Wednesday, June 14, 2006

More US War crimes: Dahr Jamail - Ramadi: Fallujah Redux

"The media blackout on Ramadi is already rivaling the blackout on the draconian measures employed by the military during the November 2004 siege of Fallujah, if not surpassing it.''

By Dahr Jamail - t r u t h o u t | Perspective - Monday 12 June 2006

Fearful residents are now pouring out of Ramadi after the US military has been assaulting the city for months with tactics like cutting water, electricity and medical aid, imposing curfews, and attacking by means of
snipers and random air strikes. This time, Iraqis there are right to fear the worst - an all out attack on the city, similar to what was done to nearby Fallujah.

It has always been just a matter of time before the US military would finally get around to destroying Ramadi, the capital city of al-Anbar province. After all, Ramadi is not far from Fallujah, and so similar to Fallujah both tribally and in their disdain towards the idea of being
occupied, that many people in Ramadi even refer to Fallujah as "Ramadi."

I know many people from Ramadi who lost relatives and friends during both US assaults on Fallujah, and the level of anti-American sentiment has always been high there.

By now, we all know the scene when the US military in Iraq decides to attack an entire city ... we've seen this standard operating procedure repeated, to one degree or another, in Haditha, Al-Qa'im, Samarra, parts of Baghdad, Balad, Najaf and Fallujah twice ... so far.

The city is sealed for weeks if not months, water and electricity are cut, medical aid is cut, curfews imposed, mobility impaired, air strikes utilized, then the real attack begins.

NOW IN RAMADI, THE REAL ATTACK HAS BEGUN.

Warplanes are streaking the sky as bombings increase, loudspeakers aimed into the city warn civilians of a "fierce impending attack," (even though it has already begun), and thousands of families remain trapped in their homes, just like in Fallujah during both attacks on that city. Again, many who remain in the city cannot afford to leave because they are so poor, or they lack transportation, or they want to guard their home because it is all they have left.

Sheikh Fassal Guood, a former governor of al-Anbar said of the situation, "The situation is catastrophic. No services, no electricity, no water." He also said, "We know for sure now that Americans and Iraqi commanders have decided to launch a broad offensive any time now, but they should have consulted with us."

Today, a man who lives in Fallujah and who recently visited Ramadi told me, "Any new government starts with a massacre. That seems like the price that we Iraqis must pay, especially in the Sunni areas. Ramadi has been deprived of water, electricity, telephones and all services for about two months now. US and government forces frankly told people of Ramadi that they will not get any services unless they hand over 'the
terrorists!!'

Operations started last week, but it seems that the Marines are facing some problems in a city that is a lot bigger in areathan Fallujah. (Ramadi also has at least 50,000 more residents than Fallujah.)

Killing civilians is almost a daily process done by snipers and soldiers in US armored vehicles. The problem that makes it even more difficult for the Ramadi people than for those of Fallujah back in 2004
is that they cannot flee to Baghdad, because there they'll face the government militia assassinations. Nevertheless, the US Army is telling them to evacuate the city. On the other hand, the government and the US
Army made it clear that they will bring militias to participate in the wide attack against the city. The UN and the whole world are silent as usual, and nobody seems to care what is going to happen in Ramadi."

Thus, the stage was set and now Iraqis brace themselves for yet another staggeringly high civilian body count in Ramadi. This, amidst recent news from the Department of Defense that over $19 million has been paid out in compensation by the US military in Iraq to families who have had loved ones killed by US troops. The average payout is $2,500 per body, and nearly half of the $19 million was paid out in the province of al-Anbar. Reflective of the drastically increased levels of violence in Iraq, the total amount of compensation payouts for 2005 is nearly four times what it was the previous year.

The fact that the 1,500 US troops who were recently brought into Iraq, specifically to Ramadi, went unreported by most, if not all, corporate media outlets didn't come as a surprise to the residents of Ramadi,
however, as street battles between troops and resistance fighters have been raging for months now.

The media blackout on Ramadi is already rivaling the blackout on the draconian measures employed by the military during the November 2004 siege of Fallujah, if not surpassing it. Thus far, the military have remained reluctant to allow even embedded reporters to travel with them in Ramadi. With each passing US assault on an Iraqi city, the media blackout grows darker - and with Ramadi, it is the darkest yet.

