von http://www.ccmep.org/2003_articles/Iraq/041903_our_last_occupation_gas.htm) No one, least of all the British, should be surprised at the state of anarchy in Iraq. We have been here before. We know the territory, its long and miasmic history, the all-but-impossible diplomatic balance to be struck between the cultures and ambitions of Arabs, Kurds, Shia and Sunni, of Assyrians, Turks, Americans, French, Russians and of our own desire to keep an economic and strategic presence there. Laid waste, a chaotic post-invasion Iraq may now well be policed by old and new imperial masters promising liberty, democracy and unwanted exiled leaders, in return for oil, trade and submission. Only the last of these promises is certain. The peoples of Iraq, even those who have cheered passing troops, have every reason to mistrust foreign invaders. They have been lied to far too often, bombed and slaughtered promiscuously. Iraq is the product of a lying empire. The British carved it duplicitously from ancient history, thwarted Arab hopes, Ottoman loss, the dunes of Mesopotamia and the mountains of Kurdistan at the end of the first world war. Unsurprisingly, anarchy and insurrection were there from the start. The British responded with gas attacks by the army in the south, bombing by the fledgling RAF in both north and south. When Iraqi tribes stood up for themselves, we unleashed the flying dogs of war to "police" them. Terror bombing, night bombing, heavy bombers, delayed action bombs (particularly lethal against children) were all developed during raids on mud, stone and reed villages during Britain's League of Nations' mandate. The mandate ended in 1932; the semi-colonial monarchy in 1958. But during the period of direct British rule, Iraq proved a useful testing ground for newly forged weapons of both limited and mass destruction, as well as new techniques for controlling imperial outposts and vassal states. The RAF was first ordered to Iraq to quell Arab and Kurdish and Arab uprisings, to protect recently discovered oil reserves, to guard Jewish settlers in Palestine and to keep Turkey at bay. Some mission, yet it had already proved itself an effective imperial police force in both Afghanistan and Somaliland (today's Somalia) in 1919-20. British and US forces have been back regularly to bomb these hubs of recalcitrance ever since. Winston Churchill, secretary of state for war and air, estimated that without the RAF, somewhere between 25,000 British and 80,000 Indian troops would be needed to control Iraq. Reliance on the airforce promised to cut these numbers to just 4,000 and 10,000. Churchill's confidence was soon repaid. An uprising of more than 100,000 armed tribesmen against the British occupation swept through Iraq in the summer of 1920. In went the RAF. It flew missions totalling 4,008 hours, dropped 97 tons of bombs and fired 183,861 rounds for the loss of nine men killed, seven wounded and 11 aircraft destroyed behind rebel lines. The rebellion was thwarted, with nearly 9,000 Iraqis killed. Even so, concern was expressed in Westminster: the operation had cost more than the entire British-funded Arab rising against the Ottoman Empire in 1917-18. The RAF was vindicated as British military expenditure in Iraq fell from £23m in 1921 to less than £4m five years later. This was despite the fact that the number of bombing raids increased after 1923 when Squadron Leader Arthur Harris - the future hammer of Hamburg and Dresden, whose statue stands in Fleet Street in London today - took command of 45 Squadron. Adding bomb-racks to Vickers Vernon troop car riers, Harris more or less invented the heavy bomber as well as night "terror" raids. Harris did not use gas himself - though the RAF had employed mustard gas against Bolshevik troops in 1919, while the army had gassed Iraqi rebels in 1920 "with excellent moral effect". Churchill was particularly keen on chemical weapons, suggesting they be used "against recalcitrant Arabs as an experiment". He dismissed objections as "unreasonable". "I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes _ [to] spread a lively terror _" In today's terms, "the Arab" needed to be shocked and awed. A good gassing might well do the job. Conventional raids, however, proved to be an effective deterrent. They brought Sheikh Mahmoud, the most persistent of Kurdish rebels, to heel, at little cost. Writing in 1921, Wing Commander J A Chamier suggested that the best way to demoralise local people was to concentrate bombing on the "most inaccessible village of the most prominent tribe which it is desired to