09 April 2010
By Jacob G. Hornberger I can’t improve on Glenn Greenwald’s analysis of
the WikiLeaks video depicting the slaughter of Iraqi
citizens. See http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/04/07/iraq_video/index.html; However, there is one part of the WikiLeaks video
that I wish to address — the reaction of the
helicopter pilots upon learning that there were two
children who were shot and injured during the melee.
Their reaction, in fact, perfectly exemplifies the
mindset that has long characterized U.S. officials,
including those in the Pentagon. When the pilots discovered that they had shot the
two Iraqi kids, here was their exchange: “Well it’s their fault for bringing their kids into
a battle.” No remorse, no anguish, no regret, no concern. Just
callous indifference to the possibility that the lives
of two innocent children might have just been snuffed
out. What will be the reaction of the relatives of those
two Iraqi children, who lost their father in the
attack? Surely, even the most ardent pro-war advocates
would not deny the obvious: the relatives will be
filled with anger and rage. Welcome to the world of U.S. foreign policy and
terrorist blowback. In fact, this most recent episode in Iraq is a
minor déjà vu of what took place during the Persian
Gulf War and the 11-year period following it. During
that war, the Pentagon conducted a secret study that
concluded that if Iraq’s water and sewage facilities
were destroyed, this would help spread infectious
illnesses among the Iraqi people. So, the order was given: Drop the bombs on those
facilities. Then, to ensure that the facilities couldn’t be
repaired, the U.S. government induced the UN to impose
one of the most brutal systems of sanctions in history
on Iraq. The Pentagon proved to be right, with the deadly
consequences of drinking the polluted water falling
most heavily on Iraqi children. Year after year, tens
of thousands of Iraqi children were dying. Two high UN
officials even resigned their posts in protest to what
they termed “genocide.” What was the reaction of U.S. officials to those
deaths? It was the same reaction expressed by those
pilots in the WikiLeaks video: callous indifference.
U.S. Ambassador to the UN Madeleine Albright reflected
the mindset of U.S. officials when she told “Sixty
Minutes” (and the people of the Middle East) that the
deaths of half-a-million Iraqi children from the
sanctions were “worth it.” It is impossible to measure the depth of anger and
rage that spread not just in Iraq but also the Middle
East over the deaths of the Iraqi children, year after
year, and over the mindset of callous indifference
that characterized U.S. officials. When Ramzi Yousef
was sentenced for the 1993 terrorist attack on the WTC,
he angrily cited the sanctions and the deaths of the
Iraqi children as one of the things that drove him to
commit his terrorist attack. That WTC attack in 1993 was followed by the attack
on the USS Cole, the attack on the U.S. Embassies in
Kenya and Tanzania, and, of course, the 9/11 attacks.
We all know what U.S. officials said: Oh, it’s not
because of what the U.S. government has done to people
in Iraq and the Middle East, including the sanctions
and our indifference to the deaths of the Iraqi
children, the Persian Gulf intervention, the
unconditional financial and military support to the
Israeli government, or the intentional stationing of
U.S. troops on Islamic holy lands. People in the
Middle East don’t care about all that. They just hate
us for our freedom and values. Mark my words: they’ll say the same thing if
relatives of those two Iraqi children — or the
children themselves — end up retaliating for what was
done to the children’s father and other victims of the
most recent slaughter. Finally, let us never forget: Neither the Iraqi
people nor the Iraqi government participated in the
9/11 attacks or ever attacked the United States. That
makes the U.S. government the unlawful aggressor,
invader, attacker, and occupier in this conflict,
which means that U.S. soldiers have no right, moral or
legal, to be killing anyone in Iraq, including those
Iraqis who are simply trying to rid their country of
an illegal aggressor, invader, attacker, and occupier.
By the way, Joy Gordon, who wrote one of the most
insightful articles on the Iraq sanctions, entitled “
Cool War: Economic Sanctions as a Weapon of Mass
Destruction” has a brand new book out on the Iraq
sanctions entitled Invisible War: The United States
and the Iraq Sanctions. I haven’t read it yet but if
it’s as good as her article, it’s definitely a great
book. Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of The
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