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March 28, 2003
A simple question
I watched some of the news on SBS tonight about the war. Northern front opening up, change of US military tactics, Iraqi's running a guerilla war by attacking coalition supply lines, more civilian deaths in Baghdad, British forces continue to shell Basra, urban warfare begins in Basra and Americans are bombing civilian areas.
Why are the British shelling---pounding--- the city? What is the purpose? Is that where al Qaeda are holed up? Is that where the weapons of mass destruction are hidden? What has this has to do with 9/11? Are they liberating the people in the city by starving them out?
Funny isn't it. One week into the war?--is it that long? And all the rhetoric about why we are going to war with Iraq has dropped away. Nobody seems to notice. The embedded journos are writing about this tank, this bridge, this explosion, this sandstorm ---nothing about why all of this happening. Its almost as it nobody believes all the pre-invasion rhetoric any more. A far more brutal reality has taken over.
Its all about power now in the live feeds, the expert commentary that wraps around the live media feeds and the studio journos getting excited by the breaking news. This is a pre-emptive war and if there are lots of civilian casualties, and British really don't find evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Basra, what then?
The British have a big political problem. Their standing and creditbility are shot to pieces.
So why are the British shelling Basra? And what has that got to with 9/11?
But then this war was always about power. And thats the pathway to a great human tragedy.
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at March 28, 2003 12:06 AM
Comments
Kofi Anan said tonight on SKYNews that the AngloAmigos "will be held responsible" for war crimes against civilians in areas that they control, or committed during this illegal war. Australia -- via Howard -- is a party to the destruction of the entire U.N. and threatens to make us all guilty under the Nuremberg Principles.
Posted by: ausyankee at March 28, 2003 01:19 AM
They are shelling Basra because the Iraqis are executing British soldiers!
Posted by: Tom Titmouse at March 28, 2003 08:52 AM
Even on the BBC there are reporters who sound like they are doing the commentary rounds on the Premier League - "There it goes, the mortar shell is speeding through the air, and wait for it....ITS A DIRECT HIT!" Well, that was a cracking shot. Coalition 4 Saddam 3 Now, back to the main game with Martin Tyler."
Posted by: dj at March 28, 2003 01:06 PM
Everything drops away and we just have the brute reality of war. What also drops away is the impact war has on civilian populations and sympathy for the suffereng of those Iraqi's whose lives are destroyed by war.
Posted by: Gary Sauer-Thompson at March 31, 2003 06:15 AM