Who Are The "Barbarians"?
By Ghali Hassan
10 November, 2004
Countercurrents.orgA US army chaplain by the name of Horne told US marines massing outside Fallujah, "go bring the Iraqis freedom from oppression, rape, torture and murder ... We ask you God to bless us in that effort". It seems chaplain Horne has forgotten that oppression, rape, torture and mass murder of innocent men, women and children his US government have wrought on the people of Iraq. How can Americans forget Abu Ghraib, and the more than 100,000 Iraqi civilian lives lost since last year's invasion? This massive atrocity is not included the massacre of Fallujah.
Thousands of marines surrounding the city, "seeking solace as they awaited Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's decision on whether or not to invade Fallujah", a BBC 'embedded' journalist reported. This is a lie. Allawi has no legitimacy or authority. His only authority is to appear on TV screens to repeat what the Occupation forces told him to say. Allawi was a Western-licensed ex-terrorist. Without the US forces protecting him, Allawi will be cut into pieces by the Iraqi masses. The BBC is as guilty as the
US-British governments of war crimes and crimes against humanity.As I write this, the US assault on the city of Fallujah has begun. This mass murder is sold in the West as necessary step to bring democracy to Iraq. Nothing is further away from the truth. The Bush Administration is insisting on reoccupying Iraq, and force a fake US-styled "democracy" on the Iraqi people. Furthermore, the assault on Fallujah has been grossly exaggerated to cover up a large mass murder of innocent Iraqi civilians. The residents of the city believe that the Americans made up the pretext of the bogeyman [Al-Zarqawi] in order to kill the religious people of Fallujah" because they
rejected the US Occupation.The US-British forces have sealed the city of 300,000 people and prevented males of between 14-50 years of age from leaving. Independent media is also barred from reporting to the outside world. "[A] city the size of Brighton is now only ever referred to as a 'militants' stronghold' or 'insurgents' redoubt", reported Madeleine Bunting of the Guardian in the UK. In an attempt to play down the rejection of the Occupation by Iraqi people, the US employs the Nazi's methods of labelling Iraqis as "terrorists" and "foreign fighters". Although, there may be small groups of Arabs and Muslim fighters in Iraq along their Iraqi brothers, US soldiers are foreign invaders supported by mercenaries from Christian countries such as Britain, Poland, Italy, Australia, etc.
In Bush's strange "war on terror", the Iraqi people are subjected to occupation, rape, torture and mass murder by foreign forces. Iraqi Resistance is cited as proof that we are dealing with "terrorists", and Iraqis have no right to defend themselves and return fire with fire. Under international law, the Iraqi people have legitimate right to protect themselves, and to call on their brothers for help against foreign aggressors on their land. The invasion and occupation of Iraq will go down in history as one of the most cowardly act of aggression ever.
A reader sent me e-mail recently asking: "What is so galling is the silence of [the] Arab world at this wanton destruction". There are no Arab "leaders". The current Arab rulers are American stooges protecting American and Israeli interests. They are completely disconnected from their people.
Another e-mailer from Baghdad passionately writes: "This is a million times worse than under Saddam". He added, "we were free people until the Americans arrived. We have jobs, we have food and we have security. Now we have nothing". What have the Iraqi people done to the Americans and their "allies"? Iraqis have been at the receiving end of perpetuated Western violence for decades.One of the reasons Americans voted for George Bush despite the terror andsystematic violence he has wrought to the Iraqi people, because he is a better killer and Americans support their government's violence against defenceless people. Why they don't question what their government is doing in their name? Where is the moral "voice of America" that should cry against these atrocities? While Christian leaders moralise about gay marriage and lobbying for the "right to life", they are digging the graves of innocent Iraqi women and children.
The barbarians are massing on the gates of Fallujah seeking to obliterate the people and their civil society. Destroying and occupying the city of Fallujah will have no bearing on the Iraqi Resistance to US Occupation of Iraq. It will generate unity among the people and fuel more resistance against the Occupation.
Ghali Hassan lives in Perth Western Australia: He can be reached at e-mail:
[email protected]
