Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

First casualty of war

Margaret Kimberley | 13.05.2011 21:46 | Analysis | Anti-militarism | Other Press | Sheffield | World

The past month has been a difficult one for anyone who wants to be at all knowledgeable about our world. First it was necessary to avoid the endless and endlessly useless reporting of the British royal wedding. No sooner had that media monstrosity ended when we were told that the United States government had succeeded in killing Osama bin Laden. The orgy of hatred and rancid triumphalism was immediate and a sickening sight to behold. Crowds of rabid Americans descended upon “ground zero” the world trade center site, to wave flags and chant as if they were the winning football team.

Metro, 3 May 2011
Metro, 3 May 2011


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Editorial note:

All that is certain, is that you should never believe anything the U.S. government tells you –and certainly not the second and third versions of the event. The depths of official U.S. duplicity (triplicity?) are so staggering, they may never be plumbed. “We do know that people were assassinated in a planned execution and there was never any intent of putting them on trial as civilized nations usually do.”

______________________________


First casualty of war

by Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report, 5 May 2011


“Now that bin Laden is dead we have the American passion for bloodlust on full display.”

The past month has been a difficult one for anyone who wants to be at all knowledgeable about our world. First it was necessary to avoid the endless and endlessly useless reporting of the British royal wedding. No sooner had that media monstrosity ended when we were told that the United States government had succeeded in killing Osama bin Laden. The orgy of hatred and rancid triumphalism was immediate and a sickening sight to behold. Crowds of rabid Americans descended upon “ground zero” the world trade center site, to wave flags and chant as if they were the winning football team.

While the savagery was on full display, so were the lies. The version of events kept changing as the week went on. First we were told that bin Laden resisted and was shot as a result of that resistance. Then he was using a woman as a shield. Both claims were then refuted. First, his safe house was worth $1 million dollars and he was “living high on the hog.” Now it turns out that the home was worth approximately $250,000 and was shabby and dirty, a bit like a home on a reality show about hoarders.

Mansion or hoarded home? Fighter or hiding behind his wife’s skirt? We will never know. We do know that all the inhabitants of the house were not captured. It turns out that because a navy SEAL helicopter broke down it prevented the commandos from capturing bin Laden’s wife and daughter and other occupants. The Pakistanis have them in protective custody and so far refuse to allow the Americans to interrogate them.

“The version of events kept changing as the week went on.”

We don’t know what is true. We don’t know if the president and his team, as first reported, watched the entire attack in real time, or if what CIA director Leon Panetta now says is true. “I can tell you that there was a time period of almost 20 or 25 minutes that we really didn't know just exactly what was going on.” We do know that people were assassinated in a planned execution and there was never any intent of putting them on trial as civilized nations usually do.

The killing has exposed the dark underbelly of American society. The outside group, in this case Muslims, are supposed to disassociate themselves from their members, proclaiming loudly that they are glad bin Laden is dead and they can prove their loyalty. Of course, Christians and Jews don’t have to proclaim denunciation of the occupation of Iraq or Afghanistan or Libya which were planned by their co-religionists.

This ugliness has been put on hold for the last ten years. Bin Laden was a specter used to justify unspeakable acts but he was still just a specter. Now that he is dead we have the American passion for bloodlust on full display.

Having succeeded where Bush failed, Obama strutted his way into New York City, meeting firefighters and other deified first responders making the case for more death. The corporate media keep up their dirty work with bizarre and ludicrous portrayals of the SEAL team. Newsweek calls them “the coolest guys in the world” who are the “America’s quietest killers.” The New York Times calls them “elite of the elite” and “all-stars.”

“Bin Laden was a specter used to justify unspeakable acts but he was still just a specter.”

There is no longer any pretense of a civilized nation run by civilian authority.

We were treated to an ordinary photo of the president and his staff but it was immediately dubbed “iconic.” Hillary Clinton felt compelled to claim that allergies caused her to show some emotion upon seeing the video or photos or whatever it is she actually saw. Her decision to tell a strange tale was unnecessary and a reminder of why she, a bad liar unlike Obama, is secretary of state and not president.

So now we have years of the Obama the conqueror theme to watch and hopefully not be nauseated by. The disarray of the Republican party made his re-election probable and now he is the bin Laden killer. His only disappointment is that he didn’t succeed in killing Muammar Gaddafi that same weekend. Well, even a Teflon president can’t always win.



* Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well as at  http://freedomrider.blogspot.com.


Margaret Kimberley
- e-mail: Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.com
- Homepage: http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/freedom-rider-first-casualty-war

Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

Had a quick look at margaret's blog

14.05.2011 09:20

It is all anti-american.

She just picks out things in the world that are bad about america (no other countries mind) and just goes on and on about it.

Obviously, she just hates america. So its pretty pointless reading her stuff because it is highly unlikely to be objective.

analysis


Oh pulease

14.05.2011 15:46

"Obviously, she just hates America. So it’s pretty pointless reading her stuff because it is highly unlikely to be objective."

Yes thanks for that succinct synopsis of her blog. Real analysis involves actually reading things for yourself and making an informed decision, as opposed to taking the word of an anonymous keyboard warrior typing the usual clichés about 'anti Americanism' etc. You must try harder.

Lord Reynaud phenomenon


Media government.

15.05.2011 23:43

"Obviously, she just hates america. So its pretty pointless reading her stuff because it is highly unlikely to be objective."

Objective journalism...what's that then?

Do you mean sterile pointless tripe that has no meaning beyond acting as a conduit for criminals and serial human rights abusers to offer endless 'explanations' and 'excuses' to justify the appalling crimes they have committed?

Or do you mean pointless flatulent debate between those people who are doing the killing in order to make everybody feel better about what they are doing or what they are paying for!

I have been a professional journalist for ten years and I have yet to meet a single individual that had even a basic understanding of what the word 'objective' means...and its correct usage and role in the modern media.

Objectivity in journalism...is what makes the crime possible. Without objectivity, you have only the truth, and the truth is something that fundamentally undermines the profitibility of the media.

Merchant of death.


Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech