Posted on 04/28/2003 4:02:29 AM PDT by Elijah27
Footage of Iraqis toppling Saddam's statue in Baghdad got lots of media play, but footage of subsequent Iraqi discontent with U.S. occupation was invisible in a mainstream TV media bent on showing only what the Bush administration wants you to see.
Did you see footage of the 300 Iraqi protesters who, for three days straight, demonstrated outside the U.S. military operations base in the Palestine Hotel, demanding that the U.S. leave Iraq? Or footage of the Army forcing the media away from the scene? How about footage of hundreds of Iraqis in the very square in Baghdad where Saddam's statue was toppled, screaming, "No, no, USA!"
Headlines described the U.S.-supervised meetings between Iraqi groups as a "first step toward democracy," but you didn't see footage of 20,000 Iraqis in Nasiriyah protesting those meetings, chanting, "Yes to freedom, yes to Islam, no to America!" The most important Shiite opposition group, which says it won't recognize any American-made government and demands that we leave Iraq immediately, boycotted the U.S.-supervised meetings.
You didn't see footage of U.S. soldiers murdering protesting Iraqi citizens in Mosul, Iraq's third largest city, on April 15, as children threw stones and adults spit on U.S. soldiers and pummeled them with their fists. The United States admits shooting into a crowd of Iraqis enraged when the U.S. military raised the American flag. The United States admits killing seven and wounding others, but initial press reports said 10 or 12 were killed, and Mosul hospital personnel have since said 14 Iraqis were murdered. The United States says our soldiers were fired on, but Iraqi witnesses interviewed by Reuters, AFP and The New York Times do not corroborate the military's story and painted a picture of an angry crowd of 3,000 shouting about God and frightened soldiers outnumbered 100 to 1. The next day, three more Iraqi protesters in Mosul were killed by American soldiers. But you won't see it on Fox or MSNBC.
Did you see footage of the Shiite cleric in Kut who occupied city hall and declared that the people of Kut chose him to lead them because they didn't want Americans in charge? You didn't see footage of the 20 U.S. Marines subsequently prevented from entering Kut's city hall by 1,200 angry Iraqis.
Notwithstanding shortages of food, water and electricity and widespread looting, Iraqis demand that U.S. and British military forces get out now. They demand that any government in Iraq be chosen by the Iraqi people, not by U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Will we respect the wishes of the Iraqis, leave Iraq and let Iraqis choose their leaders?
Of course not. As reported, a U.S. general will run Iraq, a former CIA chief will run the ministry of information and a former Shell Oil executive will be in charge of the oil. Any Iraqi involvement will be window dressing. Will Iraqis decide how $100 billion to reconstruct Iraq will be spent? Of course not. That money, your tax dollars, belongs to Halliburton, Bechtel and other transnationals tied to Bush and Cheney.
We invaded Iraq not to free Iraqis, but to take their oil and to establish a military platform for further aggression against Syria and Iran (for Israel), just as war protesters, branded as unpatriotic for saying so, bravely warned us.
Bush will never permit real democracy in Iraq. Shiites constitute 60 percent of Iraq's population, and they would vote for an Islamic government. We won't allow it. And to help restore order in Iraq, guess who we're starting to turn to? Saddam Hussein's Baathist police. Don't be surprised later if we withhold food to starve Iraqis into submission.
Many Iraqis are glad to see Hussein gone, but now they want their country back. That we aren't giving it back proves that Bush's agenda is oil for Exxon and a permanent military presence in Iraq, not Iraqi independence.
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