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UNDILAH PAS DAN BARISAN ALTERNATIF
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The twisted language of war that is used to justify
the unjustifiable
By Robert Fisk in Baghdad - 07 April 2003
http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=394704
Why do we aid and abet the lies and propaganda of this
filthy war? How come, for example, it's now BBC
"style" to describe the Anglo-American invaders as the
"coalition". This is a lie. The "coalition" that we're
obviously supposed to remember is the one forged to
drive Iraqi occupation troops from Kuwait in 1991, an
alliance involving dozens of countries – almost all of
whom now condemn President Bush Junior's adventure in
Iraq. There are a few Australian special forces
swanning about in the desert, courtesy of the
country's eccentric Prime Minister, John Howard, but
that's it.
So, who at the BBC decreed this dishonest word
"coalition"? True, there's a "coalition of the
willing", to use Mr Bush's weird phrase, but this is a
reference to those nations that have given overflying
rights to the United States or have given political
but not military support. So the phrase "coalition
forces" remains a lie.
Then there's the historical slippage to justify the
unjustifiable. When Jonathan Charles, an "embedded"
journalist, reported in the early days of the invasion
that the British army outside Basra was keeping a
watchful eye on the Iranian border because the
Iranians had "stirred up" an insurrection in the city
in 1991, his dispatch was based on a falsehood. The
Iranians never stirred up an insurrection in Basra.
President Bush Senior did that by calling for just
such a rebellion – and then betraying the Shia Muslims
who followed his appeal. The Iranians did everything
they could to avoid involvement in the uprising.
Then there's the disinformation about the "securing"
of Basra. This was followed by an admission that
though the British had "secured" Basra they hadn't
actually captured it – and, indeed, have still not
captured it. The same goes for the US Marines who were
said to have "secured" Nasiriyah, but didn't capture
it until last week when, given the anarchy that broke
out in the city, they appear to have captured it
without making it secure. The US forces bravely
rescued a captured American female soldier; what
didn't make it into the same story was that they also
"rescued" 12 Americans, all of whom were already dead.
The Iraqis try to imitate the US Central Command
(CentCom) propaganda operations, though with less
subtlety. An attempt to present an American cruise
missile attack on a secret police office in the
Mansour district last week as the attempted
destruction of a maternity hospital – it was just
across the street but only sustained broken windows –
was straight out of the "Huns crucify nuns" routine.
Iraqi military communiqués inevitably claim a number
of American and British tanks and personnel carriers
destroyed that is way beyond credibility. At Najaf,
the Iraqi Armed Forces General Command (communiqué
number 16) stated on Friday that Iraqi forces had
destroyed 17 tanks, 13 armoured personnel carriers and
a Black Hawk helicopter. Whoops.
Yesterday, according to the Information Minister,
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, Iraqi troops destroyed four
US personnel carriers and an American warplane.
Sometimes the communiqués are verifiable. An Apache
actually was shot down by a farmer and CentCom
admitted an F-18 bomber was shot down over Iraq last
week. However, the sheer military detail put out by
the Iraqi authorities, grotesquely exaggerated though
it often is, far outstrips the old bones chucked by
the Americans at the correspondents in their
air-conditioned high-security headquarters in Qatar.
Another enjoyable lie was the American assertion that
the anti-chemical weapons suits issued to Iraqi
soldiers "proved" that Iraq possessed weapons of mass
destruction. The Iraqis neatly replied that the
equipment was standard issue but that since US and
British forces carried the same equipment, they too
must be in possession of forbidden weapons. The Iraqi
lie – that the country remains united under a beloved
leader – is hardly questioned in press conferences
held by Taha Yassin Ramadan, the Iraqi Vice-President.
Unity may be the one element Iraq will never possess
under US occupiers. But its existence under Saddam
Hussein has been imposed through terror.
Then there's the famous "war in Iraq" slogan which the
British and American media like to promote. But this
is an invasion, not a mere war.
And isn't it turning into an occupation rather than a
"liberation"? Shouldn't we be remembering in our
reports that this whole invasion lacks legitimacy?
Sure, the Americans claim they needed no more than the
original UN resolution 1441 to go to war. But if
that's the case, why did Britain and the US vainly
seek a second resolution? I can't help thinking
readers and viewers realise the mendacity of all this
sleight of hand, and that we journalists go on
insulting these same readers and viewers by thinking
we can con them.
Thus, we go on talking about an "air campaign" as if
the Luftwaffe was taking off from Cap Gris Nez to bomb
London, when not a single Iraqi aircraft has left the
ground. So, it's "coalition forces", a war not an
invasion, liberation rather than occupation, and the
taking of cities that are "secured" rather than
"captured", and when captured, are insecure.
And all this for the dead of 11 September.
go to top
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