January 26, 2006
Yesterday, news
emerged that an Iraqi journalist was killed by US troops in Ramadi. The
journalist's body was riddled with bullets - some 20 of them.
I held my tongue, I had suspicions. It's a pattern, you see. Iraqi journalists getting picked off one by one.
Today, thankfully and to their credit, the Washington Post shed light on the incident. During
the fighting in Ramadi, Zaal Shehan Mahmoud, 30, a cameraman for the
Baghdad TV network, was killed by more than 20 bullets to the head,
abdomen and legs, according to Mohammed Dulaimi, a doctor at the Ramadi
hospital.
Baghdad TV is owned by the country's dominant Sunni
Arab political organization, the Iraqi Islamic Party, which recently
re-entered politics after boycotting elections held a year ago. A party
official, Baha Aldin Naqshabandi, said Marines mistook Mahmoud for a
fighter while he was gathering footage in the city's main market. He
had been sent to Ramadi to report on the condition of residents after
the recent outbreak of violence Will Larry King Live host this man's family?
Will CNN have exclusive interviews with his mother? His father?
Will Iraqi bloggers who shed tears over the kidnapping of Jill Carroll do the like for Zaal Shehan?
Will non-Iraqi bloggers make listings of which blogs write of Zaal Shehan's ordeal?
Will others set up donation funds for Zaal Shehan's family?
Will the Iraqi government launch an investigation? Will the US military? (ha!)
We know the answers. No ... for all.
Shame. 3aar.
Yallah,
let me hear from you illustrious commentators. Spin this story for me.
Find a way to exonerate yourselves and the US military which pays your
bills.
Racism. Neverending racism. And abject cowardice. We all
know the sheeqaq and neefaq (disunity and hypocrisy) of the Iraqis,
especially when they are in the company of westerners. It becomes a
competition to see which Iraqi can shove his head the farthest up a
white westerner's ass.
"Oh, TAI, you're so angry."
You
betcha. How could one not be absolutely aghast at the prevalent racism
that is allowing and sustaining the daily massacre of my people, my kin.
And what's more, with the collusion of many Iraqis, which grieves me on an entirely different level.
If this journalist killed by US forces were Jewish, what do you think the reaction would be?
If he were Swedish what would it be?
Let's not even surmise what kind of reaction an American killed in Iraq would get.
Eulogies,
obituaries, TV footage of candle-light vigils, stories of his
childhood, his tearing friends remembering how he threw a football.
But
Zaal Shehan, well, heck, he never existed because he was an Iraqi. A
non-being with no childhood, no history, nothing. And now, even his
name will be erased.
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