Fallujah: America’s Halabja

"People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election."
(Otto Von Bismarck - Prussian Prime Minister 1815-1898)

by Yamin Zakaria

Indeed corporate driven wars of Capitalist nations and elections share the trait of ‘deception’. This is expected as elections are the usual means to get into the driving seat to prosecute wars. Wars are primarily driven by corporate interests diluted with chauvinistic nationalism concealed by lofty slogans. However, why the need to conceal the true motives and deceive its own masses? Because, it is the ordinary citizens that always pays the price by getting used as Cannon Fodder.

Michael Moore vividly demonstrated this in his documentary (Fahrenheit 9/11) when he tried to get the members of Congress to enlist their sons and daughters in the war, none showed any interest in their children being used as Cannon Fodder. To date only one member of Congress has a child serving in Iraq. Instead, the corporate machinery happily recruit and send the underprivileged Afro-Americans and Hispanic kids along with Green Card applicants like it was done during the Vietnam war. Iraq was no different, governed by a handful of self-serving elites with the Western inspired secular Ba’athist ideology. The leading Generals and the elites either betrayed or simply capitulated leaving the ordinary soldiers and the defenseless civilians to face the American onslaught.

The lies generated to deceive the masses can be subtle like some of the media spins that are regularly generated, often with help from the pro-Zionist camps but they can also be stark and stupid, as for example George W. Bush said:

“Free nations don’t develop weapons of mass destruction." (George W. Bush)

I am sure many are laughing whilst others are scratching their heads, asking, what is this man really saying? This type of idiotic claims is not uncommon. Recently one right-wing Christian fundamentalist alleged that most of the college professors are communists, her reasons for coming to such conclusion is based on their anti-War stance. The most educated sections of the American society are perhaps facing an uphill struggle to enlighten these close-minded and brainwashed citizens. Instead, they prefer to listen to the ‘wisdom’ of George W. Bush, who talks to God and frequently claims that God is on his side. This all sounds like the mindset of medieval Europe operating in the heart of the free world.

Bush has already implied many times that nations that are not approved by the US are not ‘free’, therefore, was it Iraq, North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan or Syria that invented Nuclear, Biological and Chemical weapons? On the contrary, it was the free nations that have invented these weapons of mass destruction and are constantly enhancing them. The US military budget for research and development is larger than many nations GDP put together. The so-called ‘free’ nations are the ones who have used them against civilians and have the largest stockpile and make the most profit through their lucrative arms industry in the business of genocide and destruction.

In the case of Iraq, what is so unusual is that the lies used to prosecute the war and deceive the masses have turned out to be self-incriminating as the following points will demonstrate and jog some memory.

·WMD -

Iraq was invaded under the pretext of removing its alleged WMDs, but now we know for certain that the only WMD found in Iraq was that used by the Americans, literally or its equivalent; for example when we witnessed the initial “Shock and Awe” campaign reported by the Fox-TV crew with big smiles on their faces. Furthermore, many independent reports are emerging from Fallujah pointing to the use of Chemical weapons by the US forces.

Human Rights Violation -

The propaganda machine amplified Saddam’s violation of human rights after failing to find WMDs. However, the US was already complicit with Saddam Hussein back in the 80s. Then the shameless treatment and incarcerations of the captives in Ca! mp-X-Ray. Eventually, the US was caught red-handed softening up prisoners like Saddam Hussein’s regime in Abu-Ghraib. There are also video clips showing US soldiers killing civilians on the streets and executing wounded Iraqis. Such examples are clear violation of basic human rights that the US constantly preaches about and certainly dwarfs Saddam Hussein’s track record.

Mass Graves -

Saddam’s mass graves have so far turned out to be around 5,000 from the prewar hype of hundreds of thousands to millions. This has been easily surpassed by the US made mass graves in Fallujah alone; the total number of! victims estimated for the entire war is around 40,000 to 100,000. This is excluding the mass graves generated by the US led sanctions and its wanton massacre of the Iraqis retreating on the road to Basra in 1991.

Executions -

The prewar propaganda of Saddam’s evil executioners was replaced with the corporate style grotesque monsters called ‘civilian’ contractors. They were behaving worse than animals, and led to the just Iraqi retribution by killing and mutilating the four contractors back in April 2004. The result was unsatisfactory as those ‘contractors’ should have been tortured to death slowly as they were doing to the Iraqis inside Abu-Ghraib and other US-run prisons.

