Two Weeks In Falluja

[tofubo]

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8407.htm

Two Weeks In Falluja

They see absolutely no justification for this war and were constantly asking me to explain how the American people can support these acts against a civilian population. For the first time in my life, I was ashamed to be an American.

By Mark Manning

03/30/05 "ICH" - - I got back from Iraq a few weeks ago where I stayed inside the city of Falluja and lived with the refugees of that city for over two weeks. I decided to go there because it seems to be the heart of the trouble in Iraq and the place to see if any sense or peace can be found. I had also heard that the city had 250,000 citizens in it who were told to leave when my government attacked, yet there had been no stories of their situation in our media. As an American, I felt responsible for this and decided to take a look myself.

On February 10th 2005 I flew into Iraq and drove to the city of Falluja. For over two weeks I was a resident and a refugee of Falluja and I am honored and privileged for that experience. They hosted me in their homes, and cared for me because they believed that I was there to listen to them and to honestly bring home their stories to the American people. I came to Falluja without military escort or armed protection in any way. I think because of this they thought I was crazy, but they honored what they thought was courage and they trusted me. Trust means everything there and they look deep into your eyes as they decide who you are. I lived with them and listened to their stories. They told me they do not trust American journalists to accurately tell the story of Iraq. They believe that the American public does not know what is really happening there, and that if they did they would feel differently about the war. They feel that the American people are their brothers and sisters and they are asking them for help. They wanted me to tell you their story.

The horrors of war have been brought to the people of Falluja. The people there say the city had 500,000 people in it, not the 250,000 quoted by our media. The refugees told me that they were given one week notice to leave the city. After three days, they were told they could no longer drive out, they had to walk. No camps were established for them and no refugee location was given. There was no planning by the American government for the people, no food, no shelter and no water. They were just told to leave or be killed. Anyone who stayed in the city after one week would be considered a terrorist and would be killed.

more @ link

[democrank]

1. Many Iraqis must feel deep despair.

I can`t stomach the thoughts of what we`ve done.

[tofubo]

2. besides create an enemy that wasn't there before ??

n/t

[jedr]

3. " in order to save the village , we had to destroy it"

"those who do not read history are destine to repeat it"

[soup]

8. my grandson's 3rd birthday party

happened to fall on the day of the rocket attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad at the end of January.

A guest at the party (my daughter-in-law's lovely new stepfather) - totally out of the blue - brought it up and commented that "now that 'American soil' has been attacked we can nuke them like we should have in the first place". His bride (my daughter-in-law's mom) nodded and looked at him like he was imparting pearls of wisdom.

There was a pause in conversation and an immediate tension that was palpable from those within earshot of his comment. I could feel eyes turn to me and a collective unspoken 'oh, shit, here we go'.

I had to walk away. It was not the time or place to say what was begging to be said. Plus, I had no idea what was going to come out of my mouth. How do you confront such ignorance? How do you even respond to such an idiotic remark?

I felt I had no right to turn a day of balloons, happy children, birthday cake, and celebration into a war of words. By the same token, what right do we have to destroy the lives of others? Sometimes I think carrying a copy of reports like this might open some eyes to reality. Other times it seems that it wouldn't make a bit of difference, because some people just don't seem to care.

The 'nuke 'em all and let God sort them out' mentality doesn't take into consideration that perhaps ours wasn't the only family in the world just wanting to celebrate a child's birthday in peace.

Sorry to run on. Reading Mr. Manning's report and seeing your post title triggered the memory.

[jedr]

10. I enjoyed you sharing that memory;

having been in ordnance in the Navy , anyone who causally recommends the use of a nuclear bomb has no touch with reality, nor does this person fell that brown skeined baby's cry when they are hurt or their mothers grieve when they are killed....I have in-laws who live on this level... I don't hold conversations with them any deeper than I would with a 5yr old...at this point we must have killed at least as many Iraqi citizens as Saddam did

[soup]

12. Thank you for your response.

I hesitated posting because in retrospect, it may have been cowardly on my part to let it go unanswered. and, of course, 'things I should have said' come to me in the middle of the restless nights. 'Damn the discretion, full speed ahead' moments feeling guilty because I didn't ruin a birthday party and speak out.

