by John Pilger
Iraq is the "test case", says the Bush regime, which every day sails
closer to Mussolini's definition of fascism: the merger of a
militarist state with corporate power. Iraq is a test case for
western liberals, too. As the suffering mounts in that stricken
country, with Red Cross doctors describing "incredible'' levels of
civilian casualties, the choice of the next conquest, Syria or Iran,
is "debated'' on the BBC, as if it were a World Cup venue.
The unthinkable is being normalized. . . .
Herman wrote that following the 1991 Gulf War, whose nocturnal images of
American bulldozers burying thousands of teenage Iraqi conscripts, many of
them alive and trying to surrender, were never shown. Thus, the slaughter
was normalised. A study released just before Christmas 1991 by the Medical
Educational Trust revealed that more 200,000 Iraqi men, women and children
were killed or died as a direct result of the American-led attack. This was
barely reported, and the homicidal nature of the "war'' never entered public
consciousness in this country, let alone America.
The Pentagon's deliberate destruction of Iraq's civilian infrastructure,
such as power sources and water and sewage plants, together with the
imposition of an embargo as barbaric as a medieval siege, produced a degree
of suffering never fully comprehended in the West. Documented evidence was
available, volumes of it; by the late 1990s, more than 6,000 infants were
dying every month, and the two senior United Nations officials responsible
for humanitarian relief in Iraq, Denis Halliday and Hans von Sponeck,
resigned, protesting the embargo's hidden agenda. Halliday called it
"genocide". . . .
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[In a letter sent on 14 October to Kofi Annan, the Fallujah Shura Council,
which administers the city, said: "In Fallujah, [the Americans] have created
a new vague target: al-Zarqawi. Almost a year has elapsed since they created
this new pretext and whenever they destroy houses, mosques, restaurants, and
kill children and women, they said: 'We have launched a successful operation
against al-Zarqawi.' The people of Fallujah assure you that this person, if
he exists, is not in Fallujah . . . and we have no links to any groups
supporting such inhuman behaviour. We appeal to you to urge the UN [to
prevent] the new massacre which the Americans and the puppet government are
planning to start soon in Fallujah, as well as many parts of the country."
Not a word of this was reported in the mainstream media in Britain and
America. . . .
On the afternoon of 11 September, Donald Rumsfeld, having failed to act
against those who had just attacked the United States, told his aides to set
in motion an attack on Iraq - when the evidence was non-existent. Eighteen
months later, the invasion of Iraq, unprovoked and based on lies now
documented, took place. This epic crime is the greatest political scandal of
our time, the latest chapter in the long 20th-century history of the west's
conquests of other lands and their resources.--John Pilger, "Iraq: the unthinkable
becomes normal," New Statesman, November 15, 2004]
[The U.S. military is conducting a propaganda campaign to magnify the role
of the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to internal military documents
and officers familiar with the program. The effort has raised his profile in
a way that some military intelligence officials believe may have overstated
his importance and helped the Bush administration tie the war to the
organization responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.--Thomas E. Ricks,
"Military Plays Up Role of Zarqawi," Washington
Post, April 10, 2006]
Michel Chossudovsky, "Who is
behind 'Al Qaeda in Iraq'?: Pentagon acknowledges fabricating a 'Zarqawi
Legend'," globalresearch.ca, April 18, 2006
