Monday 30th of December 2024

memorial day .....

buzzflash “memorial day” editorial ….. 

Alas, the massacre at Haditha -
in which women, children and men - were executed by U.S. Marines will be the My
Lai for Iraq. 

That means war hawks will argue
that the Marines were under intense pressure - which they were - and these
"sort of things" are to be expected in war. They will excuse the
horrific actions as an inevitable outgrowth of a war without rules. 

And they are right, you know. 

Not that these GIs should be
excused from accountability, but the real people who should be tried and
sentenced are Cheney, Rumsfeld, Bush and Rice. They, like Kissinger, Nixon and
Johnson, put the Marines in this modern version of Dante's inferno for reasons
that defy logic and honesty. 

With Vietnam, My Lai was a real event
that became a symbolic battle over whether U.S. soldiers should be held
accountable for atrocities. They should, but, more importantly, the people who
put them in an untenable position should be legally charged for war crimes -
and for misleading the men and women of the U.S. armed forces and the American
people. 

My Lai was only the tip of the
iceberg in Vietnam. It was one atrocity among many, but it was the one where
the soldiers got caught. 

We have reviewed and recommended
the painful, powerful 1971 documentary, "Winter Soldier" (just
released on DVD and made available to the viewing public for the first time in
decades), because it details how commonplace the outright murder, torture and
rape of Vietnamse was by American military personnel. It was very simple to
hide these murders. Any Vietnamese who ended up dead was identified as a member
of the Viet Cong, whether they were or not. 

The "Winter Soldier"
film website notes: "In February 1971, one month after the revelations of
the My Lai massacre, an astonishing public inquiry into war crimes committed by
American forces in Vietnam was held at a Howard Johnson motel in Detroit. The
Vietnam Veterans Against the War organized this event called the Winter Soldier
Investigation. More than 125 veterans spoke of atrocities they had witnessed
and committed. 

"Though the event was
attended by press and television news crews, almost nothing was reported to the
American public. Yet, this unprecedented forum marked a turning point in the
anti-war movement. It was a pivotal moment in the lives of young vets from
around the country who participated, including the young John Kerry [although
his appearance is just a brief visual image]. Their courage in testifying,
their desire to prevent further atrocities and to regain their own humanity,
provide a dramatic intensity that makes seeing Winter Soldier an unforgettable
experience." 

This is a raw, searing film that
rubs salt on an open wound. It is profoundly moving, sad and a powerful
indictment of those who lead us into conflicts that are cul-de-sacs of horror. 

And it offers a comparative
window that opens our minds to the macabre realities of what the U.S. military
is doing in Iraq. 

Despite Bush's tiresome and
dishonest lofty rhetoric of contrived patriotism and ironically phony words of
his love of freedom, the reality on the ground in Iraq is seen in the
indiscriminate torture and killings carried out by U.S. troops or their Iraqi
militia proxies. Abu Ghraib, Falluja, Sadr City, Ramadi: These are just a few
locations where "everyone was a Muj (insurgent)," just as in Vietnam,
every civilian was a Viet Cong sympathizer, once they were dead. 

Drilled holes in the head of a
12-year-old child who was then shot to death. Babies "executed."
Detainees tortured with dogs, electroshock and drownings. Massive bombardments
of the civilian population. The detonation of mosques. 

No, Haditha was not an isolated
incident. The Pentagon tried to cover it up for months, according to
Congressman John Murtha. 

The war crimes committed everyday
in Iraq run up to the desk of George W. Bush. 

Yes, BuzzFlash does honor our
troops this Memorial Day. 

They deserve better, much better,
than the failed and criminal leadership that sent them to a war that they could
never win. Now, they are just there as sitting ducks because the Bush
Administration doesn't want to "lose face" or appear
"unmanly" by bringing these soldiers home to safety. 

Bush said that their mission was
accomplished several years ago. 

Then, what are they still doing
in Iraq? 

And why is George W. Bush - a man
who has done great harm to our military, put our soldiers in harm's way for a
fool's dream, and authorized crimes against humanity - still in office and not
in a docket? 

Think about this question when you
are horrified by Haditha. 

Haditha was not an aberration. It
is the rule of conduct in Iraq, not the exception, as was the case in Vietnam. 

The responsibility for Haditha
and all the other inhumane crimes in Iraq begins with Bush and Cheney and work their
way down. 

Remember our troops in Iraq this
Memorial Day. 

They deserve to be home, now. 

