Why Casey Sheehan
Was Killed
By Aaron Glantz
19 August , 2005
CommonDreams.org
Since
President Bush wont meet with Cindy Sheehan to explain why her
son Casey died in Iraq, I thought I would put forward the information
I have. Like Army Specialist Casey Sheehan, I was in Baghdads
Sadr City on April 4, 2004.
I was there as an
unembedded journalist. Unlike Casey Sheehan, I wasnt killed.
I had traveled to
Sadr City to cover the Bush Administrations undemocratic attack
on the movement of Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr. It didnt
matter that the cleric had millions of followers or that he was scion
to an important political family with a history of standing up to tyranny.
(His father was killed by Saddams regime for fomenting revolution
in 1999. His uncle, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr, was killed
for leading an insurrection against Baath rule in 1980.)
It didnt matter
that Sadrs forces were providing food aid to the poor, or organizing
traffic patrol and garbage duty in an atmosphere with no basic services.
The problem for
Bush and his Iraq Administrator L. Paul Bremer was that Sadr was against
American occupation. So he had to be dealt with. First his newspaper
was closed. Then his top advisor was arrested. Then, Bremer announced
an unnamed judge was demanding Sadr be arrested on charges of murder.
"He's effectively
attempting to establish his authority in place of the legitimate Iraqi
government," US Administrator Paul Bremer told reporters. "We
will not tolerate that."
That was the last
straw. Until April 4, 2004 Muqtada Sadr had urged his followers to protest
peacefully against American occupation. But the American assault lead
him to urge his followers to terrorize the enemy.
In the first 48
hours of fighting Sadr's followers seized police stations and government
buildings across the country including the Governor's Office in Basra.
At least 75 Iraqis and 10 American servicemen were killed, among them
Army Specialist Casey Sheehan. As an unembedded journalist I saw only
the Iraqi casualties (the U.S. casualties being taken away to military
hospitals). My translator Waseem and I weaved through roads closed by
American tanks until we arrived at Sadr Citys al-Ubaidi hospital.
There, I interviewed
15 year old Ali Hussein. He lay in the hospital - an American bullet
lodged in his gut. He was barely able to lift his head, but he wanted
to say a few words to the American reporter: "I was standing in
my door-way and I was shot," he said. "I don't have anything
to say to the Americans. Its just between them and God."
A few miles away
at Baghdad's Mustansuriye University, hundreds of students marched through
the center of campus. They chanted: the dead want a brave people so
we won't follow the law of Bremer.
"We will act
according to the situation that we face," said Wassam Mehdi Hussein,
head of the Islamic Union of Iraqi Students standing by al-Sadr's declaration
of jihad against the occupation. "We will use any means peaceful
and violent."
Another Mustansuriye
student, Ali Mohammed, noted the violence started when the American
military closed Sadr's newspaper and arrested his top advisor.
"We don't want
to fight the Americans," he told me. "We are very grateful
to them. They are very dear to us because they released us from Saddam.
But at the same time we want them to do something for humanity. A lot
of people are suffering from hunger and sitting at home having no work.'
"These things
make the situation bad and then we turn to explosions. We want to respect
them and we want them to respect us."
A year on, such
respect still isnt forth-coming even to Americans like
Cindy Sheehan, who deserve to know the truth of why their sons have
been killed in Iraq.
Pacifica radio network
reporter Aaron Glantz is author of the new book "How America Lost
Iraq" (Tarcher/Penguin). More information at www.aaronglantz.com