Fisk:--Iraq Through the American Looking Glass

[Aidoneus]

:eyes:

"A Heavy Dose of Fear, Violence and Money"
Iraq Through the American Looking Glass
By ROBERT FISK
The Independent

Something very unpleasant is being let loose in Iraq. Just this week, a company commander in the US 1st Infantry Division in the north of the country admitted that, in order to elicit information about the guerrillas who are killing American troops, it was necessary to "instill fear" in the local villagers. An Iraqi interpreter working for the Americans had just taken an old lady from her home to frighten her daughters and grand-daughters into believing that she was being arrested.

A battalion commander in the same area put the point even more baldly. "With a heavy dose of fear and violence, and a lot of money for projects, I think we can convince these people that we are here to help them," he said. He was speaking from a village that his men had surrounded with barbed wire, upon which was a sign, stating: "This fence is here for your protection. Do not approach or try to cross, or you will be shot."

Try to explain that this treatment--and these words--offend the very basic humanity of the people whom the Americans claimed they came to "liberate" and you are met in Baghdad with the same explanation: that a very small "remnant" of "diehards"--loyal to the now- captured Saddam Hussein, etc, etc--have to be separated from the civilians whom they are "intimidating".

To point out that the intimidation is largely coming from the American occupation force--to the horror of the British in southern Iraq who fear, understandably, that Iraqi revenge will be visited upon them as it was on the Italians and the Spanish--is useless.

Instead, we are told that American troops are winning those famous hearts and minds with the spirit of Christmas. There was a grim example of this--and the inherent racism that pervades even reporting of such events--on the Associated Press wire agency just this week.

Describing how an American soldier in a Santa Claus hat was giving out stuffed animals to children, reporter Jason Keyser wrote that one 11-year- old child "looked puzzled, then smiled" as the soldier gave him a small, stuffed goat. Then the report continued: "Others in the crowd of mostly Muslims grabbed greedily at the box," adding the soldier's remark that: "They don't know how to handle generosity."

I don't doubt the soldier's wish to do good. But what is one to make of the "mostly Muslims" who "grabbed greedily" at the gifts? Or the soldier's insensitive remarks about generosity? Iraqi newspapers have been front--paging a Christmas card produced by US troops in Baghdad: "1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Wishes you a very Merry Christmas!" it says.

--snip--

http://www.counterpunch.org/fisk12272003.html

[izzie]

1. Is this the same system men who beat their wife use?

Works well on some I heard. Hitler used it also. Kill 10 for every German killed. That is taking it to the far end of the scale and we know how that worked.So we fight, like us, with terror? Oh that will work as we do love our terrorist.Who dreams these things up?