Editor and Publisher: Too risky to report Fallujah dead

[DeepModem Mom]

Thanks to happyending, who posted in GD --


U.S. Reporters Unable to Probe Killings in Fallujah

By E&P Staff

Published: April 15, 2004 10:25 AM EST

NEW YORK Normally, when charges of high civilian casualties in war emerge -- as they have this week in Iraq -- independent reporters attempt to arrive on the scene for a full assessment. But with kidnappings and other threats to the security of journalists rising in Iraq, those kinds of eyewitness probes, at least from Western reporters, may be few and far between.

This has already had dire consequences, with the truth in hot dispute, as the U.S. military denies wrongdoing in the siege of Fallujah while Arab television and other press accounts document an estimated 600 dead in that city and 1,200 wounded, many of them women and children.

The accusations of mass killings in Fallujah, and on a smaller scale in other cities in the past week, have led some Iraqi Governing Council members to criticize the U.S. military and threaten to resign. It has also fed rising anti-American anger in the country. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have both expressed concerns about the civilian toll....

***

Paul Slavin, a senior vice president of ABC News, told (WSJ reporter Julia) Angwin the situation was "out of control. If it does stay out of control, we will have a huge problem in how we cover this story." Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times, said his reporters in Baghdad had been asked to stay within city limits and admitted to Angwin, "I think you have to ask yourself periodically, 'Is it safe to be there at all?'"...


http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000487569

[DEMVET-USMC]

1. I give Marines benefit of any doubt !

Regarding these vague at best reports of high civilian casualties ,I believe the Marines. I base this on my experieces in VIET NAM and the reportage at that time. We used to go up against NVA units in areas where there were no civilians and kill large numbers < an entire regimate of 3,000 + NVA SOLDIERS in one night> . This happened in the Spring of 1969. Not a word of it was ever mentioned, whereas anytime U.S. Forces took casualties it was mentioned. Of course we lost some men < about 50 dead > and 2 of the 4 tanks were destroyed, but it was still a huge victory for us and it does not surprise me that the MARINES COULD KILL 600 COMBATANTS with as few of men lost as were. We got sold short by the media in Nam, please do not do it to these men and women. They are being called upon to do so much, including having 1 year "tours" extended 3 months. We had many battles and if they could they would remove their dead so as to make the people back in the U.S. think things were going worse than they were. I am torn to peices by this Iraq war and don`t have an answer. I know Marines and they kick ass. They DO NOT TARGET CIVILIANS. ...Oscar

[Catt03]

2. I think I can believe

the "marines" as you state but not the leadership.

Don't you think it rather odd that US citizens of the most open democracy in the world, cannot get correct information about what the leaders of ouw country are doing in our name? And that a country with a free press continues to hold back ANY information about a conflict that endangers everyone of us?

[MSgt213]

3. Very good post DEMVET. I would add the following thoughts

It is very difficult for the average American to understand what our Marines and Soldiers are going through in Iraq because a lot have never been through what they are going through. I am not trying to insult the intelligence of the average American nor make excuses for American forces killing non-combatants. Every battle and war our forces face is different from the make up and background of the Marine and Solider to food eaten in the country they find themselves fighting in. Everyone reading this post and every news or media report of something happening in Iraq needs to understand one thing clearly.

You know every Marine and Soldier in Iraq. They are the sons, daughers, sisters, brothers, cousins, uncles, nieces, grand childern, husbands, wifes, neighbors and coworkers of us all. They are being led by those same young men and women that we all know. You know what they were taught. What they learn as kids. Because you learn the same thing. You know that they value life even though most have'nt even lived it yet.

You also know they are not taught to hide behind women and childern and fire their weapons or threaten to kill them and their entire families if they cooperate with the opposing fighters. You know they are not taught to capture innocent Iraqis and threaten to burn them alive if they don't get their way. You know they are not taught to drive cars up to check points and blow everyone there up or lob grenades into crowds.

You also should know that before they can protect the Iraqi people they have to protect themselves from the dangers mentioned above and more. You know if they commit one of those cowardly and dispicable acts they will be punished and condemned by the very people that sent into harms way to fight for their lives. You also know they are there not doing gods work, but doing our work. Imposing our will on people they don't know. They are taking lives on one block and saving them on the next. You know anything an American President or member of congress every said to the world would mean nothing without them. You also know when they come back with their body and minds scared that the very people cheering them on to fight are going to find it way to expensive to care for them because IBM needs a tax break to take jobs overseas.

There are 134 thousand stories in Iraq right now. I would bet over 99% of those stories are good but, will never make the news.

