People of Fallujah wrote a letter to the UN to plead with US not to attack.

[madfloridian]

I will never forget when someone posted this here just before the Fallujah atrocities we committed...I mean what our country committed in our name without our permission. I don't think we will ever know all that really happened.

This letter was signed by the following people of Fallujah, and sent to Kofi Annan.

Best regards.
Kassim Abdullsattar al-Jumaily
President
The Study Center of Human Rights & Democracy

On behalf of the people of Fallujah and for:
Al-Fallujah Shura Council
The Bar Association
The Teacher Union
Council of Tribes Leaders
The House of Fatwa and Religious Education

It read in part:

His Excellency Mr. Kofi Annan Secretary General of the United Nations New York

Fallujah 14 October 2004

Your Excellency

It is very obvious that the American forces are committing crimes of genocide every day in Iraq. Now, while we are writing to Your Excellency, the American forces are committing these crimes in the city of Fallujah. The American warplanes are dropping their most powerful bombs on the civilian in the city, killing and injured hundreds of innocent people. At the same time their tanks are attacking the city with heavy artillery. As you know, there is no military presence in the city. There had been no actions taken by the Fallujah resistance in recent weeks because the negotiations between representatives of the city and the Government which were going well. In this atmosphere, the new bombardment by America has happened while the people of Fallujah have been preparing themselves for the fast of Ramadan. Now many of them are now trapped under the wreckage of their demolished houses, and nobody can help them while the attack continues.

On the night of the 13th October alone American bombardment demolished 50 houses on top of their residents. Is this a genocidal crime or a lesson about the American democracy? It is obvious that the Americans are committing acts of terror against the people of Fallujah for one reason only: their refusal to accept the Occupation.

Your Excellency and the whole world know that the Americans and their allies devastated our country under the pretext of the threat of WMD. Now, after all the destruction and the killing of thousand civilians, they have admitted that there no weapons were found. But they have said nothing about all the crimes they committed. Unfortunately everybody is now silent, and will not even dignify the murdered Iraqi civilians with words of condemnation. Are the Americans going to pay compensation as Iraq has been forced to do after the Gulf war?

There is more in the letter.
http://www.axisoflogic.com/cgi-bin/exec/view.pl?archive=123&num=12976&printer=1

Kofi Annan responded rather uselessly in November 04.

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2004/11/06/fallujah041106.html

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has sent a letter to the governments of the United States, Britain and Iraq warning that an all-out assault on Fallujah could undermine national elections set for January and further alienate Iraqis.
"The threat or actual use of force not only risks deepening the sense of alienation of certain communities, but would also reinforce perceptions among Iraqis of a continued military occupation," the letter said.

Dear Kofi Annan, you think? You used the words occupation. You were right.

I don't think we will ever know really just how many had to disappear into the desert, leaving their homes behind. Or how many died. Or left as refugees if they could manage. I remember one of our Democrats who ran for president speaking on TV and saying if we had to hit Fallujah we needed to do it quickly and not drag it out:

"I think it's clear there aren't enough troops there in the marine force around the city to really do the job. I think when that assault goes down, it's got to go down very quickly. We don't want it dragging on over a number of days."

That angered me for some reason, like killing people more quickly is better than doing it slowly.

More about Fallujah then:

http://newstandardnews.net:80/content/index.cfm/items/1201

Civilian casualties are very much on the mind of Amnesty International. The human rights group issued a public statement on Thursday insisting that US and Iraqi troops make every effort to limit harm to noncombatants.

Since the US estimates that only about 1,200 armed rebels are operating inside the city of Fallujah, more than 95 percent of the people presently estimated to be inside the city limits are presumed to be noncombatants.

The Amnesty statement chastised the US for recent civilian deaths and the destruction of homes and other property around Fallujah. The group also repeatedly reminded US and Iraqi officials of their obligations under the Geneva Conventions, to which both Iraq and the United States are signatories. The group emphasized the rules of warfare and the treatment of captives. Amnesty also addressed commanders of the resistance, calling on them to avoid placing civilians in harm’s way and to treat wounded and captured invaders with care.

...."But even inside the Iraqi interim government, there is opposition to the planned assault. President Ghazi Al-Yawer on Monday told a Kuwaiti newspaper, Al-Qabas, that an attack could be avoided. "The way the coalition is managing the crisis is wrong," he said. "It is as if someone shot his horse in the head to kill a fly that landed on it. The fly flies away, and the horse dies."

