FALLUJAH - 2007 : AnaksiHamid remembering a previous vicious war on and in the Middle East

 I was clearing a stack of old articles and drafts of our writing about a month ago ......

Seen in the square is just about a quarter of the total accumulation.

.........  when I picked up "Iraq Uncovered" in the New Statesmen of 5 November 2007.  One of us must have set it aside for further reading and reference.  We subscribed to the NS for a couple of years but stopped when we had to spend more and more time in Kuala Lumpur after 2007.

I leafed through it and with so much wall-to-wall coverage of the Russo-Ukraine War in the print and electronic media, I thought it might be interesting to compare the way the media, and the world for that matter treat another bloody war, but this time in the heartland of Europe - the land of blondes and  blue-eyes - after a series of wars against the darker-skinned "towel-heads ", and extremists, fanatics and jihadists of the Middle East.

This article covers the war in Fallujah, after Saddam Hussein had been defeated.

The names given to these wars in the Middle East - wars between Whisky Charlie Whisky or White Christian West and Delta Mike Tango or Dark Muslim Terrorists (I am resorting to the NATO Phonetic Alphabet, see key at end of posting )  never fail to amuse me.  Names such as Operation Phantom Fury and Operation Vigilant Resolve  sound  like a crusading and evangelistic clarion call - the stuff of Gothic comics and books!  But I digress.

The copy of the article in the New Statesmen (5 November 2007) was :

The Report consisted of a series of photographs and captions by Ashley Gilbertson,  an article by Dahr Jamail and another by Brian Cathcart.

 

See : http://www.ashleygilbertson.com/whiskey-tango-foxtrot

See : https://www.newstatesman.com/author/brian-cathcart

Here's an overview of pages 29 - 36 of the NS Report.

Page 29 - 30

Page 31 - 32

Page 33 - 34

Page 35 - 36

Let's take a closer look

1. What did you do in the War, Daddy?

      

This was a campaign during the First World War to emotionally blackmail men into conscription for the War which had been described as a war where lions were led by donkeys.

This meme was used in  the 1966 comedy "Daddy, what did you do in the war?". Often it serves as a ploy to make fun of men who can't  refrain from  recalling and sometimes re-inventing their war experiences to their sometimes bored and long-suffering audience.

But, I cannot resist this either; using this same caption to American, British and their Allies' participation in the war in Fallujah, as revealed in these photos by Ashley Gilbertson.

What did you do in the war, Daddy/Mummy?  By the way, how do you say 'suntan' in Polish?  (Above photo and caption by Ashley Gilbertson)

What did you do in the war, Daddy?  I watched a recruitment campaign for the Klu Klux Klan.  Now buzz off and practise your hangman's knot.  (Above photo and caption by Ashley Gilbertson)

What did you do in the war, Daddy?  I'm trying to get him to say, "Please don't kill me" with sugar on it.  Daddy, what is Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot?  Go and practise your shooting with grand-dad!  (Above photo and caption by Ashley Gilbertson)

What did you do in the war, Daddy?  I was teaching TEFL or Teaching English as a Foreign Language.  By the way how are you getting on in your Spanish class?   (Above photo and caption by Ashley Gilbertson)

2.  Cultural Exchange between the United States of America and Iraq, post Saddam Hussein.

Welcome to Iraq, Yankee Brother!  (Above photo and caption by Ashley Gilbertson)

The Disneyfication and Anglification/Winnification/Poohification of Ramadan.   When will we imitate this for Ramadan in Malaysia?  As it is we are already going crackers over Firecrackers and fired up by Fireworks during Ramadan and Hari Raya!!!  (Above photo and caption by Ashley Gilbertson)

The above photographs are from Whiskey Tango Foxtrot : a Photographer's Chronicle of the Iraq War published by the University of Chicago Press.

3. What I saw in Fallujah by Dahr Jamail, a journalist not embedded with the US Army.

Read https://www.newstatesman.com/long-reads/2007/11/iraq-fallujah-city-military

Here's the last page of Dahr Jamail's Report. 

