Read part 1
Megan and Jenna,
In part 1, I mentioned that there was another example of things you never see. Unfortunately, with the Rodney King incident, a man was beaten, police officers’ lives were endangered, and the combination of a misrepresented video and racism mixed to cause awful riots. As you’ll see in my next example, it wasn’t a small group of deaths and the loss of property that were involved, as was the case in the LA riots. In those riots, some innocent people, people who had nothing to do with the beating of Mr. King, were murdered for their race. Others were beaten badly but survived. I can still remember the helicopter video of an innocent truck driver, caught in the midst of the riot, who was savagely attacked. He was hospitalized and is lucky to be alive. I sent money to a fund that his bank set up to help pay his medical expenses. His barbarian attackers were later identified and arrested.
No, this next example is a far worse case of ‘things you never see’. It involves our government ‘selling us a bill of goods’. Remember what I said earlier about motive? Typically the media and/or the government have a motive. They take their motive and spin it into a story that they can sell to the American people. In 1991, the U.S. government sold us a bill of goods about the first Gulf War. I supported the U.S.’s and the U.N.’s decision to invade Iraq in that war. After all, Iraq was a brutal dictatorship, and had invaded a neighboring country. As a country of wealth, I have always felt that it is our duty as Americans and as citizens of this planet to go places in the world where atrocities are being committed, and to put a stop to them (not that we secretly don’t commit atrocities of our own, it’s just that usually, no one finds out about them). If you dont understand the Iraq war, read this.
Anyway, the government told us exactly what they wanted us to hear: that Iraq had invaded Kuwait, and that we were going there with the sole purpose of ousting Iraqis from Kuwait. President Bush Sr. stated that as our single objective. We weren’t there to topple Hussein’s regime, or to invade the heart of Bagdad, we were there to remove them from Kuwait. It was a simple, straightforward mission that we as dumb little Americans were to just accept.
Unfortunately, what we did after the Iraqi army had been ousted from Kuwait is inexcusable. Bush declared victory in Iraq. He declared an end to the fighting. He encouraged Iraqi citizens to rise up and topple Hussein. He said that the US would be there to support a coup. He lied. He was not there to support the coup attempt. He abandoned the brave Iraqi citizens who rose up in opposition to Saddam in much the same way John Kennedy abandoned hundreds of mercenaries in 1961 that were sent by the U.S. to invade Cuba and overthrow Castro in the Bay of Pigs debacle.
Keep in mind that very little of this information is filtering down to the American public about the aftermath of the Gulf war. You see, once the “war” was over, there was no real story. Most of the media had pulled out. Now here’s the real tragedy: since Bush decided not to support the coup, or to just topple Hussein himself, he left Shiite and Kurdish Iraqis to certain doom. Thousands and thousands of men, women, and children were slaughtered after the U.S. declared “victory” and pulled out (some estimates report that upwards of 200,000 were massacred after the war).
Picture this: you’re in an airplane flying in Iraq. You come to an area that is somewhat mountainous. A gray, rocky, barren valley snakes back and forth in between the mountains. The thin valley floor below you is teaming with tens of thousands of civilians. Civilians carrying everything they own. Civilians with pack mules burdened down with a heavy load, mothers carrying infants in cloths wrapped over their mother’s shoulders, and around her waist. Children of all ages marching along. Old men, old women. The conspicuous absence of younger men, as many of them had been lost before and during the war. All of them fleeing tyranny and certain death that they leave behind in a world were a dictator wants them dead. They march for their lives, to get away, to get anywhere, to get anywhere but where they came from.
The plane you fly is an F-15 fighter. You activate your on-board cameras to record the exodus. Then, on your radar, in the distance, two foreign blips appear. They are identified as Iraqi army helicopter gunships. Remember something, you’re not at war anymore. They’re not supposed to attack you and you’re not supposed to attack them. As they approach the valley, you realize why they’re here but you can’t make yourself believe it. Your heart leaps out of your chest as you shake your head in utter disbelief. “There’s no way he’s going to open fire on these civilians….there’s just no way….” Frantically, you make a distressful call to the air boss.
“Six, this is Bravo One Niner, bandits at twelve o’clock, range, three quarters of a mile. They’re preparing to fire on unarmed civilians. Permission to fire? Over.”
“Bravo One Niner, this is Six, permission denied, I say again, permission denied.”
Screaming now, “SIX! This is Bravo One Niner! He’s firing! I say again, he’s firing on unarmed civilians! There are thousands of them down there. They’re in the open. Permission to fire?!! Permission to fire?!! Over.”
“Bravo One Niner, this is Six, permission denied, I say again, permission denied…”
This scenario plays out in front of your eyes as you watch thousands perish below you. You repeat your request for permission to fire on the gunships. Unknown to you is the fact that this information is immediately relayed to President Bush Sr. He is literally at a formal occasion, standing in a tuxedo. He’s on the phone being told of what is happening. He affirms his earlier decision that the U.S. can only observe from this point forward. No action is to be taken. Do not fire on the helicopters.
The story I relate to you above is not fiction. It is truth. While I did create the conversation between the fighter pilot and his air boss, the actual events took place just as I described them. Several years after the war, I saw the actual camera footage taken that day by American fighter pilots as they watched this carnage. They asked for permission to fire, and they were denied. The President really was in a tuxedo, and he really did deny permission to fire. The American public was not shown this footage until long after our involvement in the war ended. It wouldn’t have been popular to show this to us so they didn’t show us. It wouldn’t have served the government’s agenda to “stabilize the middle east”, so they didn’t show us. In truth, it would have made American’s riot in the streets, so they didn’t show us.
Seeing that footage haunts me to this day. I can’t even imagine what kind of nightmares those pilots are still living with. And, it’s beyond my comprehension to understand what it would have been like for those children on the ground. I hope that when you are older, information flow is much better. I hope information is much more available from sources other than media outlets or governments. Maybe that way, you’ll be able to ascertain the truth while it is happening, instead of only finding it out as another mass grave is unearthed, years later.
‘Your Dad
Nothing is to prevent the State from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall, or any farm with a factory.
—Justice Sandra Day O’Connor
