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Letter from Baghdad
Peacemonger - 13.04.2003 12:46
Kathy Kelly of the Iraq Peace Team has been in Baghdad throughout the bombing. This is the first letter she has been able to send forsome weeks
Dear Friends,
It was with great relief that we received an update from Kathy today. Only through unreliable satellite connection have we received sporadic word from our team still in Baghdad. We think Kathy's letter which follows, speaks volumes to the current tragedy playing itself out on the streets of Baghdad
and undoubtedly, throughout Iraq.
Please bear with us as we discern next steps, not just with our team in Iraq but here at home as well. As government and media pundits alike insist that this war is "ending," we urge the doubling of efforts to call attention to the fact that war doesn't end for those who have lost limbs, loved ones, homes, and
precious sense of security to blind greed.
Hello Friends, April 10, 2003
Early this morning, Umm Zainab sat quietly in the Al Fanar lobby staring at the parade of tanks, APCs and Humvees that slowly rolled into position along Abu Nuwas Street. Tears streamed down her face. "I am very sad,"
she told me. "Never I thought this would happen to my country. Now, I think, my sadness will never go away."
Wanting to give Umm Zainab some quiet time, I took her two toddlers, Zainab and Miladh, outside to enjoy the sunshine and fresh air. Several soldiers stood guard not far from me and the children. I wanted to bring the
children over to them, to let them behold these tiny beauties. But, no, too much of a risk-what if it would add to Umm Zaineb's pain?
Eun Ha Yoo, our Korean Peace Team friend, unrolled a huge artwork created by a Korean artist, Chae Pyong Doh, and sweetly laid it out in the intersection just outside the Al Fanar. As I write, Neville Watson and Cathy
Breen are taking their turns sitting in the middle of it.
A map of the world covers the top third; grieving victims of war fill the middle
third; piles of ugly weapons with various flags scattered over them bulge out of the bottom third. Neville has set up his prayer stool and a small wooden cross where he sits. Cathy is wearing her "War Is Not The Answer" t-shirt.
At least a dozen soldiers have stopped to talk with us since we began the vigil at 3 this afternoon. "OK, can you tell us your side of the story?" asked one young man. "Can I sit there with you for awhile?" asked another. Each of them has assured us that they didn't want to kill anyone. One young man said he was desperate for financial aid to care for his wife and child while struggling to complete college studies and work full time. He felt he could gain some respect in this world and also help his family by joining the
Marines. He's relieved that he was stationed at the rear of a line coming up from the south. His role was to guard prisoners. He didn't shoot anyone.
But he saw US soldiers shoot at a civilian car with three passengers as it approached. The child in the car survived - both of his parents were immediately killed. "They could have shot the tires," said the soldier.
"Some just want to kill."
One soldier offered earnest concern for us, saying "You're sitting in a dangerous place." We smiled. "Thanks," I said, "But we've been in a dangerous place for the past three weeks." He was puzzled. "What they mean," said a soldier standing next to him, "is that they've been here all through three weeks of bombing."
"Do you try to put yourselves in our shoes?" asked one soldier after he'd respectfully listened to me explain major contradictions between US rhetoric and practice regarding Iraq. "Well, yes," I said, "We try. We're taking the same risk as you by being here, and perhaps an even greater risk since we're unarmed and unprotected. Actually, just now we're lucky not to be burdened by all that heavy gear."
"Yeah," said the soldier, "It's really hot. I don't have much of an appetite. I just give away most of my rations, - give 'em to these people."
Hassan, one of the shoeshine boys, came over to join us, carrying a ration packet. He opened it, came across processed apple spread, and a few other curious items, then decided to donate it to us. Now the flies have discovered it.
It looks like we're on "lock-down" for a while longer. Iraqi minders are gone, --US soldiers are here. They're uncoiling barbed wire at the intersection. Anyone wanting to walk across the street is stopped, questioned and
searched. Since I began this letter, there have been four huge explosions nearby. Looting and burning continue, here in Baghdad. I'm sick of war-disgusted to the point of nausea. I think all of us at this intersection,
residents of the Al Fanar, journalists in the Palestine Hotel next door, and soldiers on patrol, share the same queasy ill feeling. The line, "War is the health of the state" makes no sense whatsoever here.
