A Rum Affair. posted by Richard Seymour

Tales From the Script

Something of an unwelcome fugitive from the grave, the 72 year old Donald Rumsfeld is increasingly inviting accusations of senility, if not downright idiocy. Reacting to reports from Al Jazeera that the US had massacred hundreds of innocent civilians in Fallujah by indiscriminate shooting, the US Secretary of Defense (sic) launched some pretty indiscriminate shooting off at the mouth. The reports were "vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable" , he said before adding, "It's just outrageous nonsense." Well, he is the expert.


Rumsfeld: "Outrageous Nonsense".

The facts, as ever, make him foolish. But let's stick with some lies for a moment. According to General John Abizaid, it was a "judicious use of force", while the head of the US marines suggested that "95% of those killed were legitimate targets". Pratfall. Here are the facts.

Among the 600 to 1000 murdered in Fallujah, 300 were women and children. I know, I know. They were probably terrorists in the making, or providing succour to terrorists, or breathing the same air as terrorists. But women and children do not fight either in the Mehdi Army or in the Mujahideen Brigades. So, it is illuminating to note that the US army now regards civilian non-fighters are "legitimate targets". Further, the way in which these attacks occurred throws light on the intent behind the attacks. Ronan Bennett reports :

"Let's look at just a handful of the 5% of civilian casualties the Americans concede they have inflicted.

These include the mother of six-year-old Haider Abdel-Wahab, shot and killed while hanging out laundry; his father, shot in the head; Haider himself, and his brothers, crushed but dug out alive after a US missile struck their house. They include children who died of head wounds. They include an old woman with a bullet wound - still clutching a white flag when aid workers found her. They include an elderly man lying face down at the gate to his house - while inside terrified girls screamed "Baba! Baba!" They include ambulance crews fired on by US troops - and four-year-old Ali Nasser Fadil, wounded during an air strike. The New York Times reporter who found the infant in a Baghdad hospital described him lying in bed, "his eyes wide and fixed on a spot in the ceiling". His left leg had been crudely amputated. The same reporter found 10-year-old Waed Joda by the bedside of his gravely wounded father. "American snipers shot at us as we were trying to flee Falluja," said Waed."

What? You dare to doubt the man who has written such inspired movie scripts as Lucky Break? Well, then, case your eyes on that Guardian article reporting Rumsfeld's comments:

"In the intensive care unit at Medical City hospital in Baghdad Yusuf Fayar Ali said his son Mohammad, 12, was shot through the mouth when troops attacked gunmen in his village, al-Na'amiya just south of Falluja, last week. The boy, seriously ill, is on a ventilator.

"The fighting lasted for an hour and we tried to take our women and children away out of the house," he said.

"We were hiding in the trees by the Euphrates. My son was hiding in a small furrow between the trees. He lifted up his head and suddenly a bullet hit him through the cheek. I am sure it was an American bullet."

In the next bed a young girl called Iftihal has a bullet lodged inside her skull. She was injured in the same attack when US troops crossed the river to her village, Amariya.

"The Americans were just shooting, there was no specific target," her father Ismail Obaid, 51, said. "We were inside the house - the bullet came through the door and hit her in the head."

"The Americans came to our area and were shooting randomly and that is why a lot of civilians were injured," he said.

In the next ward Sa'adia Mohammad was with her niece Noor, 11, who was injured in Falluja two weeks ago as they were taking in the washing.

"There was a large explosion and I saw Noor lying on the ground. Her face was painted with blood."

Her shrapnel wound became badly infected."

The only reason civilian casualties died down was "because many families left the city when the ceasefire began."


How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Being Bombed.

Hysterically Terrible

There is a perfectly plausible excuse, of course, and the Prime Minister gives it:

"Fallujah is historically a terrible place that even Saddam Hussein could not control."
Not exactly Saddam loyalists, then. How "terrible" indeed!

And in even better news ,

"An Iraqi has died of his wounds after US troops beat him with truncheons because he refused to remove a picture of wanted Shiite Muslim leader Moqtada Sadr from his car, police said today.

"The motorist was stopped late yesterday by US troops conducting search operations on a street in the centre of the central city of Kut, Lieutenant Mohamad Abdel Abbas said.

"After the man refused to remove Sadr's picture from his car, the soldiers forced him out of the vehicle and started beating him with truncheons, he said.

"Qassem Hassan, the director of Kut general hospital, identified the man as Salem Hassan, a resident of a Kut suburb. He said the man had died of wounds sustained in the beating."

Tony Blair is, as he so loves to be, correct - but not in any sense which would make his golden gloriole radiate with greater magnificence. The terrorists are indeed in the ascendancy in Iraq. The trouble is, how can the Iraqis evict them? Well, there is one encouraging possibility:

"[T]he commander of British troops in southern Iraq, Brig Nick Carter, admitted that he would be powerless to prevent the overthrow of Coalition forces if the Shia majority in Basra rose up in rebellion. Brig Carter, of the 20 Armoured Brigade, who has been in Iraq for four months, said British forces would stay in Basra with the consent of local Shia leaders, or not at all."

Belatedly, they are asking permission! Hopefully, residents of Basra will undertake the Bush doctrine and grab an historic opportunity :

Q: (Egyptian President) Hosni Mubarak is saying the new U.S. policy on the West Bank could escalate violence. How do you respond to his concerns?

BUSH: Yes, I think this is a fantastic opportunity.

A perfect Freudian shit, no?

PS: much of the material for this post comes from Left I On the News a source of incalculable value for unpackaging and dissecting the day's news. I commend all to visit.