More on Robert Fisk
Hey,
More Robert Fisk video footage can be found by clicking on the title of this blog entry.
Some thoughts on Robert Fisk's talk:
The man holds a remarkable amount of history and information about the middle east in his head. When the US or UK government attempt to hoodwink their citizens into condoning war in Iraq, they often do this on spurious grounds. This does not get past Fisk because of his immense knowledge of the area; unfortunately this does not hold true for most people.
I wonder how many people know that invading Iraq has been a favourite pastime of the West since the time of the crusades? Or that many of today's problems in the Middle East are due to way this area was carved up after the First and Second World Wars?
Fisk brought up two interesting analogies. The first came from Colin Powell's, now infamous, speech about weapons of mass destruction to the UN Security Council. What the cameras didn't show was the graphic behind Powell, an image of an Iraqi making chemical weapons in a train.
Fisk argues the Iraqi rail system is so shonky, as a result of economic sanctions, and trains are so liable to come off the tracks, that the last place anyone would make volatile chemical weapons is on a train.
He asked the US authorities, who had control of the rail system, whether they found any weapons of mass destruction.
"No," they replied, but they thought that prior to invasion the chemical weapons had been rushed over the border to Syria or Jordan (memory fails me here).
It took Fisk to point out that there was no train line from Iraq to Syria or Jordan.
Again, knowledge that the average person does not have and will not know if the mainstream media continues to be lazy in reporting this conflict.
The second analogy that interested me was a comparison between ancient crusader castles and US army bases.
Apparently, Crusader castles were built one days march from each other so that the crusaders were not left exposed to attacks from Arab assassins.
American military bases are spaced exactly one hours cherokee ride from each other so they can avoid being attacked by suicide bombers.
The comparison is chilling; especially when you take a look at a photo of the US's imposing Baghdad embassy.
Not too disimilar to an imposing castle?
I wonder how much contact the US army gets with the Iraqi citizens sitting in this monolith.
Facts about this embassy are available at:
Apply for a job in Baghdad at the US embassy here:
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment