American Propaganda ?

Wook

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2842.htm

Liberation ?
Or hollywood setup ?

bonkey

I'd be more inclined to say that this could be a picture taken from later on, when the crowds had perhaps dispersed, but the reporters were still laying down footage and final reports.

There's no surprise that the tanks were always there.

I could of course be wrong.....I just dont think anyone like Reuters would actually broadcast such an image and then knowingly mis-report the event through careful editing.

jc

Biffa Bacon

Still pretending the Iraqis aren't happy to have been liberated? Cop on to yourself.

bertiebowl

Still pretending the Iraqis aren't happy to have been liberated? Cop on to yourself

Ask the person who performed the Baghdad suicide bombing on the Americans if he was happy to be "liberated".

Hairy Homer

Originally posted by Biffa Bacon
Still pretending the Iraqis aren't happy to have been liberated? Cop on to yourself.

Happy? Undoubtedly some of them are.

Ever seen the photographs of ethnic Germas tearfully welcoming the Wehrmacht into Poland in 1939? Or the Czechs doing the same earlier that year? What about the Norwegians who were happy to collaborate with the German military after their country had been' liberated' from an impending British invasionin 1940?

Roll forward. Remember the pictures of women in the Falls Road bringing cups of tea to the British soldiers who had'liberated' them from the RUC/B Specials in 1969? Little over a year later their sons would be shooting at the same soldiers.

The Shi'ites in southern Lebanon throwing rice at the Israeli tanks during Operation 'Peace for Galillee' in 1982, the operation that culminated in the massacres of Sabra and Chatila? Two years later those same Shi'ites were fighting a bloody war with the Israelis involving suicide bombings/destructions of entire villages/deportations ..... pretty much the same short of shite (no pun intended) that is going on in the West Bank now.

What have all these got in common? A mistaken believe on the part of the inhabitants-born doubtlessly of hope and despair—that the invaders are acting in the interests of the invaded, only to be disabused fairly rapidly when they find that the invaders are acting in their own interests.

Anyone who really thinks George W Bush is spending 45 BILLION dollars to better the lives of a few million Iraqis ought to, well, cop on to themselves.

Big Daddy Cruz

Saddam did kill millions, unleashed a reign of terror, ruin his economy, lose several wars, run his country into the ground and isolated Iraq internationally.

But than again the USA did kill dozens of civillians accidently.


I don't know you make the call.

The Corinthian

Originally posted by Big Daddy Cruz
Saddam did kill millions, unleashed a reign of terror, ruin his economy, lose several wars, run his country into the ground and isolated Iraq internationally.

But than again the USA did kill dozens of civillians accidently.


I don't know you make the call.

I don’t think anyone has ever frankly defended Saddam, largely because that has never been the reason for any objections to the invasion.

However, I would point out a few problems with your assertion:

• Ruin his economy. Certainly, however one has to ask how much of a part the sanctions against Iraq have played in this. In some respects accusing Saddam of ruining his economy is a bit like an abusive husband blaming his wife for the reason that he’s beating her.
• Run his country into the ground. See above - repetition.
• The USA did kill dozens of civilians accidentally. The figure is already well into the hundreds, even by coalition or western media sources and likely to finish a lot higher.

Sparks

The USA did kill dozens of civilians accidentally. The figure is already well into the hundreds, even by coalition or western media sources and likely to finish a lot higher.

Actually, it's between 11 and 14 hundred. And the ICRC have stopped counting casualties because they can't keep up.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Hobbes

I see they draped the flag from the pentagon over Saddams statue. So they finally found a link between Iraq and 9/11.

Biffa Bacon

Originally posted by bertiebowl
Ask the person who performed the Baghdad suicide bombing on the Americans if he was happy to be "liberated".

How can I? He's dead!

Chorus: Hilarious Biffa. :rolleyes:

Von

During gulf war one, it's said that he ditched his bodyguards and drove round the country in a red VW. If that's true, cool.

He once won an award from UNESCO for implementing a successful literacy programme and Iraq's economy grew rapidly as a result. And then it all went pear shaped.

Iraq now owes $383 billion but I expect Mr.Blair will see to it that the newly liberated Iraqi people will not have to worry about being asked to pay their former tyrant's debts.

