Devorah Kalekin-Fishman, Dr. Rer. Soc. Faculty of Education University of Haifa Haifa, Israel 31905 Tel.: +972-4-8249357 Fax: +972-4-8240911 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Additional phone: +972-4-8123605
----- Original Message ----- From: "Z.N.Dibsi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "M4P" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Desert Rescue" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Cy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Sp" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, March 22, 2003 9:21 PM Subject: [mothers4peace] Fw: [PAJU1] A Timely and Powerful Statement! > Please Read and Forward! > > Make copies and distribute at the demo today so that as many people receive > it. > > > > Now, I Am the Terrorist > By William Rivers Pitt > 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. > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- > ---- > > > William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times bestselling author of two > books - "War On Iraq" (with Scott Ritter) available now from Context Books, > and "The Greatest Sedition is Silence," available in May 2003 from Pluto > Press. He teaches high school in Boston, MA. > > Scott Lowery contributed research to this report. > > � Copyright 2003 by TruthOut.org > > > > > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > > ------------------------ Yahoo! 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But it is the hope of the Founders that we can build a large coalition of people who will be willing to set aside differences in order to help the innocent victims of armed conflict worldwide. > > > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ > > _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
