Smart-Bombing Iraqi Families While They Sleep- Fly Boys & Lie Boys

[bigtree]

Smart-Bombing Iraqi Families While They Sleep
Fly Boys and Lie Boys

By BRIAN CLOUGHLEY
http://www.counterpunch.org/cloughley01142006.html

So how are you feeling, you gallant warriors of the sky, you Top Guns of Iraq and District? Did you sleep well last night after your few minutes of bombing? Did you enjoy a pleasant breakfast back on the aircraft carrier? Perhaps a bit of a workout at the gym? You are the people described in glowing terms by White House robo-mouth Scott McClellan as "going out of the way to avoid civilian casualties; they target the enemy, they target terrorists and the Saddam loyalists who are seeking to kill innocent civilians and disrupt the transition to democracy". And you are also the people who killed children when you blitzed a house in the Iraqi town of Bayji at about 9.30 on the night of January 3, 2006.

Do you have children, you fearless fly-boys? No doubt they are proud of you, if you have. And of course they must worry about you, because you fly airplanes. Not that there is much chance of you being shot down by Iraqi insurgents' ground fire, but of course you might have a technical failure that could cause a crash. In fact there was little fear of being shot down even during the invasion of Iraq - - except by US Patriot missiles, one of which smashed into an F/A-18C Hornet (VFA-195) on April 2, 2003 and exterminated the pilot. (Another Patriot missile vaporized a Royal Air Force Hornet and its two crew the previous week. It's a wonderful weapons system, providing its targets are friendly.) So it was a great war for US air power : no opposition air force of any sort, and puny fire from some ancient anti-aircraft pop-guns. But your children undoubtedly worried that you might not come home. They still worry about you.

But the children you killed in Bayji have no worries anymore, and nor do their parents, because you killed them, too. Of course you were immediately defended by the mouthpieces of the US military machine, whose first reaction is to lie, just like their president, when faced with evidence that atrocities have been committed. And you, the strutting, Mission-Accomplished fly-boys, the cream of the aerial cream and the most marvelous of marvelous -- you are casual murderers.

*****

No wonder the killing of Iraqi and Afghan civilians continues with robo-gusto. The Fly Boys and Lie Boys can count on total support from an administration that is unfit to lead a great country. There can be no criticism of them in any way. Might is Right and truth must be denied. The advance of fascism is gaining pace.

full article: http://www.counterpunch.org/cloughley01142006.html


Iraqi official: U.S. air strikes kill 6
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. air strikes in Bayji north of Baghdad killed six members of a single family, Wamir abd el-Wahab, a spokesman for the Salah ad-Din provincial governor's office, said Tuesday.

El-Wahab said three other family members were seriously wounded in the attack Monday and the father and a daughter survived relatively unharmed.

The house, the spokesman said, was flattened. "Why are they hitting civilians?" el-Wahab asked.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/01/03/iraq.main/

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. At least there were no bride or groom abruptly routed from

their wedding party.... the shame. The shame we have brought upon our nation.

[Mike Nelson]

2. Bush has killed more people than Saddam...

...by now, hasn't he?

[cantstandbush]

10. And for less good reason. n/t

[DistressedAmerican]

13. Don't Know If I Can Agree With That. IOM, They Have The Same Motivations

They are both driven by power and accumulation of wealth. I find them both reprehensible in action AND motivation.

[stray cat]

3. Is every war wrong then - they all kill civilians

[bigtree]

5. This is an illegal and immoral occupation

there was no threat to America from Saddam. This is not just war in Iraq, it's conquest, imperialism, expansionism. This war with Iraq was the invention of a banished ruling class - enriched by the selling of the influence of their positions in government - who had nursed their broken ambitions in exile, and had instinctively constructed their sympathetic webs of wealth to obstruct the remedies of the reformers and hatch the next generation of world capitalists who would inherit the patronage of the next conservative presidency.

The invasion of Iraq was a clumsy attempt by President Bush to usurp the power from a vanquished nation of innocents; a suffering class of people who were already devastated by the bombing of the first war, and by the economic sanctions imposed by the U.N. at the insistence of the U.S., which served to enrich Saddam Hussein and steadily impoverish and starve everyone else.

