The occupation of Iraq – the car bombings, failed infrastructure and war crimes – is not all the corporate media make it out to be, Dahr Jamail said. It’s worse, according to Jamail, the unembedded journalist who spoke at the University on Thursday.
Recalling his firsthand accounts of torture, murder and bombings by the U.S. military, Jamail told about 100 students and community members that the corporate media have betrayed the public by not reporting the realities of the Iraq war. Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh, among others, should be tried for “aiding and abetting” war crimes by propagating the war, he said.
Jamail said most of the population is engaged in “willful ignorance” but said it’s vital that people continue to work toward an end to the occupation. He said it took eight years to end the war in Vietnam after major demonstrations began. Jamail said the president’s historically low approval ratings – 29 percent to 31 percent depending on the source – show that people desire change.
Jamail spent nearly an hour telling stories about his interviews with U.S. soldiers, Iraqi citizens and doctors. The information his sources shared with him includes the following:
? More than 50 percent of Iraqis are unemployed.
? Of all the Iraqis who enter hospitals, 80 percent leave with an infectious disease because of a lack of adequate supplies.
? The Pentagon is permitting the use of a chemical in bombs that, similar to napalm, burns flesh to the bone and chars bodies. The U.S. government has admitted to using white phosphorous, also known as “Whiskey Pete.”
? U.S. soldiers are shooting Iraqis outside of houses and hospitals and have declared entire cities, including Fallujah, population 350,000, free fire zones, where there are no laws against opening fire.
The breaches of the Geneva Convention are rampant, he said, but the military uses illegal weapons, fires on civilians and starves out entire cities by withholding food, water and electricity and the media continue to ignore it.
Jamail criticized NBC Meet the Press moderator Tim Russert for not questioning Gen. Peter Pace when he commented on the conditions in Iraq.
“I’d certainly say they’re going well,” Pace said on the show. “I wouldn’t put a great big smiley face on it, but I would say they’re going very, very well.”