Global Research, April 27, 2016
Region: Middle East & North Africa
“The welfare of the people in
particular has always been the alibi of tyrants.” (Albert Camus
1913-1960.)
On 1st May 2003, George W. Bush
stood in a dinky little flying suit on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln and
in a super stage managed appearance told the lie of the century: “Major combat
operations in Iraq have ended. In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our
allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and
reconstructing that country.” (1)
The illegal occupation and decimation of Iraq
continued until December 2011. In June 2014 they returned to bomb again in the
guise of combating ISIS. As the thirteenth anniversary of Bush’s ridiculous
appearance with a vast “Mission Accomplished” banner behind him, Iraq is
largely in ruins, Iraqis have fled the murderous “liberation” and it’s
aftermath in millions and there are over three million internally displaced.
The nation is pinned between a tyrannical,
corrupt US puppet government, a homicidal, head chopping, raping, organ eating,
history erasing, US-spawned ISIS – and a renewed, relentless US bombardment. So
much for the 2008 US-Iraq State of Forces agreement, which stated that by 31st December
2011: “all United States forces shall withdraw from all Iraqi territory.”
On the USS Abraham Lincoln Bush stated: “In
this battle, we have fought for the cause of liberty, and for the peace of the world
… Because of you, our nation is more secure. Because of you, the tyrant has
fallen, and Iraq is free.”
In what has transpired to be monumental irony,
he continued: “The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign
against terror. We have removed an ally of al-Qaida, and cut off a source of
terrorist funding.” There was of course, no al-Qaida in Iraq, no funding of
fundamentalist terrorism under Saddam Hussein, it is the invasion’s conception,
birth, now reached maturity from Baghdad to Brussels, Mosul to the Maghreb,
Latakia to London.
In Iraq, US terrorism from the air is back in
all its genocidal force.
Incredibly on 23rd April, the
Independent (2) reported another staggering piece of either disinformation or
childish naivety, in a predictably familiar script : “A spokesperson for the US
military said all possible precautions were taken to avoid ‘collateral damage’
“, but in approaching 7,000 airstrikes the number of confirmed civilian deaths
had risen on Planet Pentagon to just – forty one.
In another past it’s sell by date mantra:
‘Colonel Patrick Ryder, a spokesperson for Central Command, said the casualties
were “deeply regretted” but maintained that the campaign was the “the most
precise air campaign in the history of warfare.” ’
And here’s another familiar one: “In this type
of armed conflict, particularly with an enemy who hides among the civilian
population, there are going to be, unfortunately, civilian casualties at
times.” The Geneva Convention, amongst other Treaties, Principles and
Conventions, is specific on the protections of populations in conflict, Colonel
Ryder should familiarize himself with the texts.
So another onslaught in a quarter of a century
of bombing Iraq is underway – another mass murder with a silly name: “Operation
Inherent Resolve.”
Here is reality from Dr Souad Al-Azzawi, Award
winning environmental scientist who gained her Ph.D from the Colorado School of
Mines.
She states of just the onslaught on Mosul, her
home, the ancient university city of 1.5 million, that the stated figures from
US spokespersons are: “ either misinformed about the real situation on the
ground, since they are using drones and guided missiles, or airstrikes blindly,
intentionally not saying the truth.
“I would like to list SOME of what the American’s
airstrikes have been targeting and killing in Mosul:
* Destroyed are all state services buildings,
including Municipalities in right and left sides of Mosul. When they bomb at
night, all security personnel get killed or injured, also residents of close by
areas, and adjacent properties are destroyed.
* Bombed and destroyed all communication
centers.
* Destruction of Dairy Production Factories in
both left and right sides of Mosul. Casualties of these two are one hundred
deaths and two hundred injuries among civilians who gathered to receive milk
and dairy products from the factories.
Dr Al-Azzawi reminds that this is reminiscent
of the bombing of the baby milk factor outside Baghdad in 1991 with the claim
it was a chemical weapons factory. This writer visited the factory ruins just
months later, there were still charred containers of milk power – the machinery
was provided and maintained by a company in Birmingham, England which
specialized in infant food prodiction.
* Bombing of Mosul Pharmaceutical Industries.
* Mosul University was bombed with ninety two
deaths and one hundred and thirty five injuries. Earlier estimates were higher,
but many were pulled from the rubble alive. “They were students, faculty
members, staff members, families of faculties, and restaurants workers.”
