- On April 26, 1937, the Nazi Luftwaffe dropped 100,000
pounds of bombs on the peaceful Basque village of Guernica, Spain on the
urging of the Fascist Generalisimo Francisco Franco. At the end of the
day, Guernica was in total ruins and 1,654 Basque civilians had been slaughtered
and 889 wounded. The world in those days was horrified by the deed. Generalisimo
Franco initially denied to the press that the raid ever took place. Later,
when photographs of the massacre were published, the Fascist Franco blamed
the destruction of Guernica and the killings on those who defended it.
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- The brutal attack on the Basque civilians by massive
and indiscriminate bombardment was immortalized by the Spanish artist Pablo
Picasso in his 1937 painting titled "Guernica". The painting
"Guernica" has now become a worldwide symbol of the horrors of
war waged by evil fascists and dictators who place no value on human life
in their pursuits of political goals and conquest of natural resources.
Thomas Gordon and Max Morgan in their book, "Guernica: The Crucible
of World War II" quotes a survivor, "The air was alive with the
cries of the wounded. I saw a man crawling down the street, dragging his
broken legs.... Pieces of people and animals were lying everywhere....
In the wreckage there was a young woman. I could not take my eyes off her.
Bones stuck through her dress. Her head twisted right around her neck.
She lay, mouth open, her tongue hanging out. I vomited and lost consciousness.
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- "Guernica" is back. This time it is not about
the Nazi Luftwaffe dropping bombs on a village in Spain but about the USA
dropping bombs and massacring hundreds of civilians that include women
and children in the town of Fallujah, Iraq. As Franco in "Guernica",
the USA military is denying that it is targeting civilians, but censored
reports are filtering out of Iraq that say that over half of the Mosques
in the city lie in ruins and that US Marines are utilizing outlawed lethal
gasses against the city's defenders which are also causing massive casualties
among the civilians that remain in the city. Other reports in the Arab
media talk about hundreds of civilian casualties under the rubble of homes
that were hit by USA bombs during the initial military "softening"
of the city. Gruesome photographs of the dead are reminiscent of the survivor's
account of "Guernica" as quoted above.
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- It is ironic that in February 5th of 2003, when Secretary
of State Colin Powell was making a call for war against Iraq before the
United Nations Security Council in New York City, that the copy of Picasso's
"Guernica" on the second floor of the UN building was "covered"
with a large drape. Just 24 hours after Powell failed to convinced the
doubtful U.N. Security Council members, President George W. Bush declared
"The game is over" and launched the brutal Zionist inspired "Shock
and Awe" attack against Iraq.. The number of Iraqi civilians that
have been blown to pieces by USA bombs and missiles since then are still
being counted.
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- Fallujah today is America's Guernica and the USA media
is covering up the criminal murderous military operation under way. In
addition there is absolutely no outcry from the USA political establishment.
This points to a deep spiritual and moral malaise among Americans and decay
in the leadership of the USA.
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- The media is not raising any objections to the war crimes
in Fallujah but instead make the savage military operations as if they
were normal. The media reports conceal from Americans the true character
of the vicious military assault which is to destroy a significant source
of opposition to the USA colonialist occupation and its puppet regime.
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- Like Generalisimo Franco in Guernica, Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld is lying to the American public about the number of Iraqi
civilian casualties in Fallujah. There are about 30,000 civilians left
in Fallujah and many of these have already been killed. The rest are "fair"
targets in the house to house US Marine assaults. It will take months if
not years to determine the extent of the civilian massacre.
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- Fallujah is America's Guernica! Who would have foreseen
that the country that liberated Europe from those responsible for Guernica
would today take their place? Bloodthirstiness now pervades the USA media,
the political establishment and large portions of the American people.
One shudders to think were all this will lead. Armageddon perhaps?
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