Guardian article: indiscriminate killing of Iraqi innocents

[Tom Bombadil]

The Guardian has spoken to members of 'Iraqi Veterans against the War.' Here are a few quotes that describe some of the vile acts carried out by soldiers in Iraq.

Michael Blake describing the deaths of civillians - "When IEDs would go off by the side of the road, the instructions were - or the practice was - to basically shoot up the landscape, anything that moved. And that kind of thing would happen a lot." So innocent people were killed? "It happened, yes."

Another Iraqi Vet, Jody Casey - "Well, I mean, I have seen innocent people being killed. IEDs go off and (you) just zap any farmer that is close to you. You know, those people were out there trying to make a living, but on the other hand, you get hit by four or five of those IEDs and you get pretty tired of that, too."

And these brave troops were also woefully ignorant -

Michael Blake claims that US soldiers such as him were told little about Iraq, Iraqis or Islam before serving there; other than a book of Arabic phrases, "the message was always: 'Islam is evil' and 'They hate us.' Most of the guys I was with believed it."

and institutionally racist -

Casey told us how, from the top down, there was little regard for the Iraqis, who were routinely called "hajjis", the Iraq equivalent of "gook". "They basically jam into your head: 'This is hajji! This is hajji!' You totally take the human being out of it and make them into a video game.

So the people committing these atrocities are playing video game. These then, must be the 'brave patriots - fighting to protect our freedom,' who deserve our unswerving support, that I hear so much about.

Full article http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1741699,00.html

[BeyondGeography]

1. More proof, as if we needed it, that our media is virtually useless

I'd love to see the documentary that airs on the BBC tonight as well.

[Tom Bombadil]

2. Go to the BBC website and

you should be able to.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Here's the Newsnight homepage

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/default.stm

It streams the programme as it's aired, and then has a copy available for the next 24 hours. A few items are kept for longer, but it's not normally possible to tell which ones will be.

[BeyondGeography]

4. Many thanks to both of you