https://www.democracynow.org/2024/10/16/gaza_doctor
https://www.commondreams.org/news/us-doctors-gaza
Eighty years after World War II we have an army (ironically a Jewish one) behaving very much like the Nazis, and yet those who protest its actions and conduct are condemned and castigated for their immorality. The mainstream media supports this army and writes apologias for it and in some cases when it cannot stop the story - it censors photos or does whatever it can to soften the effect and the public's ability to perceive the nature and extent of Israeli war crimes.
The New York Times has been caught up in a recent controversy over this - but you'd hardly know it otherwise. The Mainstream Media has fallen pretty silent on Gaza.
The thing is - this is nothing new. Those who have paid attention, those who have read the history know this has happened over and over again.
In 2017, the media covered up US war crimes in Mosul and Raqqa. Reporters would stand among the ruins and talk about the devastation but consistently neglected to mention that the cities were largely destroyed by US-led bombing campaigns and thousands of civilians were killed and blocked from fleeing the cities.
Some stories related to the Iraq War couldn't be covered up, but during the early 2000's the media did what it could and whitewashed the slaughter and war crimes that occurred when the US military retook Fallujah in 2004. Even events like the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib were blamed on hillbilly troops from Appalachia, when in fact the photos, testimony, and evidence reveal that not only were the torturers fulfilling orders from high up the chain of command - they were following the same playbook the US used in Vietnam. The media could have identified this but chose instead to cover up the crimes by means of bait and switch. Those that said, 'This isn't us,' were either lying or ignorant. It was in perfect keeping with American military conduct extending back over a century and more.
Western media also covered up Bosnian and Croat war crimes in the 1990's as well as US machinations to break-up Yugoslavia and bomb Serbia (the historic Russian ally and designated enemy) regardless of any diplomatic efforts on the part of Belgrade.
During the Gulf War, the Highway of Death and other crimes were whitewashed by the media in 1991 but at that point in time the US public (for the most part) didn't seem to care. The ugly and destructive aspects of the Panama Invasion of 1989 were covered up - the American public was unaware of the scope of destruction and the thousands of deaths involved and US military-ordered mass graves that are still being discovered in the 2020's.
The
US role in Afghanistan has been lied about for decades - from
instigating the Russian invasion in 1979, to how the mujahideen were
marketed during the 1980's. The lies continue to this day - and lest
we forget, we need to mention American use of Depleted Uranium and
the media's role in covering up its results. And what of the continued bogus justifications for the use of nuclear weapons in 1945?
The proxy wars of the Reagan era were extensive and were mostly covered up by the media. Even the Contras were to some extent cleaned up. But the slaughter that occurred in Central America and Africa was glossed over and spun - as was US support for Iraq in its war with Iran. Though driven to the jungles after 1979, Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge were also backed by the United States during the Carter and Reagan administrations.
The war crimes and atrocities committed by the United States in Vietnam are analogous to that of Nazi Germany - I statement that can be made without any hint of exaggeration or sense of irresponsibility. Millions died as a result of the Indochina Wars - directly killed as a result of US machinations, proxies, or as an indirect result of American policy.
And then there's what the US did in Korea - one of the great atrocities in world history that seems to be almost unknown - even to the kinds of people that follow such things. North Korea in particular was completely devastated - on a level that struggles to find historical precedent. The Nazis and Mongols look like lightweights and amateurs compared to what the US did there in the early 1950's. Virtually every building was destroyed, dams were broken, and by many credible accounts - chemical and biological weapons were used. Somewhere around 3 million civilians were killed from 1950-1953 in addition to over a million soldiers killed in action. For North Korea the percentages killed were comparable to the losses sustained by the Soviet Union and China in World War II - wars which fundamentally redefined these societies and affect them to this day.
North Korea along with Laos, South Vietnam, and Cambodia are the most bombed countries in history.
People wonder why North Korea is so deranged to this day - the Korean War tells the story. When a society is destroyed to that degree, the monsters emerge. The same was true in Cambodia. The US did not initially back the Khmer Rouge, but its bombing campaigns and its backing of the 1970 coup created the conditions for it to flourish and build support and momentum. When the Khmer Rouge was ousted by Vietnam in 1979, the US out of bitterness toward the nation that defeated it - turned and supported Pol Pot and his genocidal movement during the years they waged a guerrilla campaign hoping to regain power.
A great deal more could be said about US crimes in South Korea before and after the war as well as its long and sordid history of support for violence and subversion in Europe and elsewhere. The media never tells these stories and does all it can to scrub and erase them if possible.
We can't even get into US involvement in the Indonesian Genocide and the media played a rather deceptive role in the 1980's - spinning the ouster of Ferdinand Marcos as a positive event in support of democracy, while covering up the fact that he had been a creature of the US for decades and his brutality was at the behest of Washington and supported by it. The same is true of Marcos in Panama and many more.
So it is hardly surprising to find the media glossing over Israeli war crimes, censoring photos, and spinning events. This isn't an anomaly but in keeping with media policies going back to the 19th century. As the 20th century dawned, US newspapers covered up American war crimes and atrocities in the Philippines. This is an old story, a tried and true tactic used by the corporate media.
These same forces are bound to the state of Israel - which represents US interests in the Middle East and has for decades. An honest accounting of Israel's expanding Middle Eastern war would demand accountability on the part of US presidents - including Biden and Trump. Their hands are dripping with blood and Netanyahu's war would not be possible without US approval and support. Will the media report that? Don't count on it.
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