- As Bush's imbroglio in Iraq drags on, inching closer
to complete disaster, with every passing day it gets easier to read the
news, as spun by the corporate media, or rather it gets easier to read
between the lines. For instance, read the following, gleaned from the Associated
Press:
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- U.S. forces hunting down followers of Iraq's most wanted
terrorist pushed into a lawless region near the Syrian border today after
meeting unexpected resistance from insurgents hidden in remote desert outposts
along the southern banks of the Euphrates River.
-
- The "most wanted terrorist" is, of course,
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, but for some reason his name is not mentioned in
the news item (this is either an oversight or the editors at the Associated
Press feel it is no longer necessary to mention his name, since they have
spent months drilling into our impressionable heads a singular "fact,"
as defined by Bush and the Pentagon - the "insurgency" in Iraq
is driven by one man, now that Saddam is in prison, or one of his doubles
is in prison, and that man is the phantom monster, mass murderer, beheader,
executer of infidels, both Anglo-American and Shia, al-Zarqawi). It stands
to reason, since the entire resistance is run by al-Zarqawi, or so we are
led to believe, and al-Zarqawi's "followers" are now trapped
in a "lawless region" (conveniently near the Syrian border).
However, even though the corporate media does not bother to tell us the
whole story, most of Iraq (outside of the Green Zone) is a "lawless
region" where the resistance rules and has few problems attacking
occupation forces.
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- Marines fought yesterday against dozens of well-armed
insurgents firing at them from balconies, rooftops and sandbagged bunkers
in the border town of Obeidi and surrounding villages, the Los Angeles
Times reported.
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- In other words, these "well-armed insurgents"
expected the Americans in Obeidi and made preparations for battle, indicating
that somebody tipped them off (resistance spies are everywhere in Iraq,
considering most Iraqis hate the U.S. military and the occupation of their
country and many work directly with the resistance).
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- As many as 100 militants have been killed since Operation
Matador, one of the largest U.S. offensives in Iraq in six months, began
Saturday night in Qaim, 200 miles west of Baghdad, the military said.
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- Translation: the Pentagon has absolutely no idea how
many "militants" (read: people who want the United States out
of their country and have joined the resistance) are dead - and if they
do, they certainly are not reporting the truth to the corporate media and
the American people, as was the case in Vietnam (where the Pentagon often
doubled body counts). "The return of the body count in assessing U.S.
military operations is an ironic development, especially given the criticism
the United States military received during the Vietnam war for using the
number of enemy dead as a measure of effectiveness," Mackubin
T. Owens wrote when Bush invaded Afghanistan. "Critics of the
body-count approach in Vietnam were generally correct. A reliance on the
body count was the result of an overall lack of strategy for fighting the
war. It was also the logical consequence of a flawed operational approach
- a war of attrition." Obviously, a "war of attrition,"
if this is indeed the Pentagon's strategy, is failing big time in Iraq.
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- Gunmen, meanwhile, kidnapped the governor of Iraq's western
Anbar province today and told his family he would be released when U.S.
forces withdraw from Qaim, relatives said. Gov. Raja Nawaf Farhan al-Mahalawi
was seized as he drove from Qaim to the provincial capital of Ramadi, his
brother, Hammad, said.
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- The U.S. military cannot even protect its stooges. Maybe
they should all migrate to the Green Zone. At least, when the time comes,
they will be closer to the evacuation helicopters.
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- The offensive comes amid a surge of militant attacks
across Iraq, often targeting security forces and civilians, since the new
government was announced April 28.
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- In fact, the "offensive" has never ceased,
regardless of Bush's stage managed phony baloney "election" in
Iraq. As for the targeting of civilians, the corporate media rarely mentions
the fact - established months ago - that Bush and Crew have slaughtered
well over 100,000 Iraqis (because the corporate media has dismissed the
British medical journal The Lancet's report out of hand:
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- As usual, we are offered no facts or corroborating evidence
in regard to these civilians supposedly killed by the resistance. Obviously,
civilians are being killed in great numbers, but not only does the Pentagon
refuse to release information on these deaths, but they seem to be targeting
people who attempt to gather information (see The Mysterious Death of Marla
Ruzicka: The US
Military has Detailed Statistics on Civilian Casualties, by Michel Chossudovsky:
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- "This is an area [the northern Jazirah Desert near
the Syrian border] which we believe has been pretty heavy with foreign
insurgents from many different areas - Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Palestine,"
Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq, said late
yesterday.