We will probably never kmow just how many we killed or drove away. But it doesn't seem as though anyone much cared about it.

[madfloridian]

1. Fallujah 101: A history lesson about the town we are currently destroying.

This is a very long and extremely interesting article. I am posting two paragraphs.

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/1683/

The United States was once celebrated as a non-colonial, sometimes anti-colonial, power in the Middle East, renowned for more than a century for its educational, medical and charity efforts. Since the Cold War, however, the United States has intervened increasingly in the region’s internal affairs and conflicts. Things have changed fundamentally for the worse with the invasion and occupation of Iraq, particularly with the revelation that the core pretexts offered by the administration for the invasion were false. And particularly with growing Iraqi dissatisfaction with the occupation and with the images of the hellish chaos broadcast regularly everywhere in the world except in the United States—thanks to the excellent job done by the media in keeping the real human costs of Iraq off our television screens.

The United States is perceived as stepping into the boots of Western colonial occupiers, still bitterly remembered from Morocco to Iran. The Bush administration marched into Iraq proclaiming the very best of intentions while stubbornly refusing to understand that in the eyes of most Iraqis and most others in the Middle East it is actions, not proclaimed intentions, that count. It does not matter what you say you are doing in Fallujah, where U.S. troops just launched an attack after weeks of bombing. What matters is what you are doing in Fallujah—and what people see that you are doing.

From an angry friend in Belgium...his rough translation below the cartoon.



On vient faire le ménage : “We are coming for housekeeping “

Attendez que je finis –instead of finisse- mon jeu : ‘ Wait for I finish my game ‘ (I cannot reproduce the grammar mistake in English – well, I think so ... ) . It needs a subjonctive instead a present...

[Hissyspit]

2. Now it's Baghdad's turn.

Hope someone documents the phosphorus use.

[madfloridian]

3. A page with links to Iraqi bloggers.

I have been watching some of them. Riverbend has not updated. One of my favorites, A Glimpse of Iraq, has not written since October.

http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/

It no longer matters what our media here tell us...the world gets the news even if we don't.

I am so angry, and it does not go away.

[madfloridian]

5. Letter to the Democratic congress from an Iraqi blogger.

http://iraquna.blogspot.com/2006/11/letter-to-congress-iraq-options.html

"Honorable Member of Congress,

Congratulations on your election to the US Congress.

I am writing this message to you as a leader who has the power to influence political decisions in America that may have enormous consequences on my country, Iraq. Please forgive me for being rather blunt. I don't think we can afford to be otherwise.

Iraqi and American blood is flowing every day. Millions of innocent people are suffering every single hour. My country is literally devastated. It saddens me to see the worst in my country being the dominant visible feature. It is also true that the worst in your country has been the dominant visible feature in the eyes of the world.

There is little doubt now that the major factor responsible for the present state of chaos and turmoil in Iraq was the course of action taken by the Administration. It has also been responsible for the loss of American blood and treasure and the reduced standing of the US in the eyes of the world.

Arguments of good intentions are refuted by facts on the ground and by results. Even if the forces now devastating Iraq were not intentionally created by the US intervention, an environment was created by that intervention that was extremely favorable for those forces to thrive and become more powerful."

[nam78_two]

4. K&R.nt

[redqueen]

6. What a tragic thread.

It enrages me that there are people who get annoyed by hearing these facts. They are more concerned with their comfort... with avoiding any painful cognitive dissonance... than the lives of their fellow human beings... it absolutely sickens me.

[Morgana LaFey]

7. There is nothing more poignant and simultaneously horrifying to me

than the plight of people (groups or individuals) who know the fate they're facing and are powerless to stop it.

[tnlefty]

8. Thanks for this post, madfloridian. I hadn't seen the letter(s)

before.

It's very difficult for me to respond to posts relating to Iraq at times - years of sadness and anger - overwhelms me at times. I have relatives, and frequently come into contact with the large numbers of repubs around me who just don't care about the carnage, death and destruction to this day. That only compounds my anger.

I can not imagine what it must be like to try to survive what Bush** and his fellow death minions have wrought upon Iraq, and I think about it daily. The repubs around me go shopping, go about their business like there's nothing to be concerned about in the world.

Yes, it is maddening and sad.

[madfloridian]

9. I have so much anger. It is not healthy.

I know so many people here who still don't care about the situation, just don't pay attention.

It is hard to respond, because there are no words anymore.

We will be defined by this war forever.