|
The
Catastrophic Military Occupation of Iraq is Rarely Described Accurately in
the U.S. Media
Dahr
Jamail Interviewed by Kevin Zeese
ccun.org,
October 31, 2007
An
Interview with independent journalist Dahr Jamail “The bogus idea
that if the
U.S.
leaves things will worsen is both inherently racist and ignorant.”
Dahr
Jamail’s MidEast Dispatches, which can be seen at http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com,
are essential reading for anyone who wants to understand what is happening
in
Iraq
. (You can sign up on the site to receive his reports via email.)
Dahr has spent a total of 8 months in
occupied
Iraq
as one of only a few independent
US
journalists in the country. In the MidEast, Dahr has also has reported
from
Syria
,
Lebanon
and
Jordan
. Jamail writes for the Inter Press
Service, The
Asia
Times and many other outl
et
s. His reports have also been published in The Nation, The Sunday Herald,
Islam Online, the Guardian, Foreign Policy in Focus, and the Independent to
name just a few. Dahr Jamail’s current book, Beyond
the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq,
can be purchased on-line or in book stores.
Kevin Zeese:
Compare you experiences in
Iraq
with how the media generally described the events. Do you think most
people, Americans in particular, are g
et
ting an accurate picture of what has occurred in
Iraq
? Is occurring in
Iraq
?
Dahr Jamal: From
the invasion until now, with few exceptions the so-called mainstream media
in the West has portrayed a drastically different picture of what
Iraq
is really like under
U.S.
military rule. We regularly see stories from the military point of view, and
rarely, if ever, how catastrophic the occupation has made life for the
average Iraqi. Thus, most people are in no way g
et
ting an accurate picture of what has occurred, or what is occurring today.
For example, how many mainstream outl
et
s cite the only scientific survey which has been done to tally the number of
Iraqis killed? Known as the Lanc
et
report, and conducted by scientists from John's Hopkins Bloomberg School of
Health in conjunction with Iraqi doctors from
al-Mustanceriya
University
in
Baghdad
, it found that 655,000 Iraqis had died as the direct result of the U.S.-led
invasion and occupation. Over 90 percent of the people they tracked had
death certificates provided by family members to the researchers. Y
et
the mainstream media does not cite this survey, which was authenticated by
British Government. Why not? This is but one example of countless examples.
KZ: You were in
Fallujah, describe how long, when and under what circumstances. I
understand you were there right after the four Blackwater operatives were
killed in Fallujah? I've heard commentators describe the
U.S.
role in Fallujah in heroic terms, like som
et
hing out of a World War II movie. How do you see the role of the
U.S.
military in Fallujah?
DJ: I went into
Fallujah several times; first-before the siege to see that the military had
an ongoing policy of collectively punishing the cities residents by cutting
water and electricity everytime they were attacked.
Then during April I
went as the siege was in progress. After the siege ended I r
et
urned several times in May to chronicle what happened. Later, during the
November siege, I covered it by interviewing doctors and refugees from the
city.
What the
U.S.
military did in that city, under orders from the White House, likens it to a
modern
Guernica
. Most of the city was destroyed during the second attack-70% of it was
destroyed. Restricted and illegal weapons like cluster bombs and white
phosphorous were used by the military. Marine snipers were shooting anything
that moved in the city.
Horrible war crimes
took place there. Y
et
, again, the corporate media portrayed it as a heroic action to free the
people of the city from fighters, y
et
it was mostly the people from the city themselves fighting to defend their
homes, and their city, from the military. Of all I saw in
Iraq
, Fallujah stands as the worst action the
U.S.
military took, aside from the initial invasion of the country.
KZ: Were women,
children and the elderly being killed? Was it accidental?
Intentional? The
U.S.
military talks about precision bombs, what kinds of weapons was the
U.S.
using?
DJ: From what I saw in
April, at a small clinic inside Fallujah, it was mostly women, children and
elderly being shot by marine snipers. Everyone I saw coming to the
clinic, people from different parts of the city coming at different times,
were all telling the same story. That snipers were shooting everything
that moved since they were being kept out of the city by the resistance.
It definately appeared to be intentional, and soldiers later verified
this. Later, during the November siege, military leaders declared the
entire city a "free fire zone," meaning they gave soldiers license
to shoot anything they wanted.
As far as
"precision" bombings-there is no such thing. Just the blast
radius alone for many of the munitions means that by definition there will
be damage to nearby locations, which usually means civilian homes.
