October 26, 2005
For a few days now we
have been reading one article after another anticipating the day the
number of US military personnel killed in Iraq reaches 2000.
MSNBC.com's lead story, Grim Milestone, led the charge focusing on US fatalities.
Article
after article examined the operations of the insurgency, the changing
tactics of the US military, the adaptive resistance, and so on.
For example, according to Reuters UK,
military analysts are saying the incapacity of the US military to
function and adapt in Iraq is forcing a critical rethink in military
strategem.
The media is delving deeper into Iraq stories. Read the incredibly morbid article by Dexter Filkins at the New York Times.
Titled
"The Fall of the Warrior King", it is a frightening look into some of
the nearly inhuman thinking of the US military when things go wrong.
Excerpts: In
late November 2003, I drove with a photographer to Sassaman's base as
the Iraqi insurgency was gathering force. As we wound our way down a
country road, we spotted Sassaman and a handful of his men standing on
the roadside, gathered round an Iraqi man. It was an interrogation.
"If
you weren't here with your camera, we would beat the [expletive] out of
this guy," one of the soldiers said. He may have been bluffing, but he
was clearly frustrated....
When his men
came under fire from a wheat field, Sassaman routinely retaliated by
firing phosphorous shells to burn the entire field down. The ambush
site would be gone, and farmers might be persuaded not to allow
insurgents to use their land again. The best
explanation for such tactics was offered by an officer in the Fourth
Infantry Division. Echoing the private comments of many American
officers, he said that the Iraqis seemed to understand only force. "To
an American, this might upset our sense of decency," he added. "But the
Iraqi mind-set was different. Whoever displays the most strength and
authority is the one they are going to obey. They might be bitter, but
they obey."
That's how slavery works, yes'um mastah.
Odierno
signed off on the wrapping of Saddam Hussein's birthplace, Awja.
Destroying homes and detaining people as quasi hostages - those, too,
were being condoned by American generals....
I just didn't
come out and say exactly what happened. I didn't have anything to gain
by ordering a cover-up. There was no way I was going to let them
court-martial my men, not after all they had been through."....
One
paradox, which Sassaman and not a few others pointed out, was that the
Americans could have shot Marwan and Zaydoon that night, and no
American officer would have raised an eyebrow. Two young Iraqi men, in
a nasty Sunni town, caught driving a pickup after curfew: Iraqi
civilians have been killed for less. Yes, from the mouths
of babes, Iraqi civilians have been killed for less. Racism? Prejudice?
Venom? Insanity? What can you call it.
And to add insult to
injury, the US media calls today a Grim Milestone. For whom? Every day
since the invasion has been a grim milestone for us. Every day another
Iraqi is killed is a grim milestone.
Every day medical services
break down is a grim milestone. Every day Iraqis have to fear walking
the streets is a grim milestone.
Here is a story from a cousin
of mine, a Christian, in Baghdad. Two cars tried to force him off the
road ... they kept trying to make him pull over and he figured he
wasn't going to be able to outdrive them so he drove into a crowded
area ... pulled over, scrambled out of his car and threw himself into
someone else's car through the backseat window ... and begged the two
men to drive him away ...
Someone in the pursuing car began firing into the crowd in the direction of the crowd. Fortunately, no one was hurt.
That, for me, is a grim milestone.
I
am sure the mother of the fallen US soldier - number 2000 - doesn't
care about the constitution or anything else but her son. Yes, it is a
grim milestone for her.
But what about the mother of soldier #1999? Was it not a grim milestone for her?
It is the most difficult thing to lose a child.
A seven-year-old was killed in a suicide attack in Baghdad today.
I wonder what his mother and the mothers of tens of thousands of other Iraqis are doing right now.
I would wager they waited until MSNBC and the rest of the pack told them it today was a grim milestone.
Ridiculous.
ABC
is calling the deaths the price of progress. I wonder if the people at
ABC head office would view it as progress if they had to drink infested
water, or walk through sewage in their neighborhoods, or dodge bullets
from the trigger-happy.
Yes, progress alright.
Democracy
cannot, should not, and will not be measured by the power to vote. It
will be measured by the sanctity of human life. The human life the
current Iraqi government does not pay attention to. Their system of
documenting the deaths of their own citizenry is laughable.
Independent journalists have done a better job.
Democracy is measured by the standard of living - access to medical care, access to clean water, safety, security.
The PR machine in the US says there cannot be democracy without security which is why soldiers must go overseas to defend it.
We have no security in Iraq. We have no democracy. There is nothing to cheer about.
"Quick to point out 2000 is a number not a milestone," ABC commentator just said.
Mashallah. Just a number.
That's the problem. It is not a number. It is broken lives, ended dreams, bereaved souls.
Because
of the way the US Department of Defense reports military fatalities the
2000th soldier was named as Staff Sgt. George T. Alexander, Jr., 34, of
Killeen, Texas. He died on Oct. 22.
That's a name, not a number.
The seven year old Iraqi boy today? Not named. Not one media report had his name.
That's
how much his government cares about him. Sure his death can be blamed
on every -ist there is. But at least, in death, his government should
have some dignity and award him his.
Shameful. Democracy at work.
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