I wrote a short piece back in 2004 about the siege of Fallujah. Folks may remember this savage battle although the name Fallujah has conveniently disappeared from the airwaves. The Troops Met a Nasty Bunch, was the title of the piece, a title given to me by the US colonel in charge of the slaughter who was obviously surprised by the fierce resistance people gave to the presence of foreign occupiers in their country.
The residents of Fallujah had to be taught a lesson. Some of them had killed four U.S. mercenaries; employees of Blackwater, then burned their bodies and publicly displayed them. Then the population refused to hand over their weapons to U.S. forces despite being asked nicely.
A back and forth went on for months until the US ordered marines to storm the city supported by artillery and aerial bombing. The US admitted that it used white phosphorus in the invasion. The resistance was fierce despite the massive use of firepower, Patrick Cockburn, writing in the British Independent, points out that even British officers were “appalled by the lack of concern for civilian casualties”
Cockburn refers to a recent study that reveals the devastating effects of the bombing of Fallujah on the residents of that city. Iraqi doctors tell of being “overwhelmed” by birth defects including a “girl born with two heads”. The study also reveals that the increases in infant mortality, cancers and leukemia are greater than those reported by the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Cockburn’s article is an important read and you can find it here
The assault on Fallujah was in 2004 but prior to the invasion of Iraq by the U.S., hundreds of thousands of children died due to the sanctions imposed on the Hussein regime during the nineties by the U.N. at the behest of the US and Britain. Then there are the cancers and deformed children that are still being born due to the use of depleted uranium by the US. Even American troops were affected by it. Those of us must remember US Secretary of State Madeline Albright’s response when she was asked on US television back then if she thought that the death of half a million Iraqi children was a price worth paying, Albright replied: "This is a very hard choice, but we think the price is worth it."
Numerous UN officials were so disgusted at the situation, the murder of so many innocents, that they resigned their posts. One UN worker John Pilger spoke to in 1999 explains:
"The change in 10 years is unparalleled, in my experience," Anupama Rao Singh, Unicef's senior representative in Iraq, told me. "In 1989, the literacy rate was 95%; and 93% of the population had free access to modern health facilities. Parents were fined for failing to send their children to school. The phenomenon of street children or children begging was unheard of. Iraq had reached a stage where the basic indicators we use to measure the overall well being of human beings, including children, were some of the best in the world. Now it is among the bottom 20%. In 10 years, child mortality has gone from one of the lowest in the world, to the highest." (1)
I remember when I was growing up in England whenever the troubles in Northern Ireland were on TV which was frequently, I never heard about British terrorism, only Irish, and mostly Catholic terrorists. Terrorists are always someone else’s terrorists. The leaders of the American revolution were terrorists to the colonial power. Now here in the U.S. we hear of terrorists all the time. Everything bad that happens is the work of terrorists, usually, Al Queda. But Rumsfeld, Bush, Wolfowitz, these mass murderers are walking around free and a white working class woman that grew up in a trailer park served time for torture in Iraq. Kissinger is another terrorist and mass murderer. These guys are terrorists par-excellence.. Bin Laden is small potatoes as they say when compared to these guys.
Like Iraq, Vietnamese children are still being born deformed due to the Dioxin the US sprayed on them and their food forty years ago. They also sprayed it on their own troops. Do we as Americans honestly believe that this activity by a government that claims to represent our wishes is winning us respect and friendship around the world? I think not.
And the damage this activity does to young workers who are denied a decent job at home is tragic. Perhaps folks remember the words of the mother of the Vietnam veteran who was at Mi Lai that Seymour Hirsch quoted after visiting her on her Indiana farm: "I gave them a good boy, and they sent me back a murderer."
We are all capable of the most horrendous acts under certain conditions. And giving free rein to a 23 year old with a gun and a penchant for violence can have severe consequences. Below is an extract from Black Hearts: One Platoon's Descent Into Madness In Iraq's Triangle Of Death, by Jim Frederick. It describes the murder of an Iraqi family by U.S. troops that were found out and subsequently imprisoned. It is from the Guardian UK and can be found here.
“As Green was executing the family, Cortez finished raping Abeer and switched positions with Barker. Green came out of the bedroom and announced to Barker and Cortez, "They're all dead. I killed them all." Cortez held Abeer down and Green raped her. Then Cortez pushed a pillow over her face, still pinning her arms with his knees. Green grabbed the AK, pointed the gun at the pillow, and fired one shot, killing Abeer.”
The predatory wars of U.S. capitalism are the great recruiters for whoever opposes them, no matter what tactics or methods they use.
There will be many disturbed young people coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan and, as usual, the US government will not be so quick to help them recover from the hell they sent them to. That’s why they have prisons.
(1) Squeezed To Death: John Pilger Guardian UK 4-3-2000
"Just because you don't take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you." Pericles, 430 BC
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