[Peace-discuss] The US lies and tortures children
C. G. Estabrook
galliher at illinois.edu
Wed Apr 28 01:18:44 CDT 2010
Published on Tuesday, April 27, 2010 by Salon.com
War Propaganda from Afghanistan
by Glenn Greenwald
The New York Times yesterday excitedly declared that the imminent Battle of
Kandahar "has become the make-or-break offensive of the eight-and-half-year
[Afghanistan] war" and is "the pivotal test of President Obama's Afghanistan
strategy." As Atrios suggests, there never is any such thing as "make-or-break"
because we never leave no matter how completely our war and occupation efforts
fail. That's what led to the countless Friedman Units of the Iraq War: the
endless proclamations that The Next Six Months will be Decisive, only to be
repeated at the end of the six-month period of failure as though the prior one
never happened.
Just consider what's being said now about how the Kandahar offensive is the
"make-or-break" battle of the war and the "pivotal test" for Obama's war
strategy by comparing it to what was said a mere two months ago about the now
clearly failing assault on Marjah:
Times of London, February 13, 2010:
"Allied troops launched a major offensive into Afghanistan's most violent
province last night, in a key part of President Obama's push to seize control of
the Taleban's last big stronghold. . . . If it fails, many analysts believe that
the war will be lost."
The Independent declared on February 9, 2010, that General McChrystal wants the
Marjah offensive to "be one of the most significant in the country since the
fall of the Taliban in 2001" and, of Obama's war strategy, said that "Marjah
looks like being its first major -- and possibly decisive -- test." The BBC
quoted a NATO official who proclaimed that Marjah "was 'probably the definitive
operation' of the counter-insurgency strategy" and "this operation could
potentially define the tipping point, the crucial momentum aspect in the
counter-insurgency." Time helpfully informed us that "U.S. officials believe it
will mark a turning point in the war."
Now that that "make-or-break decisive test" has failed (or, at best, has
produced very muddled outcomes), did the Government and media follow through and
declare the war effort broken and the strategy a failure? No; they just pretend
it never happened and declare the next, latest, glorious Battle the real
"make-or-break decisive test" -- until that one fails and the next one is
portrayed that way, in an endless tidal wave of war propaganda intended to
justify our staying for as long as we want, no matter how pointless and
counter-productive it is.
* * * * *
Speaking of war propaganda, today is a very proud day for the U.S.: the
military commission ordered by Eric Holder begins for Omar Khadr, a
Canadian-born, Afghanistan-residing detainee encaged at Guantanamo for seven
years -- since he was 15 years old -- on "war crimes" and "terrorism" charges
that he was involved in a firefight with American military forces who,
revealingly enough, were using a former Soviet military base as their outpost.
Khadr was wounded in the battle, imprisoned at Bagram, then at Guantanamo,
claims he was severely tortured into falsely confessing, and made worldwide news
when a video of him weeping, begging for medical help, and crying for his mother
during an interrogation was released. Apparently, if the U.S. Army invades a
foreign country, anyone who fights against that invading force -- including a
15-year-old boy -- is a "war criminal" and a "Terrorist," even the Worst of The
Worst, which is, of course, all that we're currently holding at Guantanamo. Now
that's some robust propaganda.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/04/27-8
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