Andrei Kuznetsov
7th April 2004, 20:03
The Marines' Punishment of Fallujah
Revolutionary Worker #1236, April 11, 2004, posted at http://rwor.org/
"We are all suffering from what the Americans are doing to us, but that doesn't take away anything from our pride in the resistance."
-Saadi Hamadi, 24, recent college graduate, speaking to AP
"Despite an uptick in local engagements, the overall area of operations remains relatively stable with negligible impact on the coalition's ability to continue progress in governance, economic development, and restoration of essential services."
-Double-talk from Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, chief spokesman for the U.S. military command, March 31, 2004
A convoy of heavily armed Americans came careening deep into Fallujah on Wednesday, March 31, but this time, some of them didn't get to leave. Three vehicles were ambushed with rocket- propelled grenades. One SUV sped off. But the men inside the other two were shot in their burning cars. And the world soon saw the street celebration that followed.
The videos showed the faces of an occupied people--thrilled by this moment of victory over their occupiers. They showed the defiance of people living in a poor, besieged community with a heavily armed military division of the world's superpower camped outside their gates.
This incident showed, once again, that the White House lied when it said its troops came to Iraq as "liberators." And it showed, once again, the lie of Bush's aircraft carrier announcement on May 1, 2003, that the war was over--made standing in front of that banner saying "Mission Accomplished." U.S. casualties in March were twice as high as in February, and the second highest since the occupation started.
However, as the video images arrived from Fallujah, the media machinery instantly kicked in--taking viewers through the looking glass and telling everyone what to think.
The dead Americans were "civilians" and "contractors," the news reports said over and over. They were on a mission (we were told) to "protect food deliveries" in Fallujah. One radio broadcast quoted a "military expert" saying the Iraqi resistance had failed to hit U.S. troops, "so now they are hitting civilian contractors and also missionaries. They are soft targets."
You were supposed to get a mental picture of the Americans in those SUVs as "civilian soft targets"--as just good-hearted boys-next-door, out and about helping deliver food. But, meanwhile, it was also coming out that these men were veterans of U.S. elite commando units, now working as heavily armed mercenaries in Iraq--whose real mission and activities are still far from clear... read the rest of the article here: http://rwor.org/a/1236/fallujah.htm
To read more about the Fallujah "civilian contractors" and who they were, read: http://rwor.org/a/1236/blackwater.htm
Revolutionary Worker #1236, April 11, 2004, posted at http://rwor.org/
"We are all suffering from what the Americans are doing to us, but that doesn't take away anything from our pride in the resistance."
-Saadi Hamadi, 24, recent college graduate, speaking to AP
"Despite an uptick in local engagements, the overall area of operations remains relatively stable with negligible impact on the coalition's ability to continue progress in governance, economic development, and restoration of essential services."
-Double-talk from Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, chief spokesman for the U.S. military command, March 31, 2004
A convoy of heavily armed Americans came careening deep into Fallujah on Wednesday, March 31, but this time, some of them didn't get to leave. Three vehicles were ambushed with rocket- propelled grenades. One SUV sped off. But the men inside the other two were shot in their burning cars. And the world soon saw the street celebration that followed.
The videos showed the faces of an occupied people--thrilled by this moment of victory over their occupiers. They showed the defiance of people living in a poor, besieged community with a heavily armed military division of the world's superpower camped outside their gates.
This incident showed, once again, that the White House lied when it said its troops came to Iraq as "liberators." And it showed, once again, the lie of Bush's aircraft carrier announcement on May 1, 2003, that the war was over--made standing in front of that banner saying "Mission Accomplished." U.S. casualties in March were twice as high as in February, and the second highest since the occupation started.
However, as the video images arrived from Fallujah, the media machinery instantly kicked in--taking viewers through the looking glass and telling everyone what to think.
The dead Americans were "civilians" and "contractors," the news reports said over and over. They were on a mission (we were told) to "protect food deliveries" in Fallujah. One radio broadcast quoted a "military expert" saying the Iraqi resistance had failed to hit U.S. troops, "so now they are hitting civilian contractors and also missionaries. They are soft targets."
You were supposed to get a mental picture of the Americans in those SUVs as "civilian soft targets"--as just good-hearted boys-next-door, out and about helping deliver food. But, meanwhile, it was also coming out that these men were veterans of U.S. elite commando units, now working as heavily armed mercenaries in Iraq--whose real mission and activities are still far from clear... read the rest of the article here: http://rwor.org/a/1236/fallujah.htm
To read more about the Fallujah "civilian contractors" and who they were, read: http://rwor.org/a/1236/blackwater.htm