HOW THE AMERICANS USE IRAQI CHILDREN AS HUMAN SHIELDS

16 July 2005

The recent tragic death of Iraq children in an attack targeting American occupation forces highlights an insidious American tactic in Iraq. The American war criminals in Iraq lure Iraqi children around them on purpose to act as a human shield to deter attacks (see first photo above). They do this on purpose by offering children treats and they have been doing this for as long as they have been in Iraq. They know that if they get attacked, innocent children will be killed. Children are also naturally curious and tend to gather around military vehicles. The American soldiers should be condemned for drawing children around them to act as human shields and they should actively discourage children from gathering around their vehicles. Iraqi families should also do all they can to keep their children away from Americans.

In fact, all Iraqis should steer well clear of American soldiers in order to avoid being caught up in resistance attacks. This is also further proof that the foreign occupation is responsible for these deaths, as they would not occur if they were not there in the first place. You can find many pictures of American war criminals luring children around them by searching the Internet. For example, you can search for “American soldiers and Iraqi children” on the “Images” function on either Yahoo or Google.

The fact is, it may be difficult for a suicide bomber, all set and prepared for a mission where he is going to die, to pick and choose which Americans to hit. We don’t know how many suicide bombes have aborted missions when they have seen too many innocent Iraqi bystanders. Perhaps targets are selected as carefully as possible to avoid “collateral damage”. Perhaps this particular bomber didn’t see the children, or it was too late to withdraw. A target may be carefully selected then at the last moment innocent people stumble into the area. In any case, a suicide attacker, being very conspicuous, cannot risk wandering around for too long looking for the best possible target for fear of discovery.

Proof that suicide bombers are not targeting innocent people was provided by Time magazine’s recent interview of a suicide bomber in training. The bomber said, “I pray no innocent people are killed in my mission…” He said that he would prefer his operation to be a car bombing targeting US soldiers or Iraq security forces.2

However, if only the Americans were so careful when they launch wars and bombing campaigns around the world. America excuses its killing by saying that they were not targeting civilians, although they know very well that by bombing a particular target innocent people will be killed. That’s why they invented the term “collateral damage” in Vietnam to whitewash its killing of millions of people around the world while dropping millions of tons of bombs.

Who can forget the last split seconds of video footage from a NATO missile as it slammed into a passenger train in April 1999 during their terror bombing campaign of Yugoslavia? 55 innocent civilians were killed in this terrible act (see second photo above). That this one attack equalled the London bombings puts those bombings in proper conyext and is a good example of the terrorism and suffering the West is responsible for.

While some defend NATO by saying it did not specifically target the passenger train, the same can be said for the suicide bomber who unfortunately killed the Iraqi children. It was a regrettable incident in a war America started by unjustifiably and illegally invading Iraq. Of course, during NATO’s bombing against Yugoslavia, the Western media happily passed on NATO propaganda that spoke of “blunders” and “mistakes”.3 Professor Edward S. Herman had the following to say about this act of NATO terrorism:

When Nato bombed a passenger train on April 12, killing 55 civilians, reporters were shown a videotape by Nato that “proved” the train was going to fast for the trajectory of the missiles to be altered. Recently it was disclosed that Nato had played the videotape at three times its normal speed--but the reporters who had been taken in by this trick earlier did not find this acknowledgement of Nato disinformation newsworthy, and of course did not cause them to reflect on the possible existence of a Nato “lie machine”.4

Professor Howard Zinn had the following to say about NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, and the same can be said about American bombing in Iraq:

Isn’t it time we stopped using the word “'accidental”' to describe the NATO bombing of Yugoslavian hospitals, residential neighborhoods, buses, trains, trucks, and refugees on roads that has killed or maimed at least 1,000 civilians, including children?5

During the American invasion of Iraq, US air commanders were given a blanket approval to hit targets as long as the estimated civilian death toll was less than 30. If more than 30 victims was expected, then approval for the air strike had to be sought from Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. He approved all such requests of which there were more than 50. Any innocent victims were then simply dismissed as “collateral damage”, “unavoidable”, “regrettable” etc.

After all, the great many innocent civilians America kills have never deterred them from their campaign of worldwide imperialism. In fact, Americans who support their government’s wars hardly even care about the innocent people they kill. Just remember the evil comments of one of their biggest TV personalities, Bill O’Reilly of FoxNews. In relation to Iraq he said: “And I don’t have any respect by and large for the Iraqi people at all. I have no respect for them. I think that they’re a prehistoric group…What we can do is bomb the living daylights out of them…”

And in relation to Afghanistan: “the U.S. should bomb the Afghan infrastructure to rubble - the airport, the power plants, their water facilities, and the roads…This is a very primitive country. And taking out their ability to exist day to day will not be hard”.

We cannot let individual tragedies make us loose sight of what is a justified war of resistance against the American occupation forces and their Iraqi collaborators and puppets.


