Mass Murder by The Numbers
By Frederick Brass
19 March 2003
"If ever time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in
government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin ."
-Samuel Adams
Military planners have released information that, in the opening phase of the Bush War on Iraq, 3,000
precision-guided bombs and missiles will be hurled at the Iraqi people. The Bush War strategy seeks to shock
the few survivors into slavish submission to the whims of the conqueror. As ground operations commence,
the fields and streets of Iraq will be covered with the burning bodies of the dead while survivors writhe in
agony among the dust and ruble that was once their homes.
From this scene of intense shock and horror, we are assured by Bush and his fellow Chickenhawks that the
Iraqi people will rise and welcome the invading forces as liberators. We are also told that democracy will
spring into full blossom and transform the whole of the Middle East. Is there no end to the hubris of this
thoughtless and morally bankrupt administration? What people have ever welcomed the murder of their loved
ones and the destruction of their homes?
Bush seeks mass murder of children in a sustained attack on a city that has a population that is more than
50% under the age of 15. The greater part of the population of Iraq could not get a license to drive in any
state in the United States. The greater part of the population of Iraq, if in the USA, would be looking forward
to going to their first high school prom. But, since they are in Iraq, Bush wants them dead and the Pentagon
is reluctantly going to oblige with an attack using 3,000 precision-guided bombs and missiles. No word yet
how many simple gravity (dumb) bombs and missiles that are not precision-guided will be sent crashing into
mud brick cities and villages.
The United Nations and War Child Canada had estimated the risk to the more than 13,000,000 children in
Iraq when the reported plan was for 800 precision-guided missiles to be sent against Iraq in the first 48
hours. Now it is more than 3,000 such weapons, more than 3,000 devastating explosions shattering the lives,
homes and bodies of a population that has done us no wrong. How much more destruction will be wrought by
the additional 2,200 precision-guided weapons? How much more joy will this bring Bush and his Chickenhawk
warmongers?
How Bush and his war cabinet must be salivating at the thought of tiny limbs torn from innocent little bodies
strewn across the rubble filled streets. Could Bush's cold hard eyes light with the glee of a child in a candy
store at the thought of gutters flowing red with blood and gore? Is Bush clapping and drumming across his
desk, his feet tapping the carpet in anticipation of the soft and weak voices of childhood becoming guttural
and contorted. Childhood voices rising into a crescendo of cries against the thud of bombs forming an aria of
fear and agony -fear and agony as millions of orphans scream when searing metal fragments with razor like
edges from precision-guided weapons slice into their bodies? How Bush and his war god must be intoxicated
with anticipating the cruel mass slaughter of innocent populations that is to come!
Picasso's Guernica will pale before Bush's masterpiece of mass murder and mayhem. Bush will paint his
masterpiece in thick, crude gouges flowing with real blood -cubism graphically portrayed in real human flesh-
all on a canvas, the length and breadth of Iraq.
The glowing warmth of the funeral pyres will light the sky and act as a beacon to the world. In its light, the
Pontificating Bush will preach the virtues of his Texas Theocracy and its holy mission. In Bob Woodward's
Bush at War, Bush tells of his being a part of "god's master plan." Bush then boasts: "[w]e will export death
and violence to the four corners of the earth in defense of this great country and rid the world of evil."
The love of Bush's god will be evident to the world in the contorted rigor mortis of the dismembered children
as their burned and shattered bodies perfume the desert air. Bush will not be there to see the horror or smell
the death he caused. Bush will remain safe and secure in the Oval Office while others face the deadly fangs
of the dogs of war that he gleefully seeks to unleash. As the cameras in Washington take focus, Bush, with
flag raised high and bible in hand, will proclaim, from a safe distance, victory for his god in holy war. But on
the other side of the world, across miles of sands engorged by the gore of Bush's war, the world shall witness
the results of communion with Bush and his god of war.
Across America from the Statue of Liberty to the Golden Gate will be heard a nocturnal cacophony of tortured
shrieks as the veterans seek to exorcise the images left by contact with Bush's murderous obsession. For
those who have experienced war, the sights, sounds and smells haunt their memories in the light of day and
dark of night. Possibly, this is why the administration that seeks to commit this heinous crime against nature
and humanity is largely composed of those whom never wore their country's uniform in time of war or peace.
The leader of this under-whelming legion of homicidal carpetbaggers is one that cast off his uniform: having
gone AWOL from the Texas Air National Guard.
