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The Forum > Article Comments > The reality of Australia’s collateral damage in Iraq > Comments

The reality of Australia’s collateral damage in Iraq : Comments

By Chris Doran, published 4/8/2008

Australian General Jim Molan's new book whitewashes his command responsibility for one of the most notorious of the Coalition's alleged war crimes in Iraq, the destruction of Fallujah.

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One of the best and most important articles I have read here, and one that would, unfortunately, not appear anywhere else in the mainstream (point that Clive Hamilton needs to take on board). If you take a look at Major General Jim Molan's biography at the Department of Defence you will see that these battles, including Falluja, Tal Afar, Najaf and so on are described as "pre-election shaping battles". That's called "democracy." In the Australian press an orgy of moral posturing has appeared after the capture of Radovan Karadzic, but notice that the source that you cite here, Chomsky "Failed States", argues that Falluja and Srebernica were just about the same thing. Yet our so called experts inform us that international criminal courts are "revolutionary".
Posted by Markob, Monday, 4 August 2008 11:04:35 AM
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Thanks, Chris for a most interesting article.

Can I commend the chapters concerning Iraq in Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine" of 2007 as a very good start to placing this story in its broader context?

Naomi Klein rejects the claim that the ferocity of the resistance to the US was the consequence of either unreasoning nationalism on the part of the Iraqis or of bungling incompetence by the US occupation authorities, rather it was caused principally the impoverishment of the Iraqi population (as well as the ransacking of the US treasury) as part of deliberate occupation authority policy for the benefit of US corporations like Bechtel, Halliburton and Blackwater.

Had the US lived up to their own rhetoric about bringing democracy to Iraq, then some good might have resulted from the terrible toll of the invasion, but they did not. I have posted some comments about this at http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=6974#108120
Posted by daggett, Monday, 4 August 2008 11:42:32 AM
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The fact that an extract from this book was featured in the Australian immediately makes it suspect.

Meanwhile just Google The Truth About Fallujah
Posted by Ho Hum, Monday, 4 August 2008 12:44:15 PM
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Well...you don't often see such rubbish in print form but this article is up the top of the pile..

RUBBISH..

Evidence.

1/ He claims ", but any and all men aged 15 to 45 were PROHIBITED from leaving. Many family members understandably chose to stay with their fathers and brothers. Once the bombing began, all exits out of the city were sealed off."

YET article he cites in the link says:

"Loudspeaker announcements in Arabic declared that any male under 45 caught trying to leave the city would be arrested."

2/ Relatively few insurgents were found once the city was subdued; most had, predictably, fled the city long before the assault began

I suppose this lunatic leftoid has not seen any of the footage of the battles in Falluja.. obviously he... 'neglected' to do this.....

This abysmal leftist socialist diatribe is nothing more than a limping, chirping and muttering of the 'party line' designed only to weaken western and Australian faith in it's own principles and leadership..to soften us up for THE GREAT SOLUTION..which of course he doesn't mention but we don't have to be too brilliant to work it out..its the...

Wonderful Socialist Utopia - where 'mean' people are suddenly transformed into selfless, generous hardworking members of a collective who now see their meaning in life as being to spend and expend their total humanity in topping up the cups of those less able to make ends meet.

By why not actually SAY this instead of just whining about the brutality of war?

The worst brutality ever.. EVER was perpetrated by the ideologically driven USSR under "Comrade Stalin" and in China under "Comrade Mao"

You could multiply the Holocaust x 5 and still not approach the numbers decimated by these comrades.

So..rather than speak of the 'reality of Australia's collateral damage' why not speak of the INTELLECTUAL damage to young impressionable Aussie minds by this mindless drivel?
Posted by Polycarp, Monday, 4 August 2008 1:13:38 PM
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This article is typical of the absolute rubbish that the “peace activists” often produce for their militarily ignorant, ideologically rigid audiences.

First lets examine some of the specious claims the author makes.

He says >>”Citizens had been instructed to evacuate the city, population 250,000, before bombing began in October 2004, but any and all men aged 15 to 45 were prohibited from leaving”

Yet the only evidence for this that the author provides is an article dated 7 Nov 2004 mentioning the coalition policy of arresting men under the age of 45 leaving the city. This is NOT a prohibition against leaving the city at all. By 7 NOV 2004 the vast majority of civilians had left the city. Futhermore, those who left after that time were screened for belonging to an insurgent group and were released if they did not.

Having been under complete insurgent control since April the city was a thoroughly prepared defensive fortification. Thousands of buildings were fortified, houses booby trapped to take out whole platoons, streets were dug up to retard the progress of armoured vehicles.

He says >> “There is little evidence to suggest that the resistance emanating from Fallujah was anything other than Fallujans fighting an occupation they believed to be illegal and unjust”

This is absolute bollocks. There is a wealth of evidence that Abu Musab alZaqri and his Al Qaeda forces were the organizers of the insurgency in Fallujah. Fallujah was, for a long time, a home base for the car bombs being directed to Baghdad and elsewhere. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Phantom_Fury#Insurgent_forces

House to House by David Belavia is a searing account of the Second Battle for Fallujah. The author would do well to listen to some of the people actually involved in the battle which was one of the most ferocious of the war.

Finally, it was exceedingly uncommon for an insurgent to surrender in the battle for Fallujah. They were there to die in Jihad and take as many people with them as they could.

This is a puff piece with a total lack of any objectivity
Posted by Paul.L, Monday, 4 August 2008 3:15:12 PM
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I expect nothing less from people who rationalise crimes to themselves to make it all seem better and who champion censorship of media in war zones. This is predictable. You will have to turn to more honourable and powerful people in the USA military who sometimes shake themselves clear of all this propaganda.

It's not hard to look at the evidence (even with all the censorship in place):

http://www.google.com/search?q=fallujah+war+crimes

Google has all the information you need to conclude that the Fallujah operation lead to many war crimes.
Posted by Steel, Monday, 4 August 2008 4:17:19 PM
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