Most of what we have, aside from sporadic reports from sources inside the besieged city, is propaganda from the US military spokesman in Baghdad, Major Todd Breasseale, who only spoke of moving the newly arrived 1,500 troops in from Kuwait into positions around Ramadi. "Moving this force will allow tribal leaders and government officials to go about the very difficult task of taking back their towns from the criminal elements."

THEY ARE LEFT WITH NOTHING BUT WHAT THEY CARRY AND NO PLACE TO GO

Similar to Fallujah, thousands of frightened residents of Ramadi are fleeing the city, then being turned away from entering Baghdad. With no tents, food, or aid of any kind being provided to them by the military, which is a war crime, they are left with nothing but what they carry and no place to go.

These refugees are now adding to the horrific statistic
of over 100,000 displaced families within Iraq, the majority of whom are so as the result of massive US military operations which have a tendency to make entire cities unlivable.

Reports from sources within Ramadi for weeks now have been that US soldiers have been inhabiting people's homes in order to use their rooftops as sniper platforms, innocent people are being shot daily, and
people are confused - do they risk leaving and having nowhere to go, or risk staying in their homes and possibly being killed?

Hassan Zaidan Lahaibi, a member of the Council of Representatives in the Iraqi parliament, told reporters recently, "If things continue, we will have a humanitarian crisis. People are getting killed or wounded, and the rest are just migrating aimlessly."

He could just as easily be describing much of the rest of Iraq, where the majority of people struggle to survive under the weight of an increasingly brutal occupation, US-backed death squads, sectarian militias, staggering unemployment and a devastated infrastructure.

DAHR JAMAIL
_______________________________________________

[andend] - (c)2004, 2005 Dahr Jamail.

** Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches **
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* ROME TRIBUNAL ON WAR CRIMES AND MEDIA: Held Guilty of Deception - The tribunal said mainstream media reportage on Iraq also violated article six of the Nuremberg Tribunal (set up to try Nazi crimes) which states: "Leaders, organisers, instigators and accomplices participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing crimes (crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity) are responsible for all acts performed by any persons in execution of such a plan." - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/68jws

MORE STRONGLY RELATED LINKS - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/gkgrb

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Young People of America…… Rise Up and Rebel!

FPF-fwd.: NEWS YOU WON'T FIND ON CNN

From Santiago de Chile, AP (Associated Propaganda) reports anyhow that it works to 'rise up and rebel' when - according to them: "A million high school students returned to classrooms Tuesday, after a three-week strike wrested new education money from Chile's socialist government.'' [end quote AP - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/nwtzr]

That's what should be done immediately in the States too: millions of good people must start acting to wrest all power the warmongers usurped, from their bloody claws. We absolutely have to stop this plague, which globally has been a curse and pestering mankind already for such a long time.

Young People of America…… Rise Up and Rebel!

'"MILITARY DRAFT FOR EACH AND EVERY MAN AND WOMAN AGED 18 TO 42"

BY DOUG SODERSTROM, PH.D.

06/13/06 'Information Clearing House' - Just over 50 years ago it was No Gun Ri. Then My Lai. And now Haditha…. and, as (headlines declare), even more mass murders, most recently in the Iraqi villages of Ishaqi, Hamdaniya, Latifiyah, and Yusifiyah; young men fresh out of high school, frustrated by life, with nothing better to do than to sign up as mercenaries ready and willing to kill for their country, yet, as always, afraid to die and angry as hell as a result of buddies (comrades-in-arms) having been killed, everyone of them having been thrown into a world of cultural confusion and death wanting nothing more than an opportunity to return home, body and mind unimpaired.

You see, for each of these young men and women, there will be two wars; the first a physical battle to stay alive, the second a psycho-spiritual effort, a struggle to live with what they “had to do” in order to stay alive. In war there are no winners….. only those who lose least!

Isn’t it ironic that just this week the commanders in charge of forces in Iraq, after having suffered the painful blowback, the natural consequences, of having so punctiliously trained our children to kill, having trained them to reflexively disregard the rather inconvenient intrusion of an always present voice reminding one of the value of human life, have found it necessary to reverse the harm they have done, that they tighten the slack in their leash on the troops, that it might be better if soldiers did begin to think, did in fact begin to use their minds, before choosing to take the life of another human being.

