Nothing changes, right? When I was gone, I barely watched the news, and didn't have real online access so I wasn't able to see anything but CNN's all-Arnold all-the-time coverage of “The Running Man” circus. I decided to take a look at what was going on upon my return… Here's the first story I found (more):
It was 10:30 on a sweltering night when 12-year-old Mohammed al-Kubaisi climbed the concrete steps leading to his family's rooftop. The boy held two blankets so that he and his twin brother, Moustafa, could curl up together on the roof for the night, one of their favorite summer habits.
Mohammed had just reached the top when he turned to watch the military maneuvers on the street below: American soldiers were patrolling with rifles. One soldier looked up in the darkness and saw a figure on the roof, watching him.
A single bullet exploded into the air.
Mohammed's mother recalled dragging her son inside and screaming as she held him, his blood pouring onto the floor. She said Mohammed was struggling to breathe when a group of US soldiers slammed through the front door and pushed her aside as they searched the house.
Unfortunately the stories like that are endless — young and inexperienced US troops must be terrified, with everyone a potential guerrilla… And in that fear, they're shooting first and never asking questions, killing innocent families “by accident” in acts that will surely empower any guerrilla forces that actually are there, and manufacturing thousands more both there and abroad (more).
The Americans had set up roadblocks in the Tunisia quarter of Baghdad, where the abd al-Kerims live. The family pulled up to the roadblock sensibly, slowly and carefully, so as not to alarm the Americans.
But then pandemonium broke out. American soldiers were shooting in every direction. They just turned on the abd al-Kerims' car and sprayed it with bullets. You can see the holes in the front passenger window and in the rear window. You can see the blood of the dead all over the grey, imitation velvet seat covers.
Doctors said the father and his two daughters would have survived if they had received treatment quicker. Instead, they were left to bleed to death because the Americans refused to allow anyone to take them to hospital.
Even the “legitimate” kills are highly questionable; essentially amounting to prosecution characterized by no investigation and no trial… just straight to the execution, most recently seen in the “sniper executions” that the US has been carrying out. Iraq is now the rape and theft capital of the world — it's not a safe place to live, thanks to the destruction of the infrastructure. That, coupled with the US taking the weapons of the citizens has of course made normal innocent people desperate to find weapons to defend themselves with… but when the US finds people selling weapons, instead of simply taking the weapons or capturing the offenders, they kill them on the spot (more).
Witnesses said women ran screaming from the market after shots rang out and a man unloading AK-47 assault rifles from the back of a red car fell to the ground. A second man was shot in the head and died at the scene. One of the wounded men escaped and the other was taken for treatment at a nearby hospital.
It seems that the men were not given a warning or a chance to surrender.
“We did not give them the chance to engage,” Col Russell said, standing next to a cache of weapons and ammunition laid out on a tarpaulin. “I think we sent out a strong message today that you cannot walk around the streets with weapons.”
They tried to justify the killing by saying that the two had “state ID” cards with them (issued by Saddam), but that ignores that fact that they didn't know that in advance, and more importantly, those cards were issued to hundreds of thousands of government employees, including school teachers.
The recently revealed fact that the US is using the truly horrific weapon napalm in Iraq isn't helping win the “hearts and minds” of Iraqis either (more).
American pilots dropped the controversial incendiary agent napalm on Iraqi troops during the advance on Baghdad. The attacks caused massive fireballs that obliterated several Iraqi positions.
A 1980 UN convention banned the use against civilian targets of napalm, a terrifying mixture of jet fuel and polystyrene that sticks to skin as it burns. The US, which did not sign the treaty, is one of the few countries that makes use of the weapon. It was employed notoriously against both civilian and military targets in the Vietnam war.
“We napalmed both those [bridge] approaches,” said Colonel James Alles, commander of Marine Air Group 11. “Unfortunately there were people there … you could see them in the [cockpit] video. They were Iraqi soldiers. It's no great way to die. The generals love napalm. It has a big psychological effect.”
Some of you may remember that earlier this spring the US denied using napalm, saying that they'd destroyed it all two years ago… They later justified this lie by saying “oh, but this isn't napalm… it's super-napalm — we make it with kerosene instead of jet fuel!”
Have none of these generals read Mao? Read Guevara? They're playing into the hands of guerrilla organizers.
Anyway, one last thing I want to mention before I get to work, and that's Ashcroft's latest idea about how to “improve” the US legal system — I've written here before about Ashcroft's push for the death penalty whenever possible, and his pathological drive for maximum sentences, but now he wants to enshrine that hatred into law (more):
The founding fathers, whose brilliant design for the federal government was based on three coequal branches, would be horrified to learn of Attorney General John Ashcroft's latest idea for improving the American justice system. Mr. Ashcroft has ordered federal prosecutors to start collecting information on federal judges who give sentences that are lighter than those suggested by federal guidelines. Critics are right when they say this has the potential to create a “blacklist” of judges who could then be subjected to intimidation.
Someone just get me a boat so I can leave… This one (more) looks pretty good. I think I could handle life in Tahiti on a 72' wingsail catamaran.
