Nothing But Politics

[Ace Hanlon]

World's Finest Illusionists

By Mike Whitney
Al-Jazeerah, August 26, 2004

The press is always a reliable partner in the crimes of the empire. Just
look at how adroitly the national attention has been shifted from the
ongoing depredations in Najaf to the minutiae of John Kerry's Vietnam
record.

Its pure magic; orchestrated at the hands of world's finest
illusionists.
Iraq is submerged in a widespread popular" rebellion, with the entire
American arsenal descending on a civilian population and where's the
American media? Dragging the skeletal senator from Massachusetts to the
pillory for a few more lashes. It's quite a performance.

A quick glance at Al Jazeera television news shows Najaf lit up like a
candle by the unrelenting barrage of American firepower; C-130s
indiscriminately showering the city with lead, laser-guided missiles
hitting "suspected" hideouts for the Mahdi militia, Abrams Tanks
ravaging streets and buildings.

The real, ghoulish face of the US military is in full display; rampaging
through the streets of Najaf only...only the American media is nowhere
to be found. Lost in the ether. The Establishment press is demonstrating
the depth of its venality. The extent of its collaboration with
Washington is beyond what anyone could have possibly imagined.

Downtown Najaf is devastated; smoldering buildings, broken glass,
pillars of smoke; the current addition to America's "Shock and Awe"
journal. The American press, however, focuses on the benign intentions
of an invader who "must destroy a city to save it."

The price of "liberation" is scrupulously omitted from the camera lens;
choosing, instead, to photograph some threatening looking Iraqi with an
RPG. This is the narrative the corporate media wants to impart; the
story of benevolent America whose only interest is in establishing peace
and spreading democracy. The wreckage of downtown Najaf and the mounting
death toll of people defending their city, contradict this child's tale.


It's no wonder the Muslim press was expelled from Najaf; or, rather, the
press that couldn't be trusted with providing the Defense Dept's version
of events. Accordingly, the story of Najaf is conveyed by the US media
with predictable uniformity. Each TV station or newspaper provides the
identical story line with little room for variation. Photographs are
conscientiously sanitized; abandoning those that give the reader any
reason to ponder the worthiness of our present involvement.

One and a half years have gone by since the original invasion and
Americans still aren't asking why they haven't seen photos of dead
Iraqis or bombed out buildings in their newspapers. Instead, they get
innocuous photos of smoke rising from a distant building, or gritty
looking "blue-eyed" Marines, or (the perennial favorite) a crowd of
angry, unshaven Iraqis waving their weapons in a fit of rage; an image
that always satisfies the racist requirements of conflict.

It's all carefully stage-managed by a media that knows the most
effective way to dupe the public into thinking they are staying
informed. Needless to say, the carnage and ruin stay on the cutting room
floor.

Stories abound about the "radical cleric" who dares to defy his American
benefactors. Muqtada al Sadr is painted in broad strokes of dementia and
rancor; a "liberation-hating" nutjob who is consumed by religious
fanaticism. His cause, of course, is entirely consistent with the goals
of most Americans, who still have no idea of why we're in Iraq or what
the mission is...

Never the less, al Sadr must be brought to heel and soon. With the
Republican Convention only days away the crisis in Najaf is bound to
intensify dramatically. Bush needs a trophy to exhibit to his worshipful
fans, so it's up to Rumsfeld to produce al Sadr.

The warning has already been issued from the Allawi government:
"Surrender or we will wipe you out." The media covers this by suggesting
that the "credibility" of the Allawi government has met its "first great
challenge". Now, there's an intriguing bit of journalistic choreography.

The fact is, the Allawi government has no popular mandate whether it
"wins" or not. It is purely an invention of the imperial overlords and
has no credibility whatsoever. When the dust settles in Najaf, Ayad
Allawi will still be the same thuggish, American stooge he was prior to
the operation.

In the meantime, it's up to the fourth estate to keep the public's mind
off the bloodbath in Najaf, where over 600 people have been killed
already.

From start to finish, the siege of Najaf has been a masterstroke of
media collusion; exposing the American media as a valued asset in the
depredations of the empire. The corporate press has exposed itself as an
American "Bluebeard" willing to paper over the transgressions Bush
regime and bury their crimes behind a wall of spin.

In the final analysis, Tom Brokaw and Roger Ailes are just as complicit
in Najaf's crimes as Donald Rumsfeld or George W. Bush. They seduced the
American public into this tragic conflagration and now, they are
continuing their handiwork with newly minted fictions of establishing
order in the Holy City.

The precedents for prosecuting members of the media for war crimes are
sketchy at best. Developments in Iraq suggest that these standards
deserve renewed attention.