[ Scott Taylor, ufficiale canadese e reporter di guerra, critica
duramente le politiche occidentali dal Kosovo all'Iraq, e le menzogne
su cui esse sono state costruite.
Dopo aver documentato per anni la situazione in Kosovo e Macedonia,
Taylor e' stato recentemente rapito e rilasciato in Iraq, vedi:
Kidnapped by Ansar Al-Islam: How Scott Taylor Survived and Was Saved in
Iraq (by Christopher Deliso, Sept. 18, 2004)
http://www.antiwar.com/deliso/?articleid=3606 ]
http://www.gateway.ualberta.ca/view.php?aid=3808
War veteran accuses media of furthering lies
Erik Jacobs
Miscommunication and outright lies tainted the media’s coverage of both
Iraq and Kosovo, argued Scott Taylor, a veteran of the Canadian
military and editor of Esprit de Corps, the magazine of the Canadian
military.
Taylor, who spoke Tuesday, 18 January at ETLC made his case in a
presentation entitled “From Belgrade to Baghdad: How Mistakes in the
Balkans Led to Disaster in Iraq,” focusing on the two wars, and the
misinformation that followed.
“People like Madeline Albright were claiming 100 000 people were killed
in Kosovo,” Taylor said.
In actuality, Taylor explained only about 2000 Serbs and Albanians,
most of them fighters, were killed.
The effectiveness of the bombing campaign was similarly exaggereatd.
Despite claims of massive damage to the Serbian army relatively little
damage was done inactuality.
“The Americans spent $13 billion to destroy 13 tanks. That’s $1 billion
a tank,” Taylor said.
Taylor also sharply criticized the occupation of Kosovo after the
bombing campaign.
“[Serbian refugees] were dragged from their cars and beaten while NATO
troops looked on,” he said of NATO’s failure to protect Serbian
civilians in Kosovo.
“All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t make the
Albanians and Serbs like each other.”
Shifting to the post-11 September era, Taylor accused the Americans of
arrogance in their invasion of Iraq.
“We told the Americans that if you go that way, you’re going over a
cliff. They went that way, they went over the cliff, they’re burning,
and they’re asking us to get in the front seat,” said Taylor.
“[The Pentagon] said we’d be out of there in six months. That was what
their war planning was based on.”
Taylor also noted that morale has been slipping.
Despite the fact that the US armed forces voted four to one for the
Republicans, many soldiers in Iraq are getting frustrated, especially
those who had their tours extended.
Additionally, US efforts to train a new Iraqi army and police have had
little success. Half of the police force is considered unreliable; 40
per cent deserted and another ten per cent turned on the Americans.
Taylor also described how six heavily armed police stations in the city
of Mosul were overrun with hardly a shot fired.
Taylor was highly critical of the media for not properly reporting the
failures in Kosovo and Iraq. He said although outright censorship is
rare, distortion is not.
Taylor related one incident in which a copy editor changed a story he
had written about an atrocity committed by Albanian rebels’ allies in
Macedonia.
“[The copy editor] switched it, because he knew from what he’d read
about Kosovo that it was the Albanians who were the victims, so he
changed it to a Macedonian atrocity.”
The structure of the media itself can be a detriment to discovering the
truth in a conflict, Taylor said.
“They pay the money for the
airfare, they pay the person to go over there, they pay for the
satellite phone at ten bucks a minute for them ... they’d better have a
story,” he said.
“You can’t get in there and say, ‘Listen, I’m going to look around for
a couple weeks, get the feel of things,’” he said, noting journalists
often end up repeating what other major news outlets are saying rather
than doing their own research.
Taylor stressed the necessity of learning the truth about past mistakes
and failures so that we may learn from them in the future.
“Nobody wants to go back and look at the mistake that Kosovo was,” he
said.
Failing this kind of self-criticism, Taylor predicted dire consequences
for the US.
“We may be seeing the beginning of the end of the American empire,” he
said.
Ultimately, Taylor said that it is up to the public to demand the truth.
