November 15, 2004
Iraq Update
Well, despite trumpetings of "success" in Falluja and elsewhere, things don't look that "good" to me in Iraq. The civilian toll in Falluja is as yet unreported, but the fears are that it is high, and US troops are still stopping humanitarian and medical aid to enter Falluja. As of this morning, Red Crescent workers were still negotiating with US troops to bring aid into the city.
It is estimated that US troop casualties in Falluja stand at 275 injured and 38 dead; 1200 (est) Iraqi "militants" are dead, civilian estimates are unknown (BBC). Meanwhile, according to the same BBC report:
* US warplanes drop bombs on insurgents in Baquba, west of Baghdad* At least six Iraqi troops are killed in the city of Mosul as two police stations are stormed, witnesses say
* Militants release two female relatives of Iraq's interim Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, kidnapped last Tuesday with his elderly male cousin, Ghazi. There is no word on him
* A US soldier is charged with "premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit premeditated murder" against an Iraqi.
Lindsey Hilsum, of the Observer on assignment with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, reports that Falluja is a city in ruins.
As the attack on Falluja has proceeded, massive violence is breaking out elsewhere, and US troops are being redeployed (some from Falluja) to other high conflict areas.
If the purpose of the various assaults to put down the insurgency is to pave the way for democratic election in January, then that goal is seeming more and more remote. The foundations began publicly crumbling with the Sunni representatives leaving the interim government in protest (NYT, 11/10/04). This morning, The Guardian reports that the Iraq vote could be delayed.
AND ... the Fighting in Falluja is not over, nor in Mosul, or Baquba, or elsewhere.
Grim.
Posted by rowan at November 15, 2004 10:54 AM | TrackBack | [eMail this article!] |Sent by Earth A message from the Grandmother Spirit by Alice Walker.
A NATIVE PERSON LOOKS UP FROM THE PLATE
(or, owning how we must look to a person who has become our food)
They are eating
us.
To step out of doors
is to feel
their teeth
at our throats.
They are gobbling
up our lands
our waters
our weavings
&
our artifacts
They are nibbling
at the noses
of our canoes
& our moccasins.
They drink our oil
like cocktails
& lick down
our jewelry
like icicles.
They are siphoning our songs.
They are devouring
us.
We brown, black
red and yellow,
unruly white
morsels
creating life
until we die.
Spread out in the chilling sun
that is
their plate.
They are eating
us raw
without sauce.
Everywhere we
have been
we are no more.
Everywhere we are
going
they do not want.
They are eating
us whole.
The glint of their
teeth
the light
that beckons
us to table
where only they
will dine.
They are devouring
us.
Our histories.
Our heroes.
Our ancestors.
And all appetizing
yougsters to come.
Where they graze
among
the people
who create
who labor
who live
in beauty
and walk
so lightly
on the earth
there is nothing
left.
Not even our roots
reminding us
to bloom.
Now they have wedged
the whole
of the earth
between their
cheeks.
Their
wide bellies
crazily clad
in stolen goods
are neat
to bursting
with
the fine meal
gone foul
that is us.
Copied exactly as written.
Great Poem!
I do not foresee warring to end in Iraq until the US corporations own all of it, and the government that is set up there supports all US foreign activities. It makes me sad to think about the number of lives that must be lost in order to make some oil tycoon's dream come true. I am anxious for the end of oil. Humans then will be forced to succumb to the forces of nature. We are not above it.
Posted by: Shawna at November 17, 2004 9:57 AM