This administration pulled the nation into war to compensate for, and to draw attention from, their failure to apprehend the ringleader of the attack on the World Trade Center. President Bush made the appeal to the nation in a manner which exploited our deepest fears as he warned the nation about the potential for a future Iraqi assault on our country, or on our allies, of a magnitude that would far exceed the devastation of the horrendous suicide attack in New York.

Since America put out the fires of September 11, mourned our dead, and went to war," President Bush extolled, "history has taken a different turn. We have carried the fight to the enemy. We are rolling back the terrorist threat to civilization, not on the fringes of its influence, but at the heart of its power."

"We will do what is necessary, we will spend what is necessary, to achieve this essential victory in the war on terror, to promote freedom, and to make our own nation more secure," he promised.

In his rhetoric, President Bush effectively used the terrorist attacks to justify his assault against Iraq. But Osama Bin Laden, the alleged ringleader of the 9-11 attacks, was not in Iraq. The rebel leader, in fact shunned and denounced the leadership of Saddam Hussein as a betrayal of fundamental Islam.

The random exercise of our military strength and destructive power will not serve as a deterrent to these rouge, radical terrorist organizations who claim no permanent base of operations. The wanton, collateral bombing and killing has undoubtably alienated any fringe of moderates who might have joined in a unified effort of regime change which respects our own democratic values of justice and due process.

Our oppressive posture has pushed the citizens of these sovereign nations to a forced expression of their nationalism in defense of basic prerogatives of liberty and self-determination, which our false authority disregards as threats to our consolidation of power.

The Bush league plans to scatter our forces around the globe in order to preempt terrorist groups from attacking, but our aggression only resigns the nation to a perpetual global threat against the United States and our interests.

[SammyWinstonJack]

11. I wish there was a way to recommend this post.

:applause:

[Contrary1]

4. I have to give the "fly boys"

the benefit of the doubt. I would wager that most of them do feel bad.
They are following orders. They're being lied to, just like the rest of us.

[bigtree]

7. I support our soldiers

I also identify with the frustration and anger of the writer toward the senseless killing of innocents in Bush's new campaign to consolidate power as he pretends to withdrawal. I anguish over the corruption of these soldier's souls by the prosecution of Bush's immoral war. I believe that even though I oppose the war I share their culpability in these killings until I am successful in removing the cancer from the White House and from our government.

[donsu]

6. 150 + air attacks A DAY

we stopped Hitler

we can stop the bushmilhousegang

we had better, before the environment trumps us all

[ladjf]

8. That's terrorism.

[Wilber_Stool]

9. You have to expect this when

the bombs are smarter than the people that use them.

[OneBlueSky]

12. highly recommended . . . it's about time someone spoke to . . .

the ongoing bombing of civilian populations in Iraq by our military . . . it's disgusting, immoral, and illegal, and no one seems to give a damn . . .

[Rex]

14. It is a scene drawn from the pages of Heavy Metal.

Nameless military officer picks up phone, 'yes sir!'. Reaches over and pushes a button and goes back to drinking his coffee. Real-time actions ensure swift death to someone. A blinding flash and small puff of smoke (as viewed from satellite) in an urban sprawl somewhere. I'm sure Rummy drools over the thought of robot soldiers (real robots like him).

[MrSlayer]

15. I don't blame the troops. I blame the assholes giving the orders.

Attacking the troops is stupid and does not advance our cause.

[bigtree]

16. They have to take some of the responsibility for the killing of innocents.

Mistakes happen, but as in Vietnam, soldiers also have to take some responsibility for their own actions. What virtue do you see in following an order to fire on a village of civilians to hit a possible target?

Thw writer is understandably anguished over the deaths. I don't think it hinders 'our cause' to express that anguish as honestly as we feel it, as we see it. And, don't try to sell me the notion that all of these US bombers carry out these missions mindlessly, without guile. Many soldiers do have good consciences and motives and may deserve our rationalizations and forgiveness. I myself feel complicit in the killings as I've not yet been able to remove the instigators from the offices of our government and from the leadership of the military.

But, these killings are wrong and deserve our deep scorn, no matter who we choose to blame. It shouldn't hurt us to acknowledge those among us whose frustration and anguish is overflowing without worrying them about how their words might offend someone who still supports this war.