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British media use ‘puppy dog’ imagery to sell genocidal attack on Libya

8 November 2011 38,780 views 6 Comments

By the Editor.

Warning: this article contains graphic imagery of a very distressing nature.

After devastating Libya and partaking in the murder of an estimated 100,000 Libyan men, women and children, RAF pilots return home to their families in the UK. In a deeply obscene news update, the Daily Mail is literally using ‘puppy dog’ imagery to cynically whitewash the murderous war crimes that these British pilots have committed.

The article of November 1st, titled: ‘Overjoyed spaniel welcomes home her master as Libya Tornado crews return‘, contains heartwarming photos of an RAF pilot’s spaniel dog(1) being reunited with her master. The “touching scenes” include another RAF pilot’s three year-old son “looking on proudly“, dressed in his miniature RAF uniform.

In the report, RAF Wing Commander Andy Turk repeats the ‘no boots’ lie, “Because there were no British troops, it was very important that the RAF maintained our intelligence and surveillance“. This is one of the most notorious myths of the Libya war; not mentioned in the piece is the well-known fact that British SAS troops have been on the ground(2) in Libya, leading the ground war ever since February.(3)

What is perhaps even more sickening than this grotesque display of ‘puppy dog’ jingoism is the comments posted by Daily Mail readers. Comments included “Fantastic job done again guys and lovely pictures. Welcome home and well done,” and “My son worked round the clock at RAF Lossiemouth to keep those GR4 Tornadoes flying to Lybia, via Italy. Proud of you, son“. One reader even felt the need to voice how uplifting the story was: “Best story I’ve read all week. All the pics are great but the spaniel’s unbridled joy at seeing her loved one return is especially uplifting“.

This contemptuous piece of ‘journalism’ serves as a reminder of how emotion and opinion has been manipulated over the Libya war. Here, the utter criminality of NATO’s genocidal onslaught has been whitewashed by the heartwarming imagery of a pining puppy dog. These are heights of manipulation that this writer previously thought unreachable, even by the most cynically depraved minds.

One has to wonder how the British public would react if the fruits of these pilots’ labours were published instead of this sentimental hogwash.

What would the world think if NATO’s deliberate terror-bombing of the Libyan people’s national water supply(4) was common knowledge?

Perhaps the British people should know about the RAF raid launched on Zlitan in August,(5) which killed 85 civilians including children. This raid was carried out by No. 9 Squadron RAF, based at RAF Marham. This is the very same squadron that is featured returning home, to RAF Marham, in The Daily Mail’s ‘puppy dog’ piece. The pilots pictured are very likely directly responsible for the deaths of those innocents.

Perhaps the British media could print the story of Libyan man Khaled K. El-Hamedi,(6) whose entire family was murdered by NATO including his pregnant wife Sala, his 3 year-old son Khweldi, his 4 year-old daughter Khalida, his son Salam who was 1 year old, and 13 other family members and friends who were staying overnight at their home following the celebration of their son’s third birthday.

Maybe the people of the UK and the world should know that NATO has practically levelled Sirte to the ground. Through the employment of ‘Fallujah tactics’(7) and the indiscriminate bombing and firing this involves, the city has been terrorised and brutalised in unimaginable proportions.

The fruits of NATO’s labours in Sirte and wider Libya are at once horrifying, nightmarish, and heartbreaking. In Sirte, medical staff have been overwhelmed as the bodies of innocent civilians including young children(8) have poured into Ibn Sina Hospital.

How would Daily Mail readers react to seeing the following young girls in the same hospital in Sirte, languishing in unimaginable pain and terror after being maimed in a NATO bombing raid? One of the young children has had her lower jaw ripped away, while the girl next to her lays still, catatonic, after having her legs mangled by NATO ordnance.

Fantastic job, guys. Welcome home and well done.

Needless to say, it is easy to imagine precisely how the British public would react if presented with the realities of the Libya war. British citizens would oppose the war with unmitigated disgust and outrage, instead of the tacit support that has characterised mainstream opinion – manipulated by the sort of poisonous propaganda peddled by the likes of The Daily Mail.

