In a recent BBC News Online report, laughably titled ‘US chief Petraeus vows to protect Afghan civilians’ (bit late to make that vow, 9 years and thousands of innocent dead people later), John Simpson is quoted as saying the following:
‘Gen Petraeus will no doubt try to replicate his remarkable Iraqi success in Afghanistan. Yet it will be harder, and doubts about the value of the operation are already growing in every Nato country.’ [1]
I have emailed John Simpson to ask him to explain what he means by ‘remarkable Iraqi success’, given that the Iraq war has led to the deaths of over a million people, four million refugees, and a country decimated. I anticipate no reply and reckon that even if he were to reply, he would say something along the lines of “I have been to Iraq and you have not. The Americans did not mean to deprive all those people of life. They are there to protect the people against terrorists. Please don’t bother me, as I am an experienced BBC journalist who knows much more than you.”
John Pilger said a couple of days ago in an interview with Democracy Now!:
‘The reason we don’t see the war on civilians, the war that has caused the most extraordinary devastation, human and cultural and structural devastation in both Iraq and Afghanistan, is because of what is almost laughingly called the mainstream media…
…There is a war on journalism. There’s long been a war on journalism…If you read, let’s say, General Petraeus’s counterinsurgency manual, which he put his name to in 2006, he makes it very clear. He said we’re fighting wars of perception…’ [2]
Is John Simpson fighting a ‘war of perception’ or does he actually believe that an illegal war that has led to the deaths of over a million people is a ‘remarkable success’? I reckon he actually believes what he is saying. He is that steeped in the belief that ‘we’ can do no wrong, despite the mountains of evidence to the contrary. Unbelievable.
And if John Simpson’s comments weren’t enough to turn my stomach, I learned today that Tony Blair has won the 2010 Liberty Medal award for his “relentless pursuit” of peace in Northern Ireland and the Middle East. [3] Sometimes I wonder whether there’s any point in carrying on…
[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/10472555.stm
[2] http://www.democracynow.org/2010/6/29/john_pilger_there_is_a_war
[3] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/richard-adams-blog/2010/jun/30/tony-blair-liberty-medal-award-2010
Next time you should shorten your post, try to leave out the parts that people skip.
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