4 US Mercenaries Killed=Media Horror/10,000 Iraqis Slaughtered=Jokes

[stopbush]

So, 4 Americans acting as security guards get killed in an ambush, their bodies are ripped apart, desecrated and hanged. Not doubt about it, it's a truly horrible, ugly, disgusting image. The American media is outraged. And - according to the American media - Iraqis themselves are embarrassed and outraged at the horror.

Yet a year ago, this same media was treating the American public to a fab light show as Americans bombed thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens into embers, their body parts blown to the four winds, their children decapitated, their homes and lives destroyed. The American media CHEERED the carnage - as did our soldiers in taped reports. The American public rejoiced as "we kicked some ass," no matter that it wasn't Saddam's ass, let alone Osama's. It felt great to be a fearless American who was unafraid to admit that "payback is a bitch" - as long as it was us doing the paying back - and on innocent children and civilians.

Where was the media's outrage as Tom Brokaw waxed eloquent over our mendaciously inspired and guided firestorm? Where was the media's outrage as Fox News broadcast their infamous set-to-music "highlight reel" of America's indiscriminate killing machine - the lethal fireworks that announced the New American Century? The lack of outrage has now morphed into ghoulish laughter as our press corps giggles at the president's jokes about his non-existent WMDs.

But most importantly, where was the embarrassment and outrage of the American people as their government visited horrific destruction upon those innocent Iraqis? Where was the outrage of the American people as innocent children were slaughtered in their name?

Have we Americans lost the ability to feel shame? Have we lost the ability to empathize with any but our own? I'm afraid the answers are "yes" and "yes."

More's the pity...more's the growing shame...

[Union Thug]

1. Thank you for...

pointing out this blatant, unbelievable, hypocrisy. Some of the images of parents clinging to their dead children are burned into my memory forever.

Liberation indeed. Fuck all these murderous thugs and the corporate elite that sponsor them.

[ComerPerro]

2. Here is another interesting question that occured to me today

It was reported that March has now become the bloodiest/deadliest/whatever month for the US since "Mission Accomplished".

Hmm...

So, where the fuck were the reports of the casualties? I haven't seen shit in the media throughout this month about American deaths in Iraq. They just stopped reporting it.

And Bush's numbers have taken a slight rebound...


Hmm...

[Union Thug]

3. Right...

and where are the flowers and songs?

Gawd I hate these people.

Will

NO WAR BUT THE CLASS WAR!

[ComerPerro]

8. Well, and this is the worst part:

If this was about liberation, how come neocon talking heads are now suggesting that we just go in and kill every Iraqi who looks at us crosseyed?

How can they suggest that and still claim that this was a war for liberation, fought for the Iraqi people?

Moreover, how the fuck can they say that we had a moral duty to remove Saddam because he was brutal and would get rid of anyone who didn't do things his way?

WTF?

[oasis]

13. Didn't the Chimp appoint Condi to take charge of Iraq? She shut down

the information coming out.

[wtmusic]

4. This 'war'

will go down as one of the most shameful episodes in American history. And too many people just don't get it.

There's a surreal, bloated pride sweeping America that makes it just a little too similar to 1930's Germany.

[RichM]

5. It's a classic example of Chomsky's idea of "worthy vs unworthy victims"

The 4 US mercenaries are "worthy victims;" their murder is displayed prominently, relentlessly, with great outrage.

The 10,000+ Iraqis are "unworthy victims;" their murder is not even mentioned. They are, after all, mere A-rabs. No front paging, no sympathetic coverage; no outrage.

We Americans have lost the ability to empathize with anyone our TV doesn't tell us to empathize with. If the TV says empathize, we empathize. Otherwise not.

[mulethree]

14. Propaganda

These guys are more worthy than the other 10 that die every week.
Because they were better paid?
Were Security guards instead of "front line" troops?
Had a choice about being there?
no, those should all make them less worthy.

It's because there was really good footage. Because the footage
didn't just show a limp body or a smoking vehicle thats known to
have corpses inside. It's not the fact that people died that
causes the outrage, its the mistreatment of corpses. The outrage
should be more about their death than about the mistreatment of
empty husks of meat they left behind.

So why do we see these corpses and not the other 500? We see 6 of
the 1500+ amputee's? If they showed this stuff every time soldiers died, wouldn't that tend to dampen enthusiasm for War? Is there
some DoD Press Department restriction on showing US soldiers' corpses?