punish. All available aircraft must be collected the attack with bombs and machine guns must be relentless and unremitting and carried on continuously by day and night, on houses, inhabitants, crops and cattle." "The Arab and Kurd now know", reported Squadron Leader Harris after several such raids, "what real bombing means within 45 minutes a full-sized village can be practically wiped out, and a third of its inhabitants killed or injured, by four or five machines which offer them no real target, no opportunity for glory as warriors, no effective means of escape." In his memoir of the crushing of the 1920 Iraqi uprising, Lieutenant-General Sir Aylmer L Haldane, quotes his own orders for the punishment of any Iraqi found in possession of weapons "with the utmost severity": "The village where he resides will be destroyed _ pressure will be brought on the inhabitants by cutting off water power the area being cleared of the necessaries of life". He added the warning: "Burning a village properly takes a long time, an hour or more according to size". Punitive British bombing continued throughout the 1920s. An eyewitness account by Saleh 'Umar al Jabrim describes a raid in February 1923 on a village in southern Iraq, where bedouin were celebrating 12 weddings. After a visit from the RAF, a woman, two boys, a girl and four camels were left dead. There were many wounded. Perhaps to please his British interrogators, Saleh declared: "These casualties are from God and no one is to be blamed." One RAF officer, Air Commodore Lionel Charlton, resigned in 1924 when he visited a hospital after such a raid and faced armless and legless civilian victims. Others held less generous views of those under their control. "Woe betide any native [working for the RAF] who was caught in the act of thieving any article of clothing that may be hanging out to dry", wrote Aircraftsman 2nd class, H Howe, based at RAF Hunaidi, Baghdad. "It was the practice to take the offending native into the squadron gymnasium. Here he would be placed in the boxing ring, used as a punch bag by members of the boxing team, and after he had received severe punishment, and was in a very sorry condition, he would be expelled for good, minus his job." At the time of the Arab revolt in Palestine in the late 1930s, Air Commodore Harris, as he then was, declared that "the only thing the Arab understands is the heavy hand, and sooner or later it will have to be applied". As in 1921, so in 2003. von http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWiraq.htm "Iraq (Mesopotamia) is the land which lies between the rivers Euphrates and Tigres in the Middle East. The area was devastated by the Mongols in the 15th century and in 1638 became part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. During the First World War people from Iraq served with the Turkish Army. In 1916, important figures such as Faisal ibn Ali and Nuri es-Said changed sides and began working closely with T. E. Lawrence. Faisal ibn Ali became the leading Arab military commander and led the troops into Damascus on 3rd October 1918. After the war the country was occupied by the British Army. In 1920 the League of Nations granted Britain a mandate to control the area. Britain provided Iraq with a constitution and arranged for Faisal ibn Ali, the son of Sharif Husain of Mecca, to become king of Iraq. Winston Churchill, Minister of War and Air, estimated that around 25,000 British and 80,000 Indian troops would be needed to control Iraq. However, he argued that if Britain relied on air power, you could cut these numbers to 4,000 (British) and 10,000 (Indian). The government was convinced by this argument and it was decided to send the recently formed Royal Air Force to Iraq. An uprising of more than 100,000 armed tribesmen took place in 1920. Over the next few months the RAF dropped 97 tons of bombs killing 9,000 Iraqis. This failed to end the resistance and Arab and Kurdish uprisings continued to pose a threat to British rule. Churchill suggested that chemical weapons should be used "against recalcitrant Arabs as an experiment." He added "I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes to spread a lively terror" in Iraq. In 1923 Squadron Leader Arthur Harris took command of 45 Squadron. He decided to use gas attacks and delayed action bombs on the Iraqi tribes. One RAF officer, Air Commodore Lional Charlton, resigned in 1924 after visiting a hospital that contained civilian victims of these air raids. However, Harris disagreed and remarked "the only thing the Arab understands is the heavy hand."
