-Caveat Lector- http://www.khilafah.com/home/category.php?DocumentID=6685&TagID=1
When Cracks Appear . the reality of War reporting 31 Mar 2003 The first week of the war to .liberate. Iraq, remove Saddam and remove the scourge to the world of weapons of mass destruction is stalling. It is often said that truth is the first casualty of war. That being so, then this surely is a most brutal of openings. Yet the tensions surrounding the obvious and impressive resistance offered by the Muslims of Iraq to the invasion, is causing the governments of the .coalition. . in reality only American and Britain . great difficulty. The purposes of war reporting are to maintain morale and a positive backing for war in the West, demoralise the enemy whilst winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqis, and last but surely least provide actual coverage of the events on the ground. Taking these objectives in turn it is clear that the Anglo Americans are facing problems. A good sign of domestic confidence in a war is the stock market. In the euphoric run up to this bold faced aggression, the US and UK markets rallied, dramatically rising by 14% and 16% since mid March.s uncertain lows, a move which clearly exposed the real reasons for invasion. Yet one week in, the markets are spiralling back down with confidence again draining from investors. Last Monday the markets plummeted by 3.5% and the dollar had its biggest drop against the Euro in eight months. House prices are dropping in the UK, as is general consumer and business confidence in the US. The supposed 4 week romp through Southern and Northern Iraq culminating in glorious parades through a liberated and cheering Baghdadi populace look a distant dream. We remember the urgency with which the Anglo-Americans were forcing through their UN debates, mid March was always the latest feasible start date of a war that had to be over before the heat of summer arrives. The high temperatures of May are now not so far away as Anglo-American forces struggle to maintain their supply lines over the 400 kilometre stretch from Umm Qasr to Baghdad. For how long will domestic public opinion in London and Washington hold for a war they were not really behind in the first instance, as the mounting costs rise and military set backs increase? It is not surprising to see even amongst the Western journalists the signs of angst over the folly of waging yet another old style colonialist war in a land with such a staunch history of repelling aggressors as Iraq. Most in the West cannot even remember the US inspired quagmires of Vietnam or have blinkered views of fiascos like the humiliating withdrawals from Beirut in 1984 or Mogadishu in Somalia, the latter defeat even being reversed and glorified in a Hollywood blockbuster .Blackhawk Down.. It is also only a matter of time before the Western public grow tired of the ingratiating, grating styles of their current leaders. Bush.s simplistic rantings .WE (long pause) will prevail., or .God has no better liberators than.. and so on, may go down to rapturous applause to the Central command forces in Tampa Bay, but the public at large will soon notice the ballooning budget deficit, and returning body bags. Blair too has been exposed this past week for over dramatising the death of two British soldiers contradicting the military confirmation of .death in action. with his media circus portrayal of death by execution. Desperate indeed, to play with the emotions of grieving families to bolster support for his colonialist campaign. The domestic propaganda campaigns are also suffering as the clear evidence of gross under-estimates of resourcing needs and poor military tactics are highlighted. There were severe doubts before the war started; those doubts were perhaps partially assuaged by expectations of a short, sharp, surgical campaign and rejoicing in the streets of Baghdad together with Wall Street and the City. Those expectations are rapidly melting away. So, what of the campaign to demoralise the regime in Baghdad and shape Muslim public opinion throughout the region? It is one of the most bizarre of expectations to think that the Iraqis (whether Shia, Sunni or Kurdish) have sat for the last 12 years under the most oppressive of sanctions regimes, witnessed the no-fly regions policed by UK/US planes which have bombed weekly, watched as their water supplies were contaminated and seen hundreds of deformed babies or thousands of cancerous deaths by the depleted uranium left by the previous liberators, and after all of this welcome the aid and guidance of the kuffar in looking after them and their resources! The phrase .over my dead body. easily springs to mind. The Guardian reported the first much vaunted aid distribution in the South where locals shouted: "Take it back. We want the Americans to go back home. We do not need them here. Go back home. I do not need this." The Anglo . Americans have been naïve in believing their own spin. Equally strange is the expectation that anyone with eyes to see or ears to listen would think that the intensive bombing campaign raining down on Baghdad and Basra will help bring the people to the side of the .liberators.. These strong-arm tactics, which have been repeatedly employed by the Americans in their recent conflicts, are designed to wear down the people and break the regime, when it is obvious that no campaign of such a size could ever be successful merely by air power. The ground war is vital and the fact of the matter is that the defenders are well placed to inflict great pain on the would be .liberators.. The divisions between the peoples of Iraq are also overblown. The Muslims of Basra defended the city tenaciously throughout the mid-eighties onslaught from (Shia) Iran and could hardly feel a greater affinity to the Americans than to those of the same school of thought across the border. Yet all expectations of the Anglo - Americans was that this region would fall easily to them. The Iraqis are a tough people, they have had to be. Life under Saddam has not been easy including the wasteful war against Iran, the Western inspired take over of Kuwait and its immediate repercussions and his general brutal rule. However, the acceptance of occupation by the Americans and British is quite another matter, no peoples, least of all the Muslims of this region could accept such an outcome. And if after a long and bloody war the occupiers gain some success, and this is far from certain, then the Iraqis are unlikely to meekly watch while the oil reserves are merrily siphoned off to pay for America.s war and other debts. The arrogance of setting forward their post Saddam ruling structures and calling for, and allocating, construction contracts at this insanely early juncture only adds to the general disgust of the people. There is truly very little that the would be occupiers can do to bring around any support for their indefensible actions. Even those taking relief handouts are angrily voicing calls for them to leave. The only conclusion one can draw from this reality is that it is very much directed at the US/UK domestic consumption to try and maintain a brave face on what is in reality a filthy, sordid, capitalist adventure. Which brings us to the final examination of the reality on the ground, which is being reported. In 1914 the British overran Basra and the South in a mere 3 days, then took a further 3.5 years to take Baghdad at a cost of over 30,000 British troops. Pentagon and Downing Street planners could never accept a war plan on such a timetable or with such a heavy cost in their lives. Accordingly, we should not be surprised to see increasing use of power, including civilian targeting. Talk is already circulating of using biological weapons to subdue the enemy. Hardly surprising following the lead of Israeli and Russian thugs who have escaped international condemnation for their actions against Muslims. There is a perverse irony to the fact that the supposed subject matter of the action (WMD) could become an acceptable tactic in its pursuit, after all when you have no legitimacy to back your actions, what is another atrocity or outrage. Russian intelligence reports have highlighted that close to a third of the US.s store of precision weapons have already been expended. Their use will now be scaled down with an increase in conventional high yield bombs, volume detonation bombs and incendiary munitions. Massive .bunker buster. bombs are now being used in Baghdad. Washington is now resorting to .scorched earth. and carpet-bombing tactics. Republican Guard, Special RG, Fedayeen Saddam, regular militias, irregular militias, assassination squads, death squads, human shields, collateral damage, civilians loyal to the regime, civilians, the truth. they.re all targets now. May Allah (Subhanahu wa ta.ala) help and guide us in repelling this most evil of aggressors. For the Muslims of the West and those in the surrounding Islamic lands it is not a time to be silent observers, we must redouble our efforts to remove the tyrant rulers of the Islamic lands who sit idly by watching the death and destruction of this noble Ummah, and who are complicit directly in support of the crusader.s efforts. We should also be under no illusion over short-term successes of the Muslims in this struggle. If the kuffar are successful in overrunning Iraq it will be a monumental disaster for the Ummah and terribly difficult to extract them. 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