This has been true
since the initial invasion.
KZ: During the
last presidential campaign I was with Ralph Nader when he was being
interviewed on an international television show and a woman called from
Fallujah, this was after the first battle when Bush pulled back from
attacking the city, and the woman expressed pride that they had pushed back
the
U.S.
military. At the same time I recall Senator Kerry, who was running for
president, mocking George Bush for backing down on Fallujah. His
comments gave Bush the green light for the second attack on the city where
many more died. Now, I see the top Democratic presidential candidates
saying they cannot promise to g
et
out of
Iraq
by 2013 and all keep a military action against
Iran
on the table. All this is occurring when the vast majority of
Americans want the
U.S.
out of
Iraq
and do not want a war with
Iran
. What do you make of the political situation in the
U.S.
and the electoral choices that peace voters have?
DJ: The silver
lining of this dark cloud we are now living under in our country is that the
true colors of the mainstream candidates in both the Democratic and
Republican parties have the same minds
et
about
U.S.
policy in the
Middle East
. I urge people to read the National Security Strategy, along with the
Quadrennial Defense Review Report. These give a pr
et
ty clear picture of
U.S.
policy in the
Middle East
-which is essentially to control the natural resources and the shipping
lanes. Until those are addressed in open debates with politicians, whatever
their party, we cannot expect to see any policy change regarding
Iraq
,
Iran
, and the
Middle East
. Our political system has been corrupted, and most of the representatives,
aside from a handful, are embedded within that system. It is a systemic
problem, thus, requires solutions which address the system. This means that
voting for one candidate or the other isn't going to address the real
problem.
KZ: What would
be the key false impressions that Americans have about
Iraq
and how would you correct them?
DJ: That the
occupation has an end date, that if the
U.S.
leaves things will worsen in
Iraq
, and that by staying they are preventing the civil war from widening.
The occupation, as per the current
U.S.
strategy supported by all of the mainstream politicians on either side of
the isle, has no end date. Period. Drawing down the number of
troops, if-when it happens, has nothing to do with moving towards a total
withdrawal until the policy is changed.
The bogus idea that if
the
U.S.
leaves things will worsen is both inherently racist and ignorant.
Iraq
is where western civilization began, and the Iraqi people are more than
capable of sorting out the problems within their country. In addition,
the majority of those current problems were caused by and continued to be
propagated by the foreign occupation forces. When the occupation ends,
thus begins the first step towards solving all of the problems within
Iraq
.
The rh
et
oric that the
U.S.
is preventing a worsening of the civil war by staying is also erroneous.
Via arming Sunnis and politically supporting Shias, along with
facilitating the death squads, the
U.S.
presence in
Iraq
only exacerbates the sectarian tensions they helped to foster in the first
place. Again, total
U.S.
withdrawal will be the first step towards reconciliation and peace.
KZ: What advice
would you give the
U.S.
peace movement and Americans opposed to the
Iraq
occupation at this difficult time?*
DJ: I feel the
two single greatest things people can do to help end the occupation are to
support Iraq V
et
erans Against the War, and to continue to organize locally. IVAW is the
spearhead, I feel, of any movement that will be effective in ending the
occupation, and organizing locally for local, national, and international
issues is paramount for building the infrastructure necessary to radically
change the collapsing system we find ourselves in today. (Iraw V
et
erans Against the War can be found at www.IVAW.orghttp://www.ivaw.org/.
If you want to g
et
involved in local organizing contact the author at KZeese@DemocracyRising.US.
KZ: I understand
you have participated in deep ecology workshops with Joanna Macy (see www.JoannaMacy.net)
who is a long-term activist and is now involved in what she calls "The
Great Turning" from the industrial growth soci
et
y to a life-sustaining civilization. Do you see connections b
et
ween the
Iraq
occupation and issues like climate change and the ecological crisis?
DJ: They are
inseparable. The runaway train that is this Late Stage Capitalism, of
infinite growth at the cost of human rights and our ecology, brings us the
latest symptom, which is
Iraq
. The U.S. military is one of the largest polluters on the plan
et
-thus the direct link of the ambitions for U.S. global empire, using the
military to enforce this, runaway corporatism and all the destruction to the
ecology that that growth entails, and thus, our global climate change
crisis.
Kevin Zeese is
Director of Democracy Rising (see www.DemocracyRising.US)
and Voters for Peace (see www.VotersForPeace.US).
|
