Thursday, March 20, 2014

Actual Jubilation in Crimea vs. Orchestrated Celebration in Iraq: Can You Spot the Difference?


I. Actual Jubilation in Crimea


The first three videos embedded below are coverage of the celebrations in Crimea regarding the referendum to join Russia. The first is news and footage from western mainstream media sources and the next two contain raw footage provided by RT, the Russian-based television network.

I thought it was prudent to supply the news from the western sources so there would be no doubt as to the authenticity of the footage, just in case anyone thought that the jubilation in Crimea and Russia were orchestrated. We can now move onto Iraq, since there is nothing more to say about Ukraine and Crimea that hasn’t already been said HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Russia Won Crimea Vote - Celebrates Victory over Joining Russia


'We're coming home!' Crimea celebrates after 97% vote for joining Russia


Ukraine: Sevastopol celebrates Crimean referendum with fireworks and flags



II. Orchestrated Celebration in Iraq


The two videos embedded below are of the 9 April 2003 orchestrated celebration that was broadcast around the globe by mainstream media (2) supposedly of a spontaneous gathering of Iraqis marching down Firdos Square in the center of Baghdad to topple Saddam Hussein’s statue.

taking down saddam


SADDAM'S STATUE TOPPLES


This event was staged. The crowd was small, gathered by the coalition forces, and surrounded by the U.S. military. To complete this farce, in response to what was taking place, Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense at the time, told reporters:
“The scenes of free Iraqis celebrating in the streets, riding American tanks, tearing down the statues of Saddam Hussein in the center of Baghdad are breathtaking. Watching them, one cannot help but think of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Iron Curtain.”
The Toppling: How the Media Created the Iconic Fall of Saddam's Statue


As Robert Fisk pointed out, it was “the most staged photo-opportunity since Iwo Jima.” David Robie, professor in Auckland University of Technology School of Communication Studies, stated that:
“I watched BBC World in the lead-up to the toppling. The square was largely empty except for three strategically positioned U.S. Abrams tanks and an armored personnel carrier plus a small paltry crowd of 100 or so, many of then apparently journalists. A BBC World news presenter kept asking, ‘Where is everybody?’”
The mainstream media did not report this as a staged event with barely anyone there to witness it, except for their cameras of course. They celebrated this propaganda extravaganza:
"It is absolutely, without a doubt, a vindication of the strategy." (BBC News at Six, April 9)…

"A war of three weeks has brought an end to decades of Iraqi misery." (ITN Evening News, April 9)…

“On the BBC's News At Ten (April 9), Matt Frei pushed the accepted media interpretation of events: ‘For some, these images have legitimised the war’, he suggested….

"Frankly, the main mood [in Downing Street] is of unbridled relief. I've been watching ministers wander around with smiles like split watermelons." (BBC News At Ten, April 9)…

"[Blair] said that they would be able to take Baghdad without a bloodbath, and that in the end the Iraqis would be celebrating. And on both of those points he has been proved conclusively right." (Marr, BBC 1, News At Ten, April 9, 2003)…”
Below you will find four pictures: two wide angle shots of the square showing the small crowd surrounded by the U.S. military, one close up picture of the crowd surrounding the statue, and the fourth, most telling of all, a U.S. soldier draping an American flag on the head of Saddam Hussein’s statue. A video interview with this soldier follows the pictures. (click images to enlarge)









Video: 10 years later: Saddam and the American flag


III. Can You Spot the Difference?


Can you spot the difference between what’s taking place in Crimea and what took place in Iraq? If not, below you will find three videos that will hopefully shine a light on the situation: the first is of George W. Bush declaring the end of hostilities in Iraq in his infamous 2003 ‘Mission Accomplished’ speech given on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln parked just off the coast of San Diego; the second video is of Obama flexing his muscles after NATO and its allies bombed the shit out of Libya, a country that use to have the highest living standard in Africa before we destroyed it; and the third video is of Madeline Albright valuing children’s lives based on their citizenry.
“During his presidency, Bill Clinton presided over the most devestating regime of economic sanctions in history that the UN estimated took the lives of as many as a million Iraqis, the vast majority of them children. In May of 1996, 60 Minutes aired an interview with Madeline Albright, who at the time was Clinton’s UN Ambassador. Correspondent Leslie Stahl said to Albright, ‘We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And — and you know, is the price worth it?’

“Madeline Albright replied ‘I think this is a very hard choice, but the price — we think the price is worth it.’”
It’s amazing that the architects for the normalization of assassinations and those who embraced redefining ‘civilians’ as ‘combatants’ in the drone wars have the audacity to criticize the Crimea referendum, or anything else for that matter. As Ron Paul has pointed out:
“Critics point to the Russian ‘occupation’ of Crimea as evidence that no fair vote could have taken place. Where were these people when an election held in an Iraq occupied by U.S. troops was called a ‘triumph of democracy’? Perhaps the U.S. officials who supported the unconstitutional overthrow of Ukraine's government should refocus their energies on learning our own Constitution, which does not allow the U.S. government to overthrow governments overseas.”
Bush: "Mission Accomplished"


President Obama's Libya Speech in 3 Minutes


Madeleine Albright - 60 Minutes


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