For the past several months, the world has endured the raison (lie) du jour for bombing Iraq; as each
reason is exposed as a lie a new one pops up. Bush says: "read my lips -I will bring democracy to Iraq." This
one is the most noxious as it is the biggest lie. Hitler and Goebbels where fond of saying: "the bigger the lie
the more people will believe it." Bush is certainly counting on that observation being true. In the Middle East,
he is often referred to as "Mohammed Jefferson" implying that he is both religiously and secularly a false
prophet.
There will be no democracy for Iraq; democracy will not be allowed for Iraq or any other conquered Middle
Eastern colony. What is coming for Iraq? Bush is sending the headsman for Ali Baba but planning on making
the forty thieves "an offer they can't refuse." Once Saddam is out of the way, the same yes men used by
Saddam will be used by the new occupation government in an attempt to control Iraq. Iraq will be governed
by a coalition of military occupation and Texas oil company exploitation. What I believe will soon flow into
Iraq will be an influx of Fundamentalist Evangelical Christian proselytizers. Throughout the Middle East and
the Horn of Africa there has been a persistent problem with Fundamentalist Christians proselytizing; then
Western soldiers must rescue the proselytizers when they are caught.
In South Carolina, there are colleges that teach how to translate biblical passages into Arabic. What happens
when the Fundamentalist Christians begin to proselytize in Iraq? Will the Islamic populations of the Middle
East sit by easily as this practice increases? The Islamic clerics already see the rush to war in Iraq as an
attack on Islam. Any Christian proselytizing will confirm the suspicion and exponentially increase the mortal
threat to individual members of occupying forces and the threat of terrorism in Europe and North America.
Populations in the Middle East and Asia know all too well the order of empire building. First come the swords
and then follows the bible, this is history known to the Middle East, Asia, Africa and the native populations of
Australia, Oceania and the Americas. The battle fleets enter port and land the soldiers and then, behind
massed bayonets, the bible is delivered. The bible is delivered to sick and starving survivors of the conquest
in place of freedom, food and medicine.
Iraq is a highly urbanized population with most of the people residing in a few cities and towns. Since the
1991 Gulf War, only 41% of the population have had access to clean drinking water. Approximately 800,000
children suffer from chronic malnourishment. Sewage disposal is a serious daily problem causing the affliction
of malnourished bodies with waterborne disease. The sanctions on Iraq have deprived the people of the tools
and devices to maintain their water and sewage processing facilities. Compounding the problem is the fact
that previous wars have so decimated the population that half the people are 15 years or younger.
Radioactive residue from depleted uranium ammunitions used in 1991 has caused dramatic increases in
exotic cancers and birth defects. The depleted uranium was never cleaned from the wreckage of Iraqi
vehicles and is now in the desert sands and blown by the winds. The region with the highest levels of
radioactive and sewage contamination is along the Kuwaiti border and around the port of Basra. The same
area where Bush has deployed our troops. How many more veterans will suffer from Gulf War Syndrome?
How many more military families will experience severe birth defects directly related to exposure to the
polluted sands of southern Iraq?
The history of empire is written in blood and fixed in tears. This is a history that the Europeans have learned
and do not want to repeat. The pope has also learned lessons from the suffering inflicted in the past and sent
an envoy to meet with Bush. The envoy has met with Bush to inform him that this war he lust for is not a just
war. But Condoleeza Rice told the Italian press that she couldn't understand the pope's desire for peace. "I
don't see how it could be immoral to prevent the deaths of tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands,
maybe millions of people by acting against a brutal regime," Rice said.
What so many around the world cannot understand about the Bush regime is why they refuse to see that
"preventing the deaths of tens of thousands, maybe millions of people" is precisely what the United Nations
and Hans Blix are accomplishing without war.
Will the noble efforts of the French, Germans, Russians, Chinese and now the Vatican be ignored by the Bush
cabal in Washington and London? The United Nations needs to revise upwards the number we can expect to
die for Bush's obsession with mass homicide.
The time has come that vain and aspiring men have seized the highest seats of government. Our country is in
dire need of its patriots to prevent the ruin of ourselves and others. The choice now is to raise our voices in
protest until we are heard or forever carry the guilt of being accessories to genocide.
Copyright © 2003 by the News Insider and Frederick Brass
Commentator Fred Brass is a social activist who contributes opinion articles and criticisms to national and
international sources. |