I wonder if Saddam still leads us in terms of Iraqi Casualties? Is it more worthy a death to die by poison gas, or torture, or assassination, or by robot flying bombs programmed with coordinates
by the crew on some submarine 300 miles away?

So why does this footage air? Surely to disgust and outrage. But are they looking for the "kill them all" response? the "Bring them all home" response? The "OMG what could we have done to make them hate us so"? response? And who are the "They"s? They who got this footage on air and They who have prevented other footage from making it to air?

Or are the reporters all holed up in a hotel playing cards and waiting for the next sanctioned and supervised press event?

[countmyvote4real]

6. USA as we once knew it is dead. No doubt about it.

If we're not totally reprogrammed by a second term * administration, we're on the verge of a second civil war. Sorry to say, but I share your outrage and cynicism. Much like Nazi Germany, it will get worse before it gets better.

Did I just imply it might get better? I guess hope does spring eternal.

[Skip Intro]

7. The US media are empty, soulless whores

I don't know when I first noticed it. I think it was the 2000 campaign, and I was struck, and in disbelief for the longest, that the media was savaging Gore at every opportunity, but drooled at the chance to stand in the presence of the dark lord.

They sold us out. We, the people. I feel like this is a culmination of something, or an advanced stage, and only became obvious as it grew to maturity.

The Good News: heroes are begining to come forth, and the illusion is beginning to detect its eventual demise.

[ConsAreLiars]

9. True innocents

If anyone believes that those violent acts justify further war against the Iraqis, then they have to ask what retaliation is justified by the crimes depicted in these (Warning: graphic) images:

http://www.robert-fisk.com/iraqwarvictims_mar2003.htm
http://www.robert-fisk.com/the_evidence.htm

(Btw, CBS News tonight did a piece on the economic forces pushing otherwise decent people to "volunteer" for mercenary contracts in Iraq - it is much like the economic pressure driving military enlistments.)

[Cleita]

10. Hey there was that dog running around for hours

looking for a criminal in Wisconsin. Hours spent on that and interviewing anyone who knew the victim, found alive, and anyone who knew them back to kindergarten.

God forbid anyone should have questioned Mr. Booshevik and anyone else who could explain WHY Iraq is hell?

[maggrwaggr]

11. that is a great post, I'm gonna e-mail it to some people

thanks

[maggrwaggr]

12. humans have always been beasts

and this just proves that all humans are, still.

[Elidor]

15. Where was the media's outrage as Dubya joked about

A war which saw their own colleagues deliberately murdered by troops under Dubya's command? They laughed, the thought of tanks firing on hotels far from their minds...

[G_j]

16. when the karma comes around

it won't be pretty!

And when you think about it, EVERYONE who doesn't support the Bush war crimes should withhold their taxes.

[Desertrose]

17. my thoughts, too...what goes around, comes around....

and where exactly are we on that wheel? so much violence and death...who can keep track.
I wish we could do a rewind of all this mess and start fresh...but we'd have to go toooo far back now.....

*sigh*

This is all so heartbreaking to ignore innocent deaths and play up the grisly pieces of others...so unbalanced and unfair....so damn sick...I continue to be ashamed of my country does .....

my heart weighs heavy.....
DR

[leftofthedial]

18. I Me Me Mine

All I can hear, I me mine
I me mine, I me mine
Even those tears, I me mine
I me mine, I me mine


"Greed is good."

"Look out for number one."

"We hit the trifecta."

[KharmaTrain]

19. Bizarro World Reaction

I can't help but reverse roles here...if this were my country being invaded by a foreign occupier and how would I feel/react. What type of disobedience would I do...and how far? Would I, as a non-violent person, take up a weapon if I felt it would damage the occupiers or to defend my family and/or home. It's one hell of a situation to be faced with...and the one many Iraqis feel today...especially one year after Hussein is gone and this Invasion has no end in sight.

We've not only enraged the Arab world, we've embarassed it and the revenge they take will be the sweetest for them. Our invasion represents every evil every mullah has told them of our society and then some...and what we're seeing in Fallujah is the tip of a very volitile iceburg. If this regime doesn't watch it, Falluja could become like "Alamo" or "The Maine" (maybe monkeys may relate to that)...throughout the Arab world as name to put on widespread violence and resistance to the United States. Geesh is this regime greedy and dumb.

We've got a Vietnam moment going here as well. Haven't we learned you can't win people minds at the barrel of a gun? Especially giving that job to 19 and 20 year olds...far from home and in an alien culture.

Damn how I had wished that some of these Chickenshithawks had been dragged into the military themselves...even better...their children!!!