CORE WARRIOR VALUES

The new training program, technically referred to as “Core Warrior Values,” an effort to enable soldiers to discriminate between who they should as opposed to who they should not be willing to kill; that is…… that it is proper for them to be chomping at the bits to kill the “bad guys,” those armed with guns eager to kill them, but better for them to hold back a bit when it comes to the “good guys,” women, children, the blind, and old men (especially those found to be sitting in wheel chairs). Something like training an American Pit Bull to viciously rip apart, that is, to devour, its prey, and then in midstream, amidst the chaos of an enraged battle, ensuring that the avenger will gently back off choosing to show mercy for those disinclined to fight back.

HE WAS SIMPLY FOLLOWING ORDERS

So many of our children, the vast majority of them Black, Hispanic, and poor, having been cajoled into joining the ranks of the military, all in order to support a country out to “right a world of wrongs.” However, what these young folks are never told is that their primary job will be that of killing people, most often that of the enemy, but sometimes even those of their own buddies (during the first Gulf War nearly one out of four soldiers were shot and killed as a result of “friendly fire”). As part of their training (read: brainwashing) these young men and women will be taught: to stuff their conscience (to forget everything taught to them by their parents, elementary school teachers, preachers, priests, and/or rabbis); how to fire an automatic weapon with deadly accuracy; to loathe the adversary since such animosity will make it much easier to kill the enemy; and to trust the government, to have faith that once the soldier returns home all will be well, that all of his/her memories, the recollections of a buddy’s head having been blown off, the old lady whose guts were splattered all over the wall, the insurgent who tried to smile as he lay dying on the street, and the little boy whose body he mistakenly blew apart while running to his mother arms, that the unending nightmares will simply vanish into thin air, for no reason other than the soldier’s assurance that he did the right thing, that he was doing his duty, that he had done what he had been told to do, that he was simply following orders.

However, what the soldier is never told is that as a result of having gone to war there is a reasonable likelihood that he will struggle until the day he dies with nightmares depicting the horrors of war, the unrelenting grief, bitterness and resentment, despair, depression, and the anger that will have taken possession of his life; a marriage in which his wife will never understand what he has gone through; attempts to keep a job amidst the chaos of a life still at battle within; and, if all goes awry, that of exile, soldiers having been banished for having found themselves unable to adapt to “the niceties” of a more civilized world, those damned to a world of losers, a sort of depository, a melting pot of homelessness for those who have given up on life.

OUR CHILDREN NEED TO BE TOLD THE TRUTH.

Our sons and daughters need to realize that choosing to be a soldier means a decision to place themselves among “the damned,” since no matter what they end up doing while on the field of battle, they will eventually be damned…… damned if they do and damned if they do not. Realizing that compliance with a superior’s order to shoot and kill the enemy may well lead to the damnation (the self-extirpation) of one’s soul. On the other hand, noncompliance will lead to that of being court-martialed. However, regardless of the chaotic rigors of battle, regardless how terribly difficult it might be to figure out what one ought (or ought not) do, the lowest man on the totem pole, the grunt, rather than his superiors at the top, will be the one held responsible, the individual most likely to spend time in prison, and in some cases, the one most likely to be put to death for having killed an innocent victim.

Of course, along with the fact that most recruits will never receive any educational benefits, that their training in the military is for the most part irrelevant to jobs in the civilian sector, that their military recruiter was always a salesman and never a friend, that he was nothing more than “an advanced grunt” trying desperately, and far too often dishonestly, to meet a quota set for him by a military needing more bodies to be placed on the battlefield, the military recruit needs to understand that he is “an expendable,” that his life has little or no value whatsoever for those at the top, that he is nothing more than mere cannon fodder, a redundant grunt filling a slot on the “front lines” of battle enriching the military-industrial complex, a conglomeration of the transnationally rich, felons whose prosperity depends upon the promise of more wars to come!

Just yesterday I discovered that a new bill, HR 4752, The Universal National Service Act of 2006 (a fancy name for a bill that would bring back “the draft”), has been introduced to The House of Representatives. Because the United States government (meaning the Bush-Cheney administration) is on the verge of militarily invading Iran, a conflict that might well lead to all out war in the Middle East, the United States Congress is not taking any chances. Such a bill “on the table,” and ready to be passed (enacted) when necessary, will authorize the United States government to once again initiate a military draft for each and every man and woman aged 18 to 42. Although most of the people I have discussed this matter with have told me that there is no way our government would reinstitute the draft since such would no doubt represent political suicide. And they are right.