They should not be the foot
soldiers - dutifully following orders - of a megalomanic, lying, incompetent,
evil cabal.

They, do indeed, deserve better.

Yes, as do the people of Iraq & Afghanistan, for whom every day is a "memorial day" .... 

the unravelling .....

‘Just when President Bush was
trying to accentuate the positive in Iraq and declare a new beginning in the
war on terror, a rash of bad news comes from multiple fronts in the global
struggle. 

New
details are emerging in the killings of two dozen Iraqi civilians at the hands
of Marines. Anti-American protesters are staging riots in Afghanistan after a
U.S. military convoy rammed into several civilian cars.  

And a
reported 75 military detainees at Guantanamo Bay are on a hunger strike to
protest their continued imprisonment without charges. 

Add the trouble to the continuing
daily violence in Iraq - at least 40 were killed in a series of bombings
Monday, including two from a CBS News crew - and Bush could be in danger of
losing even more support for his mission.’ 

Bush
Gets More Bad News From Iraq
 

so …… 

‘What does it mean, this Memorial Day, to die in a war so
founded on lies? 

While George W. Bush assures our soldiers they fight for Iraqi freedom
and to “make America safer for generations to come,” 82 percent of Iraqis,
according to a British Ministry of Defense poll, say they’re "strongly
opposed" to the presence of American and British troops and 45 percent
justify attacks against them.  

This gives rise to what psychologist Robert Jay Lifton calls “an
atrocity-creating situation.” 

Lifton first coined the phrase during Vietnam. He now uses it to
describe a “counterinsurgency war in which U.S. soldiers, despite their
extraordinary firepower, feel extremely vulnerable in a hostile environment,”
amplified by “the great difficulty of tracking down or even recognizing the
enemy.”  

This sense of an environment out of control has seeded the ground for
Abu Ghraib and for massacres at the villages of Haditha and Mukaradeeb, already
being compared to My Lai.  

Former Army sniper Jody Casey recently
described
his unit keeping extra spades on their vehicles so that if they
killed innocent Iraqis in response to an attack, they could throw one next to
the corpses to make it appear as if those killed were preparing a roadside
bomb.’
 

Dying
For A Mistake

more "bad apples" .....

‘On November 19, 2005, Marines from Kilo Company, 3rd
Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division based at Camp Pendleton
allegedly killed 24 unarmed civilians in Haditha, Iraq, in a three to five hour
rampage. One victim was a 76-year-old amputee in a wheelchair holding a Koran.
A mother and child bent over as if in prayer were also among the fallen.
"I pretended that I was dead when my brother's body fell on me, and he was
bleeding like a faucet," said Safa Younis Salim, a 13-year-old girl who
survived by faking her death. 

Other victims included girls and
boys ages 14, 10, 5, 4, 3 and 1. The Washington Post reported, "Most of
the shots ... were fired at such close range that they went through the bodies
of the family members and plowed into walls or the floor, doctors at Haditha's
hospital said."’ 

The Haditha Massacre 

meanwhile ….. 

‘The media feeding frenzy around
what has been referred to as "Iraq's My Lai" has become frenetic.
Focus on US Marines slaughtering at least 20 civilians in Haditha last November
is reminiscent of the media spasm around the "scandal" of Abu Ghraib
during April and May 2004. 

Yet just like Abu Ghraib, while
the media spotlight shines squarely on the Haditha massacre, countless
atrocities continue daily, conveniently out of the awareness of the general
public. Torture did not stop simply because the media finally decided, albeit
in horribly belated fashion, to cover the story, and the daily slaughter of
Iraqi civilians by US forces and US-backed Iraqi "security" forces
had not stopped either.’ 

Countless My Lai
Massacres In Iraq

bushit values .....

buried in bushit .....

 

 

‘Marine commanders in Iraq knew within two days of the
killings in Haditha in November that gunfire, not a roadside bomb, had killed
Iraqi civilians but they saw no reason to investigate further, the New York
Times reported on Saturday. 

A senior Marine officer told the
Times that commanders informed investigators they had not viewed the early
discrepancies in accounts about how the two dozen Iraqis died as unusual, and
that they had no information at the time suggesting that any civilians had been
killed deliberately. 

But a senior Marine general
familiar with the investigation told the newspaper "It's impossible to
believe they didn't know," referring to mid-level and senior officers.
"You'd have to know this thing stunk," the general, who was granted
anonymity along with others who described the investigation, was quoted as
saying.’ 

US
Commanders Knew Haditha Deaths From Gunfire