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The smell of rotting corpses pervades the city. Over 40,000 civilians were ruthlessly massacred, mostly by US terror-bombing – discussed in a previous article.
The city resembles a moonscape, few signs of life visible anywhere. Civilians able to get out are displaced refugees, largely on their own to survive – their homes, possessions and futures destroyed.
Tens of thousands of others are buried under rubble. Mosul is an open-air graveyard, one of many examples of US viciousness, what imperialism is all about – a rage for wealth, power and dominance no matter the human cost.
Contrast a sanitized NYT report with a candid one by Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi after visiting the city and witnessing the devastation firsthand.
The Times: Iraqi “Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi…congratulat(ed) (the nation’s) armed forces for wresting the city from the Islamic State (ISIS).”
The Times admitted months of battle left the city in ruins, killing thousands, displacing around a million of its residents.
Its report stressed triumph over genocidal mass slaughter and destruction. It said nothing about indiscriminate US terror-bombing, nothing about Washington’s support for ISIS and likeminded terrorist groups.
Source: RT News
It was silent about Ali Arkady’s firsthand reporting and photographic evidence of torture, abuse and cold-blooded murder of Iraqi military captives, civilians suspected of ISIS ties.
Embedded in an elite Iraqi interior ministry emergency response division, Arkady witnessed brutal interrogations to obtain forced confessions from suspected ISIS captives or sympathizers.
He later fled the country, taking his photographic and video evidence with him, exposing the brutality of regime practices – installed by Washington to serve its interests.
The Times quoted Abadi saying he came to Mosul “to announce its liberation and congratulate the armed forces and Iraqi people on this victory.”
Mosul was raped and destroyed, not liberated, the horror ongoing for months largely ignored by Western media, devastation and human suffering mostly suppressed – including horrific crimes of war and against humanity committed by US and Iraqi forces.
Marandi explained what The Times and other media failed to report. Interviewed by RT International, he said
“(t)he city is almost empty.”
“The devastation across the city, and it’s the second-most important city in Iraq, is extraordinary.”
“Those we spoke to were all seemed very pleased for the city to have been retaken, but they all said the American airstrikes were very devastating and very hurtful to ordinary people, and many civilians were killed.”
Marandi discussed Western media coverage of Aleppo last year and Mosul, saying:
“We also visited Aleppo after the liberation as well, and what was very interesting, or very unfortunate, was the devastation of East Aleppo, which was occupied by al-Qaeda in Syria, was very similar to the devastation we saw in West Mosul.”
“The bombing by the Americans destroyed so much of the west side of the city, yet the Western media said almost nothing about it.”
During the aerial and ground campaign to liberate Aleppo from US-supported al-Nusra terrorists, Russian and Syrian forces made extraordinary efforts to avoid or minimize civilian casualties – polar opposite how US and Iraqi forces operated in Mosul.
Western media wrongfully claimed Russian and Syrian forces indiscriminately targeted civilian areas. They ignored US terror-bombing of Mosul. The double standard needs no further elaboration.
Moscow established humanitarian corridors for Aleppo residents to leave the city. It provided vital humanitarian aid. America, other Western nations and the UN supplied nothing.
Marandi:
“Iraqis have been saying all this devastation since Saddam Hussein (was toppled) and up to now, the United States is to blame more than anyone else because they supported” him for many years.
America “create(d) ISIS, alongside the Saudis and unfortunately the Turkish government and the Qataris.”
“They funded the extremist groups as we know from the defense agency documents of 2012, and also the WikiLeaks documents which show that Hillary Clinton knew that in 2014, the Saudis and the Qataris were helping ISIS.”
“So the Iraqi people are very much aware of what’s going on, and they believe for over forty years of devastation, the United States more than anyone is to blame, alongside its regional allies.”
America’s imperial ruthlessness bears full responsibility for the rape and destruction of Iraq, Syria, and many other countries.
Its diabolical agenda is humanity’s greatest threat.
VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home – Stephen Lendman). Contact at [email protected].
My newest book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html
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