Rule Of Assassins
By Baghdad Burning
10 November, 2004
Baghdad Burning Blog
I'm
not feeling well- it's a combination of the change of weather and the
decline in the situation. Eid is less than a week away but no one is
feeling at all festive. We're all worried about the situation in Falloojeh
and surrounding regions. We've ceased worrying about the explosions
in Baghdad and are now concerned with the people who have left their
homes and valuables and are living off of the charity of others.
Allawi declared
a "State of Emergency" a couple of days ago... A state of
emergency *now* - because previous to this week, we Iraqis were living
in an American made Utopia, as the world is well aware. So what does
an "Emergency State" signify for Iraqis? Basically, it means
we are now *officially* more prone to being detained, raided, and just
generally abused by our new Iraqi forces and American ones. Today they
declared a curfew on Baghdad after 10 p.m. but it hasn't really made
an impact because people have stopped leaving their houses after dark
anyway.
The last few days
have been tense and heart-rending. Most of us are really worried about
Falloojeh. Really worried about Falloojeh and all the innocents dying
and dead in that city. There were several explosions in Baghdad these
last few days and hardly any of them were covered by the press. All
this chaos has somehow become uncomfortably normal. Two years ago I
never would have dreamed of living like this- now this lifestyle has
become the norm and I can barely remembering having lived any other
way.
My cousin kept the
kids home from school, which is happening quite often. One of the explosions
today was so close, the house rocked with the impact and my cousin's
wife paled, "Can you imagine if the girls had been at school when
that happened- I would have died."
Dozens of civilians
have died these last few days in Ramadi, Falloojeh, and Samarra. We
are hearing about complete families being killed under the rain of bombs
being dropped by American forces. The phone lines in those areas seem
to be cut off. We've been trying to call some relatives in Ramadi for
the last two days, but it's next to impossible. We keep getting that
dreadful busy tone and there's just no real way of knowing what is going
on in there. There is talk of the use of cluster bombs and other forbidden
weaponry.
We're hearing various
stories about the situation. The latest is that 36 American troops have
been taken prisoner along with dozens of Iraqi troops. How do people
feel about the Iraqi troops? There's a certain rage. It's difficult
to sympathize with a fellow-countryman while he's killing one of his
own. People generally call them "Dogs of Occupation" here
because instead of guarding our borders or securing areas, they are
used to secure American forces. They drive out in front of American
cars in order to clear the roads and possibly detonate some of those
road mines at a decent distance from the American tanks. At the end
of the day, most of them are the remnants of militias and that's the
way they act.
And now they are
being used in Falloojeh against other Iraqis. The whole situation is
making me sick and there's a fury building up. The families in Falloojeh
have been relegated to living in strange homes and mosques outside of
the city... many of them are setting up their families inside of emptied
schools and municipal buildings in Samarra and neighboring areas. Every
time I see Allawi on tv talking about his regrets about 'having to attack
Falloojeh' I get so angry I could scream. He's talking to the outside
world, not to us. Iraqis don't buy his crap for a instant. We watch
him talk and feel furious and frustrated with our new tyrant.
I was watching CNN
this morning and I couldn't get the image of the hospital in Falloojeh
being stormed by Iraqi and American troops out of my head- the Iraqis
being made to lay face-down on the ground, hands behind their backs.
Young men and old men... and then the pictures of Abu Ghraib replay
themselves in my mind. I think people would rather die than be taken
prisoner by the Americans.
The borders with
Syria and Jordan are also closed and many of the highways leading to
the borders have been blocked. There are rumors that there are currently
100 cars ready to detonate in Mosul, being driven by suicide bombers
looking for American convoys. So what happens when Mosul turns into
another Falloojeh? Will they also bomb it to the ground? I heard a report
where they mentioned that Zarqawi 'had probably escaped from Falloojeh'...
so where is he now? Mosul?
Meanwhile, Rumsfeld
is making his asinine remarks again,
"There aren't
going to be large numbers of civilians killed and certainly not by U.S.
forces,"
No- there are only
an 'estimated' 100,000 civilians in Falloojeh (and these are American
estimations). So far, boys and men between the ages of 16 and 60 aren't
being counted as 'civilians' in Falloojeh. They are being rounded up
and taken away. And, *of course* the US forces aren't going to be doing
the killing: The bombs being dropped on Falloojeh don't contain explosives,
depleted uranium or anything harmful- they contain laughing gas- that
would, of course, explain Rumsfeld's idiotic optimism about not killing
civilians in Falloojeh. Also, being a 'civilian' is a relative thing
in a country occupied by Americans. You're only a civilian if you're
on their side. If you translate for them, or serve them food in the
Green Zone, or wipe their floors- you're an innocent civilian. Everyone
else is an insurgent, unless they can get a job as a 'civilian'.
So this is how Bush
kicks off his second term. More bloodshed.
"Innocent civilians
in that city have all the guidance they need as to how they can avoid
getting into trouble,"
How do they do that
Rumsfeld? While tons of explosives are being dropped upon your neighborhood,
how do you do that? Do you stay inside the house and try to avoid the
thousands of shards of glass that shoot out at you from shattering windows?
Or do you hide under a table and hope that it's sturdy enough to keep
the ceiling from crushing you? Or do you flee your house and pray to
God you don't come face to face with an Apache or tank or that you aren't
in the line of fire of a sniper? How do you avoid the cluster bombs
and all the other horror being dealt out to the people of Falloojeh?
There are a couple
of things I agree with. The first is the following:
"Over time
you'll find that the process of tipping will take place, that more and
more of the Iraqis will be angry about the fact that their innocent
people are being killed..."
He's right. It is
going to have a decisive affect on Iraqi opinion- but just not the way
he thinks. There was a time when pro-occupation Iraqis were able to
say, "Let's give them a chance..." That time is over. Whenever
someone says that lately, at best, they get a lot of nasty looks...
often it's worse. A fight breaks out and a lot of yelling ensues...
how can one condone occupation? How can one condone genocide? What about
the mass graves of Falloojeh? Leaving Islam aside, how does one agree
to allow the murder of fellow-Iraqis by the strongest military in the
world?
The second thing
Rumsfeld said made me think he was reading my mind:
"Rule of Iraq
assassins must end..." I couldn't agree more: Get out Americans.