Be sure to read this chilling article by Naomi Klein in the Guardian. Klein writes that the U.S. military openly eliminates anyone -- doctors, clerics, journalists, anyone -- who dares attempt to document civilian casualties in Iraq.
US authorities have denied that hundreds of civilians were killed during last April's siege, and have lashed out at the sources of these reports. For instance, an unnamed "senior American officer", speaking to the New York Times last month, labelled Falluja general hospital "a centre of propaganda". But the strongest words were reserved for Arab TV networks. When asked about al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya's reports that hundreds of civilians had been killed in Falluja, Donald Rumsfeld, the US secretary of defence, replied that "what al-Jazeera is doing is vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable ... " Last month, US troops once again laid siege to Falluja - but this time the attack included a new tactic: eliminating the doctors, journalists and clerics who focused public attention on civilian casualties last time around.
In the recent attack on Falluja, Klein writes, the U.S. targeted (and eliminated) health workers, journalists, and clerics first.
This might be called "message control with extreme prejudice."
This is getting even uglier than Vietnam, and fast.
