Jag brukar då och då läsa George Monbiots krönikor i the Guardian. Monbiot skrev den intressanta och utmanande utopistiska stridsskriften The Age of Consent och har ofta ett uppfriskande perspektiv på världshändelserna från ett gräsrotsperspektiv. George har sett ken Loachs nya film ”The Wind that Shakes the Barley”, som handlar om det Irländska väpnade uppror som slutade med självständighet från britterna 1921, och knyter ihop den nationalistiskt färgade kritiken mot filmen till massakern i Haditha som jag skrev om tidigare i dag..
Does it matter what people say about a conflict that took place 85 years ago? It does. For the same one-sided story is being told about the occupation of Iraq. The execution of 24 civilians in Haditha allegedly carried out by US marines in November is being discussed as a disgraceful anomaly: the work of a few ”bad apples” or ”rogue elements”. Donald Rumsfeld claims ”we know that 99.9% of our forces conduct themselves in an exemplary manner”, and most of the press seems to agree. But if it chose to look, it would find evidence of scores of such massacres.
In March Jody Casey, a US veteran of the war in Iraq, told Newsnight that when insurgents have let off a bomb, ”you just zap any farmer that is close to you … when we first got down there, you could basically kill whoever you wanted, it was that easy”. On Sunday another veteran told the Observer that cold-blooded killings by US forces ”are widespread. This is the norm. These are not the exceptions.” There is powerful evidence to suggest that US soldiers tied up and executed 11 people – again including small children – in Ishaqi in March. Iraqi officers say that US troops executed two women and a mentally handicapped man in a house in Samarra last month. In 2004, US forces are alleged to have bombed a wedding party at Makr al-Deeb and then shot the survivors, killing 42 people. No one has any idea what happened in Falluja, as the destruction of the city and its remaining inhabitants was so thorough.
Läsning: The Age of Consent av George Monbiot ISBN: 9780007150434
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