However, there is one thing that trumps the need to avoid political self-immolation, and that is the need to have an adequate supply of soldiers on the ground to fight the next war, the “Battle of Iran,” a conflagration likely to draw in the remainder of countries in the Middle East, partisans who may well begin to realize that we, as a nation, had no business meddling in the affairs of the Middle East, no right to have sent our soldiers a world away in order to occupy that of another country.

THE WAR IN IRAQ IS NO DOUBT ILLEGAL

Consequently, since the war in Iraq is no doubt illegal, it is destroying the social fabric of our people, the economic infrastructure of our nation, it has nothing whatsoever to do with the spreading of peace and democracy around the world, the fact that the president lied in regards to why we went to war, the conflict in Iraq has created a world of greater danger, our warring posture has given the world even more reasons to hate us, I am proposing that it is time for young folks to pull their heads out of the sand, that they come in from the dark, that they begin to pay attention, that they realize that their brothers and sisters have been used (more likely even, abused) by the government, that, before it is too late, they need to tell the military establishment that they will not go to war!

OUR YOUTH NEED TO UNDERSTAND THE TREMENDOUS POWER THEY HAVE, THAT WAR IS SIMPLY NOT POSSIBLE IF THEY REFUSE TO FIGHT, IF THEY MAKE IT CLEAR THAT THEY WILL NOT TAKE UP ARMS.

Because our country has become the world’s leading producer as well as supplier of military weapons and technology, the world’s primary advocate of war, a warmongering nation that requires the destruction of all who threaten its right to dominate the world, our children need not presume that they have a moral responsibility to support the military establishment. I realize that our time has not yet come, that the tipping point, that of the military draft, has yet to become a reality. But when forced conscription into the military becomes inevasible, I expect young people, at least those able to comprehend the significance of their place in history, to take a stand against the tyranny of war…… forces of evil cryptically embedded within the polity of a nation having gone wrong. I am calling upon the youth of this country to say no to war, to tell their leaders that they will not obey the government’s request that they take up arms, that they will not go to war for the purpose of killing the enemy.

BEING A TRULY DECENT PERSON

So many of our young folks have been brought up to believe that being a good person has something to do with that of having a good reputation, being liked by everyone, being held in high esteem by others, even that of being a patriotic citizen, but such has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with that of being a truly decent person. I beg the young people of this nation to consider the ominous proposition that, as it was in the days of Nuremberg when the Nazis were held responsible for crimes against humanity, when the leaders of the German nation dressed their children “in brown shirts” reminding that they had a moral obligation (a national duty) to fight for the Fatherland, it will be the same for the leaders of our nation, as well as for those who blindly allow themselves to be coerced into fighting for our country, a nation having come under the nefarious control of malefactors convinced that our nation has been given the right, the God-ordained responsibility, to oversee the planet, to, in fact, rule the world.

So someday when you reach the end of your days, when you become rather old, and are no doubt ready to die, realize that no one (at least no one of any significance) will ever choose to ask if you were a good citizen, if you were a patriot, if you were loyal to your country. You will never be asked if you wore a uniform with distinction.

The only thing for which you will be held accountable, by “those who count,” is that of having chosen to become a decent human being, that of having chosen to live your life according to the laws of humanity (the principles of justice, peace, and love), the Law of God, which demands but one, and only one, thing…….. that we love one another.

Doug Soderstrom, Ph.D. Psychologist



Click to read or post comments - Url.: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13610.htm

* ROME TRIBUNAL ON WAR CRIMES AND MEDIA: Held Guilty of Deception - The tribunal said mainstream media reportage on Iraq also violated article six of the Nuremberg Tribunal (set up to try Nazi crimes) which states: "Leaders, organisers, instigators and accomplices participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing crimes (crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity) are responsible for all acts performed by any persons in execution of such a plan." - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/68jws
http://tinyurl.com/m4duy

* THE US PNAC WARS & NATO’S SECRET ARMIES LINKED TO TERRORISM? - (NATO, the Pentagon, NSA, MI6, the CIA, Mossad, BND, and all other European and global 'intelligence services' are linked to inhuman terror, coups d’état, 'rendition', the PNAC Gulags and torture - HR) - by Daniele Ganser - Url.: http://globalresearch.ca/articles/GAN412A.html

