Another day, another pointless death in Iraq
"A vehicle got close to them, and they opened fire on it randomly as if they were in the middle of a confrontation," said Ahmed Kadhim Hussein, a policeman at the scene. "You won't find a head. The brain is scattered on the ground."
He added: "I am shaking as I am trying to describe to you what happened. We are not able to eat. These were innocent people. Is it so natural for them to shoot innocent people?"
"Is it so natural . . . " I can only become profoundly depressed when I read stories like this and imagine the day-to-day mayhem our pathologically casual attitude toward use of force has unleashed on the Iraqi people. The unacknowledged permanent surge that has been the "professional" private force at work in Iraq since the beginning of the invasion represent perhaps history's costliest mercenary army. These mercs appear to behave little better than Hessians in the colonial times or the "black and tan" in Ireland and are generating about as much love and affection. They are doing long-term harm to America's reputation and strategic position in the world. It is clearly beyond time that this entire outsourcing enterprise received exhaustive congressional scrutiny. Iraq is already a mess for the real military personnel on the ground and the mercs, in the above instance, slaughtering two wholly innocent and defenseless Armenian Christian women on their way home from work, are making the jobs of the real soldiers so much harder--and dangerous.
Meanwhile, more rotten news emerges from woe-benighted Burma . . .
Labels: Iraq
posted by Kevin Clarke @ 1:33 PM
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3 Comments:
Think of it, two Christian women killed by a "Christian" nation's war against their now dead leader. It is especially sad as being Christian they were probably not al qaida (not sure of my spelling there), or insurgents, or members of the Shiite or Sunni tribes who battle each other. They were probably some of the most innocent people in Iraq at the present time.
Some thoughts from last year on this:
Not one life more
Read your "Not one life more". It was very good. How do we get off the merry-go-round? You mention your child. The question goes, "how would you react if your child was violated in some way and the perpetrator was within reach?" I can't say that I wouldn't resort to violence myself in that situation. Perhaps it's a little different than waging war on a whole group, many of whom would be innocent but I think the violence question really needs to start at home. And I am afraid I would fail to choose peace. It is probably the second hardest thing to do - not to resort to violence. I think the only thing harder is to be able to truly forgive. Perhaps we can start with small steps and hope to eventually walk the whole walk.
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