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April
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April 7,
2003
The Twisted Language of War
All This for
the Dead of 9/11?
By ROBERT FISK
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.
Yesterday's
Features
Anthony
Gancarski
Colin Powell's Shame
John
Chuckman
Was Einstein Right About Israel?
David
Krieger
The Meaning of Victory
Tom
Gorman
The Mantra of the Troops: Support
or Treason?
Adam
Federman
The Absence of War
Vijay
Prashad
There Are No More Arguments
Tom
Stephens
The End of the Innocence
Mickey
Z.
Makes Me Sic (Sic): Copy Editing
Bush Speak
Pierre
Tristam
War Coverage: a Dishonest Reality
Show
Hammond
Guthrie
The Deadly Mihrab
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 04/04
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