State terrorism? Obama must act

For most Americans to undermine the US armed forces particularly those on the front line is about as unpatriotic as you can get. That is triply so if you’re the President, even worse when you’re facing mid-term election and your popularity ratings are falling fast.

And yet this is the challenge for President Barack Obama (the man who single handily brought the hope of integrity to the White House) when he confronts the armies own data - now in the public domain courtesy of Wikileaks - of the alleged atrocities that took place during and after the Iraq war, including the murder of tens of thousands of civilians, the murder of insurgents surrendering, and complicit in incredible torture of captives.

Ignoring the data President Obama has chose only to condemn the leaks handed over to Wiki leaks. But unless Obama and his administration honestly and frankly confronts this, the USA’s moral authority as the world’s only super power will not only be damaged but will put its citizens and other countries who have supported it at an even greater risk of terrorism.

With just a cursory glance at the deluge of documents leaked from the Pentagon you get a clear picture of an armed force that cares little for the civilian causalities caught in the cross fire, and even less for those suspected combatants who, in one gruesome video footage it showed a man getting out of car with his hands clearly up in the air surrendering. A dialogue occurs supposedly between a US soldier in a armed helicopter and his superior seeking clarification of the situation and what to do next. He gets clearance to shoot the man dead.

In the fog of war one might expect a small number of these incidents to occur but these detailed leaks suggest the number runs in to tens of thousands of civilians killed in this and other preventable ways.

Watching these incidents in the comfort of my home was like watching a video game, it didn’t seem real. Only it was. And whilst we remember 2752 innocent people were killed by terrorism in New York on Sept 11th 2001. Every person was named and remembered. Who will name, who will remember the estimated 70,000 civilians in Iraq, mainly killed by USA and allied forces which occurred during and after the Iraq war?

Although President Obama was not the Commander in Chief for this grizzly period; that dishonour is bestowed to former President Bush aided by his blood thirsty Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld. Nevertheless, Obama’s in charge now, and the UN and decent people around the world want to know how this was allowed to happen, who will take responsibility for it, and how do we ensure this never happens again?

Simon Woolley