Revolutionary Worker #1194, April 13, 2003, posted at rwor.org
A TV journalist, Peter Arnett, stays in a war zone to investigate what's going on the ground. He goes on Iraqi TV and states some fairly obvious facts: that the U.S.'s original war plans have been ruined by "stiffer than expected" Iraqi resistance and that images of civilian casualties (i.e. revealing for all to see what is really happening on the ground in Iraq and exposing to those who refused to believe the true effects of this war) help the anti-war movement in the U.S.
For this, he is condemned, vilified, and fired from his job.
U.S. soldiers at a checkpoint in Iraq open fire on a van full of unarmed civilians--all or mostly women and children. Seven are killed and two are injured.
For this, the soldiers are praised. We are told that they were following the rules of engagement. As outrage mounts, we are promised an investigation. Oppressed people in the U.S. are all too familiar with what happens when the powers-that-be "investigate" their own enforcers for brutality and murder against the people. Ask Amadou Diallo, Patrick Dorismond, Malcolm Ferguson, Georgy Louisgene, or many others who lost their lives to the police right here in the U.S. In all these cases, the system found that the cops did the right thing.
This is the same "liberation" that the U.S. plans to bring to Iraq.
What kind of system condemns a journalist for telling the truth while praising soldiers for shooting down unarmed civilians?
A system worth killing and dying for? Or a system worth getting rid of?
This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker Online
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