May 27th, 2008; 1:50 AM
Current mood:
curious
This morning, I found myself listening to a speech in London, about socialism, given by Venezuela's current President: Hugo Chavez.
In it, he spoke of the Iraqi people. Specifically, he spoke of an alternate view of the Iraq war. He doesn't name names...but he does hint heavily...he depicted those who are typically called "terrorists" by the US military and government, as people who are defending their homes...fighting within their own nation against external aggression. He also depicted the United States as being the real terrorists in that country. This is a small part of what he said:
"This is what the Iraqi people are doing. Now they call it terrorism, those who protect their land are terrorists, but those who drop Napalm on cities like Fallujah, are those not terrorists? What are they?"
It suprized me. I had never heard anything about us using Napalm on the Iraqi people!?! WTF? So I looked it up and went to a US gov site http://usinfo.state.gov/media/Archive_Index/Illegal_Weapons_in_Fallujah.html that specifically addressed this as a myth and countered with:
On November 12, 2004, the U.S. Department of Defense issued a denial of the chemical weapons charge, stating:
"The United States categorically denies the use of chemical weapons at anytime in Iraq, which includes the ongoing Fallujah operation. Furthermore, the United States does not under any circumstance support or condone the development, production, acquisition, transfer or use of chemical weapons by any country. All chemical weapons currently possessed by the United States have been declared to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and are being destroyed in the United States in accordance with our obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention."
"The United States categorically denies the use of chemical weapons at anytime in Iraq, which includes the ongoing Fallujah operation. Furthermore, the United States does not under any circumstance support or condone the development, production, acquisition, transfer or use of chemical weapons by any country. All chemical weapons currently possessed by the United States have been declared to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and are being destroyed in the United States in accordance with our obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention."
I as an American, do have a bias in favor of my country. I am aware of that. And I am only saying this now to be honest about my bias and how it might color my beliefs about what my country would or would not do. I haven't heard from any reputable source that the US *did in fact* use napalm in Iraq. But then I also have to say...how would I know if they did? All of my news is given to me from the west. My government could easily disseminate inaccurate information, and I would believe unless I was presented with a strong counter voice that also gave physical and visual evidence of the contrary. It's an interesting thought...that I put so much trust in my political, military, and journalistic leaders. I trust them with representing me/America...and also trust that the information given to me by them is true. I also hope that they are good and fair, and do an honest job of it. ...Kind of scary when you really think about it.
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