This article previously appeared in UNObserver.com and
Islamonline.net.
The popular perception in the US is that Iraq is a country of uncivilized
criminals and terrorists raised to hate America because common people
hate freedom and liberty, “ragheads” and “sand niggers” who
brought down the Twin Towers in New York City and attacked the Pentagon.
US-based columnists have taken to calling Iraqis lazy and ungrateful.
In a prime-time press conference, US President George Bush said the
Iraqis must take control of their own destinies come June 30th.
The fact that many of the kidnapped foreign workers were Pakistanis,
Bangladeshis and other Asians who used to drive cars and trucks should
get the message across that everyone is allowed a job in Iraq – except
the Iraqis. Take Coalition Provisional Authority head L. Paul Bremer
who issued Order 39 (September 19), which declares that 100 percent
ownership of Iraqi banks, mines and factories is allowed to be foreign-owned
and 100 percent of profits from these Iraqi institutions is allowed
to be moved out of the country. Where do Iraqis fit in? Is it any surprise
they feel cheated and robbed? Does a robbed man stand by and watch
his possessions dwindle?
This is the ignorance that is supported, endorsed, encouraged and
tolerated by everyone from the Bush administration down to every major
news outlet in the US.
Take for example the handling of the four Americans who were killed
in Fallujah, had their corpses burned, dismembered and then hanged
on a bridge. Every news outlet in the US spoke of the four heroic American “civilians.” Iraqis
butchered four decent, law-abiding civilians. Civilians who left their
families in helping to rebuild Iraq. That is the version the American
public is given.
However, the truth is that the four were former US soldiers working
as security agents for North Carolina-based Blackwater Corp, which – among other things – is charged with protecting
L. Paul Bremer. Secondly, it is no secret that many of the operations
the US military used to undertake have now been slated for private
security firms like Blackwater. Effectively, they are hired help – mercenaries.
One of them was a Navy Seal, one of the most decorated and highly trained
outfits in the US military.
Missing from the national (and international) discussion are the reports
that cited weapons found on the four slain men. Anyone who has seen
news footage of the private security firms running about in Iraq will
immediately recognize that they are armed to the teeth, wearing flak
jackets. Initial reports said that the corpses were wearing blue-colored
flak jackets.
The “civilians” theory doesn't hold much water.
In fact, and unreported to US audiences, private security firms in
Iraq, much like Blackwater, are taking over major tasks and operations
primarily assigned to US forces. The hope is that US forces remain
in barracks, avoid improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and ambushes,
reduce the body count, and keep the US public firmly behind the war.
In effect, private security firms have become a de facto military presence
in Iraq – outnumbering the official count of non-US military “coalition” forces.
If the US military is the occupying force in Iraq and is replaced
by what should be considered a mercenary force – bought and paid
for to undertake military duties – then the private security
firms become legitimate targets for a populace that feels itself occupied
and bound to resist.
And that is precisely what several dozen clerics in Iraq and the Arab
world have said. They did not condemn the right to attack the four
armed men – remember, they were armed – but did strongly
condemn in unmistakable terms the mutilations and public hangings that
occurred later. Islamic law strictly prohibits the maiming or disrespecting
of any dead body, even that of an animal. According to the Prophet
Mohammed, even spitting at a dead body – whether it is of an
enemy or ally, Jew, Christian, or Muslim is irrelevant – is considered
sacrilegious. The Prophet routinely stood up in respect as the funeral
processions of Jews and Christians passed by his domicile. However,
this little tidbit about what is permissible and prohibited in Islam
was left out of US reporting.
After the killing of the four Blackwater employees, more than 700
people were slaughtered in Fallujah. More than 2,000 civilians were
wounded, hundreds of houses have been entirely destroyed, and four
mosques have been damaged. The city was placed under siege, cut off
from food, water, and medical supplies. “We are resorting to
collective punishment,” Newsweek editor Fareed Zakaria told Chris
Matthews on Hardball. Zakaria denied the official US position that
fighters in the “Sunni Triangle” are “dead-enders.” He
also claimed uneven-handedness in Iraq was feeding the “insurgency.”
Punitive collective punishment of this kind is reminiscent of German
Nazi policies during the occupation of France. Take for example the
German Nazi response in the French town of Tulle in 1944. History shows
the French Resistance had seized the town from the German 3rd Battalion
and 95th Security Regiment. When the Das Reich Panzer Division retook
the town, they found 64 badly mutilated German bodies. Revenge came
swiftly: The SS-Panzer Aufklarungs Abteilung 2 platoon seized 99 men
and promptly executed them, later hanging their bodies as a sign to
others. Some 100 civilians who were deported to concentration camps
would die in Germany.
To the Germans, the civilians were “insurgents and terrorist
sympathizers”; to the rest of the world, they were civilians.
For their part, the French resistance fighters were not labeled as
terrorists; they were called La Resistance (the resistance) and achieved
a near mythical status in European history.
