Why We Fight Page #10

prose and cons of this particular war.

We have a Congress that failed in every way

to ask the right questions,

to hold the President to account.

Our Congress failed us miserably.

And that's because many in Congress are

beholden to the military industrial complex.

I would think Eisenhower...

He must be rolling over in his grave.

In some ways the military industrial complex

may become so pervasive that it's now invisible.

This is about ideas and influence,

what's safe for your career.

Being seen in opposition to strong

defense policies is the liability.

Not just for politician who

wants to run for President,

but for an expert who wants

to make a name in town,

for a journalist who wants

to get his or her story...

on a front page of the paper.

In this way we're strickting the level of

discussion to this rush for war.

Mr. Vice President, do you

think the American people

are prepared for a long

costly and bloody battle?

I don't think it's likely to unfold that way,

because I really do believe we

will be greeters liberators.

Now we're just starting to see the

creepings of the sun coming up.

As we approach the city

low deck of clouds showed up.

In the past that would have been the bad thing,

cause in the airfront 17 we

dropped lazer guided bombs.

So if you can't see your target,

you can't drop a bomb on it.

This day I had the enhanced TV,

now I was kind of happy.

They couldn't see me, I couldn't see them.

But my bomb could find a spot on the ground.

Still people are heading towards west.

The target area was called Dora farms.

It was a Presidential type palace

along of the side of the river.

I see the river. I know I'm

in right part of the town...

where I was told I need to deliver a bomb.

And let's just have a look at the scenes live,

sirens are being sounded in the Iraqi capital.

Pressed in across the target I think

our time over target was about 0530.

And so I let the bombs go.

Let them ring.

Those sirens...

I think it's been heating up.

We dropped 4 enhanced TBU 2000

pump bunker satellite guided.

There's the large blast.

They both came off.

Seemed to come off.

I didn't notice anything at first,

I dropped bombs before.

When the weapons flew out

of the airplane, I realized

that this is the opening strike

of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

And I said:
Well, if we did our job tonight,

this whole thing might be over tomorrow.

Honestly what we saw the first day

of the war astonished us.

And most of the doctors

were in a state of anger.

There were shrapnel injuries

to women and children, civilians...

...all of them were civilians.

In the first days of war,

we didn't receive any soldiers.

The first group was from Dora.

The wounded were civilians

who were in their houses at dawn...

...when an explosion happened.

There's no question the strike on that

leadership headquarters was successful.

We have photographs of what took place.

The mystery of what happened begins here,

at a palace compound called Dora farms.

One weapon clearly missed. Others landed just

outside the wall destroying other buildings.

What happened was my son and

my brother's two sons were in a house.

In Dora. They were in a

house with their friend...

...and a missile fell on them.

I think I was reading something

about the bombing in Iraq.

And I get this e-mail: To

major Thomas. V. Johnson...

from lieutenant commandor Stephen Franzoni.

The private to the capral

to the captain to this...

It must have been like 42 e-mails.

And some of them was saying:

Well I don't know if we can do this.

Normally we do not take personal requests.

Son died on 9/11. He wants to know

if we could put his name on bomb.

Piercing it up Harry, this is Jerry.

Do you think we can do something like that?

Joe, fairly easy, don't you think?

Well, let me go ask Harry.

And you read this whole list of e-mails.

Sorry for the delay, but business is booming.

The weapons don't stay still

long enough to write on them.

And finally it goes to this Marine Air Division.

Can do. Semper Fi.

I get back to pictures.

I'm looking at the picture

that's saying:
Holy smokes!

This is a picture of bomb and

then a close-up of the same bomb.

And on the side of it:

In loving memory of Jason Sekzer.

And the story that this is

a 2000 pound guided bomb

and that it was dropped on April, 1

and it met with 100% success.

The weapons that are being used

today have a degree of precision

that no one ever imagined.

A family inside their house

sleeping and they bomb them.

Is that smart? Is that a smart missile?

For a long time the Americans

military's been emphasising

this idea of precision guided ammunitions.

That we can now wage war and

prevent casualties to civilians.

It's simply isn't true. The

bombs aren't that reliable.

The precision guidance isn't that good.

I would say is there a personal computer owner

who's not had his machine bomb on him

or loses work that day

there's not a one who

hasn't had that experience.

During the first 6 months of

the Iraq war, 50 precision...

airstrikes were conducted

against Iraqi leadership.

Of these strikes, none hit its intended target.

Now the military industrial

complex is handling it.

He provided guys with all sorts of weapons

and basically a level of technical arrogance

that we can go do anything we want

cause we got smart weapons,

that'll do the job with

minimum of collateral damage.

But it's be as far as I'm concerned.

NAJI SHEESHAN Director, Baghdad Morgue

The yard of the hospital

was filled with corpses.

The corpses that we saw, ninety

percent of them were civilians...

I have records to confirm

it. I can show you the books.

Ninety percent were civilians.

Children.

I can show you in my books.

This is the special record book

for the people killed in the war.

Housewife...

Soldier...

Student... Student...

Soldier... Student...

Civilian... Housewife...

Civilian... Civilian...

Worker... Housewife...

Worker... Worker...

Child... Child...

Housewife... Housewife...

Housewife... Female student...

There's no security, no freedom.

There's nothing.

Still seems like a dream to me.

I mean we tell stories about it,

we sit down and talk with our kids.

You get some tough questions.

You get asked by your daughter:

Did you go out and tried to kill Saddam Hussein?

And that's a tough one to

answer to a little kid.

When we saw him on TV, one said:

I guess we didn't get him.

But in the end we got him.

How many times in a lifetime does

an individual get the opportunity

to get the opening shots in a

conflict that will liberate people.

You got a weapon?

So let there be no doubt

that the liberation of Iraq...

U.S. TOLL REACHES 500

U.S. TOLL IN IRAQ CROSSES 2,000 MILESTONE

With U.S. casualties mounting in Iraq...

Bomb exploded and two men were shed

there today on a horrific scale.

Under fire from critics who charge he's been

blurring the lines between Iraq and 9/11th

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