A source on politics, war, the Middle East, Arabic poetry, and art.
Thursday, April 01, 2004
Americans never miss an opportunity to feign innocence, especially when it comes to American presence (and occupations) around the world. And some are ignorant enough of world affairs that they genuinely feel that the US government is innocent and noble in its global interventions. Yes, the pictures in Iraq yesterday were horrific and gruesome, but so were the non-pictures of US killing of more than 30 Iraqis in that same Falujah only last week. How many of you were also horrified at that killing of Iraqis? Oh, but let us now pretend, a la Israel, that all Iraqis killed are terrorists, and all Palestinians killed are terrorists. Yes, it was awful how people were cheering the killing of people yesterday in Falujah, but I can render that judgment myself because I do not cheer the killing of people in general, any people. So let me ask you: how many of you cheered the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq? How many of you saluted the troops in the course of the wars, which resulted in the killing of thousands of innocent Afghans and Iraqis? You are then just like the cheering crowd in Falujah. No different whatever. So stop feeling superior. Come down from your high-horse, and count the civilian toll of the Iraqi war. According to one estimate, the results of the war have killed more than 10,000 civilians. But maybe the scenes of burning Iraqi bodies do not evoke emotions in people who only mourn victims who belong to the superior master race. How many of you readers knew that more than 30 Iraqis were killed last week in Falujah, and how many of you care? It is time that Americans, people and media especially, take another look at Iraq. It is time that we dismiss the silly and idiotic scenarios, according to which Saddam in his hole, and later Abu Mus`ab Az-Zarqawi, directed all attacks on Americans. Even the most pro-war journalist, John Burns of the New York Times, has figured it out finally. Here is his conclusion from today's piece: " Several Iraqis interviewed on Wednesday, including middle-class professionals, merchants and former members of Mr. Hussein's army, suggested that the United States might be facing a war in which the common bonds of Iraqi nationalism and Arab sensibility have transcended other differences, fostering a war of national resistance that could pose still greater challenges to the Americans in the months, and perhaps years, ahead."