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A Fallujah man and his son—the boy was wounded by shrapnel from an explosion Nov. 8
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As
citizens of Fallujah start to bury their dead in makeshift
burial grounds freshly dug in the outskirts of the city, it may
be little comfort for them to know that the name of their city
will go down in history.
Stalingrad
and
Warsaw
during World War II, the
Alamo
in 1836, the Massada in 70 CE and
Leipzig
during the Thirty Years War are just some of the cities that
have been besieged, starved or bombarded throughout history. All
played key roles in the development of their respective
countries’ histories and all are the basis of folk
stories—and in some cases, Hollywood lore.
Fallujah
is the latest addition.
Since
April 2003, when US forces declared victory in invading and
occupying Iraq and unseating its government, Fallujah has borne
witness to a number of attacks which have killed hundreds of
civilians, including women and children.
When
one reviews the chronology of events concerning Fallujah in the
North American press, one finds that the starting point of
so-called “trouble” is usually March 2004, when four
heavily-armed private defense contractors were killed and then
publicly displayed in the streets of the city.
However,
this is a gross misrepresentation of the events that shaped the
city into the stronghold of resistance against a foreign
occupation and does not delve into the reasons why such hatred
and inhumanity was put on display in the case of the
contractors.
The
name of Fallujah, in reality, became a newspaper item on April 29, 2003
when dozens of Iraqi demonstrators were massacred by US troops.
World press reports put the number of Iraqi dead at 20, with
some 75 more wounded. At the time, US troops prevented medical
assistance from reaching the wounded and claimed the
demonstrators were armed and fired at US troops.
The
killing and wounding of nearly 100 Iraqi civilians was cited as
self-defense.
A
day later, three more Iraqi civilians were killed and 16
wounded.
Human
Rights Watch investigated the two incidents:
Significantly,
Human Rights Watch did not find conclusive evidence of bullet
damage on the school where U.S. soldiers were based during the first incident, placing into
serious question the assertion that they had come under fire
from individuals in the crowd. In contrast, the buildings across
the street facing the school had extensive evidence of
multi-caliber bullet impacts that were wider and more sustained
than would have been caused by the “precision fire” with
which the soldiers maintain they responded, leading to the
civilian casualties that day. Witness testimony and ballistics
evidence suggest that U.S. troops responded with excessive force to a perceived threat.
In
the second incident on April 30, protesters admitted throwing
rocks, and one broke the window of a U.S. military vehicle, injuring a soldier. But there was no clear
evidence of shooting from the crowd, again suggesting that U.S. forces responded with disproportionate force.
Those
incidents convinced Iraqis that all the talk of liberation and
democracy was little more than a smokescreen for occupation and
wholesale depletion of Iraq’s resources and manpower.
In the latest attacks on Fallujah there have been reports of massive civilian casualties. |
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Last
April, when US troops attempted to take the city, some 800 people were killed
and more than 2000 wounded. Iraqi sources said that hundreds of
civilians were killed in that assault—which ended when US
forces were forced to retreat due to stiff resistance and an
international outcry.
But
US military sources scoffed at the reports of civilians dead.
Liars, they called the people of Fallujah.
In
late October, however, an independent website that routinely
reports the civilian and military body counts in Iraq said the
US siege of Fallujah last April caused the deaths of 600 civilians,
including 300 children.
Press
spokesman of Iraq Body
Count (IBC) John Sloboda said data recently released to the
public by the Iraqi Health Ministry had allowed IBC to resolve a
problem they have been struggling with for months: “How to
reconcile casualty figures reported by local doctors of 800
total dead with a much lower estimate, [280 dead] produced in
short order by the Iraqi Health Ministry (IHM).”
More
civilian deaths, more denials by the US military, and more wilful distortion of the facts on the ground
by US media. An exercise in searching for a meagre mention of
the IBC report in North American media would prove fruitless and
frustrating.
In
the period following the US military retreat from Fallujah, the city came under a
near-nightly barrage of artillery and aerial assaults. Dozens of
civilians were killed and maimed, but US media continued to
ignore the carnage inflicted on the civilian population of the
city.
While
Arab television stations from Mauritania to Oman showed—once
again—near-nightly video of children being pulled from under
the rubble of destroyed buildings, blood-stained hospitals
filled with the miniature carcasses of eight- and nine-year-old
children and their mothers, and the desperate wails of parents
forced to bury their young, US media continued to use the
catchphrases “US forced target insurgents in Fallujah” or
“Terrorist safe houses have been destroyed by US warplanes.”
In
the latest attack on Fallujah, in which US infantry supported by
air power and several tank and armored brigades have taken
nearly 70 percent of the city, there have been reports of
massive civilian casualties. On November 8, the International
Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) expressed dismay that doctors
and support medical staff had been targeted, that food and
medical provisions were running low in the city, that US forces
disallowed doctors from reaching the wounded, that the last
remaining ambulance was blown up by US forces, and that refugees
from the city had no access to medical supplies.
Nevertheless,
US media continues its selective reporting methods and ignores the
plight of Fallujah’s civilians.
On
November 10, the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (the equivalent of
the Red Cross) reported that a humanitarian crisis was brewing
in Fallujah.
According
to the Society, a pregnant woman and her child died in a refugee
camp outside Fallujah after the mother unexpectedly aborted and
no doctors were available to treat her.
US media continues its selective reporting methods and ignores the plight of Fallujah’s civilians. |
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Firdaws
al-Obeidi, an official from the Society, told Reuters, “From a
humanitarian point of view it’s a disaster, there’s no other
way to describe it. And if we don’t do something about it
soon, it’s going to spread to other cities,” she said.
The
Iraqi Red Crescent Society just reported that a woman and her
three daughters were trying to escape the carnage in Fallujah,
but their home was hit by US bombardment earlier this week and all died.
Still,
US media ignores.
So,
it isn’t surprising when my inbox is inundated with emails
from well-wishing Americans who spare no words to exclaim their
joy that Fallujah is finally being destroyed. Civilian
casualties? No problem; it’s their fault, say these emailers.
It is the fault of the Iraqi civilians that they stayed in their
homes—where they have been for generations—and did not leave
when they were told of the impending invasion. Never mind this
is their country.
When
these columns reveal the killing of civilians, this writer is
called a liar, an Islamo-fascist, unobjective, on and on. “Why
don’t you print the facts,” one angered emailer wrote,
citing the statements of the US military in Fallujah as the prime example of what he believes
fact-telling to be.
In
all fairness, however, there are some emails which decry the US military action and the deaths of civilians caught with nowhere
to go. But these are a minority. My job is done when these
become the majority.
Until
then, the name of Fallujah will resonate in Iraqi history.
Already, we have seen the rise of a new resistance group in Iraq
called the Mujahideen of Fallujah. The US military actions in Fallujah are refueling an anti-occupation
movement in Iraq that will soon transform from the passive to the aggressive.
Expect
more groups to pledge revenge for Fallujah, more kidnappings,
more attacks, more violence.
Firas Al-Atraqchi
is a Canadian journalist of Iraqi heritage. Holding an MA in Journalism and Mass Communication, he has eleven years of experience covering Middle East issues, oil and gas markets, and the telecom industry. You can reach him at
firascape@hotmail.com.
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