Dear Mr. President,
There’s an exhibit in town called “Eye Level in Iraq,” photographs by 4 unembedded journalists before and during the American invasion and occupation. It’s not the version of war shown the American public. There are images of dead and wounded, 90% of them civilians, an inconvenient fact we weren’t told. Hospitals were overwhelmed by civilian casualties during the invasion, drugs and equipment that might have saved lives unavailable due to our years-long embargo. The initial Shock and Awe—500 Cruise missiles and 1.200 air strikes—was designed to take out High Value Targets like Saddam Hussein but missed every one, killing only civilians. (High Value Targets, a term still used with roughly the same results.) One comes away from the exhibit with a heightened awareness of the savagery and violence of war. Images of dead and wounded children line the gallery walls. A boy sits on the floor next to his dying mother, blood spattered and pooling, his legs bandaged, his sister and brother already dead from one of those shock and awe missiles that hit their home instead of the intended target. (There is no such thing as a surgical strike or a precision missile—bombs and missiles do not distinguish civilians from combatants.) An 11-year old girl killed by an American bomb, her mother washes her naked body in preparation for burial. A boy, 8, lies on a hospital table dead, killed by an American missile. An old man lies dead in an intersection, killed by American artillery. These are the faces of war we never see, the carnage caused by politicians’ decisions made in ignorance, greed or delusions of justice and promoted by jingoistic patriotism, deceit and suppression of truth—the pattern of all wars. Your war in Afghanistan no different than Bush’s in Iraq. Your secrecy, lies and distortions no different than any other warmonger’s. An image near the beginning of the exhibit captures the nature of the American invasion—an American MP patrols a long line of disbanded Iraqi soldiers waiting for their severance pay; he is walking along the line in camo, helmet and combat boots carrying a large baseball bat. We will bludgeon them into democracy! You changed that. Our soldiers no longer carry baseball bats, no longer beat the enemy into submission. Instead, we kill them long distance with drones or close up with teams of CIA or JSOC assassins. Less messy. No prisoners to deal with and no accountability. The new American way of war. Part of the Obama legacy.
There’s an exhibit in town called “Eye Level in Iraq,” photographs by 4 unembedded journalists before and during the American invasion and occupation. It’s not the version of war shown the American public. There are images of dead and wounded, 90% of them civilians, an inconvenient fact we weren’t told. Hospitals were overwhelmed by civilian casualties during the invasion, drugs and equipment that might have saved lives unavailable due to our years-long embargo. The initial Shock and Awe—500 Cruise missiles and 1.200 air strikes—was designed to take out High Value Targets like Saddam Hussein but missed every one, killing only civilians. (High Value Targets, a term still used with roughly the same results.) One comes away from the exhibit with a heightened awareness of the savagery and violence of war. Images of dead and wounded children line the gallery walls. A boy sits on the floor next to his dying mother, blood spattered and pooling, his legs bandaged, his sister and brother already dead from one of those shock and awe missiles that hit their home instead of the intended target. (There is no such thing as a surgical strike or a precision missile—bombs and missiles do not distinguish civilians from combatants.) An 11-year old girl killed by an American bomb, her mother washes her naked body in preparation for burial. A boy, 8, lies on a hospital table dead, killed by an American missile. An old man lies dead in an intersection, killed by American artillery. These are the faces of war we never see, the carnage caused by politicians’ decisions made in ignorance, greed or delusions of justice and promoted by jingoistic patriotism, deceit and suppression of truth—the pattern of all wars. Your war in Afghanistan no different than Bush’s in Iraq. Your secrecy, lies and distortions no different than any other warmonger’s. An image near the beginning of the exhibit captures the nature of the American invasion—an American MP patrols a long line of disbanded Iraqi soldiers waiting for their severance pay; he is walking along the line in camo, helmet and combat boots carrying a large baseball bat. We will bludgeon them into democracy! You changed that. Our soldiers no longer carry baseball bats, no longer beat the enemy into submission. Instead, we kill them long distance with drones or close up with teams of CIA or JSOC assassins. Less messy. No prisoners to deal with and no accountability. The new American way of war. Part of the Obama legacy.
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