The Most Important Question to Ask About Patrick Cockburn: Is he repeating US and Iraqi Government's propaganda?

Yesterday’s question was: Is Patrick Cockburn repeating US and Iraqi Government's propaganda?

Today’s question is: Is Patrick Cockburn repeating US and Iraqi Government's propaganda?

A few weeks ago, in an article titled “The Most Important Questions to Ask About the Trial of Tariq Aziz”, Patrick Cockburn, to describe the assassinated Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, used the following words: Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler, Stalin and monster, all at once. Even Bush has never dared much!

Mentioning Ali Hassan al-Majid, a former Iraqi Defense Minister of the Republic of Iraq and a general of the Iraqi Army before the supreme international crime, the illegal Anglo-American invasion in 2003, Cockburn writes, “also known as ‘Chemical Ali’”. Of course the propagandized Western audiences, while know nothing about Iraq and its history, surely must have read and heard “Chemical Ali” thousands of times; that was part of the Anglo-American propaganda to invade the country after all. [For a different view on this specific issue, read here]

Some excerpts from Cockburn’s essay:

“Many Iraqis say their lives were safer under Saddam but this does not mean they want him back. They know he ruined their country.”

And now, you readers know as well. Let’s forget the First Gulf War, the Anglo-American imposed UN genocidal embargo and the 2003 supreme international crime, the Anglo-American invasion and occupation of Iraq – still going on.

“Will Tariq Aziz be given a fair trial? Iraq is still engulfed in war and no trial will be regarded as fair by all of the population (…) The trials are not fair but then neither was Nuremburg.”

After what happened to Saddam Hussein (and his lawyers) and other members of his government, Cockburn here may win the Pulitzer for reporting from Mars.

“Should the trials be stopped because they inflame hatreds? No.”

Of course not, Patrick! How could possibly “Iraq's new rulers” let you do your job if you wrote anything different?

“How will history judge Saddam and his lieutenants? Saddam Hussein was a monster.”

Of course, “history” never judges anything; the winners do, with the help of the “first rough draft of history", that journalism playing an essential role in modern propaganda. Besides, have you ever heard or read our journalists calling Bush, Blair & Co. “monsters” when in fact they are responsible for unspeakable crimes and sufferance all over the world?

Like the Lernaean Hydra, propaganda has many heads. The problem is, the anti-war movement and the left are no Hercules.