Destroying Babylon
By Dahr Jamail
18 January, 2005
Dahrjamailiraq.com
The
onslaught of Mosul has begun, as occupation forces are launching attacks
into Iraqs third largest city. While there are mass resignations
of police and elections polling staff there, yet another new police
chief has been awarded control of the 1,000 strong police force-which
was over 5,000 men just two months ago.
In Ramadi fierce
clashes continue between the bringers of democracy and those
resisting the occupation. It is reported that five huge explosions hammered
a US base near the city.
Samarra wasnt
without its share of democracy as US soldiers opened fire
on a car of civilians. The military spokesman said warning shots were
fired before the car was shot, wounding two people. Iraqi police, along
with several witnesses however, reported the car was shot by a tank
and four people died. Just yesterday a US soldier was killed in Samarra,
along with four Iraqi soldiers.
Of course clashes
persist in stabilized Fallujah. Remember how the reason
Fallujah bombed to the ground was to bring stability and security for
the elections? Remember how Iraq was invaded because the
past regime had weapons of mass destruction?
Closer to home,
an Iraqi Army patrol was attacked just south of the capital, injuring
two of them. Horrible as that is, they fared better than 15 of their
comrades who were kidnapped from a bus recently near Hit.
As the gas crisis
persists and worsens by the day, 300 followers of Shia cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr began a sit-in today at the Oil Ministry-their chief complaint
is the question, Why does the US military have plenty of gasoline
for their vehicles and Iraqis do not?
Good question.
As Im preparing
for my day this morning the green zone is mortared as I
make some coffee. Just like yesterday. And the day before that. And
well,
you get the idea.
Of course these
are only the highlights of the violence. Stories of the new freedom
being enjoyed by Iraqis abound in daily life as well.
Abu Talats
wife works in a bank and she told him many of the banks in Baghdad are
paying their employees in advance for the next two weeks for fear of
bank robberies during the elections.
We are driving by
the Rashid Bank in the Karrada district if Baghdad as he tells the story.
Iraqi Army soldiers have sealed the road that runs in front of the bank,
most of them standing around with their black face masks on smoking
cigarettes, casually holding their Kalashnikovs.
My wife told
me that four billion Iraqi Dinars ($2.6 million) were looted from a
vehicle recently that was traveling between Kut and Baghdad, he
says, Three of the guards were killed while transporting the money
to the Central Bank in Baghdad.
In case a bank looting
spree accompanies the elections we go to collect some funds
I had wired to a local bank.
Most of the day
has found our cell phones without signal. Recently the Iraqi government
announced that in order to provide security for the polls on January
30, cell and satellite phones will be cut, and the use of cars will
be limited the day before, of and after the elections.
I say elections
because the Higher Commission for Elections announced that it wont
be releasing the names of the candidates prior to the elections.
With four of Iraqs 18 governorates unable to participate in them,
an estimated 90% of the Sunni population not voting, a sizeable amount
of the Shia boycotting and a very large percentage of Iraqis unwilling
to vote because of the horrendous security situation, calling them elections
seems a bit of a stretch.
Apaches rumble low
overhead as we leave the bank and head over to al-Dora to visit some
friends. We weave through some concrete barriers in the on-ramp to the
highway.
Once at our destination,
we share coffee with some friends. I ask one of them, a college student,
how things are going.
The problems
are endless, she tells me, No electricity, no jobs, and
there is never enough money.
Her sister tells
us there has been fighting in Dora everyday, and the electricity is
usually cut when it occurs.
We talk some more
before taking off, as its getting dark. I recall that a friend
of mine from Baquba told me earlier today, when my mobile was actually
receiving a signal, that there had been fighting there everyday, and
many home raids. He had even been detained for five hours by the military.
I do not know why they detained me, he told me, This
is the freedom-they are free to detain anyone here without a reason.
We slowly make our
way out of Dora, passing one black banner (death announcements) after
another. Some of them tell the cause of death along with the persons
name.
That man was
killed by an explosion, Abu Talat reads to me, And that
one by gunfire.
The black banners
are everywhere in Baghdad. Buildings, fences and walls are darkened
by them at every turn. Theyve always been visible throughout the
occupation, but now, like the beggars, they are everywhere.
The Guardian recently
reported that troops from the US-led force in Iraq have caused
widespread damage and severe contamination to the remains of the ancient
city of Babylon.
The ancient city,
south of Baghdad, has been used by US and Polish forces as a military
camp during the occupation, despite objections from archaeologists.
A study conducted
by archeological experts found cracks and gaps where people had tried
to gouge out the decorated bricks forming the famous dragons of the
Ishtar Gate,
2,600 year-old brick pavement crushed by military vehicles, archaeological
fragments scattered across the site, and trenches driven into ancient
deposits.
The story in The
Guardian continues:
Outrage is
hardly the word, this is just dreadful, said Lord Redesdale, an
archaeologist and head of the all-party parliamentary archaeological
group. These are world sites. Not only is what the American forces
are doing damaging the archaeology of Iraq, it's actually damaging the
cultural heritage of the whole world.
Tim Schadla Hall,
reader in public archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology at University
College London, said: In this case we see an international conflict
in which the US has failed to take into account the requirements of
the Hague convention ... to protect major archaeological sites - just
another convention it seems happy to ignore.
So Babylon is being
destroyed. Along with the Iraqi people.
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