US press justifies slaughter in Iraq

[Aidoneus]

What is this??--a Presidential candidate that isn't a gutless eunuch?!

US press justifies slaughter in Iraq
By Bill Van Auken
13 April 2004

The uprising sweeping Iraq has shaken the confidence of ruling circles in the US, and this has found unmistakable expression in the press. The lead editorial in Sunday’s New York Times, entitled “The Story Line in Iraq,” begins by comparing the Iraqi revolt against the US occupation to the 1968 Tet offensive in Vietnam.

It warns that while the US military was able to crush the Tet offensive, it “marked the beginning of a shift in the attitude of the American public” toward the US intervention in Vietnam.

The Times adds: “The lesson of Tet that President Bush needs to embrace is that the American people will faithfully follow a commander in chief through a difficult course, but only if they have faith in the mission.”

There are many lessons from Tet worth remembering. The US military response gave rise to the infamous words of a US officer explaining the annihilation of an entire village: “We had to destroy it in order to save it.”

A similar campaign has unfolded in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, where F- 16s, Apache helicopters, artillery and tank fire have been unleashed against densely populated residential areas, killing at least 600 and wounding more than twice that number. Medical officials in the town report that the majority of these casualties are women, children and the elderly.

Fallujah has produced its own bloodthirsty statements expressing the brutality of Washington’s occupation and its gross indifference to human life. Asked about the dead in the city, a Marine lieutenant colonel responded: “The fact that there are 600 goes back to the fact that the Marines are very good at what they do.”

--snip--

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/apr2004/prss-a13.shtml

[NeoConsSuck]

1. Thanks Aidoneus

I had just finished reading the article and I came to DU to find you had already linked it.

It's not news that the US media hasn't reported any of this. There was nothing in the US media about the war crimes committed in Afghanistan either:

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/dec2001/pows-d07.shtml

I'm a frequent reader and contributor to wsws. I wish more articles would be posted at DU, but then visitors might think of us as <gasp> commie, pinko leftist bastards :)

It is so sad regarding US media. At one time, they use to be journalists, and not mouthpieces for the neocon movement.

[cornfedyank]

2. the escalation begins

next could be the draft if this election goes wrong.
<snip>
A senior American commander last night requested up to 10,000 extra troops to be sent to Iraq as the coalition struggled to maintain control in the troubled central region.

General John Abizaid, the head of US Central Command, said that he had asked the Pentagon for two more "strong and mobile" brigades.

"What I have asked for is essentially to have a strong mobile combat arms capability. That's probably about two brigades' worth of combat power, if not more." A US Army brigade numbers between 3,000 and 5,000 men

i bet we hear about this tonight.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1-1072600,00.html

wage peace ----- it's cheaper.

[gottaB]

3. Fullest quote from Mr. Byrne?

Fallujah Death Toll

Asked about the report of 600 dead, Marine Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne said: "What I think you will find is 95 percent of those were military age males that were killed in the fighting."

"The Marines are trained to be precise in their firepower .... The fact that there are 600 goes back to the fact that the Marines are very good at what they do," he said.

That's a bloody outrage.