What really pisses me off is the 'nuke 'em all' crowd probably get a full night's sleep while we torture ourselves trying to figure out what we as individuals can do to stop the insanity.

Thank you for your service. My dad was in the Navy in WWII and so was his brother, along with another uncle during the Korean War, and more recently, my sister, in the late 70's. My two brothers were Army during the wind-down of Viet Nam (one stationed to Korea, and the other to Germany), and my husband is a disabled vet who served in the Air Force.

I can't imagine any of them, or all of them collectively, even coming close to entertaining the idea that any of this is somehow 'right'.

There's just no defense for these atrocities.

[chlamor]

4. The Horrors of War...

[in_cog_ni_to]

5. Ashamed to be an American. I've been ashamed ever since

the damn Democrats in the Senate let the chimp steal the 2000 election. It's only gotten worse over the years.

Those poor people. My heart breaks for them. Put yourself in their shoes. What the hell would you do? You have NOTHING. No water, clothes, food, medicine or home. This sucks so bad. :grr: I HATE George Bush.

[chlamor]

6. ...leave or be killed.

[OneBlueSky]

7. every civilian killed in Fallujah was murdered . . .

many were the victims of mass murder . . . there is simply no other word for it . . . these people were not "collateral damage" -- they were murder victims, plain and simple . . .

[DoYouEverWonder]

9. What we did to Falluja

and what we are doing in the rest of Iraq is called GENOCIDE. The US leadership and military are guilty of war crimes. I am so ashamed of my country.

[annabanana]

11. May God be as merciful as the Fallujans he met...........

It hurts for this to be done in my name.

[chlamor]

13. In our name

[jenn1977]

14. Another link to similar article...

Diving Into Falluja
To Hell and Back with
S.B. Documentary-Maker Mark Manning
story by Nick Welsh • images by Mark Manning

Deep sea diver turned documentary filmmaker Mark Manning asked if I had six minutes to spare — a strange request, considering we’d already spent two hours talking about Manning’s recent trip to Falluja, the heart of Iraq’s bloody Sunni triangle. Six minutes more was nothing, so Manning queued up a short video of footage he’s shot in Iraq and hit play. Accompanied by the Tom Waits lament “Day After Tomorrow,” the screen filled with images of bombed-out buildings, dead animals, uniformed men with guns, twisted metal, heaps of rubble, and everywhere children — a Greek chorus of flat-eyed Fallujan kids, bearing not so much silent witness as unspoken accusation. Manning said it was the searing looks from the kids that disturbed him most. More than once, recounted Manning, he had to look away — and this after traveling thousands of miles and risking his life to look at the war in Iraq through their eyes.

...snip...

By delivering medical supplies to Iraqi refugees, Manning said he was able to conduct dozens of interviews — videotaped clandestinely — amassing some 25 hours worth of tape. Speaking with Iraqi citizens - men, women and children - who’d witnessed firsthand the fury of war, Manning asked: “What do you want to tell the American people? How can there be peace between our countries? What has your life been like since the war began?”

Their answers, Manning said, were nearly always the same: Peace was possible, the Iraqis told him, but time was running out. American citizens, said the Iraqis, need to wake up to what their government is doing. Manning was told grisly accounts of Iraqi mothers killed in front of their sons, brothers in front of sisters, all at the hands of American soldiers. He also heard allegations of wholesale rape of civilians, by both American and Iraqi troops. Manning said he heard numerous reports of the second siege of Falluja that described American forces deploying — in violation of international treaties — napalm, chemical weapons, phosphorous bombs, and “bunker-busting” shells laced with depleted uranium. Use of any of these against civilians is a violation of international law.

Because of incidents like these, Manning said, the resistance has grown from about 5,000 to 250,000. “Everybody’s in the resistance. You don’t ask them directly; that wouldn’t be wise. But everybody’s in the resistance,” he said.


<www.independent.com >