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Shedding
No Tears for Iraqi Civilians
by
Firas Al-Atrqchi
April
3, 2003
On
March 31st, ten women and children were killed near Najaf when a van they were
in was riddled with fire from U.S. Marines who had tried to get it to stop at a
military checkpoint. After Saturday's suicide bombing that caused the death of
four U.S. Marines at another checkpoint, coalition forces are now instructed to
shoot at any vehicle or person that does not stop.
U.S.
Marines said they had shouted at the driver to stop but to no avail. They then
fired warning shots, but the van ploughed on. The matter is still under investigation.
(According
to the BBC, and quoting the Washington Post, there are conflicting reports that
the warning shots were fired too late to warn off the van. "You just
[expletive] killed a family because you didn't fire a warning shot soon
enough!" the paper quotes Captain Ronny Johnson as telling his platoon
leader.)
U.S.
officials are worried this incident will weigh heavily on their campaign to win
the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people and convince them that this is a war
of liberation.
(Professor
Des Ball, of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre of Canberra's Australian
National University (ANU), believes that the coalition may already be losing
the publicity war: "Saddam and his regime will go but the coalition's
other war aims, I believe, are in tatters,")
Last
week, embedded London Times reporter Mark Franchetti gave the following
chilling account of a battle that ensued for a strategic bridge over the
Euphrates river:
"Down
the road, a little girl, no older than five and dressed in a pretty orange and
gold dress, lay dead in a ditch next to the body of a man who may have been her
father. Half his head was missing."
Franchetti
reports that the U.S. Marines have become disillusioned after nearly two weeks
of fierce fighting with Iraqi forces. The fight for the bridge at Nasiriyah
will likely be forgotten as just another chapter in the war. However, for
Franchetti it brought him face to face with the horrid facade of a war plan
gone wrong:
"But
it was also the turning point when the jovial band of brothers from America
lost all their assumptions about the war and became jittery aggressors who
talked of wanting to 'nuke' the place."
While
one soldier confided to Franchetti that he was horrified at the civilian toll,
other U.S. Marines have taken a different approach to liberating Iraq:
"The
Iraqis are sick people and we are the chemotherapy," said Corporal Ryan
Dupre. "I am starting to hate this country. Wait till I get hold of a
friggin' Iraqi. No, I won't get hold of one. I'll just kill him."
Innocent
Iraqis are being killed by the dozens every day in the current phase of the
war.
Agence
France Presse reported that "20 people including 11 children, were killed
Saturday when a nighttime air raid hit a farm in the Al-Janabiin suburb on the
edge of Baghdad."
On
April 2nd, Al Jazeera news network reported that Bartallah, a predominantly
Iraqi Christian town north of Mosul, suffered heavy civilian casualties after a
night of intense coalition bombing. The local chief surgeon at the hospital
reported that there were 120 dead and wounded civilians brought into the
hospital within the past week.
Al
Jazeera showed footage of an Iraqi Christian with severe injuries to his face
and head. In the bed next to him lay his wife, who miscarried shortly after
being brought into the hospital. Local doctors said her face required 200
stitches and will likely be disfigured. The couple did not know at press time
that their three-year old daughter had died in the bombing.
By
the time there is a cessation of hostilities, thousands of dead Iraqi civilians
will have been liberated. Supporters of the war are echoing Madeleine Albright
and stating that it is better for Iraqis to be killed and liberated than to be
butchered by Saddam. A popular myth making the rounds on the internet is that
Saddam butchers many more Iraqis than anyone else, therefore this war is good
for the Iraqis.
The
dead in Bartallah might disagree. If they could speak, that is.
Firas Al-Atraqchi, B.Sc (Physics), M.A.
(Journalism and Communications), is a Canadian journalist with eleven years of
experience covering Middle East issues, oil and gas markets, and the telecom
industry. He is a columnist for YellowTimes.org.
He can be reached at: firas6544@rogers.com