 

Here's a quote by Dahr Jamail

"The story of the many oppressed peoples of the world is rarely recorded by the few who oppress.  We are taught that the truth is objective fact as written down by conquerors " -Dahr Jamail.

Has the standard of journalism and the nature of the truth changed at all?    Fast forward from 2007 to the reports on the Ukraine war of 2022.

Speaking as a non-white and a Muslim, I ask myself:  "If the media coverage of Ukraine is how White/Christian Culture deal with their Tribal/Ideological Wars, what hope is there for us "Others" to expect a fair deal?     And anyway, let's be realistic, why should they report any differently? "

Let's just remember:

There are many victims of war.  But some get a better script. 

But here's a powerful film,  "Fallujah, The Hidden Massacre" by Sigfrido Ranucci qnd Maurizio Torrealta (8 November 2005) .

See : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgSmsMIUZ60

This video is age-restricted.  You must sign in to confirm your age. No, you do not have to submit your birth certificate - just an email address and BOOM they get all your details.  The world is indeed getting smaller - in more (unacceptable) ways than one - despite Louis Armstrong's " What a wonderful world".

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Appendix : The NATO Phonetic Alphabet

Whiskey Charlie Whiskey = White Christian West.  (AsH's version)

Delta Mike Tango = Dark Muslim Terrorists.  (AsH's version)

You can have a great time devising your own secret language.

As for Whiskey Tango Foxtrot : here is the original (military) meaning.

The above image is taken from - https://www.acronymfinder.com/Military-and-Government/WTF.html

But ....... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot  can also mean different things to different people!

But old ladies like me cannot divulge any of them.😈 

The young will have to do their own homework.😁

Babies and Missiles - America's Trump Ca(r)d.

A few days ago we witnessed the might and triumph of the magnificent American Avenger - that of the 45th President of the USA Donald Trump.

President Donald Trump then unilaterally attacked Syria with 59 Tomahawk Missiles - effectively dismantling 20% of Syria's airforce - a very "emotional" response by a caring father and grandfather who by the way does not care two hoots about the plight of the fellow citizens of these victims of chemical warfare in Khan Sheikhoun.  After all he  has endorsed a blanket ban on immigration from Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Sudan, and Iran.   They are all Muslim majority countries and have been and still are victims of American imperialism - especially the first four.

From Alison Weir

Will the UN and global media ever forget this drama at the UN on 5 April, performed by the American Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley?

May my 'umble self suggest more images for the Ambassador to parade?  They are all victims of American and Allied bombings, missile strikes and drone attacks - no grief or crocodile tears for them, no hand-wringing cry of "babies, innocent and beautiful babies."



1.

Remember Operation Shock and Awe in Iraq?

2.  When two American mothers Nikki Haley  and Samantha Power (Samantha Power was Obama's American Ambassador to the UN) stood up in the UN to challenge the 'absence of shame' and the inhumanity of Assad,  we should not forget another American "hand that rocks the cradle" - Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright, President Clinton's US Secretary of State from 1997-2001.

A financial and trade embargo was imposed on Iraq by the UN Security Council (at the behest of USA and her Allies)
to force Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait.  It lasted from 1990 to 2003.  The 2nd Gulf War, Operation Shock and Awe was carried out in 2003.

3.  And now, we have this scenario after the 59 Tomahawk (why do they use words from the Native American vocabulary, why not words like 'chainsaw' or 'Lincoln Continental' ?)  missiles that fell on Syria.

Besides the two swooners above there's the applause from a certain "foreign country" - which itself is responsible for the massacre of countless babies, and which somehow does not get tears or outcry or retribution from the likes of  Donald, Nikki, Theresa and their predecessors.

Three of the four Bakr boys killed by Israel on the Gaza beach in 2014, fleeing for their lives. (From Mondoweiss)

These are just little drops of  dead, innocent Palestinian babies in a huge ocean of  'collateral damage'.   After the last major cleanup of Gaza, groups like Save the Children could not digest the atrocities much more and they came out with this conscience-tickler,  a tad touching but not drastic enough to be accused of anti-Semitism.