As civilian casualties escalated, US military commanders, hoping to
save face in Iraq and the Arab World, began to accuse the defenders
of Fallujah of hiding behind women and children. That statement flies
in the face of video footage shot by Al Jazeera and carried on ABC,
CBS, MSNBC, and NBC clearly showing Iraqi fighters running between
streets, in trenches, atop buildings, firing their RPGs and automatic
weapons. No women and children in sight.
When a large convoy of aid supplies carrying blood for hospital transfusions,
food, and water managed to break through a US military roadblock, the
media called it a delivery of aid to Sunni rebels. Missing from the
report were mentions of doctors feeling overwhelmed and ill-equipped
to deal with the growing death toll and the number of civilians facing
a humanitarian crisis due to lack of drinkable water and unspoiled
food (Fallujah was dependent on shipments from the rest of Iraq).
On April 12, as Arab journalists (including Iraqi journalists) pressed
the Coalition to comment on civilian deaths in Fallujah , US General
Mark Kimmit refused to acknowledge that it was civilians who were killed.
US media swallowed it hook, line and sinker with MSNBC reporting, “U.S.
officials say about 700 insurgents and 70 coalition troops have been
killed since April 1, but Iraqi civilian toll is unclear.” Despite
persistent reports from Al Jazeera and other Arab media, despite the
graphic pictures of women and children cut to pieces, despite the angry
wails of hospital staff and appeals for humanitarian assistance, US
media refused to toe anything but the official government line.
Isn’t that how the fabrications, reliance on unreliable defectors,
and other misconceptions about Iraq ’s WMD were propagated in
the first place? What of the Iraq-Al Qaeda link, which has since been
debunked? Was it not US media that reported every “official” word
coming out of the Bush administration and various Washington think
tanks as gospel?
Why?
Racism is the answer. There is an arrogance in the West that everything
Western is superior, exemplary and ideal for all cultures. In 2002,
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said that Islamic culture
was inferior to Western civilization. This school of thought is prevalent
throughout every sector of US society and has been nudged on by the
various “hate-films” that Hollywood churns every year.
Arabs are portrayed as stupid, animalistic, amoral, sex-starved, abusive,
wife-battering terrorists who seek to kill themselves – and their
children – so that they can languish with 72 virgins in heaven.
That Arabs saved Western civilization by translating the Greek philosophies
and complementing them, introducing algebra, geometry and astronomy
to Europe, is left out. That the first medical institute in world history
was established by Muslims in – wait for it – southern
Iraq is also lost on the US public.
It is no surprise then when we hear that British commanders in Iraq
have condemned the Americans’ heavy-handed and disproportionate
military tactics. According to The Telegraph's Sean Rayment, a British
officer “who agreed to the interview on the condition of anonymity,
said that part of the problem was that American troops viewed Iraqis
as 'untermenschen' – the Nazi expression for ‘sub-humans’.
“They are not concerned about the Iraqi loss of life in the
way the British are. Their attitude towards the Iraqis is tragic, it's
awful.” The British officer accused the US military of targeting “terrorists” even
if they are located in densely-populated civilian areas: “They
may well kill the terrorists in the barrage but they will also kill
and maim innocent civilians. That has been their response on a number
of occasions. It is trite, but American troops do shoot first and ask
questions later. They are very concerned about taking casualties and
have even trained their guns on British troops, which has led to some
confrontations between soldiers,” The Telegraph reported.
By the way, if you weren’t around during the Nazi purging of
Europe’s Jews, “untermenschen” is the popular term
a certain Adolf Hitler used in Mein Kampf to express his disdain for
what he termed the “inferior” Jews.
Consequently, if the US military, a branch of the US government, considers
Iraqis as inferior beings, we can then extrapolate that US lawmakers
view Iraqis as lesser peoples. Perhaps that helps explain why the Bush
administration is so irked by news reports showing dead Iraqi women
and children. Perhaps it helps explain why he accuses Arab media – including
Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya – of being propagandists and liars.
Perhaps it also explains why every Iraqi protestation in the last few
years about lack of WMDs was shot down by US media and Iraqi officials
were branded expert liars.
Perhaps, it also explains why “the axis of evil” slogan
was so popular with Washington neocons. Inferior people are considered
satanic and evil. After all, was this not how slavery was maintained
and thrived in the continental US in the 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th
centuries? Were not the slaves considered by white (supremacist) landowners
to be cursed by God, soulless and would never see the gates of heaven?
Was this not how Apartheid was allowed to survive in the heart of black
Africa?
Racism. The same racism that allowed 800,000 Rwandan Hutus and Tutsis
to die exactly 10 years ago while the so-called compassionate superpower
focused on twiddling their thumbs. The same racism that refused to
apologize for centuries of slavery at the Durban Conference in South
Africa on September 8, 2001.
Newsweek’s Zakaria put it best when he told Chris Matthews how
Iraqis must feel: “We lost four on our side and they lost 700.
What do you think that tells them? That their lives are not nearly
as important?”
Touché.
Firas Al-Atraqchi is a Canadian journalist of Iraqi heritage.
Holding an MA in Journalism and Mass Communication, he has eleven
years of
experience covering Middle East issues, oil and gas markets, and the
telecom industry. You can reach him at [email protected].