Endnotes:


1 Associated Press, “Car bombs and explosions kill 30 in Iraq”, 15 July 2005
2 Time magazine, “Inside the mind of an Iraqi suicide bomber”, 4 July 2005 issue, pp.20-5
3 See a list of NATO bombing “blunders” and “mistakes” in Yugoslavia here
4 Edward S. Herman, “Real journalism versus propaganda”, 3 February 2000
5 Howard Zinn, “The deadly semantics of NATO bombings”, 28 May 1999


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Copyright 2005, Freedom Liberation Movement. All rights reserved
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WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEIR “TERRORISM” AND OUR “WAR”?

12 July 2005

What is the difference between a war or a bombing campaign launched by America or Britain and a terrorist attack, often conducted in response to these attacks in the first place? The answer to this question is very pertinent in the wake of the recent London bombings and is also very simple. Whenever America and Britain, the politically correct “good guys”, attack and bomb, killing tens of thousands of civilians around the world, it is a justified “war” in “self-defence” against often exaggerated or phantom enemies. Whenever others in response give them a taste of what they readily dish out to many others, it is a different story. The most horrific aspect of the London bombings from the West’s point of view is not so much the carnage itself. It is the fact that Britain, the great imperialistic warmonger, has been attacked at all, despite being immune for centuries from the hatred they have generated among the people they have attacked and oppressed.

To read the full article, visit the website of the Freedom Liberation Movement here.

John Pilger: “The bombs belong ultimately to Blair and Bush”

8 July 2005

NO ONE doubts the atrocious inhumanity of those who planted the bombs that killed and caused mayhem in London yesterday. No one should also doubt that this outrage has been coming since the day Tony Blair joined George Bush in their bloody invasion and occupation of Iraq.

They are “Blair’s bombs,” and he ought not be allowed to evade culpability with yet another unctuous speech about other people’s violence.

Click here to read John Pilger's full article.

RICIN: ANOTHER LIE EXPOSED

9 July 2005

The example of ricin is another good example of how the West, particularly America and Britain, generated terrorism hysteria in the pre-Iraq war period. In early January 2003 there was huge media coverage given to a supposed “terror cell” or a “poison cell” uncovered in London by vigilant British police defending the people against terrorism. The cell was said to be plotting to use ricin and it was announced that the substance was found in the apartment. Now not coincidentally this was right at the time when George Bush, Tony Blair and John Howard were pushing their propaganda campaigns over Iraq and doing their best to convince people an invasion of Iraq was necessary.

To read the entire article, feel free to visit the website of the Freedom Liberation Movement here.

MEDIA UPDATE: MARCH 2005

MEDIA UPDATE: MARCH 2005
7 July 2005

The mainstream media has continued in its role of willingly passing on government propaganda without questions, doubts or perspectives. It is also actively presenting an American-friendly version of events, and both ignoring and distorting events that do not conform to this line. This article seeks to update the Freedom Liberation Movement’s ongoing monitoring of the mainstream media’s performance during the month of March 2005. It is only a sampling of the overall picture, but we believe it is largely synonymous of the media’s overall performance.

To read the full article, visit the website of the Freedom Liberation Movement here.

THE REAL LOOTING OF IRAQ

THE REAL LOOTING OF IRAQ
The United States stands accused of the war crime of “pillage”

A major issue concerning America’s takeover of Iraq has gone totally unreported in relation to the real looting of Iraq. This looting was not the looting of buildings in Baghdad carried out by mobs in April 2003, which received widespread media coverage. It was the major industrial-scale looting and stealing of Iraq’s resources, raw materials and technology carried out throughout 2003 and 2004 by international corporations and other entities. It went apparently either unnoticed or unreported by the media and was at least partly carried out as an official policy of the American occupation authorities and its new Iraqi puppet regime. This international rape of Iraq’s property and resources is a vast scandal that can be added to all the other crimes America has committed against Iraq. It may also be a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

The rest of this article can be read by visiting the website of the Freedom Liberation Movement

ANOTHER LITTLE-KNOWN AMERICAN LIE EXPOSED

ANOTHER LITTLE-KNOWN AMERICAN LIE EXPOSED
3 July 2005
In the pre-Iraq invasion period, one common tactic used to discredit Iraq was to talk of its “deception”. One example used was to cite the defection in August 1995 of the Iraqi official, Hussein Kamel. George Bush told the United Nations on 12 September 2002 that Iraq, between 1991 and 1995, maintained it had no biological weapons, but that the defection of the Iraqi official (Hussein Kamel) in 1995 unveiled this lie and uncovered Iraq’s biological weapons program. The allegation extrapolated from this was that Iraq was now hiding WMD because of this past deception. However, Bush’s statement was also an example of deception as it was false and misleading.

To read the entire article, visit the website of the Freedom Liberation Movement here

Welcome to the Freedom Liberation Movement

The Freedom Liberation Movement (FLM) is a professional, well-organised political organisation comprising freedom fighters dedicated to the noble struggle of maintaining the freedom and independence of individuals and society as a whole. The FLM welcomes people to join and help fight for our freedom and resist increasing government control, the New World Order and American domination.

Visit the official website of the Freedom Liberation Movement here