What can we expect after this trumped-up farce?  For them Assad will have to go the way of Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi.  Look forward to another cliff-hanger and a pent-up bloodlust scenario in the White House as seen in the "Let's get rid of that SOB Osama"  movie clip.

Obama and Clinton have had their satisfaction - next will be Nikki Haley and Donald Trump.

CRY BABIES CRY !!!!

Hallelujah!!!!

The Mantle of Victimhood

This is going to be a long read - to last until 2016

Aren't humans ever so clever?  In this 21st century, we have made boundless progress in technology which, for instance, enables me to do what I'm doing now.  We can communicate ideas, emotions, thoughts, knowledge, insults, hatred, bigotry, hypocrisy, self-righteousness and ignorance simply by tapping on a keyboard or switching on to gadgets like TV and smartphones.  However this can become too overwhelming for a geriatric dinosaur like me.

It's coming to the end of 2015.  Here in the cold of Leicester, escaping the heat (political and religious) of my Motherland, I'm so glad to be in my 70s and not living my twenty or thirty something years.  I was talking to a young employee of HSBC in Leicester just last week.  A graduate, he considered himself lucky to have his present job even though the salary was pittance.  It was so low that he was not even 'eligible'  for paying back his study loan.  (You have to earn at least  GBP22,000 per annum before the debt-collector knocks on your door.)

I 'take off my hat' to those Malaysian  graduates who have ignored or reneged on paying back their study loans even though they're living and working in well paid cushy occupations.  What cheek!  ("Apa aku peduli!  After all the politicians are raking in duit haram."  What a pathetic, self-serving excuse!)

I was once told how the Chinese have to pay up all their debts before the advent of Chinese New Year otherwise it will bring sway or bad luck for the following year.  As for Malay-Muslims they are very strict and punctilious about paying up their Zakat and Fitrah - if only they could apply that  principle and stricture to settling their debts and other pecuniary responsibilities before Hari Raya Puasa!!

However for most parts of the world they are in line for a lot more sway coming their way and certainly Malaysia will not be spared.  But this has nothing to do with luck or superstition - it's simply greed, perfidy and more greed.

This being the day after Christmas, we get this extract from the Archbishop of Canterbury's Christmas message.

Read the full text  : http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/dec/25/christians-isis-middle-east-archbishop-justin-welby

This fear of Isis and Islamic extremism and distress for the fate of Christians and Christianity (which has also recently echoed in Malaysia) have been bandied about for the last few years by Christian leaders, politicians and has even touched the heartstrings of HRH Prince Charles.

Read : http://anaksihamid.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/prince-charles-prince-among-some-men.html

Apocalyptic suggestions like 'extinction',  'extermination' have been referred to by Christian pressure groups like the Catholic Charity Aid to the Church in Need.

Academics like Rupert Shortt write about 'Christianophobia' and he states that ''Exposing and combating the problem ought in my view to be political priorities across large areas of the world."

Read this : http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/11/05/christianity-could-be-completely-erased-from-middle-east-in-less-than-decade.html

.. and this : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9762745/Christianity-close-to-extinction-in-Middle-East.html


On the other hand in Angola  .......

Is this a church?  Is this a temple?  No, this was a mosque -  demolished by the Government of Angola in 2013

Claiming that Islam was a sect, the African nation of Angola becomes the first country to ban Islam, Muslims and has shut down the mosques in the country.

Concerning the ban, Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos said Sunday : "this is the final end of Islamic influence in our country."

The above extract is taken from World Bulletin 3 September 2015.

And just for your information :

 
In addition, Angola is also a a rich hunting ground for Christian Evangelists.  For example,

Such Christian enterprise in Angola and in many other countries and cultures of the planet should at least help reassure those Christianists suffering from "Christianophobia".


                                                             ***********************

Let's flip the coin and consider this:

Firstly, included in the Archbishop's message was another by Britain's chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis

Chief Rabbi Mirvis somehow is quite incapable of seeing the elephant residing in his room.  That elephant is the Judaic-Zionist-Israeli occupation and tyranny in Palestine.  But then, the Christians, the secularists, the agnostics, the atheists, and the neo liberals are also culpable in that very selective oversight and blindness!

