Summer of Terror, South Korea 1950

The AP is running a story of the mass graves recently found in South Korea. Experts estimate 100,000 people killed by the U.S.-backed regime. The people executed were suspected leftists or hapless peasants. We are told that the South Korean dictatorship was concerned that the people they ended up executing might reinforce the North Koreans if the area was taken over. Regardless of the reason, extermination of civilians is a crime against humanity.

CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY: namely, murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, before or during the war; or persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds in execution of or in connection with any crime within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, whether or not in violation of the domestic law of the country where perpetrated.

A couple points are worth noting.  The AP ran another story explaining why it took so long for the truth to come out titled: “Fear, secrecy kept 1950 Korea mass killings hidden.”  However, we find near the end of the article that “[s]cattered reports of the killings did emerge in 1950 — and some did not.”

It is important to note that people at the time dismissed the atrocities at the time as fabrication and almost charged those who spread the stories with treason.

Earlier, correspondent Alan Winnington reported on the shooting of thousands of prisoners at Daejeon in the British communist newspaper The Daily Worker, only to have his reporting denounced by the U.S. Embassy in London as an “atrocity fabrication.” The British Cabinet then briefly considered laying treason charges against Winnington, historian Jon Halliday has written.

For those who dismiss this as some academic exercise left to the distant past.  Here is an example of the U.S. getting rid of Al Jazeera in Fallujah.

The U.S. military responded by ordering Al Jazeera out of Fallujah, so that the killing could continue without witnesses.  Gen. Mark Kimmitt declared, “The stations that are showing Americans intentionally killing women and children are not legitimate news sources.  That is propaganda, and that is lies.”  Four days later, on April 15th, Donald Rumsfeld said that Al Jazeera’s reporting was “vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable.  It’s disgraceful what that station is doing.” (pg. 194 Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders, and the People who Fight Back – Amy Goodman and David Goodman)

There is also considerable evidence the U.S. military specifically targeted Al Jazeera as one can glean from watching “Control Room.”  There are also some other cases documented in “Static” leading to the conclusion that “[t]he penalty for presenting unofficial truths soon became apparent: U.S. bullets and bombs were ultimately trained on Al Jazeera.” (pg. 197 Static)

A framework for understanding these issues is offered by Noam Chomsky.  Chomsky presents three types of terror: constructive, benign, and nefarious.

It takes a while for him to lead-in to it, but it is about 2:15 minutes in.

A “constructive” form of terror is what McCain advocates by bombing Iran.  We never put it exactly in those terms, but it is exactly what we are doing.  It is usually hidden behind some euphemism about “showing Iran” or giving them a black-eye or bloody nose.  It masks the fact that we are planning on destroying parts of Iranian infrastructure and indifferently killing some of the citizens of that country.  “Benign” forms of terror are mostly irrelevant for purposes of discussion.  “Nefarious” forms of terror are what the other-side does.  These are typically seared into the national psyche such as Pol Pot, Stalin, Mao, etc.

As Chomsky notes, we are more responsible for the atrocities of governments that we support than those that we oppose.  However, what I hope is clear is that the government cover-ups or downplays the actual effects of our violence or by our proxies and their human cost.  The mainstream media is frequently complicit in that portrayal.  The few who speak the truth to power are frequently branded as treasonous or unpatriotic.  These few are later vindicated.

It is my sincere hope that citizens in the United States will be able to recognize and react to these atrocities when they occur and help bring them to a close.  The first step to winning the true “War on Terror” is to end the acts of terrorism our own country engages in.