Reliving what horrors we did in Fallujah. Marine court martial begins. War planners walk free.

[madfloridian]

I almost feel sad to see it. There is something about the big guys who planned the horrors of Fallujah walking around free and mostly rich, while those lower down the chain pay the price. Very mixed emotions on this. Anger, heartbreak, not sure what else. We ordered the people to leave their homes or be considered the enemy. That put our military on the ground in an untenable situation.

Falluja should go down in history as a case study on how truth is subverted, co-opted, buried, and ignored.

The first US-led siege of Falluja, a city of 300,000 people, resulted in a defeat for Coalition forces. Prior to the second siege in November, its citizens were given two choices: leave the city or risk dying as enemy insurgents.

What of the estimated 50,000 residents who did not leave Falluja? The US military suggested there were a couple of thousand insurgents in the city before the siege, but in the end chose to treat all the remaining inhabitants as enemy combatants.
Book about Fallujah. Send in the Clowns

A court martial begins today.

Court martial begins in killing of unarmed Iraqi captive

"We went into this house, there happened to be four or five guys in the house," Weemer said in a recording of the interview played during the prosecution's opening statement. "We ended up shooting them, we had to."

The U.S. military had ordered all civilians out of Fallujah ahead of an assault aimed at recapturing the city from insurgents.

"Operation Phantom Fury" involved vicious house-to-house fighting.

Weemer said in the interview that the unarmed Iraqis were slain because the Marines didn't have time to take the men to jail.

"We called up to the platoon leader and the response was, 'Are they dead yet?' " Weemer said in the recording.

The top gun leaders who planned the attacks on Fallujah had to know what they were doing..what would happen when you order civilians to leave their homes or they will die. The citizens of Fallujah wrote a letter to the UN, pleading with them to stop the US from the killing there.

Nothing was done.

People of Fallujah wrote a letter to the UN to plead with US not to attack.

This letter was signed by the following people of Fallujah, and sent to Kofi Annan.

Best regards.
Kassim Abdullsattar al-Jumaily
President
The Study Center of Human Rights & Democracy

On behalf of the people of Fallujah and for:
Al-Fallujah Shura Council
The Bar Association
The Teacher Union
Council of Tribes Leaders
The House of Fatwa and Religious Education

It read in part:

His Excellency Mr. Kofi Annan Secretary General of the United Nations New York

Fallujah 14 October 2004

Your Excellency

It is very obvious that the American forces are committing crimes of genocide every day in Iraq. Now, while we are writing to Your Excellency, the American forces are committing these crimes in the city of Fallujah. The American warplanes are dropping their most powerful bombs on the civilian in the city, killing and injured hundreds of innocent people. At the same time their tanks are attacking the city with heavy artillery. As you know, there is no military presence in the city. There had been no actions taken by the Fallujah resistance in recent weeks because the negotiations between representatives of the city and the Government which were going well. In this atmosphere, the new bombardment by America has happened while the people of Fallujah have been preparing themselves for the fast of Ramadan. Now many of them are now trapped under the wreckage of their demolished houses, and nobody can help them while the attack continues.

On the night of the 13th October alone American bombardment demolished 50 houses on top of their residents. Is this a genocidal crime or a lesson about the American democracy? It is obvious that the Americans are committing acts of terror against the people of Fallujah for one reason only: their refusal to accept the Occupation.

Your Excellency and the whole world know that the Americans and their allies devastated our country under the pretext of the threat of WMD. Now, after all the destruction and the killing of thousand civilians, they have admitted that there no weapons were found. But they have said nothing about all the crimes they committed. Unfortunately everybody is now silent, and will not even dignify the murdered Iraqi civilians with words of condemnation. Are the Americans going to pay compensation as Iraq has been forced to do after the Gulf war?

From 2004...the reality in Fallujah.

The horrific conditions for those who remained in the city have begun to emerge in the last 24 hours as it became clear that US military claims of 'precision' targeting of insurgent positions were false. According to one Iraqi journalist who left Falluja on Friday, some of the civilian injuries were caused by the massive firepower directed on to city neighbourhoods during the battle.

This was directed at a city in a country which had not been a threat to us, which we had bombed for over 11 years. No one says how many we killed, the articles just infer and make implications. But then we don't do "body counts."

And now there will be a court martial. The ones who planned this war are walking free. Truly mixed feelings.

[dipsydoodle]

1. War planners walk free.....

for the time being.

