Propaganda Video

"Worthy" & "Unworthy Victims"

There is a deeply ingrained tendency among politicians and the mass media to make unstated but easily discernible distinctions between "worthy" and "unworthy victims". One beautiful 26 year-old Persian woman is worth a hundred Afghan 'ragheads.'

"Worthy victims" are killed by officially designated enemies of the inherently virtuous United States. Their deaths are reported in ways meant to elicit sympathy and to encourage outrage against their murderers. Some of them can become martyrs.

"Unworthy victims" perish at the hands of the intrinsically honorable United States and/or its officially designated allies and clients.

They die anonymously and without fanfare, passing down the memory hole devoid of sympathy in dominant U.S. media and political culture.

Their deaths often register little more than those of ants crushed beneath the wheels of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle or (to mention another great weapon of empire) a CNN camera truck.

Pop quiz question #1, fellow American: who is Neda Soltan? Who killed her?

Yes, that's right. She's the beautiful 26 year-old woman who was murdered on June 20th by (the story goes) a government sniper engaged in the repression of protests against a rigged election in Iran.

You knew that right away. Of course you did. Neda was all over U.S. television as a global democracy symbol for days - a ubiquitous and potent media image. Here's Fox News:

Neda Soltan, Young Woman Hailed as

Martyr in Iran, Becomes Face of Protests

Protesters in Iran are hailing 26-year-old Neda Soltan as a martyr after graphic videos of her apparent murder at a protest in Tehran hit the Internet. Iran experts say images of her bloody death have galvanized the country and that mourning for her — which has been banned by authorities — will bring deeper unrest.

"Neda," whose identity could not be verified by FOXNews.com, was reportedly gunned down by paramilitary police Saturday during protests in the capital city. Videos posted on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter show her bleeding from the nose and mouth as a crowd tries unsuccessfully to stanch the flow and save her life.

The video also shows a moving clip of a man identified as her professor cradling her head and yelling out, "Neda, don't be afraid. Neda, stay with me. Neda stay with me!”

America's 'State Media' are very good at pumping out the political propaganda but it's unable to stick to a story for very long [commercial pressures].

"Neda" was knocked off center stage by the ongoing death drama of the mysterious American pop icon Michael Jackson (the coverage of which most Americans find "excessive"). Neda was murdered by an officially designated U.S. enemy state.

No less an American than President Obama said he had watched the graphic Internet video of Neda's death.

"While this loss is raw and extraordinarily painful, we also know this: those who stand up for justice are always on the right side of history," Obama said. The president called the video "heartbreaking."

"I think that anybody who sees it knows that there's something fundamentally unjust about that," he claimed.

"No iron fist is strong enough to shut off the world from bearing witness," Obama added.

Pop quiz question # 2: name a single person among the more than ten dozen who died in the western Afghanistan village of Grani in Bala Boluk district in the province of Farah in the first week of last May.

Ninety-three of the people killed were children, many blown literally to bits. Angry and grieving villagers put some of the victims' body parts in pickup trucks and wagons and hauled them for public viewing to provincial headquarters.

On May 4th, Dr Atiqullah, a Grani resident, told Pajhwok Afghan News that "bombardment destroyed the whole village and some of the mutilated bodies were beyond recognition. He said they had so far retrieved 123 dead bodies from beneath the debris of the destroyed homes by using tractors."

Can't come up with a name? Of course you can't. The civilians in question were slaughtered from the sky by the world's only Superpower - the United States. They did not merit meaningful identification and personalization by U.S. communication authorities.

They and the many thousands of Afghans (and Iraqis and Pakistanis) that "we") have butchered in recent years are unworthy victims.

They died tragically - "regrettably" but inescapably - as "collateral damage" in the military campaigns of a morally splendid nation that seeks to do noble things - to spread freedom, peace, prosperity, and democracy - in the world.

As Obama told CNN's Candy Crowley last July, the U.S. should never apologize for any its actions - even for its sporadic "mistakes" (Obama has always refused to apply the word "crime" to any of Uncle Sam's many past transgressions) - on the global stage.

This, he explained, is because America is "force for good" in the world [wipe that smirk off your face!]

tags: iran  us  victim  propaganda