* FALSE FLAG 9/11 - NO LEGAL BASE FOR NATO FIGHTING US WARS - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/zqzkc

* FPF: MORE STRONGLY RELATED LINKS - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/gkgrb

* FPF-COPYRIGHT NOTICE - In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107 - any copyrighted work in this message is distributed by the Foreign Press Foundation under fair use, without profit or payment, to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the information. Url.: http://liimirror.warwick.ac.uk/uscode/17/107.html

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Editor: Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/amn3q
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Support The Troops: 'Project for a New American Cemetery'

FPF - 'PROJECT FOR A NEW AMERICAN CEMETERY' (PNAC): "Those who count the increasing number of American soldiers killed in Iraq are missing the bigger picture, retired Gen. Tommy Franks said last Saturday night: "What we're talking about is neither 2,400, 24,000 or 240,000 lives," Franks said at the National Rifle Association's annual banquet."*

Support The Troops

By Sheila Samples - former civilian US Army Public Information Officer.

And it's up against the wall American Muthers,
Barbara Bush, who raised her son so well.
Now Dubya's out there smirkin' in God's honky tonk,
Just kickin' soldiers' asses and raisin' hell.

~ apologies to Jerry Jeff Walker.

Once a year, George Bush shows up at Arlington National Cemetery and tells a tightly controlled, thoroughly vetted audience that he 'preciates the sacrifice of those who volunteered to die "in freedom's cause." There, surrounded by silent tombstones and armed Secret Service Police, this most infamous of military deserters befouls not only the hallowed ground, but the very air, as he regurgitates words he babbled the year before...and the year before. He reminds us that America is a "reluctant warrior," but we are resolved; our will must not be broken, no matter how many sacrifices it takes.

During the annual photo-op, Bush reads exerpts of farewell letters allegedly from fallen soldiers and marines, all apparently honored to have died in Bush's noble cause. Their words passed on to us by Bush are eerily familiar -- stay the course -- complete the mission of ridding the world of evil -- spread freedom and democracy to the four corners of the earth. Then, after hoping that the slain heroes made peace with their Maker before being blown to bits, and a final admonishment to "support the troops," Bush cuts out until next year.

The camera never strays from Bush's twitching mouth, darting eyes -- never scans the audience so we might see who these people are who applaud him so vigorously. It must be members of his administration and those legislators who follow him around like whipped pups, for I cannot imagine mothers willing to either sacrifice their children to bolster Bush's poll numbers in a barbaric slaughterhouse that grows more bloody and chaotic every day, or to cheer him on.

Somehow I cannot conjure up an image of mothers offering up their sons and daughters to a pathological narcissist killer, knowing if they are returned at all it will be either in pieces or in boxes.

HIDING THE TROOPS

Either way, Bush is determined to protect us from seeing the steady stream of ghastly homecomings. That's what mothers are for. Bush says he wakes up every morning trying to figure out how to protect the American people, and -- like his mother says -- folks shouldn't have to worry their beautiful minds with such depressing images.

So Bush not only banned the media and the public from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware* where dead soldiers are secretly shuttled back in country in the dead of night, but from military installations around the world.

RESTRICTED THE MEDIA FROM COVERING FUNERALS AT ARLINGTON

Bush also restricted the media from covering funerals at Arlington, apparently deciding that the best way to support the troops is to "disappear" them from our view forever. Besides, if you've seen one aluminum transfer tube covered with the old red-white-and-blue, you've seen 'em all. Why bother parading 2,500 of them past a bored, disconnected, disinterested citizenry, most of whom have no children in this fight and could care less about other people's children...

General Tommy Franks, former Central Command Commander, who developed and executed the bloody Iraq fiasco, recently told the National Rifle Association that it wasn't important how many Americans died -- that those who count the increasing number of American soldiers killed in Iraq are missing the bigger picture. "What we're talking about is neither 2,400, 24,000 or 240,000 lives," Franks said. "Terrorism is a thing that threatens our way of life. It doesn't have anything to do with politics."

Americans fail to realize that words mean far different things to Bush, and apparently to Franks, than they do to coherent, rational people. To Bush, "support the troops" means don't criticize him when thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of innocents die in an illegal, bloody mess that he lied to get us into.