-
- Apparently, the Pentagon wants to keep sending the message,
long ago debunked, that foreigners (especially "al-Qaeda" terrorists)
are streaming into Iraq. It is also significant that these purported "foreign
insurgents" are being discovered on the border of Syria. "The
question of foreign fighters crossing Iraqi [borders] has been exaggerated,
given that only 24 of the 1000 men captured in Falluja are foreign,"
noted Syria's al-Thawra. "Of the more than 1000 men aged between 15
and 55 who were captured in intense fighting in Falluja - just 15 are confirmed
foreign fighters, General George Casey, the top US ground commander in
Iraq," told al-Jazeera last November.
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- Lack of evidence of foreign fighters, however, does not
prevent the U.S. from claiming they exist anyway. "Despite the relatively
small number of foreign nationals in custody, officials believe that non-Iraqis
are playing key roles in organizing or financing attacks on U.S. troops
and that foreign Muslim militants are behind some of the deadliest suicide
bombings," USA Today reported last July.
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- These "foreign nationals" are epitomized by
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a "Jordanian al-Qaeda operative" nobody
can find. Naturally, the reason so many non-existent (or possibly invisible)
"foreign insurgents" are "streaming" into Iraq is because
the border is "fairly porous," according to Lt. Col. Steven Boylan,
a spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq. In fact, the border is so porous it
seems to gobble up these "foreign insurgents" before they reach
Iraq.
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- From the "liberal" L.A.
Times
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- Marines hope the assault will flush out insurgent fighters
who the Marines believe have made the Ramana region - a conglomeration
of well-irrigated riverside towns - a haven and training ground for foreign
guerrillas. The 2nd Marine Division is responsible for security in Al Anbar
province, a desert region the size of South Carolina that runs from Jordan
in the south to Syria in the north.
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- Naturally, this "flushing" will work about
as good as it did in Fallujah, even though the U.S. flattened 70 percent
of the city. Last month, the U.S confronted increased attacks, resulting
in an "almost total lockdown" of Fallujah. "By keeping the
city under a little tighter control at this point in time, we can prevent
those guys from coming back," Maj. Mark Gurganus told NBC
News last month:
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- "After their hard-fought victory last November,
the Marines must make sure they don't lose it now," added NBC, not
bothering to mention the fact that in the process of "their hard-fought
victory," the U.S. killed at least 800 civilians, according to the
Red Cross,
with a variety of illegal weapons. "The assault by US forces on the
Iraqi city of Fallujah was one of the greatest war crimes since the Second
World War.
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- Over the course of nine days, Operation Phantom Fury,
involving 10,000 US troops backed by 500 British soldiers, reduced the
city, once famed for its 120 mosques and modern infrastructure, to ruins,"
writes Harvey
Thompson. "To get into Fallujah, it is necessary to apply for
a special Identity Card from the American military. Most returning Fallujans
find this a deeply humiliating experience; being fingerprinted by an American
soldier just in order to go home is acutely embarrassing." Even with
this level of military state police security, the resistance is fast at
work in Fallujah, as should be expected, at least outside the parameters
of Bushzarro world.
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- And so it will be with Operation Matador, the "raiding
[of] desert outposts and safe houses [in Obeidi, Rommana, and Karabilah]
in the hunt for the Jordanian militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,"
as the Guardian
puts it. "The enemy honestly felt that they had a sense of security
up there. It had been a safe haven, and a lot of folks up there were former
Ba'athists," said Colonel Bob Chase, chief of operations for the 2nd
Marine division. Not long ago, the Marines were saying the same thing about
Fallujah.
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- According to the United States, the resistance is comprised
strictly of "former Ba'athists," criminals, opportunists, and
foreigners, such as the mythical al-Zarqawi. In fact, the resistance is,
increasingly, comprised of average Iraqis, many of them aggrieved and outraged
relatives of the dead (100,000 and counting) who are taking matters into
their own hands and attempting to get rid of Bush and his soldiers. It
only makes sense that the former Iraqi military (i.e., the Ba'athists)
would play an important role in this effort. It is, of course, absurd to
claim all the trouble for the U.S stems from Ba'athists and dead-enders.
It is, as well, an avoidance of reality, one that will cost Bush dearly.
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