Alternative Perspective
 Living in a Surrealistic World: The Post-War Iraq
Issue 36, June 11, 2003
Compiled by Madhukar Shukla

 Alternative Perspective is an attempt to widen our awareness about issues related to business, environment, role and influence of media, geo-politics, culture, etc. It aims to share, on a regular basis, some of those pieces of news and information, which do not find place in the highly monopolised mainstream media. Please feel free to share/ forward/ distribute this newsletter to others who may be interested.



Note: The URLs of sources used in the text are numbered and given at the end of the Newsletter.

In This Issue:

During the Nuremberg Trials, Hermann Goering, President of Nazi Party, said: "All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country"

  • The Recent history: A Story of Deceptions
    Public memory is always short - specially, when it comes to issues which have no direct relevance to day-to-day life (e.g., job, promotion, interest rates, stock-prices, price of vegetables, etc.). Therefore, this recap of what happened in last one year. Some would recall - but many won't!!!. In last few months, we were treated to a series of the self-contradictory statements - where the line dividing the reality and the fiction became incresingly blurred. This long document - which starts with a gem of wisdom from Hermann Goering, quoted above - traces the series of deceptions which led to building the case for invading Iraq.
    http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/MiddleEast/Iraq/BuildingTheCase.asp?Print=True

  • 40% Americans Unaware that WMDs Have Not Been Found!!!
    If one thinks that democracy (in practice, that is) is about making informed choices... well, here is a reason why one needs to revisit the premise. Even after an invasion involving 467,000 military personnel, 41,000 sorties, 32mn pro-coalition leaflets (equivalent to 120,000 toilet rolls:0), 250,000 tons of bombs, 240,000 cluster bombs[1], and 3,240 Iraqi civilian deaths[2] - please note that media does not pre-fix "innocent" when such un-people as Iraqis get killed in bombing - the WMDs have continued to remain the Weapons of Mass Deception[3], or, as one would love to play along the joke - Weapons which Mysteriously Disappeared[4], once the Occupation was complete. However, given the fact that the US Govt propaganda machinary has been churning out imaginative versions of WMDs[5] (ranging from vaccuum cleaners to balloon-filling vans), one can't really blame, if a people get duped by their own government.
    http://pipa.org/whatsnew/html/new_6_04_03.html

  • ...the Truth the Victors Refuse to See!!!
    Baghdad is no longer just a geogaphically identifiable and politically liberated place on the world map. Baghdad has become a surrealistic split reality[6] in which the average US army troops try desperately to believe - having put their lives in danger for a cause - that they are welcomed as the Liberators. The "liberated people", on the other hand, see them as hostile occupation forces[7], and want them to leave as early as possible.
    http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_2-6-2003_pg4_14

  • The American Hero? The Story of Two American Women
    Another face of the schizophrenic reality, that the middle-east has become. On one hand, is the hollywood-style rescue of Pvt. Jessica Lynch, which became a big media story[8] (with Lynch T-Shirts, coffee-mugs, Eric Horner's song album, movie rights, etc. making waves/money) - even though later it turned out that all this was fabricated[9]. And on the other, is the neglected/forgotten death/murder of Rachel Corrie[10], a peace activist who was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer, while trying to save a palestinian home... worth reading is one of her last messages about living in Palestine[11].
    http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2003-05/22klein.cfm

  • US Patent No. 6,523,478: Technology for Delivering Biological/Chemical Weapon
    The topping on the Surrealism: Just a day before 911, a particular country had filed a patent for a technology to launch biological/chemical weapons on citizens (or, "innocent" civilians, if you please) - the patent was also granted in Feb 2002. The same country refused entry of the UN Weapons Inspectors to inspect its site[12]... No, it was not Iraq. It was United States of America!!!
    http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/06/09/BU144036.DTL&type=printable


    Other Sources Quoted in the Newsletter:
    [1]: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/06/02/1054406130502.html
    [2]: http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ_COUNTING_THE_DEAD?SITE=WIMIL&SECTION=HOME
    [3]: http://www.independent.org/tii/news/030605Eland.html
    [4]: http://www.activeopposition.com/WMD.htm
    [5]: http://www.thebulletin.org/issues/2003/ja03/ja03rothstein.html
    [6]: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A1151-2003Jun1?language=printer
    [7]: http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2870551
    [8]: http://www.jessica-lynch.com/
    [9]: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2948.htm
    [10]: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1248.shtml
    [11]: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1254.shtml
    [12]: http://www.oneworld.org/ips2/feb98/usa.html


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