[madfloridian]

13. Hope you are right..."for the time being."

:hi:

[Hell Hath No Fury]

2. I bet 99.9% of Americans....

have no idea what went down there. :(

This generation's My Lai -- x1000. :cry:

[madfloridian]

3. I'm afraid you are right.

:-(

[gratuitous]

4. Operation Phantom Fury

The very name gives away the game. Fury is supposed to be a fleeting emotion in response to some grievous offense. It's when cooler heads prevail that the offense is dealt with in a systematic, dispassionate fashion according to prearranged rules and procedures. Fury in this case becomes the animating factor, the motivation for everything that follows. There's nothing orderly about fury. It's a blind emotion, lashing this way and that at enemies real and imagined. And it was the operational norm for the most heavily-armed military the planet has ever seen.

[madfloridian]

5. The names given to war are so macho in nature.

I guess purposely so. Desert Storm was bad enough, but then the names got worse.

Phantom Fury does give it away, you are right.

[wiggs]

6. white phosphorous. nt

[Mithreal]

7. K&R in remembrance to all those whose lives we destroyed. eom

[madfloridian]

22. We do need to do that now and then.

Because the ones who ordered the invasion are walking around free.

[Gregorian]

8. If the law is not upheld for the greatest of crimes, then it need not be upheld for lesser crimes.

Not a day goes by when I don't think of the suffering of the Iraqis at our hands, and those who ordered it.

And that goes for people in the UN like Bolton. It's sickening to have this on our hands.

[madfloridian]

23. And it is never mentioned on our media.

It's like if we don't talk about it, it will go away.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

9. K&R

Remember Fallujah? The city we literally destroyed in order to save it and then didn't quite get around to rebuilding as the Sunni Triangle's first safe haven from insurgency and terrorism? Now, it's a danger zone again and still significantly in rubble. In these same weeks, the use of white phosphorus, a fierce burning agent, back in November 2004 to force rebels in Fallujah out of their defenses suddenly became a global news story and a scandal (though its use was actually known at the time); the Europeans began demanding explanations from the Bush administration for the kidnapping, transport, and secret imprisonment of suspected terrorists on their territory; a torture chamber/detention center run by the Interior Ministry but connected to the militia of the leading Shiite religious party in the Iraqi government was uncovered by American troops; it was evidently part of a long known-about "ghost network" of such centers linked to government and party-sponsored (and possibly U.S. backed or trained) death squads intent on intimidating or cleansing the Sunni neighborhoods of Iraq's cities. Ever more American war planes were reportedly taking to Iraqi skies and more American bombs falling on Iraq's towns and cities. Saddam reappeared in court, his hair dyed black, complaining and carrying a Koran like the good religious man he surely isn't; and it was revealed that, in the process of bringing freedom to Iraqis, a Pentagon-hired "business intelligence" firm had done its darnedest to turn a burgeoning Iraqi free press into a paid-for press. This was done in the struggle to conquer what is known in the trade as Iraq's "information battlespace." Not only that, but the story took us a full, ridiculous spin of the dial back to the earliest moments of our conquest of Iraq. At that time, administration officials arrived in Baghdad so filled with hubris that it didn't occur to them to bring along anyone who knew anything about Iraq, no less actual translators. In the case of our newspaper caper, clearly a psyops-for-dummies operation, some of the paid-for stories were written by American servicemen and then translated into Arabic. These must have been truly convincing accounts! (Imagine the opposite: Iraqi soldiers in camps in the U.S. hired to write articles translated into English to help win the war for American "information battlespace.") And believe me, that's only a bit of the week or two that was.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/print/41214/Tomgram%253A%2520%2520Michael%2520Schwartz%252C%2520Ten%2520Ways%2520to%2520Argue%2520about%2520the%2520War

[shadowknows69]

10. It was planned ethnic cleansing. They weren't letting men leave voluntarily

IIRC any male of "fighting" age weren't allowed to leave and then it was pretty much shoot first and ask questions later after that.

[madfloridian]

11. The letter from the people of Fallujah to the UN was heartbreaking.

They were asking the UN to intervene to keep our country from killing civilians.

Why aren't people outraged more about this?

[madfloridian]

12. Dahr Jamail: 'Victory' in Falluja: City still in ruins nearly five years since siege"

City still in ruins nearly five years since siege


FALLUJAh, Iraq — Driving through Fallujah, once the most rebellious Sunni city in this country, I saw little evidence of any kind of reconstruction underway. At least 70% of that city's structures were destroyed during massive U.S. military assaults in April, and again in November 2004, and more than four years later, in the "new Iraq," the city continues to languish.

