24 Jun
United States Wars, News and Casualties
United States Wars, News and Casualties
The War Criminals
The war criminals, Bush,Cheney,Rice,Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Powell who sold us the war still go on doing what they do.
How many Iraqis have died as a result of the invasion 15 years ago? Some credible estimates put the number at more than one million. You can read that sentence again.
The invasion of Iraq is often spoken of in our country as a “blunder,” or even a “colossal mistake.” It was a crime.
Those who perpetrated it are still at large. Some of them have even been rehabilitated thanks to the horrors of a mostly amnesiac citizenry. (A year ago Mr. Bush was on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” dancing and talking about his paintings.)
We condemned children to death, some after many days of writhing in pain on bloodstained mats, without pain relievers. Some died quickly, wasted by missing arms and legs, crushed heads. As the fluids ran out of their bodies, they appeared like withered, spoiled fruits. They could have lived, certainly should have lived – and laughed and danced, and run and played- but instead they were brutally murdered. Yes, murdered!
The war ended for those children, but it has never ended for survivors who carry memories of them. Likewise, the effects of the U.S. bombings continue, immeasurably and indefensibly.
The McGlynn
War News
ALJ: An unworthy war? US/UK reporting on Yemen
As the assault on Hudaida makes news, we examine flaws in coverage of the war in Yemen. Plus, chemical attacks in Syria.
Contributors:
Piers Robinson, chair in Politics, Society and Political Journalism, University of Sheffield
Alex Emmons, reporter, The Intercept
Shireen al-Adeimi, assistant professor, Michigan State University
Hashem Ahelbarra, senior correspondent, Al Jazeera
On The Listening Post this week: As the assault on Hudaida makes news, we examine flaws in coverage of the wider war in Yemen. Plus, the warring narratives around chemical attacks in Syria.
How US and UK media report the war in Yemen
A conflict described by Amnesty International as the “forgotten war”, Yemen has found itself in the news this past week.
The reason was an assault by the combined forces of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on the port city of Hudaida. While it’s the Saudi-led coalition that has waged this war for the past three years, many media outlets describe Yemen as a proxy war, hence the term ‘Iran-backed Houthi rebels’.
But what about the US and the UK whose weapons sales and military assistance have enabled the Gulf states to carry on the war?
For British and US journalists that should make Yemen a foreign war with plenty of domestic angles. But you wouldn’t know it from the kind of coverage – and the overall lack of it.
GUARD: UK ‘hides extent of arms sales to Saudi Arabia’
Campaigners say licences for ‘less sensitive goods’ are being used for bombs that hit civilian targets in Yemen
The Republican Palace, destroyed by Saudi-led airstrikes, in Sanaa, Yemen. Photograph: Hani Mohammed/AP
Hundreds of millions of pounds worth of British-made missiles and bombs have been sold to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen under an opaque licensing system that makes tracking arms sales more difficult.
The disclosure has prompted accusations that the government is trying to mask the true extent of British-made arms exports to Saudi, a claim denied by the Department for International Trade.
Britain’s role in selling weapons to the Saudis is attracting controversy amid the kingdom’s operations in Yemen, where thousands of people have died and millions have been displaced in a proxy war.
Human rights groups allege that the Saudi-led coalition backing the country’s government has been targeting civilian infrastructure and buildings, something that would constitute a war crime. Iran-backed Houthi rebels fighting the Saudi-led coalition have also been accused of committing war crimes against civilians in the key port city of Hodeidah, now the scene of heavy fighting and where there are fears of an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.
Britain has consistently said that it keeps all arms exports under close scrutiny and that licensing is made on a case-by-case basis. But now a freedom of information request reveals that for the last five years, Britain has been selling Storm Shadow and Brimstone air-to-surface missiles and Paveway IV bombs to the Saudis under what are known as Open Individual Export Licences (OIELs), which the government says are for the export of “less sensitive goods”………….“Open licences issued in the years before Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen’s civil war are still being used for the export of hundreds of millions of pounds of bombs today. If it were not for this Observer report neither parliament nor the committee tasked with scrutinising arms exports, on which I sit, would have any idea that these weapons are being sent,” said Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle, who sits on the Commons committee on arms export controls.
Read full story »
GUARD: You’re on your own, US tells Syrian rebels, as Assad goes on offensive
Russian jets make first foray into south-west as government ramps up campaign to regain strategic area
The US has warned Syrian rebels in the south-west of the country they should not expect military support to help them resist a major government offensive.
The message from Washington comes as Russian jets struck an opposition-held town on Sunday in the first air cover provided by Moscow to an expanding Syrian army offensive in the strategic area bordering Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The US message sent to heads of the Free Syrian Army said Washington wanted to make clear that “you should not base your decisions on the assumption or expectation of a military intervention by us”.
The Syrian army began ramping up its assault last week in order to recapture the area.
Washington had warned the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and his Russian allies that violations of a “de-escalation” zone agreed by the US and Russia last year would have “serious repercussions” and pledged “firm and appropriate measures”…………“We in the United States government understand the difficult conditions you are facing and still advise the Russians and the Syrian regime not to undertake a military measure that violates the zone,” the message also said.
The advice seems to be going unheeded by the Russians. Two tracking centres that monitor military aircraft movements recorded at least 20 strikes on Busra al-Harir, north-east of Daraa, two sources told Reuters.
Read full story »
REU: Syria pounds rebel areas in south, thousands flee to border zone
AMMAN (Reuters) – The Syrian army and allied forces pounded rebel-held areas of the southwest as thousands of civilians fled to safer opposition held areas along the border with Jordan and Israel, aid workers and rebels said.
