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Straight Up | Jan Herman

Arts, Media & Culture News with 'tude

Bulletin From Harm’s Way

April 23, 2007 by Jan Herman

In case you missed it:

Statements made by the chain of command [during an investigation of the Haditha killings] suggest that Iraqi civilian lives are not as important as U.S. lives, their deaths are just the cost of doing business, and that the Marines need to “get the job” done no matter what it takes.

To refresh your memory:

The killings in Haditha, in Anbar Province, began with a roadside bombing that killed one American marine and wounded two. Several marines then began methodically killing civilians in the area, eventually going door to door in the village and killing women and children, some in their beds, according to a Naval criminal investigation.

So don’t forget to do the patriotic thing: Support the troops.


Postscript: A reader writes:

Yes, the linked mainstream media reports about the military investigation deflate the “support our troops” propaganda, at least in part, by showing that a tiny fraction — a few rogue Marines — have behaved like murderers. But at the same time another propaganda tactic seems to be presented, which banalizes evil under the guise of journalistic neutrality.
The reports leave the impression we are concerned with justice when, in fact, we’re engaged in an unjust war in Iraq that, along with an embargo, has killed around a million people and has so thoroughly decimated the country that the effects will last for a century.
But America’s mainstream media never (or rarely ever) publishes articles that mention, much less discuss in detail, that several of our highest leaders are seen as war criminals by many, many very reasonable people throughout the world. It is just some rogue Marines killing 24 Iraqi civilians. Glad to see the media has its priorities straight.

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Jan Herman

When not listening to Bach or Cuban jazz pianist Chucho Valdes, or dancing to salsa, I like to play jazz piano -- but only in the privacy of my own mind.
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