Target Iraq: What The News Media Didn't Tell You

TARGET IRAQ: WHAT THE NEWS MEDIA DIDN’T TELL YOU Copyright 2003 by Norman Solomon and Reese Erlich Introduction copyright 2003 by Howard Zinn; an earlier version of this piece appeared in The Progressive. Afterword copyright 2003 by Sean Penn Appendix One was originally published by FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting). All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States of America. Context Books, New York. www.contextbooks.com Jacket and interior design: Beau Friedlander Typeface: Minion Context Books 368 Broadway Suite 314 New York, NY 10013 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data for Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn’t Tell You furnished upon request. ISBN 1-893956-39-3 987654321 Manufactured in the United States of America NORMAN SOLOMON EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC ACCURACY REESE ERLICH FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT TARGET IRAQ: WHAT THE NEWS MEDIA DIDN’T TELL YOU INTRODUCTION BY HOWARD ZINN AFTERWORD BY SEAN PENN CONTEXT BOOKS NEW YORK 2003 Table of Contents Introduction by Howard Zinn vii Prologue by Norman Solomon xv Solomon: Iraq at the Precipice Erlich: Media Coverage: A View from the Ground 11 Solomon: The Media’s War 21 Erlich: Voices from the Iraqi Streets 35 Solomon: Spinning 9/11, Terrorism, and Weapons of Mass Destruction 43 Depleted Uranium: America’s Dirty Secret 57 Solomon: Unilateral by Any Other Name 67 Erlich: Sanctions 85 Solomon: The March to War 97 Erlich: The Oil Issue 107 Sean Penn Afterword 117 Erlich: 3 Appendix 1: On the U.N. Spying Scandal 123 Appendix 2: IPA on Oct. 7, 2002 Bush Speech 125 Appendix 3: IPA on U.N. Security Council Resolution 154 Author Biographies 188 v Introduction by HOWARD ZINN In all the solemn statements by self-important politicians and newspaper columnists about a coming war against Iraq, and even in the troubled comments by some who are opposed to the war, there is something missing. The talk is about strategy and tactics and geopolitics, and personalities. It is about air war and ground war, about alliances and weapons of mass destruction, and arms inspections, about oil and natural gas, about nation-building and “regime change.” What is missing is what an American war on Iraq will do to tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of ordinary human beings who are not concerned with geopolitics and military strategy, and who just want their children to live, to vii Target Iraq grow up. They are not concerned with “national security” but with personal security, with food and shelter and medical care and peace. I am speaking of those Iraqis and those Americans who will, with absolute certainty, die in such a war, or lose arms or legs, or be blinded. Or