The shells of buildings pulverized by U.S. bombs, artillery, or mortar fire back then still line Fallujah's main street, or rather, what's left of it. As one of the few visible signs of reconstruction in the city, that street — largely destroyed during the November 2004 siege — is slowly being torn up in order to be repaved.

Unemployment is rampant here, the infrastructure remains largely in ruins, and tens of thousands of residents who fled in 2004 are still refugees. How could it be otherwise, given the amount of effort that went into its destruction and not, subsequently, into rebuilding it? It's a place where a resident must still carry around a U.S.-issued personal biometric ID card, which must also be shown any time you enter or exit the city if you are local. Such a card can only be obtained after U.S. military personnel have scanned your retinas and taken your fingerprints.

The trauma from the 2004 attacks remains visible everywhere. Given the countless still-bullet-pocked walls of restaurants, stores, and homes, it is impossible to view the city from any vantage point, or look in any direction, without observing signs of those sieges. Everything in Fallujah, and everyone there, has been touched to the core by the experience, but not everyone is experiencing the aftermath of the city's devastation in the same way. In fact, for much of my "tour" of Fallajah, I was inside a heavily armored, custom-built, $420,000 BMW with all the accessories needed in twenty-first century Iraq, including a liquor compartment and bulletproof windows.

..."Outside the gates of Sheik Aifan's well-guarded compound, generators hummed in the night providing electricity in a land where, if you can't pay for a generator of your own or share one with your neighbor, you are in trouble. In Fallujah, like Baghdad, four hours of electricity delivered from the national grid is considered a good day. Generally, a self-imposed curfew kept the streets relatively traffic free after total darkness settled in.

[madfloridian]

21. The picture of Fallujah appears to be a recent one.

"In fact, for much of my "tour" of Fallajah, I was inside a heavily armored, custom-built, $420,000 BMW with all the accessories needed in twenty-first century Iraq, including a liquor compartment and bulletproof windows."

[BeFree]

14. Bush is rich and walking free

Bush ordered the attack. He knew what he was doing. It is his fault.

Bush had just stolen the 2004 election and to put icing on the cake he blew away Falluja.

If any should be tried for this crime, it is the Bush we must convict.

[madfloridian]

15. There are shades of Vietnam here, those who gave the orders

never paid a price.

[Mira]

16. During that time I screamed every day. That is when the horror of what we were

doing sank in for me. I still can't bear to think about it. They must pay. Those were war crimes, inhumanity to man, I can't stand to think I was alive and aware when this went down and there was nothing I could do but scream to an audience that neither listened or believed.
:kick:

[madfloridian]

17. Unfortunately most would rather forget about it.

I was horrified at the bombs falling and the shock and awe in 2003. Fallujah sickened me more.

[SwiperFox]

18. I AM MAD AS HELL!

Where are the democrats on this? What is Obama's stance?

At the G20 he reinforced his SICK position. "Looking for those who are to blame is history. We must move forward; we are all responsible." -Obama

Like HELL! I am NOT responsible for the economy or the genocides! Are you?



Leahy Bails on 'Truth Commission' Plan:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3811082

[JTFrog]

19. Golly you're agenda here keeps getting clearer and clearer.

You're slip is showing.

[SwiperFox]

24. Republicrat stalking me LOL

Take a break from following posters and stick to the op. Personal attacks are a republican staple, right? Dems and Repubs, fusion of parties achieved alright.

[JTFrog]

25. Take a break from slamming the democratic party on a democratic site. n/t

[SwiperFox]

26. even sadder...

Tell the truth, how do you profit from silencing people? Turn off CNN and Fox News. Think for yourself.

[JTFrog]

27. I don't profit from anything. I have no money and make no money.

Site policy. Trolls against the democratic party usually get uncovered and removed. But since you've been a "lurker" for so long, I'm sure you realize this.

[0xDEADBEEF]

20. Breaker Morant / Scapegoats of the Empire

This trial is startlingly similar to the Boer War http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaker_Morant_-_court_martial>court-martial of Breaker Morant.

"It's a new kind of war, George. A new war for a new century. I suppose this is the first time the enemy hasn't been in uniform. They're farmers. They come from small villages, and they shoot at from behind walls and from farmhouses. Some of them are women, some of them are children, and some of them... are missionaries, George."