With love,
Kathy Kelly
We hope Kathy's words have moved you as much as they have us. There is not a single person who partakes in or experiences this war, these acts of violence, who is not profoundly effected, be they a soldier or a civilian. War, and all the misery that it brings, is truly our common enemy.
Peace and hope,
Stephanie Schaudel, for Voices in the Wilderness
 Website: http://www.iraqpeaceteam.org/
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| supplements | | | some supplements were deleted from this article, see policy | | Napoleon & Bush: hetzelfde lot? | h - 13.04.2003 17:11
Graham Hancock and I are presently giving the finishing touches to our book TALISMAN. I am working on a section regarding Napoleon, and was struck by the historical similarities between what happened with Napoleon in Egypt in 1799, and what could happen with Bush in Iraq. (I wrote a similar piece a few weeks ago on this Bulletin board). The only big difference is that Napoleon had the guts to fight with his troops:
(extracted from Talisman Chapter 18):
When the French fleet reached Alexandria on the 1 July 1798, an excited Napoleon issued a rather curious proclamation to the Egyptian people, who were under the supposedly oppressive rule of the Mameluks:
“People of Egypt! You will be told that I come to destroy your religion. Do not believe it. Reply that I come to restore your rights and punish the usurpers, and that I venerate more than the Mameluks, Allah, his Prophet and the Koran… There formerly existed in Egypt great cities, great canals, great commerce; by what means have they all been destroyed if not by the avarice, the injustice, and the tyranny of the Mameluks?… Sheikhs! Imams! Go tell the people that we are the friends of true Muslims. Is it not we who have destroyed the Pope who preached that war must be made on Muslims? Is it not we who have destroyed the Knights of Malta because these madmen believed that God willed them to make war on Muslims? Is it not we who have been long friends with the Sultan and the enemies of his enemies? …”
There is a very revealing color etching by the Parisian printer Basset dating from that time which shows what Napoleon might have had in mind. In the top register Napoleon is seen in the center of the scene standing next to the pyramids of Giza and receiving the key of Egypt from two Arabs kneeling at his feet. Above Napoleon are two angels holding a wreath-crown; one angel represents Glory and the other Renown. In the lower register Napoleon is shown pointing to a large glowing triangle (the Supreme Being) hovering next to him, and seems to be inviting representatives of all the known religions to venerate the universal “God” symbolized by the glowing triangle.
After Napoleon’s capture of Cairo in late July 1798, the Arabs played along with his offer of a covenant between the new French Republic and Islam, all the while secretly hating him and his troops as much as they had hated the Crusaders of byegone days. But it was a case of bargaining now with the devil until a way was found to throw him out.
robert bauval
| | wounded civilians | janboeykens - 14.04.2003 18:46
I was reading your message of pain and tears. What is going on now with the wounded civilians in Baghdad and in the other Iraqy cities ?
| | wounded civilians | Peacemonger - 15.04.2003 01:54
Civilians are dying in the hospitals because there is no medicine - not even anaesthetics for people having amputations.
The US have "secured" the airport so why on earth are they not flying supplies in and flying severely wounded children out of the country for safe medical care.
Now they have armed guards outside the hospitals shooting looters - who are then picked up and brought into the hospital for treamtment...
People on tv report "they brought in a 'whole shipload' of this or that food supplies". To bring supplies up to pre-war levels they need 23 such shiploads every day.
These are human lives, and they call them 'casualties' as if the damage to them is casual...
| | my sympathies but... | opposing force - 15.04.2003 11:32
I know, it must be hard. But then, remember why this had to happen. War is hell. Nobody wants it but sometimes circumstances make it necessary. As always civilians are the one's that pay dearly. Especially in this case as Saddam Hussein wasn't bothered by the fact that hiding military equipment and troops in heavy populated areas meant that casualties among the civilians could be severe. So, try to understand that putting the blame on the US- and British forces make's you a bit of a hypocrite.
The fact that many Iraqi's are now desperately trying to find traces of long lost loved ones who fell victim to the cruelty of Saddam's dictatorship is something that cannot be neglected. They are free now, at last. No thanks to the UN.
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