-Caveat Lector-
Now, I Am the Terrorist
By William Rivers Pitt
From: http://truthout.org/docs_03/032303A.shtml
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Friday 21 March 2003
The city of Baghdad, founded in 762 A.D. under the name Madinat
as-Salam � 'City of Peace' � is this day a lake of fire. The
opening stage of the Bush administration's "Shock and Awe" attack
plan began as night fell on Iraq, and lived terribly up to its
terrible name. CBS news is reporting that great swaths of residential
neighborhoods within Baghdad have been engulfed in flames. One
can trust, perhaps, the ability of a cruise missile to hit a
bullseye from many miles away. One cannot be so precise in predicting
which way the resulting fires will blow.
In the great earthquake in San Francisco in 1906, people
were not killed so much by the shaking. They were killed by the
firestorm that sucked the air from their lungs and reduced them
to ash before they could flee. So it seems to be today in Baghdad.
Baghdad is a city of 5 million people, half of whom are
under the age of fifteen, most of whom are too poor to flee.
Now, a great many of those people are dead, burned in their
homes and on their streets.
The American television media provided all of us with a
Dresden-eye view of the attack. Huge mushroom clouds bloomed
from the streets as buildings blazed and fell. The thunder of
the explosions was so loud that television speakers became distorted
with the sound of the concussion. The sky lit up as though the
sun was rising. It was a fitting image, for a new day in world
history has dawned.
Much has been made of the precision of our vaunted arsenal
of bombs and missiles, as if they can go into a building and
find the second door on the left before they explode. The truth
is far more dire. When a B-2 bomber drops a 2,000 lb. JDAM munition,
everyone and everything within a 120 meter radius is instantly
killed. Anyone within a 365 meter radius risks severe shrapnel
wounds. To be totally safe, one must be 1,000 meters away from
the epicenter of the explosion. Imagine how many homes can fit
into 1,000 meters, and never mind the firestorm.
American Marines have died securing petroleum facilities,
and in a helicopter crash. If Iraqi forces do not surrender
soon, American forces will attack Baghdad from the ground. The
loss of life among our people will grow exponentially if a
Stalingrad-style
fight unfolds in Baghdad and Tikrit. On Tom Brokaw's CBS News
broadcast, the father of one of the soldiers killed in the helicopter
crash held a picture of his son to the camera and shouted, "Take
a look, Bush. You killed my only son."
Those who stand against this attack are dunned as "Not supporting
the troops." One might suggest the best way to support troops
is to see them brought home safely. One might also suggest that
support continues after the shooting stops. This does not appear
to be on the agenda for the Republican Party. A vote along party
lines today in the House Budget Committee slashed $9.7 billion
from veterans disability compensation programs, as well as from
other programs. These cuts, pushed through the committee by
the majority-holding Republicans, are part of the plan to see
Bush's new $1.57 trillion tax cut through. Wave that flag, George.
Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld, when asked by a reporter
whether the Iraqi people would cheer Americans after this attack,
stated that Baghdad's civilians would welcome us. This defies
known history in Japan and Germany and Vietnam; those populations,
after absorbing saturation bombing, hardened their resistance.
American television purported to show Iraqi civilians cheering
a soldier who tore down a picture of Hussein, but a Sky News
reporter walking Baghdad's streets reported that, to a man, everyone
he spoke with spat hatred and derision for this American attack.
On September 11th, I sat in numb horror as the images of
carnage unfolded before me on the television. On that day, I
was the victim of terrorism, along with every other American.
Today, I sit in numbed horror as more carnage unfolds. Hundreds
of massive missiles have rained down on a city far away, killing
indiscriminately among the young, the infirm, the old and the
innocent. My government did this. My nation did this. My leaders
did this. Today, I am the terrorist.
So are you.
There is no justification for this attack. Saddam Hussein
and his forces had been effectively disarmed by the first Gulf
War, by the UNSCOM inspections, and by the more recent UNMOVIC
inspections. According to Hussein Kamel, son-in-law to Saddam
Hussein whose comments to the UN in 1991 were recently reported
in a buried Newsweek story, Iraq was pretty much disarmed of
mass destruction weapons even before the first war. The Bush
administration, in pushing for this war, has foisted lie after
lie after lie upon the American people and the world. The world
didn't buy it, but they weren't dependent upon lapdog media sources
like ours for their data.
We are the terrorists now, stupid underinformed terrorists
who dance to the tune of a corporate media machine that will
profit wildly from this attack. NBC, MSNBC and CNBC are owned
by General Electric, one of the largest defense contractors on
earth. They will be paid handsomely in military contracts because
of this, as they always have been. Yet GE gives us the news
we need to understand what is happening.
Americans are not often afforded the opportunity to witness
a war crime live on television. Today's actions bring to mind
a war crime from a generation ago: The shooting of a prisoner
by Vietnamese General and American ally Nguyen Ngoc Loan. General
Loan put a pistol to the head of this bound prisoner and blew
his brains into the street, an image that millions of Americans
saw after it had taken place. We are here again today. The
poverty of the Iraqi people leaves them bound, unable to escape
the wave of steel. We have blown their brains out. We have
incinerated them in place. We will continue to do so, and you
can watch it from your couch. Today, you are the terrorist.
So am I.
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