Amnesiac_ie

From UCC LGB with a little help from Matthew Engel and The Guardian
***
Now that war is finally upon us, we must all hope or (if we share our leaders' piety) pray that, within a matter of days, the thing is done with, the Iraqi people will be free of their oppressor and able to enjoy the benefits of American-style democracy. Here is a brief reprise of some of the changes they can expect if the US decides to give Iraq a facsimile of its own highly regarded system.
1. At present, according to the official website of the Iraqi National Assembly ("a major organ for the expression of democracy") the 250 members are elected by blocs of 50,000 voters throughout the country. This suggests the outline principle is the same as in the US. However, the American constitution demands that the 600,000 inhabitants of its own capital city should not be allowed to take part in this process. The reasons are so obvious that no one can remember what they are, but most of those affected are poor and black, anyway. To ensure true devotion to US principles, the same will have to apply in Iraq; doubtless the Americans will break the news to the people of Baghdad tactfully.

2. In Iraq's last presidential election, Saddam Hussein received 100% of the votes, a fact we know because officials said so. Instead, the Iraqis can expect a choice between two different American electoral models, either (a) the one employed in Florida in 2000, designed to ensure that the candidate with the most support loses, or (b) the modern version, as applied in more advanced states, where people vote on touch-screen computers. No one has yet got 100% of the votes by this method but Republican senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska did get 83%. We know this because the company that built the machines - which he part-owns - said so.

3. Under various decrees of the revolutionary command council, capital punishment can be handed out cruelly and whimsically in Iraq for a wide variety of offences. Guilt or innocence is irrelevant. This is reported only by a few outside human rights bodies. This would cease under an American-installed system. Instead, executions would be largely confined to black murderers, most of whom will probably be guilty, accused of murdering whites and too poor to afford a decent lawyer. This will be reported only by a few outside human-rights bodies.

4. Under decree 59 of 1994, Iraqis can lose their right hand for theft of more than 5,000 dinars and their left foot for a second offence. This will presumably be replaced by the three-strikes law, ratified this month by the supreme court, under which Leandro Andrade has been jailed for 50 years for stealing nine videos and Gary Ewing got 25 years to life for the theft of three golf clubs.

5. Any Iraqi journalist thought likely to ask Saddam Hussein a difficult question is now subject to the dictates of paragraph 3. The American way (as seen during the presidential press conference two weeks ago) provides for such people to be stuck at the back of the room and simply not called.

6. Saddam has been universally seen firing his gun indiscriminately and menacingly. Under the second amendment, this right would be extended to everyone.

7. Saddam has conducted unnecessary and aggressive foreign wars to distract his benighted people from domestic economic collapse. Such behaviour would be unthinkable under American democracy.

8. Under Saddam, prisoners are held secretly and without trial, and tortured to extract information. Ditto.

9. The Iraqi system is largely dynastic and a leader like Saddam can pave the way for his son to attain wealth and power without regard to merit. Same again.

10. Saddam "electronically bugged" UN weapons inspectors, President Bush said in his speech on Monday night. The US has not yet tried to refute the Observer story that it bugged private meetings of other security council members. It's probably too busy to dignify it with an answer.

11. Saddam has also threatened his neighbours. A well-placed source in Chile reports that Robert Zoellick, the US trade representative, informed the Chilean foreign minister that, if they didn't do as they were told in the security council, their free trade treaty would not be ratified and loans would mysteriously cease. One small example.

12. The National Assembly's system of passing legislation has proved inadequate. Things are different here. When a Georgia congress man slipped in an exemption to organic food labelling rules into a recent bill to protect a firm that gave him a $4,000 campaign donation, it was noticed and criticised. True, the bill was already law before this happened, because no one in Congress had bothered to read it. But the US will ensure that the new legislature cannot be bought secretly for long. At least not that cheaply.

13. There will be no setting fire to oil wells. We need that stuff, dammit.

14. It would be impossible for a war to be conducted solely because one domineering leader forced a cowed and compliant parliament into agreement.

The new Iraq will be nothing like that. It could only happen in Britain.

Big Daddy Cruz

Only time will tell for sure. I hope the best for Iraq and a chance to tell some of you,"I told you so!"

Sparks

With all sincerity and honesty, you're not the only one. Sadly, I don't think that we'll get to see that day

parasite

Originally posted by Wook
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2842.htm

Liberation ?
Or hollywood setup ?

everyone should see the 'images of war' pages on that site ...


the last page is seriously traumatising, but it's a vital counterpoint to the sanitised victorious rubbish blah blah blah