[antiwar-van] FW: IRAQ: Operation Iraqi Freedom?

[hanna kawas]

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From: ep at MennoLink.org [mailto:ep at MennoLink.org]On Behalf Of CPTnet
editor, Webster, NY
Sent: Monday, October 06, 2003 10:35 AM
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Subject: IRAQ: Operation Iraqi Freedom?


CPTnet
October 6, 2003
IRAQ:  Operation Iraqi Freedom?

By David Milne

Over breakfast a few days ago I was listening to the BBC world news and
heard Paul Bremer, chief administrator for civilian affairs for the
Coalition Forces, proclaim his vision for Iraq under its new constitution.
Iraqis will enjoy new freedoms and democratic rights, he claimed.

Paul Bremer is bunkered in one of Saddam Hussein's palaces behind concertina
wire, cement barriers, squads of soldiers and tanks.  Though he is just
across the river from our team's apartment, he has separated himself from
ordinary life in Iraq.  This may account for our very different
perspectives.

Let me recount two experiences I have had recently.

An older woman received us in her simple two-story cement home in the
Aadumiyah district of Baghdad.  She said that at about 2 a.m. on July 15th,
U.S. forces blew in the door with explosives.  They entered firing at the
ceiling, and breaking windows and mirrors.  Soldiers herded the terrified
mother and her two daughters-in-law into the kitchen with a four-year-old
boy as they waved their weapons about.  Other soldiers handcuffed three sons
in their twenties and thirties. put hoods over their heads and held guns to
their heads execution style.  The soldiers ransacked the house, throwing
around furniture and foodstuffs, searching for weapons.  They found nothing
but 30,000 Iraqi dinars ($15 U.S.), the family's savings, which they
confiscated, giving no receipt.

The soldiers left with the men and the family had no information of their
whereabouts. The mother shrieked and wailed and called down curses on
Americans.  "How will we survive?" she asked as she pointed at the children
and daughters-in-law.  "Why did they take my sons?  They are only drivers
and a carpenter."


The second event took place in a town outside Baghdad.  At about 2 a.m. one
night in July, two U.S. military helicopters and several Humvees surrounded
the house.  Soldiers blew in the door with explosives and entered the
central open courtyard firing their weapons.  They shot and seriously
wounded the father and one son in his twenties, and wounded his two
daughters, ages ten and twenty.  They shot and mortally wounded the mother.
After searching the house they found one pistol, permitted under Coalition
law for the defense of the home against thieves.  The soldiers left, taking
the dying mother and the wounded father and son.  The surviving relatives
still do not know if the father and
son lived or died or where they are.

What remains in my mind from that visit is the face of the eight-year-old
boy.  He struggled not to break down as he said he misses his mother, his
father and his brother.

If Paul Bremer wishes us to believe that his statement about the rights and
freedoms of Iraqis is anything but puffery he will act immediately to
correct these abuses.


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