*Al Hadbaa and Al Khadraa Residential
Apartments compounds. Fifty people killed (families) and one hundred injured.
* Hay al Dhubat residential area in the right
side of Mosul, two days ago, five women women and four children killed and the
whole house. The father is a respected pharmacist who has nothing to do with
ISIL.
* Destruction of houses in front of the Medical
College, killed twenty two civilians – eleven in one family.
* Bombing Sunni Waqif Building, twenty deaths
and seventy injuries which included those in nearby commercial and
residential buildings.
* Car maintenance industrial areas in both left
and right sides of Mosul destroyed with civilian’s casualties.
* Bombing of flour factories in both sides of
Mosul.
* Rafidain and Rasheed banks and all
their branches in both sides of Mosul. Destruction of all commercial
and residential areas in the vicinity of these places, with as yet unknown
civilian casualties. (My emphasis.)
* Central Bank of Mosul in Ghazi Street, with
nearby residential and commercial properties.
* Pepsi factory, currently producing ice cubes
only. Three deaths and twelve injuries among the workers.
* The Governor’s house and close by guest
house.
* Mosul’s old industrial compound destroyed,
with parking area for fuel Tankers and cars. Three days ago, huge explosion of
fuel tankers, one hundred and fifty deaths and injuries.
* Urban Planning Directory in Hay al Maliyah
bombed.
* Engineering Planning Directory in Hay al
Maliyah bombed.
* Food Storages in left side of Mosul bombed.
* Drinking water treatment plants bombed.
* All electrical generation and transformer
stations in the left side of Mosul bombed.
* Domez land communications center in left side
of Mosul destroyed.
*Al Hurairah Bridge – and many more.
There is a sickening familiarity to some of the
targets – food, pharmaceuticals, water treatment plants, electricity
generation, communications and educational facilities, bridges (the country,
towns and cities are divided by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers) have been
favoured targets since 1991. Every time painstakingly and imaginatively
restored they have been re-bombed for a quarter of a century.
During the 1990’s a Canadian film crew captured
footage of US ‘planes dropping flares on harvested wheat and barley,
incinerating entire harvests in a country, which due to the strangulating
embargo there were near famine conditions in parts of society.
“When Iraqi civilians looked into the faces of
our servicemen and women, they saw strength, and kindness, and good will”, said
George W Bush in his “Mission Accomplished” speech. No, they saw invaders
destroying their lives, their families, their history, raping, pillaging. They
saw Falluja’s destruction, Abu Ghraib’s horrors and the eleven other secret
prisons and nightmares ever ongoing.
On 25th April Dr Al-Azzawi
added: “More war crimes have been committed by American Coalition, yesterday
April 24, 2016. The coalition airplanes bombed Rashidiya water treatment plant
left side of Mosul city and Yermouk electricity generation station in the right
side of Mosul. Through targeting these populations’ life sustaining
necessities, the coalition is committing genocidal action towards Mosul
residents in the pretext of fighting ISIS.”
Also on 25th April, UN Deputy
High Commissioner for Human Rights, Kate Gilmore, on returning from a week in
Iraq wrote starkly of the government: “Iraqis are crying out for fairness,
recognition, justice, appreciation and meaningful participation in shaping
their future – a process that goes forward and not backwards … We all have
responsibilities towards the people of Iraq. While there is an international
military coalition in place, a comparably resourced international coalition of
practical compassion is also needed to help with the building blocks towards a
sustained peace in Iraq.” (3)
In the US military lexicon it seems
“compassion” has been replaced by their missiles of choice.
Ms Gilmore also stated that Iraq was being
run by a failed government and warned foreign powers not to be “complicit” in
its neglect of the plight of normal Iraqis. (4)
Further: “The international community must not
allow itself to be made complicit with the failed leadership of Iraq … There is
political paralysis in Iraq. There is no government in Iraq”, she stated
blisteringly of America and Britain’s illegal, abortive, parliamentary project.
“Our commitment to Liberty is America’s
tradition … We stand for human liberty”, concluded Bush on the USS Abraham
Lincoln. Were mistruths ever bleaker? And when will George W. Bush, Charles
Anthony Lynton Blair and their cohorts answer for their crimes in a Court of
Law?
Notes
No comments:
Post a Comment