http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/13959Truth's wreckage: The surge is killing us
by Robert C. Koehler | April 10, 2008
The interests of war, which siphon off 40 percent of every dollar we pay in taxes, have no choice but to declare peace -- or at least truth -- anti-American, because the blood myth of national exceptionalism, and the perpetual insecurity it creates, is all they've got.
It's also all they need.
snip//
This passage is from a report called "U.S. War Crimes in the 'Surge' 2007: Petraeus Manual and Tactics Flout International Law," written by Karen Parker, president of the Association of Humanitarian Lawyers, and policy analyst Bill Rau, for the organization ConsumersforPeace.org.
The authors maintain that, since the surge, Iraqi civilians have been dying at a faster rate, thanks to such tactics as the increased use of air power, a notoriously blunt and imprecise instrument for "promoting democracy" or anything else. For instance:
"In a raid in May 2007 on Sadr City, in eastern Baghdad," the report notes, "American forces called in an air strike on nine cars that were seen positioning themselves to ambush the American and Iraqi troops on the raid . . . and five people suspected of being 'terrorists' . . . were killed in the attack. But an Interior Ministry official and residents of Sadr City said the cars were parked in a line of vehicles waiting at a gas station."
The report also informs us: "Living conditions for most Iraqi citizens have worsened since the invasion and the cumulative impacts are widely evident and severe. While the absence of everyday security is often noted in the media, for millions of people the basic needs of life are not being met. Poverty rates are above 40 percent, childhood malnutrition exceeds 25 percent, and poor water supplies and sanitation have led to numerous outbreaks of diseases."
What are we doing there? What have we become? As the Lerner-Tikkun statement declares: "Our own well-being depends on the well-being of everyone else on the planet." We might as well be calling the air strikes on ourselves.
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