MuD & PHuD

News Flash: The United States military makes its living by eliminating threats. Keep that in mind as you read this post.

Recently, Naomi Klein of the Guardian has accused the US of (via ISOU):

no longer bothering to conceal attacks on civilian targets and are openly eliminating anyone - doctors, clerics, journalists - who dares to count the bodies.

Whether intentional or not, the connotation of the word eliminating in this context implies something sinister. Specifically, it creates the image of evil US soldiers being ordered by their evil COs to kill anyone who dares question US policy and/or actions. Reading a bit further, Ms. Klein does claim that the US is subjecting those who disagree with us to:

mass arrests, to raids on hospitals, media bans, and overt and unexplained physical attacks.

This piece purports to provide the evidence of this claim, so let's take a look at it.

"Eliminating doctors"

The first major operation by US marines and Iraqi soldiers was to storm Falluja general hospital, arresting doctors and placing the facility under military control.

Right. We saw that there were problems generated by not taking control of the hospital the first time around, so the situation was remedied this time. Our forces also apparently "stole the mobile phones" so that hospital workers couldn't communicate with the outside world. I wonder, would it be wise to let potentially hostile individuals call anyone they want? Humm. And, let's keep in mind that there is not indication that these doctors were injured nor that they were prevented from treating anyone who needed it. So the question is: How, exactly, where these doctors eliminated?

But that's not all. The piece also directs our attention to other elimination events concerning health care workers.

But this was not the worst of the attacks on health workers. Two days earlier, a crucial emergency health clinic was bombed to rubble, as well as a medical supplies dispensary next door.
...
Whether the clinic was targeted or destroyed accidentally, the effect was the same: to eliminate many of Falluja's doctors from the war zone.

So, the bombing of a medical clinic might have been a mistake? Does anyone honestly believe that we would intentionally bomb such a place (unless we thought it was being used as mosques have been in this conflict)? I think not. If you disagree please feel free to provide me with evidence that we're targeting doctors for elimination

"Eliminating journalists"

The images from last month's siege on Falluja came almost exclusively from reporters embedded with US troops. This is because Arab journalists who had covered April's siege from the civilian perspective had effectively been eliminated. Al-Jazeera had no cameras on the ground because it has been banned from reporting in Iraq indefinitely. Al-Arabiya did have an unembedded reporter, Abdel Kader Al-Saadi, in Falluja, but on November 11 US forces arrested him and held him for the length of the siege. Al-Saadi's detention has been condemned by Reporters Without Borders and the International Federation of Journalists. "We cannot ignore the possibility that he is being intimidated for just trying to do his job," the IFJ stated.

Boohoo. Some insurgent-mouthpiece embeds were thrown out. Who cares? These are the people who broadcast brutal beheadings of Americans and then 'put it into context.' We still got plenty of images of the Fallujah offensive. Anybody remember that Marine who protected the lives of his buddies? Here's some more:

On April 8, a US aircraft bombed al-Jazeera's Baghdad offices, killing reporter Tareq Ayyoub. Al-Jazeera has documentation proving it gave the coordinates of its location to US forces.

Right, eliminating threats. How about this Red Herring:

On the same day, a US tank fired on the Palestine hotel, killing José Couso, of the Spanish network Telecinco, and Taras Protsiuk, of Reuters. Three US soldiers are facing a criminal lawsuit from Couso's family, which alleges that US forces were well aware that journalists were in the Palestine hotel and that they committed a war crime.

This is the best Ms. Klein can do? Taken at face value (as she presents it) this appears to be an isolated incident. Was it a War Crime? I don't know...but it certainly does not indict the entire US military.

"Eliminating clerics"

On November 11, Sheik Mahdi al-Sumaidaei, the head of the Supreme Association for Guidance and Daawa, was arrested. According to Associated Press, "Al-Sumaidaei has called on the country's Sunni minority to launch a civil disobedience campaign if the Iraqi government does not halt the attack on Falluja".

Wow, we just arrested the Iraqi Martin Luther King Jr., right? Wrong:

Sheik Mahdi al-Sumaidaei, the head of the Supreme Association for Guidance and Daawa, was detained after troops uncovered a large weapons cache, explosives and photographs of attacks on U.S. troops.

Humm...might want to check your facts there Naomi.

Here is how she closes her column:

Mr Ambassador, I believe that your government and its Iraqi surrogates are waging two wars in Iraq. One war is against the Iraqi people, and it has claimed an estimated 100,000 lives. The other is a war on witnesses.

Now you understand where she's coming from. We're waging war against the Iraqi people? Amazing, and here I thought were trying to kill the Terrorists. Where ever did I get that crazy idea?
|