Baghdad Burning. Girl Blog from Iraq-

2004-12-09

Richard Moore

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From: William Bowles <•••@••.•••>
Subject: Baghdad Burning. Girl Blog from Iraq-

http://www.williambowles.info/iraq/girl_blog_161104.html

News and opinions on situation in Iraq

16/11/04
Baghdad Burning. Girl Blog from Iraq-


Tuesday, November 16, 2004

I'm feeling sick- literally. I can't get the video Al-Jazeera
played out of my head:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=535&ncid=535&e=2&u=/ap/20041116/ap_on_re_mi_ea/fallujah_prisoner_shot

The mosque strewn with bodies of Iraqis- not still with prayer
or meditation, but prostrate with death- Some seemingly
bloated- an old man with a younger one leaning upon him- legs,
feet, hands, blood everywhere- The dusty sun filtering in
through the windows- the stillness of the horrid place. Then
the stillness is broken- in walk some marines, guns pointed at
the bodies- the mosque resonates with harsh American voices
arguing over a body- was he dead, was he alive? I watched,
tense, wondering what they would do- I expected the usual
Marines treatment- that a heavy, booted foot would kick the
man perhaps to see if he groaned. But it didn't work that way-
the crack of gunfire suddenly explodes in the mosque as the
Marine fires at the seemingly dead man and then come the
words, "He's dead now."

"He's dead now." He said it calmly, matter-of-factly, in a
sort of sing-song voice that made my blood run cold- and the
Marines around him didn't care. They just roamed around the
mosque and began to drag around the corpses because,
apparently, this was nothing to them. This was probably a
commonplace incident.

We sat, horrified, stunned with the horror of the scene that
unfolded in front of our eyes. It's the third day of Eid and
we were finally able to gather as a family- a cousin, his wife
and their two daughters, two aunts, and an elderly uncle. E.
and my cousin had been standing in line for two days to get
fuel so we could go visit the elderly uncle on the final day
of a very desolate Eid. The room was silent at the end of the
scene, with only the voice of the news anchor and the sobs of
my aunt. My little cousin flinched and dropped her spoon, face
frozen with shock, eyes wide with disbelief, glued to the
television screen, "Is he dead? Did they kill him?" I
swallowed hard, trying to gulp away the lump lodged in my
throat and watched as my cousin buried his face in his hands,
ashamed to look at his daughter.

"What was I supposed to tell them?" He asked, an hour later,
after we had sent his two daughters to help their grandmother
in the kitchen. "What am I supposed to tell them- 'Yes
darling, they killed him- the Americans killed a wounded man;
they are occupying our country, killing people and we are
sitting here eating, drinking and watching tv'?" He shook his
head, "How much more do they have to see? What is left for
them to see?"

They killed a wounded man. It's hard to believe. They killed a
man who was completely helpless- like he was some sort of
diseased animal. I had read the articles and heard the stories
of this happening before- wounded civilians being thrown on
the side of the road or shot in cold blood- but to see it
happening on television is something else- it makes me crazy
with anger.

And what will happen now? A criminal investigation against a
single Marine who did the shooting? Just like what happened
with the Abu Ghraib atrocities? A couple of people will be
blamed and the whole thing will be buried under the rubble of
idiotic military psychologists, defense analysts, Pentagon
officials and spokespeople and it will be forgotten. In the
end, all anyone will remember is that a single Marine shot and
killed a single Iraqi 'insurgent' and it won't matter anymore.

It's typical American technique- every single atrocity is lost
and covered up by blaming a specific person and getting it
over with. What people don't understand is that the whole
military is infested with these psychopaths. In this last year
we've seen murderers, torturers and xenophobes running around
in tanks and guns. I don't care what does it: I don't care if
it's the tension, the fear, the 'enemy'- it's murder. We are
occupied by murderers. We're under the same pressure, as
Iraqis, except that we weren't trained for this situation, and
yet we're all expected to be benevolent and understanding and,
above all, grateful. I'm feeling sick, depressed and
frightened. I don't know what to say anymore- they aren't
humans and they don't deserve any compassion.

So why is the world so obsessed with beheadings? How is this
so very different? The difference is that the people who are
doing the beheadings are extremists- the people slaughtering
Iraqis- torturing in prisons and shooting wounded prisoners-
are "American Heroes". Congratulations, you must be so proud
of yourselves today.

Mykeru.com has pictures:
www.mykeru.com/weekly/2004_1114_1120.html#111604

Excuse me please, I'm going to go be sick for a little while.

- posted by river @9:37 PM
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