Bush brags that he's a war president. He says he sits in the Oval Office with war on his mind. He doesn't read --- doesn't need to because his gut makes all the decisions, and anybody who doesn't like that is aiding and abetting the terrorists.

SO -- STICK A YELLOW RIBBON ON YOUR VEHICLE, SHUT UP, AND SUPPORT THE TROOPS.
SUPPORTING THE TROOPS

In the only evidence of support I am aware of, just months after getting his war on, Bush opened a new $30 million, state-of-the-art, 70,000 square-foot mortuary at Dover to support the troops, or what is left of them, when they are sneaked back to the states under cover of darkness. Since then, he has sent America's sons and daughters unprepared and unequipped into a raging guerilla insurgency with orders to kill anything that moves.

Bush and his entire Iran-Contra war-criminal chickenhawk administration are devoid of ethos; incapable of empathy or compassion, and could care less about supporting troops. Bush has said on more than one occasion, "My attitude is, any time we put one of our soldiers in harm's way, we're going to spend whatever is necessary to make sure they have the best training, the best support and the best possible equipment."

That may be his attitude, but it is not the reality on the ground in Iraq or Afghanistan. Far too many Americans Bush has put in harm's way are trying unsuccessfully to stay alive in soft-armored Humvees while wearing Vietnam-era flak jackets. Far too few of them have the Intercepter Vest designed in the late 1990's to protect its wearer with Kevlar lining and ceramic plates in front and back pockets to shield vital organs.

Day after grinding day in the filth and horror of a war with the "front line" anywhere the enemy decides it will be, ill-trained and ill-equipped Americans are losing the battle to stay alive -- and there is no end in sight.
MOST AMERICANS NEITHER KNOW NOR CARE ABOUT WHAT IS GOING ON, BUT THE MOTHERS KNOW.

They are not only spending thousands of dollars sending critical armor, night-vision goggles, and other needed equipment to their children, but are sending food as well.

Journalist Bob Kerr writes in The Providence Journal that Marine Nick Andoscia called and asked his mother to send food. Kerr said Nick told his mother that he and the men in his unit had shed about 10 pounds in their first few weeks in Iraq. They were pulling 22-hour patrol shifts, and were getting only two meals a day -- not meals to remember. He said they were going to the Iraqis and literally begging for food.

The lack of support this administration gives its uniformed personnel is monumentally ruthless and evil. Since Bush's unprovoked attack on Iraq, nearly 12,000 soldiers have been evacuated because of disease. Some of the sickness can be attributed to Halliburton-KBR serving tainted water and rotten food in the mess halls, but most is undoubtedly from radiation poisoning due to the widespread use of the deadly Depleted Uranium.

BLAMING THE TROOPS

One of the more frightening things about wars, especially immoral wars like this one, is the enemy must be dehumanized so soldiers and marines can be kept under control and "up" for the killing they must do. Normal human beings can't turn cruelty on and off like a faucet; therefore, the troops must be also be dehumanized to the point of madness. They become predators without conscience -- drugged and brainwashed into a continuous white rage, not only willing, but eager to kill.

Their commander-in-chief is a ruthlessly self-centered, single-layered demon whose hypnotic cadence of kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill has succeeded in turning them into the monsters they must be for his world dominance aspirations to succeed. The US military are victims of a cruel fascist regime. They are used, then tossed aside to come to terms with what they have become on their own. It is a rare soldier who returns to find professional help available.

For many, the final battle with their predator leader is one too many. Because of the values they were taught from birth -- it all comes crashing down. Many can't cope with the magnitude of sheer evil that envelops them. Some commit suicide. Others become alcoholics, drug addicts, homeless, the walking dead.

TORTURE, MURDER AND WAR CRIMES

When torture, murder and war crimes committed by Americans in places such as Guantanamo, Haditha, Abu Ghrab, Ishaqi and Fallujah, as well as in Afghanistan, comes to light, Bush and his criminal defense department initially try to conceal the atrocities. If forced to investigate themselves, they find no wrongdoing. When all else fails, Bush comes out, blames the troops and says the few bad apples will be brought to justice. Commanders stand silent, refusing to defend or protect those for whom they are responsible -- mute acknowledgement that, as Henry Kissinger said, "Soldiers are expendable -- dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy."