“People have to be questioning, should be questioning, what is
happening,” he said.
duramente le politiche occidentali dal Kosovo all'Iraq, e le menzogne
su cui esse sono state costruite.
Dopo aver documentato per anni la situazione in Kosovo e Macedonia,
Taylor e' stato recentemente rapito e rilasciato in Iraq, vedi:
Kidnapped by Ansar Al-Islam: How Scott Taylor Survived and Was Saved in
Iraq (by Christopher Deliso, Sept. 18, 2004)
http://www.antiwar.com/deliso/?articleid=3606 ]
http://www.gateway.ualberta.ca/view.php?aid=3808
War veteran accuses media of furthering lies
Erik Jacobs
Miscommunication and outright lies tainted the media’s coverage of both
Iraq and Kosovo, argued Scott Taylor, a veteran of the Canadian
military and editor of Esprit de Corps, the magazine of the Canadian
military.
Taylor, who spoke Tuesday, 18 January at ETLC made his case in a
presentation entitled “From Belgrade to Baghdad: How Mistakes in the
Balkans Led to Disaster in Iraq,” focusing on the two wars, and the
misinformation that followed.
“People like Madeline Albright were claiming 100 000 people were killed
in Kosovo,” Taylor said.
In actuality, Taylor explained only about 2000 Serbs and Albanians,
most of them fighters, were killed.
The effectiveness of the bombing campaign was similarly exaggereatd.
Despite claims of massive damage to the Serbian army relatively little
damage was done inactuality.
“The Americans spent $13 billion to destroy 13 tanks. That’s $1 billion
a tank,” Taylor said.
Taylor also sharply criticized the occupation of Kosovo after the
bombing campaign.
“[Serbian refugees] were dragged from their cars and beaten while NATO
troops looked on,” he said of NATO’s failure to protect Serbian
civilians in Kosovo.
“All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t make the
Albanians and Serbs like each other.”
Shifting to the post-11 September era, Taylor accused the Americans of
arrogance in their invasion of Iraq.
“We told the Americans that if you go that way, you’re going over a
cliff. They went that way, they went over the cliff, they’re burning,
and they’re asking us to get in the front seat,” said Taylor.
“[The Pentagon] said we’d be out of there in six months. That was what
their war planning was based on.”
Taylor also noted that morale has been slipping.
Despite the fact that the US armed forces voted four to one for the
Republicans, many soldiers in Iraq are getting frustrated, especially
those who had their tours extended.
Additionally, US efforts to train a new Iraqi army and police have had
little success. Half of the police force is considered unreliable; 40
per cent deserted and another ten per cent turned on the Americans.
Taylor also described how six heavily armed police stations in the city
of Mosul were overrun with hardly a shot fired.
Taylor was highly critical of the media for not properly reporting the
failures in Kosovo and Iraq. He said although outright censorship is
rare, distortion is not.
Taylor related one incident in which a copy editor changed a story he
had written about an atrocity committed by Albanian rebels’ allies in
Macedonia.
“[The copy editor] switched it, because he knew from what he’d read
about Kosovo that it was the Albanians who were the victims, so he
changed it to a Macedonian atrocity.”
The structure of the media itself can be a detriment to discovering the
truth in a conflict, Taylor said.
“They pay the money for the
airfare, they pay the person to go over there, they pay for the
satellite phone at ten bucks a minute for them ... they’d better have a
story,” he said.
“You can’t get in there and say, ‘Listen, I’m going to look around for
a couple weeks, get the feel of things,’” he said, noting journalists
often end up repeating what other major news outlets are saying rather
than doing their own research.
Taylor stressed the necessity of learning the truth about past mistakes
and failures so that we may learn from them in the future.
“Nobody wants to go back and look at the mistake that Kosovo was,” he
said.
Failing this kind of self-criticism, Taylor predicted dire consequences
for the US.
“We may be seeing the beginning of the end of the American empire,” he
said.
Ultimately, Taylor said that it is up to the public to demand the truth.
“People have to be questioning, should be questioning, what is
happening,” he said.