But really. How interesting is it to watch a Marine or Solider, who has'nt had a shower or change of clothes for days, standing in the hot sun, wearing a helment that is giving him or her a headache, exposed to snipers and car bombs having to direct traffic because some company which is making millions of dollars and paying it's workers thousands of dollars more then that Marine or Solider makes in a 4 year tour does'nt want to expose it's workers to those same dangers to fix the traffic lights.

Every mistake a 23 year lieutenent leading even younger men and women into battles for their lives makes will though. Every bullet fired or bomb that goes astray and hits the wrong or an unintended target will.

[DeepModem Mom]

4. Thanks so much, MSgt213 -- and DEMVET --

for your thoughts and perspective.

[tomreedtoon]

5. With all due respect...

Let me start by saying that, although I never served, my father did - nobly, in two wars - and I listened to what he said.

In war, you do what you have to do to accomplish your mission and stay alive. In a situation where you don't know who your enemy is - when there's literally a bomb behind every flower - you will find yourself doing things that, in a more rational environment, you would never do.

Our men and women in uniform are in a war where their goals are undefined and their leaders have no clear objective. They have been put in harm's way for purposes that they have begun to sense are false. They are seeing "civilian contractors" take on military-like tasks without bearing the discipline and training they had to endure, and far outside the chain of command.

I have no doubt that our soldiers are doing things every day that will haunt them the rest of their lives. I do not blame them. I will not make them bear a yoke of shame for what they did to stay alive and perform their duties. Rather, I will blame the civilian politicians - few of whom can be truly called "elected" officials - who sent them into this war under false pretexts.

A friend of mine works as a psychiatric counselor in a veterans' hospital. He and the rest of the staff are bracing for the day that the soldiers come home from the Iraq war. They don't fear the agonies the vets will bring back with them - they know too well what that's like. They fear that the budget cutbacks Bush has instituted will cripple their ability to help those who need it most, those who earned that help from their country.

My only hope is that, if John Kerry is elected, our shabby and shameful veteran support programs are reworked, to provide those who suffered for our country some degree of understanding and support.

[anarchy1999]

6. You might want to read a little more - expand your horizons.....

Rahul Mahajan at www.empirenotes.org

Jo Wilding at www.wildfirejo.org.uk and

Dahr Jamail at www.newstandardnews.net

Also Robert Fisk.

Don't miss Stan Goff either!

April 13, 2004

A Rant
The Bridge
By STAN GOFF

WARNING: This commentary may cause anxiety.

The United States government has initiated a chain reaction that it can no longer control. The stalled vengeance assault on Fallujah is merely a symptom. So is the uprising triggered by the US closure of a Shia newspaper in Sadr City, Baghdad, followed by gunning down the demonstrators who protested (Ah, yes, we don’t even hear about that when they talk about the latest demon, Muqtada al-Sadr… Memory is so short.).

The chain reaction is far broader and deeper than the battlefield fiasco in Iraq right now. Once brown people start to pick up guns, other brown people follow suit. The myth of invincibility of the United States military -- called into question even before the Bush Doctrine arrived at this particular Iraqi cul-de-sac -- is shattered. No one is shocked. No one is awed.
http://www.counterpunch.org/goff04132004.html


June 10, 2000 International Tribunal for U.S./NATO War Crimes in Yugoslavia

Stan Goff is a retired U.S. Army officer whose experience in Africa and Latin America in "Special Operations" exposed him to many of the Pentagon’s crimes. He sent these remarks for inclusion in the evidence presented to the tribunal.

I want to thank Sara Flounders and the International Action Center for asking me to testify before this body. I apologize for being unable to actually be at the tribunal.

My name is Stan Goff. In February of 1996, at the terminus of an indescribable role conflict, I retired from the United States Army, where I had worked since January 1970. I spent the majority of my military service in a field euphemistically called Special Operations; which included Paratroop, Ranger, Special Forces, and so-called Counter-Terrorist assignments. Beginning in Vietnam, I was sent to eight countries that were actively designated as "conflict areas." Those included Grenada, Somalia, El Salvador, Colombia, Guatemala, Peru, and Haiti. I also trained troops in Panama, Venezuela, Honduras, and Korea. I taught Military Science at the US Military Academy at West Point and tactics at the Army's Jungle School in Panama. I worked in some cases directly under the supervision of the US Embassy.
http://www.iacenter.org/warcrime/sgoff.htm

Stan Goff is the author of "Hideous Dream: A Soldier's Memoir of the US Invasion of Haiti" (Soft Skull Press, 2000) and of the upcoming book "Full Spectrum Disorder" (Soft Skull Press, 2003). He is a member of the BRING THEM HOME NOW! coordinating committee, a retired Special Forces master sergeant, and the father of an active duty soldier. Email for BRING THEM HOME NOW! is [e-mail].