Every single member of Congress, every single member of this filthy administration, every single commander on the ground, and every single member of the shameful corporate US media must be blamed for allowing George Bush's rampant maiming and destruction of American citizens and for the genocidal murder waged against innocent Iraqi men, women and children.

Every single one of them should be forced to don Vietnam-era flak jackets, crammed into unarmored Humvees and ordered to drive across Iraq, fighting to stay alive while choking on depleted uranium dust.

THEN THEY MIGHT ACKNOWLEDGE WHO IS TO BLAME FOR THIS FIASCO.

IS IT THE TROOPS?

NO WAY IN HELL.

SHEILA SAMPLES

SCOOP article (NZ) - Url.: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0606/S00172.htm

Sheila Samples is an Oklahoma writer and a former civilian US Army Public Information Officer. She is a regular contributor for a variety of Internet sites. Contact her at: rsamples@sirinet.net . © 2006 Sheila Samples

FPF - RELATED:

* ONE OF THE BUTCHERS OF THE PNAC 'SLAUGHTERHAUS' - "Those who count the increasing number of American soldiers killed in Iraq are missing the bigger picture." retired Gen. Tommy Franks said last Saturday night: "What we're talking about is neither 2,400, 24,000 or 240,000 lives," Franks said at the National Rifle Association's annual banquet." - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/r53hd

* ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY IS UNDERGOING ITS FIRST EXPANSION IN A DECADE. - The expansion will allow the nation's pre-eminent military cemetery to accommodate burials up to 2030. - As part of the project that began in May (2005) - 26-thousand graves are being added to the roughly 215-thousand already in place across the Potomac River from Washington. An additional 77-thousand remains are in tombs for urns with cremated remains. - Url.: http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/first-expansion-in-a-decade.htm

* NEARLY 9,000 U.S. TROOPS DEAD!? - Url.: http://www.apfn.net/Messageboard/07-04-05/discussion.cgi.14.html

* Google search selection:  Web  Results 1-10 of about 9,760,000 for Iraq war +body count - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/mvkk4

* ON DECEMBER 6TH 2002 - 3 MONTHS BEFORE THE ILLEGAL US INVASION OF IRAQ STARTED - the 'Mortuary Control Center' at Dover Air Force Base trained for the arrival of dead soldiers - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/wjdb

* DOVER AIR FORCE BASE IN DELAWARE WHERE DEAD SOLDIERS ARE SECRETLY SHUTTLED BACK IN COUNTRY IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT - Images - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/pucbj

* Concerning the 'Project for a New American Cemetery' (PNAC) - The Amnesty International dossier ''A dirty trade in arms'' - The world desperately needs a tough and well-enforced arms trade treaty to stop the present flow of weaponry to serious abusers of human rights. - Article by Brian Wood - Url.: http://MondeDiplo.com/2006/06/10dirtytrade

* PNAC: "New American Century" - Project Ends With A Whimper" - Good article by Jim Lobe - Url.: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0613-05.htm
FPF/HR - STRONGLY RELATED LINKS - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/gkgrb

* THE ROME TRIBUNAL ON WAR CRIMES AND MEDIA: Held Guilty of Deception - The tribunal said mainstream media reportage on Iraq also violated article six of the Nuremberg Tribunal (set up to try Nazi crimes) which states: "Leaders, organisers, instigators and accomplices participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing crimes (crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity) are responsible for all acts performed by any persons in execution of such a plan." - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/68jws

* US PNAC WARS & NATO’S SECRET ARMIES LINKED TO TERRORISM - (NATO, the Pentagon, NSA, MI6, the CIA, Mossad, BND, and all other European and global 'intelligence services' are linked to inhuman terror, coups d’état, 'rendition', the PNAC Gulags and torture - HR) - by Daniele Ganser - Url.: http://globalresearch.ca/articles/GAN412A.html

* FALSE FLAG 9/11 - NO LEGAL BASE FOR NATO FIGHTING US WARS - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/zqzkc

* FPF-COPYRIGHT NOTICE - In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107 - any copyrighted work in this message is distributed by the Foreign Press Foundation under fair use, without profit or payment, to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the information. Url.: http://liimirror.warwick.ac.uk/uscode/17/107.html

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CNN: ''Terrorism is a subjective term, depending on which side you are on.''

''WE NEVER GIVE UP! ANY MESSAGE ABOUT STOPPING THE RESISTANCE IS FALSE!"

