I saw this clip on the Beeb last night and have just found the story on their website. It’s the one where a US Marines Colonel called Gareth Brandl says:
- “The marines that I have had wounded over the past five months have been attacked by a faceless enemy…
“But the enemy has got a face. He’s called Satan. He lives in Falluja. And we’re going to destroy him.”
That, you might think, is bad enough, as an indicator of how the Marines preparing to assault Fallujah are being motivated by their officers.
What seems to me almost as disturbing is the degree to which BBC reporter Paul Wood, newly embedded with Brandl’s unit, has lost the objectivity and humanitarianism that is essential for good reporting of any difficult conflict. In particular, despite the really unpleasant content of the quote above, Wood describes Brandl glowingly as, “a charismatic young officer.”
Wood also reports that the “deputy commanding general, Denis Hajlik” gave the newly embedded journalists the following very crude description of the startegy the Marines would pursue, going into the city: “We’re gonna whack ’em.”
But then the Beebman immediately gives us his own little commentary, assuring us that, “This is not bloodlust.”
I can’t figure out what is happening here. Is it the psychodynamics of embedment, which are designed by the military to persuade the embedded journos to adopt the hosting forces’ own view of the world? Or is it the BBC, having gotten a bloody nose from Blair over the whole Andrew Gilligan affair, now kowtowing more than ever to provide a view of the war that will back up Blair’s insane posture in support of it?
Maybe a bit of both.
Well, I wonder how, in years to come, Hajlik, Brandl– and Wood– will all look back at the role they played in this bizarre, hate-fueled campaign to “destroy a city in order to ‘save’ it”…
Hi Helena,
I’m deeply scandalized by what is threatening Falludjah. The city leaders hopelessly trying to negotiate a peacefull outcome have been notified impossible conditions. Allawi claims that his patience is ending, because the negotiation are getting nowhere. But nobody knows anything about the points negotiated, or the conditions (apart that of delivering Zarqawi). Why is it so, if there were fair negotiations goind on. It looks as if the fate of Falludjah was sealed months ago.
US advised women, children and older men to get out. But they are blocking the roads to men younger than 45. If it wasn’t the US waging this war, we would already be speaking of genocide.
That statement about Satan from the righteous Col. Brandl sent my jaw right down to the floor. SATAN??? Is this how our military motivates (and brainwashes) its young men and women into mowing down innocent civilians??? Comparing them to SATAN??
Then I stumbled upon this delightful little article over at Raed Jarrar’s “Raed in the Middle” blog:
Marines turn to God
“Thus David prevailed over the Philistines,” the marine said, reading from scripture, and the marines shouted back “Hoorah, King David,” using their signature grunt of approval.
The marines drew parallels from the verse with their present situation, where they perceive themselves as warriors fighting barbaric men opposed to all that is good in the world.
“Victory belongs to the Lord,” another young marine read.
Their chaplain, named Horne, told the worshippers they were stationed outside Fallujah to bring the Iraqis “freedom from oppression, rape, torture and murder … We ask you God to bless us in that effort.”
I read stuff like this and I weep from the sheer insanity of it all … the sheer insanity. Tell me, how will these men live with themselves in the years ahead when Fallujah is leveled and her citizenry destroyed … only to discover that the dead are all Fallujans and al Zarquawi is a figment of their overwrought and overpropagandized imaginations???
Helena,
While the BBC certainly tends to give more balanced reporting on average, I’m not convinced of its perfect objectivity. It’s been years since I’ve listened to them regularly, but I still remember reports of violence in developing countries that used adjectives leading the reader to think of animalistic behavior. It hasn’t been that long since the era of British colonialism!!
Also, it’s not like this form of motivating the troops is so much worse than the intense, racist training these guys get in boot camp – at least from what I’ve heard. The men have to be trained to kill other human beings — so what form of insanity and desensitization is better?
I just watched all three episodes of BBC2’s mega-popular-history of the ‘War On Terror’, which are available as streams on Information Clearing House at the moment, and, despite a horrible pseudo-stream-of-consciousness visual montage style, they express the view that the ‘terrorist network’ is imaginary – a Western intelligence construct both in its origin and ongoingly – this is a bold statement and I endorse it. Good old Beeb – I hope it never gets completely subjected to Gleichshaltung.
“how will these men live with themselves in the years ahead when Fallujah is leveled and her citizenry destroyed … only to discover that the dead are all Fallujans and al Zarquawi is a figment of their overwrought and overpropagandized imaginations???”
They will live with comfort and a great sense of self righteousness, because they will never catch on that “the dead are all Fallujans and al Zarquawi is a figment of their overwrought and overpropagandized imaginations“. The dead Fallujans will be nothing more than “the unfortunate consequences of war”, and they will go to their graves convinced that they did a great thing by razing Falluja to the ground.
Helena, when one is in the thick of the violence of war, the objectivity of ordered cause and effect tends to get whirrled together with self preservation, I suspect. It could be easy to condemn them from afar and say “how could they live with the consequences of their actions?” But you are not there. You are not at the tip of the spear. We sleep soundly because there are people who do stand ready to do violence on our behalf.
-Marty
We sleep soundly because there are people who do stand ready to do violence on our behalf.
Actually, I sleep less soundly because our troops are in Iraq. And I will sleep less soundly still after reading Captain Brandl’s frightening statement.
What No Pref says, in spades…
Marty, I suppose your argument might be some version of the so-called “fly-paper” theory– that it’s good to attract and ‘catch’ the terrorists in Iraq before they all swarm into our own othert respective homelands??
That theory, with respect, is a crock of *&^%, since it assumes (1) that there is a finite number of terrorists who can be demonstrably attrited down toward zero thru US actions in Iraq, and (2) that US violence does not itself massively mobilize additional opponents. There is no evidence whatsoever for either of those claims– and considerable evidence that refutes them.
(Read just about any current news account.)
If you haver evidence that backs up either of those claims, tell us what it is!
Srebrenica comes to mind…
Congratulations, America, welcome to the club. See you at the Hague.
Concerning Marines brainwashing, there are several accounts as to how they spent the days before the assault : they staged the story of Benhur. The embedded journalist were probably invited to assist, because there are many accounts, including pictures.
Now that was at the same time :
1) A good public relation operation (propaganda to make the army sympathic, despite the cruel orders they have received).
2) A way to let Marines relaxe, before the battle
3) But at the same time a way to keep their aggressivity high (fights with blundgeon and shields, charrioteers races..)
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/93-11062004-396398.html
Charioteer races with horses stolen from poor Iraqis, poor beasts who work hard for a meagre living just as do their owners, and which can now add to the burden of their lives being terrorized and abused by sub-human American sons of bitches.
Bloody bastards, and now after stealing and terrorizing those poor beasts they are ready to go and turn Falluja into a pile of rubble stained by the blood of helpless Iraqi men, women, children and infants. Blood bastards. I wish I had words strong enough for my feelings.
Asked whether soldiers now view the war as a mission based on lies, Hoffman responded:
No bloody excuses. When human beings act like beasts and brutes they are responsible for those actions.
i also saw on the bbc an interview with a different marine (i dont think they gave his name) who said “we are agents of wrath to bring justice, to bring God’s wrath.” I wrote about it here with a link to the online video (although i’m not sure if the link still works). it seems that col. brandl is not alone. i can only imagine the sentiment amongst the troops – considering that they really don’t know why they were sent to iraq (certainly no WMDs have been found, certainly – especially once they are over there – it might be hard for them to believe that iraq was an imminent threat to the US) it may be a natural response to grasp onto some higher meaning for what they are doing in iraq. i really don’t know.