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The Dogs of War Overrun Fallujah
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Kristina Gronquist, W A M M
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The U.S. assault on Fallujah was brutal and horrific. In a few short weeks, while many Americans blithely anticipated their Thanksgiving dinner menus, U.S. forces may have killed as many as 6000 Iraqis, according to a spokesman from the Iraqi Red Crescent. Other sources cite a lower casualty figure of 2000. The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has called for an independent probe by Amnesty International of allegations that both sides in the recent fighting have violated the rules of war.
One charge relates to the fact that U.S. troops kept Red Crescent aid convoys from entering the besieged city when the fighting subsided. We will never know how many Iraqis died in those few crucial days. U.S. forces also stormed and occupied a major hospital and bombed clinics. Adding additional evidence to violations, NBC cameraman Kevin Sites released a tape of a Marine executing a wounded and unarmed Iraqi in a Mosque. Buried in a November 26th Time Magazine report on the incident, a Baghdad schoolteacher is quoted, “I can only imagine how many other Fallujans were killed like that.”
A correspondent from Reuters (a global information service) said a drive through the city “reveals a picture of utter destruction, with concrete houses flattened, mosques in ruins, telegraph poles blown over, power and phone lines hanging slack, and rubble and human remains littering the empty streets.” According to one Iraqi journalist quoted by The London Observer newspaper, civilian casualties were caused by the massive firepower directed at Fallujah neighborhoods during the battle. Infrastructure systems are in ruins, with sewage in some areas reportedly neck-deep.
Western media coverage of the destruction of this city could be defined as another war crime. Few independent journalists were allowed in the city, and most of the coverage received in the U.S. was subject to military oversight. Embedded reporters traveling with convoys presented only the perspective of the troops. No effort was made to examine the impact of the attack on Fallujah’s civilian population.
Media coverage focused on obviously sensational stories of uncovering terrorist or hostage havens, accompanied by the constant repetition of al-Zarqawi’s name. Reminiscent of the build up to the invasion two years ago, the media regressed, acquiescing again to a government that is superb at propagandizing and controlling the vacuous morality of corporate media. Embedded American journalists merged seamlessly into an arm of the military apparatus, demonstrating that they werenít journalists at all.
The U.S.-picked Iraqi leader Allawi went so far as to say there were no civilian casualties in Fallujah, an outrageous claim. The fact is that while we are told that the majority of Fallujah’s population left prior to the planned destruction of their city, we know many civilians did remain, those who were too poor to leave or had no one to shelter them. Refugees living in tents outside the city are in dire straits, in need of medicine, fresh food and water. The silence about these people and their suffering leaves those who still cling to ideals of humanity and compassion motionless and empty, grieving and distressed.
The lack of protest about the assault on Fallujah was not limited to the West. Some Iraqis, especially the Shia, were approving of the effort. The reason for this is that the Sunni minority is seen as the primary target in Fallujah. Sunni Baathists enjoyed extensive privileges under the Hussein regime. The Baath Party carried out brutal repression against the majority Shia in central and southern Iraq and the Kurdish minority in the north. The ìmujahidinî in Fallujah have been accused of kidnappings and numerous suicide bombings at police stations and elsewhere, acts that have left scores of innocent Iraqis dead.
However, it must be recognized that it was a series of disastrous postwar measures that bred the bloody and dark scenario faced today. After the illegal invasion, U.S. overseer L. Paul Bremer discharged Saddamís former soldiers and Iraq was purged of the Baath Party. This ruling created thousands of angry, dispossessed men who saw no future in their own country. The U.S. media also neglects to remind us that shortly after the invasion, troops fired on scores of unarmed protesters in Fallujah. The seeds of desperation that have fueled the fierce fighting by Baathists in the Sunni Triangle were planted by many flawed and shortsighted policies.
Assaults against other cities in the “triangle of death” are bound to continue before the elections, and it is unlikely that people in any of these places will participate in the electoral process. These communities are traumatized by death and destruction, and the only people energized now are those who will call for revenge and intensification of opposition to the U.S. occupation. Solutions to the isolation and desperation of the Baathists are political, not military. While the administration and the media trumpet the furious campaign on Fallujah as a great success, those of us who remember Vietnam also recall jubilant war cries after the village of Hue was destroyed, in order “to save it.”
We must continue to speak out against the disastrous policies in Iraq and the lack of balance within our media. We call on the president, our elected officials and all Americans of conscience to help us stop the madness. The innocent victims of this ill-conceived war, in Fallujah and throughout Iraq, deserve to have their stories told and receive justice. The Vietnam War raged on for years after the destruction of Hue. We cannot let that happen again. |
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Conscientious Objector Resource
Packets available to high school and church staff.
Contact the WAMM office.
CoSt of War
New Resource for Tracking Iraq War Costs
Together with the Center for American Progress, the National Priorities Project releases today an interactive state-by-state analysis that details the cost of the war in Iraq for each state and for numerous cities across the country. In order to provide some context for the cost of war numbers, the map also shows the amount each state received in federal funding for homeland security and the No Child Left Behind Act. Click here.
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© 2004 Women Against Military Madness. All rights reserved.
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Complete December 2004 - January 2005 Index - click here
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