A rchive Date
[ 12-04-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Mass Media ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/coren.html
No freedom for the dead
By MICHAEL COREN -- Sun Media
April 12, 2003
If we are to believe the propaganda and accept that the war in Iraq really is about freedom, the United States sure has some explaining to do.
First there was Peter Arnett losing his job and Geraldo Rivera being expelled. But now journalists have been killed in their hotel, and elsewhere, by American fire.
The BBC claims there was no sniper fire from the hotel. They and other reporters say they have the 20 minutes of video leading up to the shelling from the American tank and there is no sound at all of any hostile fire. They also say the Americans knew the Palestine hotel was used by the media.
If journalists were being directly targeted, this is extraordinarily serious. Not only would we have erroneous and one-sided reporting from biased journalists living with coalition soldiers, but objective reporters being killed.
In the United States itself, the homeland apparently being defended, a group of people protesting the war were beaten with batons and fired upon with rubber bullets. Some of the wounds were quite horrible, and yet the demonstrators were generally non-violent. Sounds like the sort of thing an Iraqi dictator might do.
As for journalism, where did it go? The woman reporter on the aircraft carrier telling her CNN anchor that she would try to get the pilot of the plane behind her to wave to the camera and thus to the North American public. The man was about to fly off to drop bombs on an ancient city and civilization.
MOVIE CULTURE
Or the pilots being interviewed after their first mission over Baghdad. "It was like Star Wars, that's the only way I can explain it," said one. A product of movie culture, fighting a movie culture war for a movie culture administration.
Humanity? Long gone. The newspapers depict American soldiers slouching and posing in presidential palaces. They seem to be emulating scenes out of Band of Brothers. But in World War II the Americans had to fight the Waffen SS. In Iraq they fought peasants with outdated guns.
Just a few hundred yards away from the ornate absurdity of the palaces are the hospitals, distended with bleeding and dying civilians. Children, women, old men, everybody. Dying in agony because smart bombs were not so smart, because soldiers panicked. Yes, of course Saddam killed his own people, but it's strange how the parents and children of the dead and crippled are not cheering for the coalition.
Seven women and children killed by a young man with the latest automatic weapon because, according to his platoon commander, he didn't fire his warning shot sufficiently early. Iraqi people in their own car in their own country, stopped by invading soldiers. They didn't know what to do, so they were killed.
Ever seen what a modern military bullet does to a child? There is no child left, just organs and blood and tissue and bone. It's the damage to the face that affects you most of all. That's where death is at its most grotesque and obvious.
And now we will have democracy in Iraq. Perhaps. The Americans took it away from Iran and Chile and propped up dictatorships all over Latin America and the Middle East. What if democracy leads to anti-American leaders being elected, who wish to pursue war against Israel and cut ties with Washington? Will democracy still be promoted, or will weapons of mass destruction suddenly be found?
I suppose that the Canadians who send me misspelled and abusive e-mails over my anti-war position will then rally round the Stars and Stripes again and decide that those people out there in the desert aren't ready for democracy. After all, they're not really like us anyway.
Call me any name you like, but don't call me naive. I know these countries, and know I'm more at home in Baltimore than Baghdad. I know my support for Israel's right to security and reservations about Islam make me anathema to some. But that's not really the point. They've suffered too much, for too long. Let them breathe, let them have dignity, let them have what we take for granted.
The West owes the Arab world an apology. Let us begin to count the days until we hear it.
Michael Coren is a Toronto-based writer and broadcaster. He can be emailed at info@michaelcoren.com and his web site is michaelcoren.com. Letters to the editor should be sent to editor@sunpub.com
 World Fact Book (CIA )]
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