Common sense seems to be a primary casualty of the conflict in Iraq. The US Government and military forces fail to grasp that when an event occurs in broad daylight, with multiple witnesses, publishing a bald faced lie as the “official” report of the event is a bad idea. No doubt, war is hell and there are plenty of examples of emergent situations that call for snap judgments with emotions running high and tempers flaring. Regrettable mistakes and unintended loss of life can occur and sometimes be forgiven. However, understanding and reconciliation becomes much more difficult when the mishap is followed by a deliberate attempt to suppress, distort or fabricate facts to cover up the occurrence and deflect responsibility. Moreover, the “official” version advanced by the US government is frequently so divergent from the actual events and lacking in internal logic, that one wonders whether the government spokesmen even take their media roles seriously.
The US forces were on a mission to Ishaqi, based upon a tip that an “al Qaida supporter” was visiting a house in the town. The resulting encounter left 11 Iraqis dead, most of whom were women and children, and a collapsed building. According to the American spokesman, as reported by BBC: “the building collapsed under heavy fire killing four people - a suspect, two women and a child.” However, video footage at the time of the event, which was cross checked against other photo sources, evidences a different story. Video tape obtained by the BBC shows a number of dead adults and children at the site with clearly identified gunshot wounds, indicating that they did not perish from collapse of the building. Eyewitnesses reported that the US forces killed the civilians and then blew up the building, in an attack sounding more reminiscent of Israeli raids on Palestinian buildings believed to house suspected terrorists or just the family of a suspected terrorist.
In any event, more occurred in the town of Ishaqi than the collapse of a building on four innocent civilians. Beyond this, it is unclear how the surveillance of a suspected al Qaida supporter escalated to the destruction of an entire building and the many deaths of civilians. The US government has not made a clear delineation between the “enemy” that is al Qaida, and the “enemy” that is the insurgency. The official line is that they are synonymous. Logic would thus dictate that the more than 60% of Iraqis who support the insurgency could fall under the category of “suspected al Qaida supporters” in the current political climate. The US forces do not contend that they were attempting to capture an al Qaida leader or operative. So the level of force used immediately comes into question, even in a battlefield setting.
News of this possible massacre and attempted cover up comes in the wake of the alleged massacre in Haditha, where US marines are suspected of massacring up to 24 Iraqi civilians in November 2005. In addition, a recent riot in Kabul, Afghanistan, resulted in the deaths of several civilians at the hands of US forces. Conflicting reports and evidence call into question the “official” US government version that shots from the crowd precipitated return fire from the US forces.
The combined factors of an ill-defined “mission” and unclear objectives, together with reliance upon troops who have been forced to endure extended deployment in circumstances where their safety is under threat 24/7, and the reported redeployment to battlefield situations of soldiers who have been diagnosed with PTSD and exhibited other mental illnesses as a direct result of their service in Iraq and Afghanistan, create a recipe for disastrous events like those described above. Indeed, it is surprising that similar events are not reported more often. The assaults upon journalists[including attacks by US military forces] and risks involved in attempting to report on the conflict may have bearing on the frequency of such reports. Behavior by official US government spokesmen [from Fallujah to Haditha to Ishaqi]shows little regard for whether and when objective reports and information may surface showing their version of such events to be a blatant misrepresentation. Yet if the US government is to maintain any credibility in its assertion that the mission in Iraq is an important albeit difficult one, the flagrant disregard for the truth and the blatant and clumsy attempts to cover up mishaps does little to instill faith in the integrity of the government’s motivations or mission.
No comments:
Post a Comment