Wednesday, April 27, 2005
"Corpses were tied to US tanks and paraded around like trophies"
News of the American massacre in Fallujah, along with its ongoing brutal occupation, is trickling out.
This is a good time to rail against all the right-wing bloggers I find online, in particular the U.S. soldiers who claim they're 'liberating' Iraq. No, they are not liberating anyone. No amount of candy given to Iraqi children or wells dug for destitute villagers can make up for their atrocities.
They are murderers, plain and simple.
The media and right-wing bring up Iraqi-on-Iraqi crime, or that cartoonish villain Zarqawi. They faithfully repeat tales of their crimes and ignore the tens of thousands of Iraqis killed by Americans. And they wonder with faux-naivete why armed resistance is growing, why political Islam keeps finding new recruits.
Those who are against the war have a much harder task. We have to rein in our anger at American atrocities, and not give in to desires for revenge. To not call for the blood of Americans in equal measure to the spilled blood of Iraqis. Because we know that American civilians are as innocent as the Iraqis who died, and that American soldiers themselves are victim of a capitalist system that gives them no other opportunity for a decent job and self-respect than being a soldier.
But after reading about Fallujah, it's hard to stifle feelings that responsibility for the slaughter lies both with the American political leadership, and the people with their hands on the guns. Nazi concentration camp guards didn't escape justice, and neither should the butchers of Iraq - Saddam Hussein, and every American soldier who has killed civilians.
To be anti-war, means to be accused of supporting terrorism. But the left didn't create terror. The American government and army did. To those who say being against the war means providing a cover for Zarqawi, I say being for the war means creating the anger that feeds them.
Terror is wrong. There is nothing more terrifying than a war.
This is a good time to rail against all the right-wing bloggers I find online, in particular the U.S. soldiers who claim they're 'liberating' Iraq. No, they are not liberating anyone. No amount of candy given to Iraqi children or wells dug for destitute villagers can make up for their atrocities.
They are murderers, plain and simple.
The media and right-wing bring up Iraqi-on-Iraqi crime, or that cartoonish villain Zarqawi. They faithfully repeat tales of their crimes and ignore the tens of thousands of Iraqis killed by Americans. And they wonder with faux-naivete why armed resistance is growing, why political Islam keeps finding new recruits.
Those who are against the war have a much harder task. We have to rein in our anger at American atrocities, and not give in to desires for revenge. To not call for the blood of Americans in equal measure to the spilled blood of Iraqis. Because we know that American civilians are as innocent as the Iraqis who died, and that American soldiers themselves are victim of a capitalist system that gives them no other opportunity for a decent job and self-respect than being a soldier.
But after reading about Fallujah, it's hard to stifle feelings that responsibility for the slaughter lies both with the American political leadership, and the people with their hands on the guns. Nazi concentration camp guards didn't escape justice, and neither should the butchers of Iraq - Saddam Hussein, and every American soldier who has killed civilians.
To be anti-war, means to be accused of supporting terrorism. But the left didn't create terror. The American government and army did. To those who say being against the war means providing a cover for Zarqawi, I say being for the war means creating the anger that feeds them.
Terror is wrong. There is nothing more terrifying than a war.
