« Shohei Imamura (1926-2006) | Main | no me-ta »
Haditha Friedman
Lest it need be said, Haditha is not an abberation. Only let's remember too, the folks who helped–and were paid handsomely–to put us there. If one only ever reads five things about Thomas Friedman, hack, let four of them be these.
Update: Crooked Timber has taken the "hackery" meme and run so, you could also go there (after clicking the links below, of course!).
Tom Friedman
Tom Friedman
Tom Friedman
Tom Friedman
This bout of profoundly transformative netroots activism brought on by experiences mentioned elsewhere. Or maybe it was learning of Iraq's My Lai (see Murtha one and two; and here's something even more honest). Or was it Afghanistan's My Lai.
Whatever that means. (We cite it precisely because we don't yet know.) One thing we do know: a lot of people once quit the military because of (perceived) anti-soldier sentiment. They went on to live longer, more complicated lives.
By Matt | May 31, 2006 in Current Affairs, Fashionable Nonesense, Intellects, Narrow and Cold and Resenting, Neoliberalism, Picayune | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/361357/4998491
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Haditha Friedman:
Comments
While we watch the circus over Haditha, let's remember that this tale of atrocities has been going on for some time. While the military wanted to cover this story up, Time magazine shoved the proof in their face, so the military had to investigate.
Who will, however, investigate the atrocities at Basra and Falluja, as well as those others documented by Dahr Jamaill:
Arun Gupta, an investigative journalist and editor with the New York Indypendent newspaper of the New York Independent Media Center, has written extensively about US-backed militias and death squads in Iraq. He is also the former editor at the Guardian weekly in New York and writes frequently for Z Magazine and Left Turn."The fact is, while I think the militias have, to a degree, spiraled out of US control, it's the US who trains, arms, funds, and supplies all the police and military forces, and gives them critical logistical support," he told me this week. "For instance, there were reports at the beginning of the year that a US army unit caught a "death squad" operating inside the Iraqi Highway Patrol. There were the usual claims that the US has nothing to do with them. It's all a big lie. The American reporters are lazy. If they did just a little digging, there is loads of material out there showing how the US set up the highway patrol, established a special training academy just for them, equipped them, armed them, built all their bases, etc. It's all in government documents, so it's irrefutable. But then they tell the media we have nothing to do with them and they don't even fact check it. In any case, I think the story is significant only insofar as it shows how the US tries to cover up its involvement."
Posted by: cynic librarian | May 31, 2006 6:46:55 PM
Right, fallujah, fallujah and so on.
Posted by: Matt | May 31, 2006 11:13:22 PM
highly recommended on war, photography (via s lot)
Posted by: | Jun 2, 2006 12:56:32 PM
and then (already old news) this
Posted by: Matt | Jun 2, 2006 11:52:39 PM
Posted by: | Jun 4, 2006 5:36:00 PM
Post a comment
Please note: comments are published at the discretion of the post's author and will not appear immediately. Do not submit comments more than once.
