Bill Sykes' Newsletter
from America.
(April 2003)
An ex-Brit gives his views-(without fear
or favor)---of the American Scene
Current status of the instant video war. (Headline
news reports).
Caveat: Most of these reports circulating on
American television news stations, cannot be verified
or confirmed by the writer due to inaccuracies, contradictions,
or information being withheld for security reasons. Of
course there is also the embodied propaganda that has
to be taken into account.
-
Conflicting stories are coming from round the clock
media coverage. We have three major news stations
which are providing instant on-site, (delayed for
security reasons), coverage of the war.
-
A number of our young men, (American and British),
have been killed in action, taken prisoner, killed
by mechanical failure of American helicopters, and
friendly fire incidents such as when an American Patriot
missile shot down a homecoming British Tornado aircraft.
-
During the early days of the war apparently three
Tomahawk missiles went a stray and landed in southern
Iran.
In a recent incident an F-16 fighter jet attacked
a Patriot missile site.
-
 International
news stations reported that it was suspected that
Saddam Hussein had been killed, or seriously wounded
when American missiles hit his Baghdad palace on the
first night of the war. Prime Minister Tariq Aziz
stated later that Saddam Hussein had not been killed
and is in good health. Who can one believe these days?
-
According to on-the-spot media personnel, (now called
"embedded" journalists), American and British
troops initially didn’t come under heavy fire,
resistance from Iraqi troops was sporadic, and the
coalition troops advanced at a reasonably rapid pace
in the take over of southern Iraq.
-
 After
a number of American troops were reported as having
been taken prisoner, Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld
and the President apparently suddenly re-discovered
the Geneva Convention.
Comment: Didn’t the same two people state, when
prisoners were taken in Afghanistan and shipped back
to a Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention camp that they
were not prisoners of war but were terrorists who
were a security risk to the American people and therefore
were not covered by the Geneva Convention?
Question: Did America strictly adhere to Article Seven
of the Geneva Convention in its treatment of Afghan
prisoners?
-
So far, if incoming reports are accurate, troops
have not discovered any weapons of mass destruction.
If such weapons of mass destruction do exist in the
Iraqi arsenal perhaps Saddam Hussein is withholding
them for use in the final battle for Baghdad.
-
A recent report provided details of a very unfortunate
and bizarre incident that occurred at an American
Base camp. Apparently a Sergeant of the American 101st
Airborne Regiment ran amok and was accused of throwing
grenades and firing an M16 rifle into three Command
tents. Captain Christopher Scott Seifert was killed,
Major Gregory Stone died later from wounds, and fourteen
others, (including their Commanding Officer Colonel
Ben Hodges), were wounded, some severely.
Sergeant Mark Kools, (also known as Asan Akbar), the
alleged attacker, who had been reported to have been
acting strangely during the days proceeding the incident,
was apprehended and will be handed over to a military
tribunal for trial.
-
Oil well fires are burning in the southern Iraqi
region of Rumaylah and trenches have been dug around
Baghdad, filled with oil and ignited which have generating
huge smoke screens which are causing much concern
to the advancing coalition forces.
-
The Pentagon reported with regret that a bus carrying
Syrian nationals fleeing from Iraq had been accidentally
bombed killing five and injuring many others.
-
The sudden elation and euphoria, experienced in
the United States during the initial days of the war,
has suddenly turned to grief when the casualty lists
started to be published.
Many other incidents have happened, which are too many
to report on an individual basis and I believe of course
that the BBC and other media are keeping the British people
fully informed.
We welcome feedback about any of the contents
of these newsletters. Please send all correspondence to
bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
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