Story misleading; war breeds culture of hatred
“U.S. official: Iraq firefight video real,” reads the headline in The Seattle Times [News, April 6]. Could there be a more misleading way to open this story?
Calling the incident a firefight suggests shots were fired by both sides, but readers who actually watch the video will see only a slaughter. No shots were fired by the men on the ground and it is clear most of them were unarmed —not “some” as the story claims.
U.S. troops are still killing civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. It does not mean all our troops are monsters; the nature of the occupation makes these killings inevitable.
Think how we could hate a Muslim occupier who killed unarmed Americans with canon fire from the air. The hatred we are sowing in Iraq and Afghanistan cannot possibly make us safer. The only way to stop this tragedy is to bring all our troops home now.
— Warren Jones, Seattle