Secondly,  here is the gist of this article from Christian News on Christian Today 21 December 2015  by Jeremy Moodey .
Read : http://www.christiantoday.com/article/should.we.really.be.worrying.about.middle.east.christianity/74281.htm

This article outlines five facts to refute all that "doom and gloom".

No 1: It is an exaggeration to say that Middle East Christians face extinction.

No 2: Many more non-Christians than Christians face persecution in the Middle East.

No 3: There is nothing inevitable about Christian flight from the Middle East.

No 4: Islamic extremism is not the only threat to the Christian presence.  I'm quoting this for the benefit of the many ostriches with their heads buried in the sand.

....in historic Palestine, where Christians accounted for over 20 percent of the population in 1948 but now total less than two percent.  But this decline has had very little to do with Islamism.  Three years ago a CBS News report noted that the main reason for the decline was actually the political and economic hardship caused by 45 years of Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank.  Israel was so incensed that the Israeli Ambassador in Washington tried to have the show pulled from the airwaves.  Even in Gaza, controlled by Hamas, Palestinian Christians emigration is driven more by the trauma of Israel's eight-year blockade and regular bombardments than by Islamist government.


No 5: Middle East Christians themselves do not want favourable treatment.

Thirdly,  Timothy Seidel's article on "Christianity in Palestine : Misrepresentation and Dispossession".

Read:
https://electronicintifada.net/content/christianity-palestine-misrepresentation-and-dispossession/6280

Here's an extract :

Fourthly, pick and mix your victims.

I've loved  and lived with cats for as long as I can remember.  Whenever they are caught  doing something wrong or stupid (like breaking a plate trying to pinch an extra dinner, or tripping over a shoe, or failing to make a successful jump from the fence) they very quickly recover their dignity by licking themselves and pretending their innocence.     And so for humans too.

Often, in terms of strategy, the best form of defence is not to protest but to attack.  But when one has been responsible for so many wars - the War on Terror, wars for regime change, wars for democracy and human rights (all conducted, implicitly or explicitly, with the blessings of the Religious Establishment) - then it's time to conjure a distraction and a makeover of the Judaeo-Christian image.  Instead of being regarded as the perpetrators .........

Our glorious dead??  Will these (mainly) Muslim children be remembered on Poppy Day?

Squaring the Dead in Afghanistan - 2014

.......  why not turn the fox in the henhouse into a martyr.  Why not convert the guilty into victims?

Let us put on the Mantle of Victimhood.

Do enjoy this video clip from two of my favourite comedians - Harry Enfield and Kathy Burke.  You might be able to note the similarity with the strategy of the New Victims - with the grown-up Harrys of the world.

Fifthly, here's a picture gallery of some truths that have to be acknowledged.

.
1.

Just one query.  Why 'nonjihadist extremists'?  Why not 'White/Rightwing/Christian extremists'?

2.

3.  A Christmas greeting from a Muslim daughter, Kari Ansari.  (The Huffington Post - Dec 25, 2011)

4.  A bridge builder

5.

The Crusades and the decimation of Christianity in the Middle East

6.

Spreading Christianity then

7.

Spreading Christianity today in Muslim Malaysia ..........

8.

..... where there is so much intolerance of Christmas? ?? !!

9.  And, as for Donald Trump, the future(?) President of the USA, he is only articulating what has always been a covert attitude and practice towards Muslims and Islam in this WASP superpower. The reaction of the West is similar to that of the toddler Harry sans the pee in the pants.


Finally, as a septuagenarian Muslim with one foot in the grave, so to speak, I take heart from the Islam that is mentioned in Islamic Relief's global strategy, whose "values and teachings are provided by the revelations contained within the Quran and Prophetic example.  They are ikhlas (sincerity),  Ihsan (excellence),  Rahma (compassion), Adl (social justice), and Amana (custodianship)".


                           
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Here's  Vivaldi's piece to  remind me of the Winter of my Disaffection.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

                                                                                                                                                                                        

                                                .