Um den Bezug zur Vergangenheit herzustellen darf natürlich die Milzbrand nicht fehlen - und siehe da, wir finden sie auch in der Vergangenheit: "UK planned to wipe out Germany with anthrax Allies' World War Two shame Sunday Herald, London, 14th October 2001 By GEORGE ROSIE AS THE world recoils at the horrific possibility of al-Qaeda terrorists waging anthrax war against United States citizens, the Sunday Herald can reveal that Britain manufactured five million anthrax cattle cakes during the Second World War and planned to drop them on Germany in 1944. The aim of Operation Vegetarian was to wipe out the German beef and dairy herds and then see the bacterium spread to the human population. With people then having no access to antibiotics, this would have caused many thousands-perhaps even millions-of German men, women and children to suffer awful deaths. The anthrax cakes were tested on Gruinard Island, off Wester Ross, which was finally cleared of contamination in 1990. Operation Vegetarian was planned for the summer of 1944 but, in the event, it was abandoned as the Allies' Normandy invasion progressed successfully. Details of the wartime secret operation are contained in a series of War Office files (WO 188) at the Public Record Office in Kew. Some of the files are still classified. The man whose task was to carry out Operation Vegetarian was Dr Paul Fildes, director of the biology department at Porton Down near Salisbury in Wiltshire. Fildes had previously been in charge of the Medical Research Council's bacterial chemistry unit at Middlesex Hospital. In early 1942, Fildes began searching Britain for suppliers and manufacturers of linseed-oil cattle cake to make five million small cakes. Large quantities of the bacillus itself had to be produced, while special containers to carry the cattle cakes had to be designed and made. Some RAF bombers had to be modified to deliver the anthrax-infected payload. And all of it had to be done as cheaply as possible. The raw material for the cake was provided by the Olympia Oil & Cake Company in Blackburn. The contract to cut the cattle cake into small pieces went to J & E Atkinson of Bond Street in London, perfumers and toilet-soap manufacturers and suppliers to the royal family. The Atkinsons calculated that they could produce 180,000 to 250,000 cakes, each 2.5cm in diameter and 10 grammes in weight, in a 44-hour week. The price was to be between 12 and 15 shillings per thousand. The firm pledged to deliver 5,273,400 cakes by April 1943. By the middle of July 1942, the Atkinsons informed Fildes that 'we are now producing at the rate of 40,000 per day'. The anthrax was manufactured by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries at its veterinary laboratory in Surrey. An Oxford academic named Dr E Schuster was set to work devising the pump to inject the bacilli into the cattle cakes. The Porton Down scientists settled on cube-shaped cardboard containers, 18cm square, to carry the infected foodstuff. Each held 400 cakes. They would be fitted with a steel handle 'of a size which enables the operator to grasp the handle without difficulty when wearing thick leather or moleskin gloves . . . ' Thirteen women were then recruited from various soap-making firms, sworn to secrecy and given the job of injecting the cattle cakes with anthrax spores. At the same time, Fildes and his team were working on the best way to deliver the diseased cattle feed to the German herds. The RAF's research unit came up with a simple solution-easily made wooden trays that fitted on to aircraft flare chutes. Their Bomber Command Lancasters, Halifaxes and Stirlings were chosen for the job. By the beginning of 1944, Operation Vegetarian was ready to go. It was crucial to mount any attack in the summer months. Fildes said: 'The cattle must be caught in the open grazing fields when lush spring grass is on the wane.' 'Trials have shown that these tablets . . . are found and consumed by the cattle in a very short time. 'Cattle are concentrated in the northern half of Oldenburg and northwest Hanover. Aircraft flying to and from Berlin will fly over 60 miles of grazing land.' Fildes calculated that, at an average ground speed of 300mph, the distance would be covered in 18 minutes. 'If one box of tablets is dispersed every two minutes, then each aircraft will be required to carry and disperse nine, or say 10, boxes.' One Lancaster bomber returning from a raid on Berlin would be able to scatter 4000 anthrax-infected cakes over a 60-mile swathe in less than 20 minutes. A dozen aircraft would have been enough to litter most of the north German countryside with anthrax spores. Operation Vegetarian was a seriously deadly project. But, by the time Fildes's operation was ready to go in the summer of 1944, the Normandy invasion had taken place and Allied armies were crashing through northern France and up through Italy. The war against Nazi Germany was instead being won by conventional means. At the end of 1945, five million anthrax-infected cattle cakes were incinerated in one of Porton Down's furnaces."
