Great work, guys. Keep at it with that winning the hearts and minds thing.
The first five seconds of this were clipped in Newsnight tonight. And wow it was a powerful clip, full of contradiction and moment. Perhaps a genius piece of brutal political speech, unintentional commentary, and the clearest possible illustration of what an awful fucking mess the US Army was always going to make of Iraq.
Seeing the whole clip though, it’s the worst of ignorant hate. And parallels the whole occupation itself. It’s not thoughtful, it’s not considered, and it appears entirely for the purpose of causing pain.
Alone those first five seconds could possibly have been political speech, offensive certainly, but criticizing a certain form of submission by jamming a potent symbol of that submission. But liberty is not served by this shite. Democracy and freedom only have meaning in the presence of tolerance and respect for otherwise they are merely painted lies for despotism and tyranny.
And context, huh. It’s a curious thing. How a certain five seconds can say one thing, and just thirteen more will say something entirely different. And apart from the pain, the misery, the senseless dying, the cruelty, and the heartbreaking insanity of it all, this is what I’ll remember from the Iraqi War. This, the clip of Iraqis celebrating the occupation of Baghdad which was actually shot in Kansas, and the hanging of Saddam Hussein which turned out afterwards to have been an obscene lynching.
One million Iraqis, though? And for nothing.
