Washington 
>Post, 12/25/05] reveals that there is an ongoing air
>war in Iraq, and 
>it is 
>largely being waged without publicity or major media
>reporting, except 
>in 
>scattered and short military announcements, and rarely
>taking civilian 
>casualties into 
>account. Air strikes by the US military in Iraq have
>surged this fall, 
>jumping to nearly five times the average monthly rate
>earlier in the 
>year, according 
>to US military figures. The Post report is a major
>exception in news 
>reporting about it:
>
>"US Marine air strikes targeting insurgents sheltering
>in Iraqi 
>residential 
>neighborhoods are killing civilians as well as
>guerrillas...according 
>to Iraqi 
>townspeople and officials and the US military. Just
>how many civilians 
>have 
>been killed is strongly disputed by the Marines, and
>some critics say 
>too little 
>investigated. But townspeople, tribal leaders, medical
>workers and 
>witnesses 
>at the sites of clashes, at hospitals and graveyards
>indicated that 
>scores of 
>noncombatants were killed last month in fighting,
>including air 
>strikes, in 
>the opening stages of a 17-day US-Iraqi offensive in
>Anbar 
>province...Medical 
>workers had recorded 97 civilians killed. At least 38
>insurgents were 
>also 
>killed in the offensive's early days."
>
>Though it receives little coverage in the US media,
>the Air Force, 
>Marines, 
>and Navy have flown thousands of missions in support
>of ground 
>offensives in 
>Iraq. Independent Canadian journalist Dahr Jamail in a
>published 
>article in 
>mid-December quoted figures provided by Central
>Command Air Force's 
>public affairs 
>office showing that the number of air missions
>including air support 
>grew 
>from 1,111 - in September 2005 alone - to 1,492 in
>November. News 
>reports focus 
>on mainly ground action, but the whole panoply of US
>and Coalition 
>aircraft 
>carry out attacks daily, including front line Air
>Force and Navy 
>fighters, as 
>well as Marine attack planes and unmanned Predator
>aircraft armed with 
>Hellfire 
>missiles.
>
>The Air Force claims that 70 percent of all munitions
>they use are 
>"precision-guided" and that "every possible precaution
>is taken to 
>protect innocent 
>Iraqi civilians, facilities and infrastructure." This
>benign 
>pronouncement by the 
>people-friendly Pentagon fails to describe a
>distinction between how 
>much 
>protection precision-guided bombs provide and the
>actual devastation on 
>the ground 
>they cause.
>
>Bombs used range in explosive power from 250 to 2000
>pounds; they were 
>used 
>extensively during the massive operation recently in
>Fallujah, and now 
>in towns 
>and cities in western Anbar province and the Euphrates
>river valley. 
>Also 
>used in Fallujah was the 500 pound fire bomb
>(equivalent of Napalm), 
>also the 
>infamous White Phosphorous (recently disclosed on
>Italian television 
>and 
>subsequently admitted to by the US)
>
>- 2 -
>
>As reported by Dahr Jamail, the 2000 pound variety has
>the capacity to 
>blast 
>a crater in a concrete street 70 feet in diameter and
>30 feet deep, has 
>a 
>blast radius of 110 feet within which a human being
>will die, while 
>fragmentation 
>from the bomb casing can achieve velocities up to 9000
>feet a second 
>and reach 
>areas over 3000 feet away from the detonation site.
>
>
>Since the bombing runs are regularly conducted in
>densely-inhabited 
>areas of 
>cities and towns 
>
>where much of the resistance is located, it is obvious
>that scores of 
>people 
>within the range of detonation will be killed or
>severely injured. Thus 
>the 
>cynical public relations caveat of "precision-guided"
>is empty of 
>meaning with 
>respect to civilian casualties 
>
>Soon it will be three years since the start of the
>American-led 
>invasion of 
>Iraq. The estimates of Iraqi civilians killed range
>from 30,000 to 
>118,000, the 
>numbers of injured in hospital wards and neighborhoods
>are two to three 
>times 
>those numbers.
>
>The recent talk in Washington is about withdrawing
>some troops from 
>Iraq, and 
>because there is very little reporting about the air
>war, the public is 
>led 
>to assume that a reduction of American troop levels
>will mean a drop in 
>the 
>carnage carried out by the US. 
>
>But in the in-depth report by Seymour Hersh in the New
>Yorker he 
>states: "A 
>key element of the drawdown plans, not mentioned in
>the president's 
>public 
>statements, is that the departing American troops will
>be replaced by 
>[increased] 
>American air power." One is left to wonder how much
>more devastation 
>can be 
>sustained by the Iraqi people more than that already
>caused by the 
>current 
>levels of American air power dropped specifically on
>densely populated 
>urban areas 
>of that country?
>
>And, as Hersh states, "As yet, neither Congress nor
>the public has 
>engaged in 
>a significant discussion or debate about the air war."
>And one reason 
>for 
>that (among others) is that the major US news media
>are not widely 
>reporting on 
>the extent of the urban bombardment, nor the resulting
>slaughter and 
>horrendous 
>consequences for the people who suffer under it.
>
>Annette Jacobson
>Highland Park, Il.
>
>
>
>		
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