Dissident Voice, Kim Peterson, 4 June 2008

In American Wars: Illusions & Realities, editor Paul Buchheit exposes the disinformation and propaganda of US warmongers and replaces it with the reality. The book begins with two photos that vividly illustrate this illusion and reality. The one propagandizing photo shows a occupation soldier, apparently, caring for a child with the caption: “She’s glad he’s there. Are you?”

The Daily Kos website criticized graphic artist Linda Eddy for her manipulation of a photo taken by Reuters photographer Damir Sagolj. The “she,” in fact, was a he who was “decidedly un-glad about what had just happened.”

Sagolj made this clear in an interview to the Slovenian magazine Mladina:

This photograph of the child was taken out of context and published on the covers and front pages of American national and local media, as if to say, see how our soldier tenderly holds an Iraqi child in his arms. I got a phone call from People, the largest American magazine, with a circulation of 22 million. They wanted to know whether this American soldier had any children of his own, what he was feeling at the time, and so on. They weren’t interested in what had happened to the child in the picture, whose mother had been killed and whose father had been riddled with bullets by Americansoldiers [sic].

The other photo captures starkly the horror and carnage of war. Unfortunately, Bucheit left the victims nameless.

The Eyeballing the Iraq Kill and Maim website informs its readership:

9-year-old Ibtihal Jassem is rescued by her uncle Jaber Jouda, in Basra, Iraq, in this photo dated Saturday March 22, 2003, after the bombing of the Mshan neighbourhood by coalition warplanes. Born deaf and mute, Jassem not only lost her right leg in the U.S. bombing of Basra two days after the war in Iraq began, but also all seven members of her family…

Iraq is only the latest in a series of United States aggressions, of which Buchheit provides a historical overview. He describes the US role as a merchant of death and identifies the motivation for fighting wars as profit.

The US history of serial aggressions led Buchheit to ponder the notion of the American public’s culpability for the warring: “Other nations can’t understand why we, as determined advocates of democracy, don’t rein in our government, and they suspect that we either support the combative behavior of our leaders or that we simply don’t care.”

Human rights activist Judi Nitsch writes on the skewed media presentation toward pro-war views and on the police state-like crackdowns on dissent. President George W. Bush, obviously, has not heeded the words of former president John F. Kennedy: “Those who make peaceful change impossible make violent revolution inevitable.”

Joshua Holland and Raed Jarrar point out that the Iraqi resistance has made many proposals for a comprehensive peace, all rejected by the US occupiers — something unknown to most people reliant on the corporate press.

Anup Shah contends, however, that the corporate media is not the problem, rather it is the concentration of media ownership that marginalizes socio-political views outside the ownership’s interests. Even though the responsible regulatory agency, the Federal Communications Commission, realizes this, the FCC does not admit it, writes Shah.

Another problem he describes is the commercial-military influence over the media. The result, according to Shah, is spin, propaganda, and disinformation.

Maureen Dolan writes that war is not inevitable (Buchheit concurs, noting that war is not intrinsic to all humans), and it impacts negatively on society in economic, cultural, environmental, social, political and spiritual spheres.

Jesu Estrada charges that militarism widens the wealth gap between the haves and have-nots.

Tod Ensign encapsulates the disregard shown veteran soldiers by US administrations — something expanded upon by Rick Anderson in Home Front: The Government’s War on Soldiers. (see review)

Sherwood Ross examines a toxic legacy where growing evidence implicates depleted uranium as the culprit.

Ghada Talhani, professor of Middle East politics, looks at the US-Israeli oppression of Palestinians and argues for the right to resist. Talhani also makes the argument that distinguishes acts of terrorism from the legitimate struggle of a resistance movement.

Biased as the coverage is, violence in Israel, Palestine, and Iraq do receive media attention. Conversely, the western corporate involvement in the genociding of Congolese is less known. Maurice Carney writes, “Congo is the quintessential example on the African continent of how conflict is used to benefit a coterie of elites within and outside the country.” Plus ca change, plus ce la meme chose. Little has changed since Joseph Conrad penned Heart of Darkness and An Outpost of Progress.

Vietnam Veterans Against War activist member Ann Meyers looks at military recruitment practices and promises. She says only 10 percent of enlistees sought out enlistment themselves. She cautions that there are many pitfalls and a potential enlistee should think hard before entering the military.

In the book’s final essay, historian Howard Zinn urges people to show appropriate skepticism toward authorities.

If the fog of war were lifted, if people really knew what war is about, the warmongers — it could be reasoned — would lose much support to the anti-war movement. War is not in the people’s interest. People need to inform themselves. American Wars features essays from 20 contributors that cut through the disinformation surrounding war.

American Wars: Illusions & Realities
Edited by Paul Buchheit
Paperback: 192 pages
(Published by Clarity Press, 2008)
ISBN: 978-0-932863-56-0