Und, was will uns damit gesagt werden?
Daß sich bestimmte Sachen sich einfach nicht ändern, z.B. Ansonsten sei es als reine Information über etwas gedacht was nicht jeder weiß :-) Und Aufklärung ist doch ein heheres Ziel, dem sich sogar ein ganzer Berufsstand gewidmet hat!
Bei so langen Posts werde ich einfach müde, wie bei den Steuererklärungen auch. Gebt es mir in kleinen Portionen bitte. ts
Ich habe doch gehofft in solch einem quasiwissenschaftlichen Forum wäre die Aufnahmefähigkeit größer als bei den durchschnittlichen Zuhörer von "Sabine Christiansen" oder "Richterin Barbara Salesch"!
Also gut, eine Kurzzusammenfassung: * die britische RAF bombardierte den Irak schon 1921, übrigens auch damals mit einem "Völkerbundsmandat" * Man erfand damals schon das Instrumentarium von schweren Bombern, Terrorbombardierungen (pausenlos + konzentriert), Nachtbombardierungen, Bomben mit Verzögerungszündern, Vorläufern von Napalm etc. * Ungehorsame Iraker wurden damals für die Boxer zum Üben als Punching-Sack verwendet. * Die britische Armee war verzückt über den Terror, den sie mit dem Einsatz von Giftgas erzielte. * Hauptakteure waren schon damals die Menschenfreunde "Sir" Winston Churchill und "Butcher" Arthur Harris, welche so für Dresden, Hamburg und Berlin üben konnten. Gerade Churchill war begeistert über die Kosteneffizienz dieser Maßnahmen....
Danke für die gute Zusammenfassung, ich wusste es z.B. noch nicht..
Der zweite Teil beschäftigt sich mit der "Operation Vegetarier" - dem geplanten Einsatz biologischer Waffen (Anthrax/Milzbrand) durch die RAF. Es war schon alles fertig, nur waren dann die eigenen Truppen schon zu weit in Deutschland. Auch die Amerikaner mußten dann ihre Atombomben woanders ausprobieren - gottseidank hatte Japan ja noch nicht kapituliert....
"Operation Vegetarier - Großbritannien plante Deutschland mit Anthrax auszulöschen. Unsere Schande des 2. Weltkriegs." Übersetzung des Anfangs: "Als sich die Welt bei dem Gedanken an die Anthrax-Anschläge in den USA überschlägt enthüllte die Zeitung "Sunday Herald" daß Großbritannien 5 Millionen Stück anthraxverseuchtes Kuhfutter (übersetzt "Kuhkuchen") während des 2. Weltkrieges hergestellt hatte und diese über Deutschland einsetzen wollte. Das Ziel der Operation war es, die deutschen Milch- und Fleischkühe auszulöschen und danach zuzusehen wie sich die Seuche zwangsläufig auf die Menschen überträgt. Ohne verfügbare Antibiotika hätte dies tausende, wenn nicht gar Millionen von Opfern erfordert, welche einen grausamen Tod erlitten hätten. Die Anthrax-Kuchen wurden auf der später dafür berüchtigten Gruinard-Insel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruinard_island) getestet, welche erst 1990 für als wieder begehbar galt.
un? HeinzSchenk trinkt Äppler in großen Mengen. Wie soll ich reagieren? ts
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