Notes

(1) ‘UK pilots return to RAF base after seven-month deployment to Libya’ – The Daily Mail, November 1, 2011.
(2) ‘Libya: full-scale US invasion planned for October; special forces on ground since February’ by Martin Iqbal.
(3) ‘NATO paves the way for civil war & foreign occupation as Western oil giants pounce on Libya’ by Martin Iqbal.
(4) ‘Pure Evil: NATO Attacked Libyan Water Supply Pipeline and the Factory that Makes Replacement Pipes’ by Scott Creighton.
(5) ‘Bombing of Zlitan by the RAF’ – Human Rights Investigations, August 21, 2011.
(6) ‘Testimony of a Libyan man who has filed a lawsuit against NATO for killing his family’ – Eccleza.net, November 5, 2011.
(7) ‘NATO & NTC militia employ ‘Fallujah’ tactics in Sirte; critical humanitarian catastrophe unfolding as civilians are openly targeted’ by Martin Iqbal.
(8) ‘Ibn Sina Hospital, Sirte: doctor speaks, overwhelmed, over corpses of children killed by NATO’ – empirestrikesblack.com, September 27, 2011.

6 Comments »

  • brian said:

    even more: what if the german pilots returning form their Blitz runs appeared in the german media with their puppy dogs, and the german public crying for joy

  • Lisa said:

    Read the book “End Game” by Derrick Jensen. Our civilization is the problem. Libya could have lived sustainable. I am so sorry about the people… They are innocent and so is the dog. We can see clearly that human beings can be the worst monsters and still can be nice at other times. Nothing is black and white ever. Still this will not bring the life of innocent civilians back… No wonder all these soldiers get PTS.
    They can’t be with themselves for what they have done will longer till the end of times. The collective memory of crimies are stored somewhere.

  • Alhamask said:

    Martin, did this sinister war cause any damage to the Chinese influence in Africa? Also, who exactly ordered the attack on Libya?

  • noor al haqiqa said:

    Hi Martin. I am posting this piece in my blog, Hope you are ok with that.

    American media does this sort of thing allllll the time. I live in a Canadian naval base town, the thing is actually just a few hundred feet from my home. When the ships come back, the media is overwhelmed with cute toddlers, newborns, families reunited, puppy dogs with wagging tails, yada yada yada.

    All the public hears is they are back from “a mission in so and so and been away for X number of months” as if to deny importance on “the mission” and focus on the months of family separation and all that nifty emotional stuff. Of course, like the puppy above, these children and families are being exploited to hell and back but no one questions it.

    “Feel good” journalism at its schmuckiest.

    It keeps them focused, the public I mean, on the local, not the international ramifications of that mission. NEVER of course in the Zionist operated Canadian media is much if anything heard of the victims of said mission. It is up to us independents to expose expose expose and pray eventually that the word gets out.

    The posting just prior to this one of yours that I did last night is on Libya and all the good Qaddafi did for the women of Libya. However, then I post the images from a Chinese paper of what was done to some of his “Amazon virgin” guard.

    Yanno, if people read the Green Book they might learn something about the “villain” known as Qaddafi. The jamahirayah (I never spell that right) is a worthy movement to support as it has supported so many others in the past.

    I see the amount of villification of Qaddafi to be in direct proportion to how much good he also did and just how terrified they were of him and his motives ~ and his true self.

    The British should see those images of the broken guard girls to learn what these creatures do to any who worked with the Colonel. Smile, I never put warnings regarding imagery in my pieces. The photos are a major part of the impact I wish to make although once in an article on cannibalism I posted the images on a separate page because they truly were upsetting and, once seen, you cannot undo it.

    Keep up the gooood work. I enjoyed listening to you with Mark and Jonathan on The Ugly Truth btw. Hope there is more of you there in the future!

  • jan said:

    Hitler too loves his dog to !

  • Loki said:

    The sad reality is that they use this stuff because they know ignorant people will suck it up like a sponge to water. This stuff gives people an excuse to support the system than to expend energy in acting against it, takes more energy to swim against the current than to swim with it. I am sorry to say the public sickens me more than the pilots. Personally I live a life of guilt for things I have directly done, indirectly done, others have done, others have not done and for things I have not done, hence I see no reason why others should not feel an incredibly guilt that burns you up, you and I are apart of this system, the media is sick, the government is sick, corporations are sick, soldiers are sick, everyone one of you including myself is sick. We still live in this system, what the system does is your fault as well as theirs. I tend to look at things like this with anger but I feel sad, all people do is try to fight for the highest spot on the righteous mountain, we are all in the gutter, until you accept and realise this nothing can be done.

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