Dictators -

After having a convenient amnesia about Saddam’s American origin, as the CIA agent Geoffrey Kemp said “Saddam was a son of a bitch but he was our son of a bitch”, the US installed another Dictator who has already proven to be just as ruthless after failing with a Ahmed Chalabi who was a known criminal. Iyad Alawi personally executed six ! prisoners by shooting them at close range. He then gave the recent ‘fatwa’ permitting his National Guards infested with Kurdish bandits from the Peshmergas (or Pesh-Muggers) tribe to take the women of Fallujah as booty, i.e. legalizing rape!

Oil -

Despite the early denials, the world saw through the real reasons for the enthusiasm displayed by the US to ‘save’ the poor Iraqis from Saddam. No such enthusiasm was ever exhibited for the Rwandans, apartheid South Africa and the long suffering Palestinians. The oil ministries were never bombed unlike the other civilian facilities in Iraq. After the oil revenues were seized, contracts awarded without bid to the well-connected Cheney-Halliburton and billions of oil revenue went ‘missing’. Even the shameless theft from Iraqi household was taking place as one Iraqi old woman cried on TV, stating that the US soldiers stole her money, which she saved up to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Occupation -

The primary pretexts of Saddam and WMDs are no longer there so what is the reason for the continuing occupation. Those lying pro-war prostitutes within are silent as when they vociferously, cunningly and even naively urged the US to bomb Iraq to save it from Saddam! As if the US is a charitable institution! Have they not seen the language deployed by the US intelligentsia towards the Arabs? They are described as rag-heads, sand-niggers, camel-humpers, goat-humpers.

Democracy -

Election and George Bush has always been controversial! It would have been nice to see genuine free elections inside the US that are not fixed in advance by the corporate lobbies. Many of the able leaders in Iraq that did not comply with the US interests are being systematically targeted. The calls for elections were resisted from the onset, Rumsfeld and Bremer stated that elections would be permitted as long as an Islamic government was not produced. So there you go ‘democracy’ i.e. “rule of the Iraqis by the Iraqis for the Corporate-Americans” Now the desperate attempts to hold elections in January under occupation will be no different to the elections held under Saddam; simultaneously it will provide a good exit opportunity for the US forces, giving pseudo independence to Iraq.

Halabja Syndrome (War Crimes) -

Another prewar hype was resurrecting the 15 year old event at Halabja at the time the US was the chief supplier to Saddam Hussein. The alleged gassing of the Kurds by Saddam Hussein is disputed by the CIA itself. But, even if we assume that Halabja was the work of Saddam and it was deliberate but that has been repeated by the US in Fallujah as many reports of Chemical weapons used in the area are emerging. One doctor has already identified corpses without any external injury and discolored. Many corpses are burnet indicating the use of Napalm and Phosphorus bombs: “Halabja in Fallujah”.

A leading lawmaker from Turkey’s governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) on Thursday accused the United States of committing "genocide" in Fallujah. He went on to state that: "genocide of such proportions was committed neither under Mussolini, nor Hitler". This is why the US deliberately sealed the place from independent press coverage, prevented the Medical help by deliberately attacking hospitals and doctors who back in April gave independent verification of the casualty figures.

The US was not just trying to hide figures but how the operation was conducted. Multiple reports from many sources indicate that the US policy was to shoot indiscriminately at civilians, even old women with a white flag raised were shot, ordinary people trying to cross the river fleeing away from Fallujah were shot. Since Kofi Annan declared the war to be illegal along with most of the world all the direct and consequential killings resulted from the invasion.

Now, why the US denial of using Chemical weapons is not being verified by the UN or some other independent body? Or is the UN only there to verify and support American allegations against other nations? Why the neighboring Arab/Muslim regimes are silent on this issue? What happened to Arab and Islamic unity? Where are those moderates who are enthusiastic to label resistance fighters as terrorists but it seems they are perfectly comfortable to accept this type of savagery? Their ugly hypocritical lips were sealed after the Abu-Ghraib revelations, maybe the seal is permanent.

Yamin Zakaria, London, UK