The War on Iraq is a sham; killing Iraqi citizens is not heroic, U.S. soldiers are not on a heroic mission

Monday, April 26, 2004 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) Tags: Nazi Germany, Bush administration, war on Iraq

A new round of newspaper editorials slams the Pentagon's ban on photographs showing flag-draped coffins of Americans killed in Iraq. The newspapers are right, too: banning the photographs is an affront to the very Free Speech rights these U.S. soldiers presumably died to protect. This photo ban is just the latest wound to the body of American freedom that's being bled to death by the Bush Administraiton. Under Bush, we're now subjected to random searches of our homes, our phones lines and Internet communications are being tapped without court orders, and American citizens can now be held in U.S.-run concentration camps (Guantanamo Bay) where prisoners are denied access to legal counsel, never charged with a crime, and yet detained indefinitely. All of this has been done, of course, under the guise of "peace," and the vast majority of the American people bought the whole thing hook, line and sinker.

I say you cannot simultaneously promote peace while waging war. And you cannot have freedom by controlling the press. To the Bush Administration, peace is war. Freedom is control. If all that sounds familiar, you may remember your college history lessons about Nazi Germany, where patriotic pride -- coupled with nationalistic aggression -- created a horrifying military machine that swept through Europe, killing tens of millions of soldiers and civilians. To the Iraqis, President Bush sure looks a lot like Hitler.

But back to the photos: with this photo ban, the Pentagon is merely engaged in yet more doublespeak about the true costs of war. For example, when American bombs land on innocent Iraqi civilians, you never hear that children were killed. Rather, the bombing mistake -- if reported at all -- is described as "collateral damage." But when Iraqi bombs strike American civilians (even armed, paramilitary contractors), the U.S. press broadcasts the maimed, dead bodies of the Americans for everyone to see. It's a pure emotional ploy.

When American soldiers fire a missile from ten miles away and kill a house full of Iraqis, that's called "courageous" by the U.S. press. But when an Iraqi straps a bomb to his chest and marches into a company of American soldiers to avenge the death of his family, that's called "cowardly" by the U.S. press. Interesting, isn't it? American soldiers are "heroes" for killing Iraqis. Iraqis are "cowards" for killing invading American soldiers.

Let me ask you a question: if a powerful global military force invaded your home town, bombed your neighborhood, killed your family members, took over your government, occupied your streets, confiscated your firearms and labeled you a "terrorist," would you just sit back and let them run rampant over your life? Or would you have the courage to fight back? See, it takes courage to fight back against an oppressive invading military force. It takes balls to defend your home and your neighbors. These Iraqis are trying to save their country from being taken over by an invading aggressor. Baghdad is Iraq's Stalingrad.

The Pentagon, of course, doesn't want you to see it that way. They carefully choose images that portray Iraqis as terrorists and U.S. soldiers as heroes. And, of course, they don't want anyone in America to actually see the dead bodies of U.S. soldiers killed while invading Iraqi cities and towns. If the U.S. public saw the mutilated bodies -- on BOTH sides -- produced by this ridiculous war, they'd naturally demand that the war be stopped. The only way the Bush Administration can keep selling the war to America is to dress it up so that reality isn't revealed. It's like strapping a party hat to highway roadkill.

It also helps to keep calling U.S. soldiers "heroes" regardless of what they're really doing in Iraq. This is a final point that deserves some serious discussion. I'm a strong supporter of World War II veterans, and I've donated thousands of dollars over the years to the Disabled American Veterans. Those soldiers were true heroes: they were saving the world from a war mongering nation led by a raging lunatic named "Hitler." But today's soldiers are simply not engaged in heroic action of such caliber. Rather than protecting America from a war mongering nation led by a raging lunatic, they are taking orders from a raging lunatic named Bush. We are the aggressors here, folks. We are the war mongers. We are the ones obsessed with nationalistic pride. Our modern soldiers are not heroes, they are unwitting political pawns. They are sacrificing their lives for political goals. Yes, they may act heroically, individually, in combat, but their mission is not a hero's mission. These guys didn't want war in the first place: they wanted college tuition. What they got, instead, was what anyone gets who signs up to be a mercenary: a day job where you kill anyone the boss tells you to kill.

You really want to make heroes out of our soldiers? Bring 'em home. Send them to college. Give them medals and ribbons for graduating from a university. Let them be peacetime heroes right here, on U.S. soil, where they can do something positive and creative. Books, not bombs.