The CNN item reminds me of what was said by the poisoned PLO President and Chairman Yassir Arafat (Abu Ammar) in the Swedish capital Stockholm, where he once effectively silenced a pro-Israel journalist from the PNAC-paper 'Dagens Nyheter' who asked about the ongoing Palestinian resistance:

"Look in your own telephone book here in Sweden. In the chapter advising the population what to do 'If war starts' - ('Om kriget kommer') - it says 'that everybody should resist the occupying forces'.

There even is a famous quote: ''We never give up! Any message about ending the resistance is false!" it says. ''And that is exactly what we are doing." Arafat explained. - [ ]

For insight on that, Carl Azuz sat down with CNN's Senior Editor for Arab Affairs, Octavia Nasr:

CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS REPORTER: ''WordCentral.com defines terrorism as the use of a violent or destructive act to achieve a goal. Why is it so difficult for the international community to agree on a definition for terrorism?''*

OCTAVIA NASR, CNN SENIOR EDITOR FOR ARAB AFFAIRS: ''Well, I think for one, terrorism for one person is a freedom fight for another.

And you know, the Arab world always talks about this, as they say the so-called terrorism, because they believe that - in Iraq, for example, many people are struggling against occupation, so in many ways they support that struggle against occupation but then they draw a line between those who are struggling.

They want a free Iraq, they want the occupiers out and those who are pushing the envelope and crossing the line by terrorizing people. And when we say terrorizing people, in a sense, it's going after the innocent civilians, the unsuspecting civilians, taking hostages, beheading them.

Committing acts that are totally unacceptable, even by the standards of a freedom fight.*

SO, YOU KNOW, IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT, "TERRORISM" IS A SUBJECTIVE TERM DEPENDING ON WHICH SIDE YOU ARE ON."

[end quote CNN] - Url.: http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/06/13/transcript.wed/index.html?section=cnn_latest

***************************************************************************************

COMMITTING ACTS THAT ARE TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE, EVEN BY THE STANDARDS OF A FREEDOM FIGHT:

* THE NAKED FACE OF U.S. TERRORISM: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL MAY 2006 REPORT ON THE INHUMAN USE OF TORTURE ON BEHALF OF THE MANAGERS OF THE UNITED STATES AND OTHER CRIMINALS OF DOUBLE AND/OR DIFFERENT NATIONALITIES - Url.: http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engmde140012006

* TERRORISM BY US-PNAC Armed forces & the 'Coalition of the Killing' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/n8fxj

* TERRORIZING THE OWN POPULATION: US 9/11 TERRORISM in a CNN Poll - Question: "Do you believe there is a U.S. government cover-up surrounding 9/11?" - 'Yes' - 89% - 'NO' - 11% - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/7w7c5

* WHO ARE THE REAL TERRORISTS? - SCHOLARS FOR 9/11 TRUTH - American and other scientists, diplomats, researchers etc.: What happened on 9/11? - What is happening to our world? - How can we improve our situation? - Url.: http://www.st911.org/

* THE ROME TRIBUNAL ON WAR CRIMES AND TERROR SUPPORTING MEDIA: Held Guilty of Deception - The tribunal said mainstream media reportage on Iraq also violated article six of the Nuremberg Tribunal (set up to try Nazi crimes) which states: "Leaders, organisers, instigators and accomplices participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing crimes (crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity) are responsible for all acts performed by any persons in execution of such a plan." - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/68jws

* US PNAC WARS & NATO’S SECRET ARMIES LINKED TO TERRORISM - (NATO, the Pentagon, NSA, MI6, the CIA, Mossad, BND, and all other European and global 'intelligence services' are linked to inhuman terror, coups d’état, 'rendition', the PNAC Gulags and torture - HR) - by Daniele Ganser - Url.: http://globalresearch.ca/articles/GAN412A.html

* FALSE FLAG 9/11 - NO LEGAL BASE FOR NATO FIGHTING US WARS - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/zqzkc

* FPF-COPYRIGHT NOTICE - In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107 - any copyrighted work in this message is distributed by the Foreign Press Foundation under fair use, without profit or payment, to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the information. Url.: http://liimirror.warwick.ac.uk/uscode/17/107.html

FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
http://forpressfound.blogspot.com/
Editor: Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/amn3q
The Netherlands
fpf@chello.nl

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