Both countries regularly mow down neighborhoods and innocent civilian men, women, and children to zealously attack those they suspect of terrorism.
In the case of the wedding party bombing, where 41 civilians were killed, there wasn't any evidence shown that our forces knew beforehand that their target had been involved in anything illegal, much less involved in any terrorist act. They were targeted because of their nationality and their lives devalued because of their nationalities; not American.
Our 'war on terrorism' has become a war of aggression with the U.S. forces no longer distinguishing between the guilty and innocents, rather, our war now targets all in the region who we determine to be in our way. There is no visible mandate from any legitimate Iraqi authority, and much less of one now from our installed 'authority' Chalabi, whose offices were ignominiously raided and ransacked.
The U.S. war on Iraq now mirrors the Israeli war against Palestine in almost every aspect except in length and breadth of conflict. We kill civilians by the thousands in our zeal to destroy 'terrorists', Israel kills innocents by the thousands in their zeal to destroy terrorists. Insurgents in both conflicts kill thousands in their zeal to repel and retaliate against oppressive occupations.
We have sponsored the Israeli government for decades, as their military has indiscriminately killed and abused innocents. Now we can't even bring ourselves to criticism as we indiscriminately kill and abuse innocents in Iraq and Afghanistan. This may go on for decades to come if we don't change regimes here in America, and change our imperialistic, manufactured mandates to conquer.
We are losing our ability in Iraq and Afghanistan to distinguish between innocents and combatants in the Middle East because of the increasing magnitude of the entrenched and imported resistance to our oppressive occupation there. In the course of this conflict, freedom of travel, association, and expression of citizens in the region have been regarded by our false military authority as threats to our consolidation of power there.
Even as the Bush administration signals their desire to 'transfer sovereignty' back to the Iraqis, they continue their assaults on the communities there with wanton abandon, slaying civilians and 'suspected militants' alike with the summary judgment of their preemptive military strikes.
'Reconnaissance by Fire' is the self-defined term the military uses to describe their nightly search and destroy missions. Basically the troops drive on the perimeter of hostile neighborhoods to draw fire. When they are fired on, they return fire into the darkness, with no clear target.
Robert Fisk wrote in the The Independent on September 14, 2003:
In the suburbs of Baghdad and the Sunni cities to the north the American military policy of 'recon-by-fire' and the breakdown of law and order is exacting a heavy toll on a war-torn people.
..." Though light years from the atrocities of Saddam's security forces, the US military here is turning out to be as badly disciplined and brutal as the Israeli army in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Its "recon-by-fire", its lethal raids into civilian homes, its shooting of demonstrators and children during fire-fights, its destruction of houses, its imprisonment of thousands of Iraqis without trial or contact with their families, its refusal to investigate killings, its harassment - and killing"
Secret slaughter by night, lies and blind eyes by day. In the suburbs of Baghdad and the Sunni cities to the north the American military policy of 'recon-by-fire' and the breakdown of law and order is exacting a heavy toll on a war-torn people, reports Robert Fisk in his first major dispatch since returning to Iraq, The
http://www.organicconsumers.org/corp/iraq.cfmJim Lobe wrote, on June 18, 2003:
New York Times' military analyst Michel Gordon used the dreaded 'counter-insurgency' about prospects for defeating unhappy armed Iraqis. ''Unlike the rush to Baghdad, this fight will not be measured in days but in months, if not years ... For the Americans this is a campaign of raids, bombing strikes and dragnets, as American commanders try to isolate and destroy remnants of the old order.''
''It is more like a counter-insurgency than in invasion,'' Gordon added, in what Engelhardt said marked the first reference to the tactic in relation to the U.S. ''war'' in Iraq.
In a swift echo, 'The Christian Science Monitor' followed with an article Monday titled ''U.S. Anti-Guerrilla Campaign Draws Iraqi Ire''. ''The U.S. army has changed from being a liberator to an offensive occupier,'' the article quoted Fawzi Shafi, editor of a new weekly newspaper in Fallujah, the apparent center anti-U.S. resistance, as saying.
Rehabilitating schools and providing free gasoline to communities are now referred to by the old Vietnam cliché of ''winning hearts and minds''; arms seized by U.S. troops have been called ''weapons counts'', an eerie reminder of the ''body counts'' of Vietnam days.
And while the U.S. strikes of the past 10 days are referred to so far only by their operation codenames, it takes very little imagination to see them as akin to ''search-and-destroy missions'' of that bygone period. Washington's first governor in Iraq, ret. Gen. Jay Garner, even told the 'New York Times' that he saw ''Vietnam and the strategic hamlet concept'' as relevant to the Iraqi occupation, presumably to separate the population from rebellious elements.
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0618-08.htmThe random exercise of our military strength and destructive power will not serve as a deterrent to those rouge, radical terrorist organizations that Bush claims to be defending America against in Iraq, who claim no permanent base of operations. The wanton, collateral bombing and killing has undoubtedly alienated any fringe of moderates who might have joined in a unified effort of regime change which respects our own democratic values of justice and due process.
Our oppressive posture has pushed the citizens of these sovereign nations to a forced expression of their nationalism in defense of basic prerogatives of liberty and self-determination, which our false authority disregards as threats to our consolidation of power.
There should be, at some point, some moral equivalency in the citizen's expressions of self-determination, as our efforts to consolidate our false authority there are portrayed as benign and necessary. Where and when will we treat Iraqis as equals and respect their authority over their own country?
All of Bush's weak justifications for our invasion and occupation have evaporated. At some point we have to deal with the fact that this was a unjust war, that our wanton killing there is creating a circle of violence where today's aggression becomes tomorrow's reprisal. To the families and survivors of our indiscriminate attacks, our presence in these countries is a bullying dictatorship with little regard for their safety, freedom, or liberty.
Our hold on their resources still is in place and our control of their government seems permanent under Bush, despite his assurances that he doesn't want to possess Iraq. We will not be able to force the population to accept our military rule with our reckless shootings of innocent civilians, indiscriminate cluster bombings, and well-documented instances of abuse and torture. This imposition of power with the domineering control of our military is a contradiction of the "freedom" Bush claims to be defending.
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