ChiTown Lady
13th April 2003, 07:43
Yet a second US Imperialist Flag incident occurred in Iraq this past week. This is the topic of this post.
In watching the “on air” media footage of the statue being toppled, I found it interesting that what I saw were only about 30 Iraqi people out there toppling the statue and dancing around along with the US Marines. If the Iraqi people were truly celebrating the fact that the US has trampled their homeland in the name of their freedom – in Baghdad (a city of 5.5 million people) I would have expected to see 10’s of 1000’s of Iraqis out there taking that statue down. But this was not the case was it? Hmmm. Maybe they are not all that happy with the US occupation there.
Back to the statue incident, specifically -
This is something that I was NOT aware of until I read some foreign media sites Thursday, as it was NOT publicized in the US media. A US Marine put a US American flag over the head of Saddam, prior to taking the statue down! WTF This is a sign of occupation, NOT liberation – as we all know.
I have quoted below, both news media from al-Jazeera and the BBC News regarding this incident.
The al-Jazeera site also even has a picture of this shit happening. Evidently, when they were getting ready to pull the statue of Saddam down, a US marine draped the American flag over the face of the statue. Good Lord!!! This is NOW the second time the marines erected the US flag in the face of the Iraqi people. Didn't they learn ANYTHING the first time they made that stupid-ass jesture - are they completely stupid or are they purposely and blatantly trying to portray "occupation" as opposed to the touted official line that claims this to be a "liberation" mission.
This is what the al-Jazeera article said about that:
Questions arise about what is, and isn't, shown.
One obvious question: During live coverage, viewers saw a US soldier drape over the face of Hussein a US flag, which was quickly removed and replaced with an Iraqi flag.
Commanders know that the displaying the US flag suggests occupation and domination not liberation. NBC's Tom Brokaw reported that the Arab network Al Jazeera was "making a big deal" out of the incident with the American flag, implying that US television would -- and should -- downplay that part of the scene. Which choice tells the more complete truth?
Another difference between television in the US and elsewhere has been coverage of Iraqi casualties. Despite constant discussion of "precision bombing," the US invasion has produced so many dead and wounded that Iraqi hospitals stopped trying to count.
*** End of what I posted here from the al-Jazeera article
The full al-Jazeera article along with the picture of the flag incident is here:
http://english.aljazeera.net/topics/articl...7&parent_id=258 (http://english.aljazeera.net/topics/article.asp?cu_no=1&item_no=2256&version=1&template_id=277&parent_id=258)
Here is what the BBC News had to say about this flag incident:
Marines say that the US flag draped over Saddam Hussein's statue was the flag that was flying over the Pentagon on 11 September 2001.
It was later replaced with the Iraqi flag after the people shouted for it.
One of my close Iraqi friends went up to an American marine and said to him: "I'm going to exercise my right of free speech for the first time in my life - we want you out of here as soon as possible."
*** End of what I posted here from the BBC article
Here is the whole BBC article, if you want to read it:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2935641.stm
Even if this was the flag that was flying over the Pentagon on 9/11/2001, which I doubt that it was - What does that have to do with Saddam? It has already been established that Saddam and Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks. There is NO connection between Saddam and al-Queda (sp.?) This is such a gross display of US ignorance, which seems to be the norm lately rather than the exception (American ignorance I mean). This go beyond embarrassing from my perspective and only makes me want to disassociate myself with my
homeland all the more.
This business of erecting US American flags in the face of the Iraqi people is an outrage, and I highly object to it – in addition to objecting to a whole host of other things being done against the people of Iraq.
In watching the “on air” media footage of the statue being toppled, I found it interesting that what I saw were only about 30 Iraqi people out there toppling the statue and dancing around along with the US Marines. If the Iraqi people were truly celebrating the fact that the US has trampled their homeland in the name of their freedom – in Baghdad (a city of 5.5 million people) I would have expected to see 10’s of 1000’s of Iraqis out there taking that statue down. But this was not the case was it? Hmmm. Maybe they are not all that happy with the US occupation there.
Back to the statue incident, specifically -
This is something that I was NOT aware of until I read some foreign media sites Thursday, as it was NOT publicized in the US media. A US Marine put a US American flag over the head of Saddam, prior to taking the statue down! WTF This is a sign of occupation, NOT liberation – as we all know.
I have quoted below, both news media from al-Jazeera and the BBC News regarding this incident.
The al-Jazeera site also even has a picture of this shit happening. Evidently, when they were getting ready to pull the statue of Saddam down, a US marine draped the American flag over the face of the statue. Good Lord!!! This is NOW the second time the marines erected the US flag in the face of the Iraqi people. Didn't they learn ANYTHING the first time they made that stupid-ass jesture - are they completely stupid or are they purposely and blatantly trying to portray "occupation" as opposed to the touted official line that claims this to be a "liberation" mission.
This is what the al-Jazeera article said about that:
Questions arise about what is, and isn't, shown.
One obvious question: During live coverage, viewers saw a US soldier drape over the face of Hussein a US flag, which was quickly removed and replaced with an Iraqi flag.
Commanders know that the displaying the US flag suggests occupation and domination not liberation. NBC's Tom Brokaw reported that the Arab network Al Jazeera was "making a big deal" out of the incident with the American flag, implying that US television would -- and should -- downplay that part of the scene. Which choice tells the more complete truth?
Another difference between television in the US and elsewhere has been coverage of Iraqi casualties. Despite constant discussion of "precision bombing," the US invasion has produced so many dead and wounded that Iraqi hospitals stopped trying to count.
*** End of what I posted here from the al-Jazeera article
The full al-Jazeera article along with the picture of the flag incident is here:
http://english.aljazeera.net/topics/articl...7&parent_id=258 (http://english.aljazeera.net/topics/article.asp?cu_no=1&item_no=2256&version=1&template_id=277&parent_id=258)
Here is what the BBC News had to say about this flag incident:
Marines say that the US flag draped over Saddam Hussein's statue was the flag that was flying over the Pentagon on 11 September 2001.
It was later replaced with the Iraqi flag after the people shouted for it.
One of my close Iraqi friends went up to an American marine and said to him: "I'm going to exercise my right of free speech for the first time in my life - we want you out of here as soon as possible."
*** End of what I posted here from the BBC article
Here is the whole BBC article, if you want to read it:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2935641.stm
Even if this was the flag that was flying over the Pentagon on 9/11/2001, which I doubt that it was - What does that have to do with Saddam? It has already been established that Saddam and Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks. There is NO connection between Saddam and al-Queda (sp.?) This is such a gross display of US ignorance, which seems to be the norm lately rather than the exception (American ignorance I mean). This go beyond embarrassing from my perspective and only makes me want to disassociate myself with my
homeland all the more.
This business of erecting US American flags in the face of the Iraqi people is an outrage, and I highly object to it – in addition to objecting to a whole host of other things being done against the people of Iraq.