Maureen Clare Murphy, Electronic Iraq, May 27, 2003
Cover of the CD set. Click to visit www.firethistime.org
My guess is that when Grant Wakefield, peace activist and creator of the two CD project The Fire This Time, began his multimedia quest to document the sanctions of Iraq, he didn't anticipate or desire that the devastating sanctions would instead be swapped for a potentially equally disastrous long-term U.S. military occupation of Iraq. Unfortunately, this is the situation that exists today, after the anti-climactic U.N. announcement that the sanctions would be dropped and that the U.S. occupation is "legal."
Wakefield's four-year long endeavor, which culminated in the two CD set and website www.firethistime.org, aims to the dispel myths and misconceptions regarding the Gulf War and sanctions put forth by the U.S. and British governments and enforced by the popular news media. Wakefield and co-writer Miriam Ryle, who made the documentary film Voices from Iraq, traveled to Iraq "intending to update her documentary," as Wakefield writes on his website.
In addition to capturing "life in and around Baghdad," the pair conducted several interviews, including one with Hans Von Sponeck, U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq. Von Sponeck "went on record for the first time to say that he too had come to believe that the sanctions 'experiment' was over and, furthermore ... accuse[d] Britain and America of manipulating the sanctions to their own agenda and at the cost of Iraq's civilian population."
However, when Wakefield and Ryle submitted their unedited footage to the BBC and Channel 4 they were rejected without an apology. They were told by BBC World that "'We do not accept any rant pieces'" and asked by Channel 4, "'Did you film any executions?'"
With no media outlets willing to air their work, Wakefield and Ryle decided to make an audio CD. Happily, a CD might better accomplish the duo's goals, considering that the CD format, allowing for easy reproduction and distribution, may get into more hands than a film or video documentary, which are generally more expensive and difficult to copy. Immensely benefitting from meticulous research, the first CD in the set consists of spoken word, which narrates the politics and history that led to the sanctions on Iraq, coupled with ambient music, and countless sampled statements by politicians, media pundits, and journalists.
The music, which on the first CD responds to and complements the narration and samples, is strong enough to merit a CD of its own, featuring both highly addictive electronica melodies and some more contemplative ambient recordings. The instrumental CD is a wise marketing choice as well; the instrumental tracks by popular groups such as Orbital, Aphex Twin, and Higher Intelligence Agency will probably attract those without the attention span, or interest, to listen to a 77-minute long dissection of politics and the popular media in regard to the sanctions on Iraq.
My copy of the second disc I'm sure will soon gain many scratches and fingerprints, the symptoms (at least in my CD collection), of a successful and frequently played album. The first CD is equally as successful, although its function is entirely different. However, I'm not exactly sure whom Wakefield's audience will be. Considering American culture, and how what is visually visceral is king, it is hard to imagine having a spoken word CD having a very broad audience. Wakefield probably realizes this, and so the narration gives way to well-edited samples of disturbing, ironic, and dumbfounding statements from politicians. These include Madeline Albright's infamous response to the question of whether the deaths of thousands of children is worth continuing the sanctions, "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price...we think the price is worth it," and George H. W. Bush declaring, "This will not be...another Vietnam. ... We will not permit our troops to have their hands tied behind their backs. And I pledge to you there will not be any murky ending."
Wakefield goes way back in history to counter the pre-Gulf War American impression that Iraq is just a barren desert, and that this makes it okay to bomb. He states, "In the prelude to the Gulf War it was easy to think that Iraq had only just been invented. That there was nothing much to say about it as a country; that there was nothing much there to bomb." Wakefield reminds us what every art history student and scholar is told from the beginning of their studies, that Mesopotamia, now modern Iraq, was the "land where all written history began" and that "whilst Europe was populated with Stone Age tribes, the people of Mesopotamia were living in towns, and those towns had libraries."
Quickly fast forwarding to the 20th century, in between George H. W. Bush lamenting that he's frustrated about the propaganda campaign coming out of Baghdad that accuses the U.S. of striking civilian targets during the Gulf War and a U.S. official assuring, "We're doing out best to abide by the Geneva Convention," are reports by European broadcasters informing that "Iraq's infrastructure has been bombed again and again." Indeed, on another track, a U.S. talking head asks us to "Imagine Iraq like a human body ... what happens if you sever their spinal cord? They can't function...right?"
On track nine, entitled "Say Hello to Allah," a British official says, "we'll bomb them 'til they're not there anymore." The fast beats and distorted guitar feedback of Aphex Twin's music further pushes the tension between the deceptively optimistic, testosterone-fueled statements of U.S. and British military personnel and those of shell shocked journalists who report that:
"The Iraqis were sitting ducks...it was apocalyptic...in this inferno vehicles exploded and were ripped up by small arms fire...in the panic of the attack tanks and cars were crashing into each other...thousands and thousands of Iraqi vehicles all the way up the road...vehicles lie scattered and destroyed with bodies along the road-side...many too badly charred ever to be identified...we found a scene of carnage"
Not only is the CD very educational, but Wakefield's website archives a wealth of information as well. Numerous documents exist on the site, such as a list products banned from import into Iraq (including baby food and toy balls), a list of corporations that armed Iraq, and several transcriptions of speeches made by and interviews of U.N. and U.S. officials regarding the Gulf War.
The most troubling and disturbing of all of the sections on the website is the one called "The Human Cost." Photographs of children and fetuses with extreme birth defects, and conjectured diagnoses, are shown. Wakefield believes that the depleted uranium utilized by the U.S. military during the Gulf War are to blame for the sharp spike in birth deformations and cancer cases in Iraqi children. Of course, the sanctions prevented Iraqi hospitals to providing appropriate medial treatment, contributing to hundreds of thousands of child deaths. In addition to providing pictures of Iraqi children who are born without eyes, noses, and mouths, and with their internal organs outside of their bodies, Wakefield includes a few pictures of children of U.S. soldiers who have tragic deformities as well.
Sections devoted to providing information regarding depleted uranium, the targeting of Iraqi civilians, infrastructure, and agriculture are also present. Additionally, the entire script of the CD is included; quotations drawing from a multitude of sources are useful for anyone interested in learning more about the situation in Iraq. This website should be bookmarked by journalists, historians, and concerned citizens alike because, as Wakefield knows, mass education is the first step in counteracting the U.S. government's campaign of mass deception.
