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Haditha - A Symbol of Genocide

Comment by Larry Ross, November 7, 2006

The American people have been deceived and shanghaied into becoming tools of a criminal conspiracy, that cheated its way into power in the 2000 and 2004 elections. The conspiracy uses the people's taxes to implement their war plans and employs some of them to commit genocide crimes on a global scale. The assault on Iraq is one example and it is not a war. It is the systematic and cold-blooded murder of men, women and children for no justifiable reason. They use mass bombing, shelling, sniping, torture and straight murder as shown below. They are not even fighting terrorism, as Iraq had no terrorism, no weapons of mass destruction, no links to the 9/11 attack, no nuclear weapons and no plan to attack the US . The Bush conspiracy knew this and knew that to implement their war plans they had to deceive the American people. With the help of the US mass media and the US Senate and Congress, the American people were successfully deceived and bought the lies.

The Senate and Congress opened up the US Treasury to enable the Bush criminal conspiracy to invent the ideology and the justifications to engage in this mass genocide. 655,000 Iraqis have been murdered by the Bush conspiracy so far and the number grows every day. The lies were exposed but most US war propaganda media refused to show the exposures. Many people still believe the lies. Others, such as The US Senate and Congress, pretend to believe and continue to fund the genocide. They even legislate to give the criminals patriot-type fascist laws to better enable the Bush conspiracy to commit their crimes against humanity and trample international law, the UN Charter, the US Constitution and the basic human rights of their own citizens. American freedom and democracy is being legislated out of existence by the Bush conspiracy and the US Senate and Congress. Their mission is to serve the Bush criminal conspiracy whatever the cost in lives or treasure.

What has happened to our U.S.A. that was a beacon of hope to the world's impoverished, oppressed masses? It could have led in solving the world's real problems and led humanity toward a secure, prosperous, and just world.

Instead it took another road - the road of evil and the blackest fascism and mass murder. The conspiracy has even increased its genocidal preparations with new nuclear doctrines that 'legally' allow it to wage pre-emptive nuclear slaughter of people, not by the thousand as in Iraq , but now by the million in Iran and elsewhere. The compliant mass propaganda media made sure this information, its implications, and criticism of it, was not given to the people.

The Bush conspiracy used all the motivating symbols and masqueraded as virtuous, patriotic, democratic, Christian, etc: Like sheep the people followed. It has become one large, corrupted, incredibly cruel and mindless war machine, a giant military-industrial-scientific-educational, legal complex. Almost everyone is involved in this machine, devotes increasing taxes to it, and is even willing to give their life and that of their children to perpetuating it and its criminal leaders. People are seduced and pressured into becoming co-conspirators and criminals. It is this type of person that is most rewarded and promoted into power in the Bush conspiracy.

But many American people are waking up and beginning to think again. They want to stop the genocide, recall the troops now and take back their wonderful country, as indicated below.

But the nuclear genocide bases and fleets surround the conspiracy's next victim - Iran. Let's hope the people move in time and that we have not passed the point of no return.

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My Lai , Vietnam , 1968.  Haditha , Iraq , 2005

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My Lai , Vietnam , 1968. Haditha , Iraq , 2005. Rumsfeld, Cheney and Bush hate it when anyone mentions these two events — these two war crimes — in the same breath. All the more reason to examine them closely, to see that they have the same basis that they spell out the same lesson.

Thirteen-year-old Safa Yunis was the family's only survivor. She says U.S. Marines slaughtered her father and mother, Khafif and Aeda Yasin Ahmed, her four sisters aged 14, 10, 5 and 3, her 8-year-old brother, and a 1-year-old girl staying with the family. Neighbors said the family members were shot at close range or killed by grenades. The children died screaming. Safa survived because she was covered in her mother's blood when she fell to the floor. The Marines thought she was dead.

Pentagon officers are expected to announce a judgment on the Haditha war crime. Will they call it murder? Will they instead excuse the young Marines who killed the Iraqi children, women and men that day last November? What they won't do is put the blame where it belongs first of all: on those who conspired to invade Iraq , on those who lied to justify this conspiracy, on those who put U.S. young men and women in the horrible position where they kill babies. For if there were really justice not only the Marines would be put on trial but Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and their whole gang who sent these Marines to kill for power, for “strategic interests”, for oil profits.

What is the lesson of My Lai and of Haditha? It's that when an occupation army is ordered to suppress a resistance movement (in Iraq this is called the “ insurgency ” ) that has popular support, then it commits war crimes. The young Marines know that all the Iraqis hate them, including the civilians, including the children. So when they attack, they kill civilians. They kill children. When this is done with bombs from airplanes, it is called “collateral damage” in Pentagon newspeak.

It is ridiculous to think that a “refresher course” in military ethics will change the situation. The Marines are ordered to go in and win a battle. Rep. John Murtha saw this happen in Vietnam and has exposed this latest war crime in Haditha. But we have to go further than Murtha in our conclusions from these facts. There is no longer a way to hide the criminal nature of the war. It is out there before the world. And there are very few “ ethical ” or honorable choices before the young Marines, soldiers and other U.S. combat troops if they want to avoid being war criminals. Their only choice is to refuse to take part in these military operations in Iraq . This is a heroic choice but it is also the only honorable choice. And it is up to the anti-war movement to give every support possible to those who refuse.

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