Evidence Of US War Crimes In Ramadi
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Courtesy Of: IslamOnline.com
By: The New York Times
7/7/2006

The U.S. occupation forces, Joined by Iraqi troops, intensified over the past week raids in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, part of an operation said to be aimed at destroying the "insurgency" there.

• Destroying A City Of 400,000 People:

A New York Times article published earlier this week painted a damning picture of the current situation in the devastated Iraqi city of Ramadi.

It shed light on the daily violence and atrocities committed by the U.S. occupation forces in Iraq.

"The Government Center in the middle of this devastated town resembles a fortress on the wild edge of some frontier," the Times correspondent Dexter Filkins said in his article.

"In three years the Marine Corps an Army have tried nearly everything to bring this provincial capital of 400,000 under control. Nothing has worked."

"Now American commanders are trying something new."

• Getting Rid Of Ramadi:

"Instead of continuing to fight for the downtown or rebuild it, they are going to get rid of it, or at least a very large part of it."

"They say they are planning to bulldoze about three blocks in the middle of the city, part of which has already been reduced to ruins by the fighting, and convert them into a Green Zone..."

"We go out and kill these people," said Captain Del Gaudio, the commander here.

"One of the 'habits of mind' drilled into the Marines from posters hung up inside: Be polite, Be professional and have a plan to kill everyone you meet."

"On a sheet of paper hung up in the Government Center, Marines wrote down suggestions for their company's T-Shirt once they go home. Most are unprintable, but here is one that got a lot of laughs: "Kilo Company: Killed More People Than Cancer."

Filkins' article also noted that there's a noticeable increase in U.S. casualties.

...U.S. commanders are trying to hide the number of wounded, Filkins added in his report.

As for Iraqis, he said that "The number of Iraqi casualties--'insurgents' or civilians--is unknown."

Although the facts stated by Filkins made clear that the U.S. is committing war crimes, the Times' report didn't condemn the U.S. military actions in Ramadi.

It was Just stating the continuously repeated statement by U.S. officials that the people of Ramadi are "Caught in the Middle" of a struggle between American troops and "insurgents."

• Media Cover UP:

Most of the crimes the occupation forces commit daily in Iraq go unreported, keeping the American public largely in the dark, unaware of the barbaric nature of the U.S. military occupation of Iraq, and the heavy price the Iraqi nation is paying almost daily.

On July 5, another New York Times article discussing the rape-murder case of an Iraqi family in the southern town of Mahmoudiya, made a highly significant observation:

"The reaction among Iraqis has been muted," the article said.

"The inquiry into the possible executions of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha by Marines has also brought the same lukewarm response. More than three years into the war, many Iraqis say they are no longer surprised by abuses on the part of American troops."

Daily horrific crimes against Iraqi civilians have become part and parcel of the strategy of the U.S. military in Iraq.

But the U.S. media continues ignoring those atrocities.

The true Iraqi death toll--both in its scale and account of who is doing the killing, is being unreported by biased and U.S.-influenced media, that's following orders from U.S. and UK governments, both seeking to minimize the extent of their war crimes in Iraq.

But it's time the media stops collaborating.

Source:

http://islamonline.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=11706