Have You Forgotten? A poignant reminder from an Iraqi girl

[Emillereid]

Iraqi Girl Blog


09/05/03: September 11 was a tragedy. Not because 3,000 Americans died… but because 3,000 humans died. I was reading about the recorded telephone conversations of victims and their families on September 11. I thought it was… awful, and perfectly timed. Just when people are starting to question the results and incentives behind this occupation, they are immediately bombarded with reminders of September 11. Never mind Iraq had nothing to do with it.

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But, I *haven’t* forgotten…



I remember watching them drag out bodies so charred, you couldn’t tell they were human. I remember frantic people, running from corpse to corpse, trying to identify a loved-one… I remember seeing Iraqi aid workers, cleaning out the shelter, fainting with the unbearable scenes inside. I remember the whole area reeked with the smell of burnt flesh for weeks and weeks after.

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I remember 13 years of sanctions, backed firmly by the US and UK, in the name of WMD nobody ever found. Sanctions so rigid, we had basic necessities, like medicine, on waiting lists for months and months, before they were refused. I remember chemicals like chlorine, necessary for water purification, being scrutinized and delayed at the expense of millions of people.

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I remember wasted, little bodies in huge hospital beds- dying of hunger and of disease; diseases that could easily be treated with medications that were ‘forbidden’. I remember parents with drawn faces peering anxiously into doctors’ eyes, searching for a miracle.

I remember the depleted uranium. How many have heard of depleted uranium? Those are household words to Iraqi people. The depleted uranium weapons used in 1991 (and possibly this time too) have resulted in a damaged environment and an astronomical rise in the cancer rate in Iraq. I remember seeing babies born with a single eye, 3 legs or no face- a result of DU poisoning. ...

<snip>
American long-term memory is exclusive to American traumas. The rest of the world should simply ‘put the past behind’, ‘move forward’, ‘be pragmatic’ and ‘get over it’.

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

This goes to the heart of what I talked about in another post the other day about the blinding effects of our myth of American 'exceptionalism' -- If I could run the zoo for just one day, I would make Brian Wilson's refrain : "We are not worth more, they are worth less." the American motto to be taught and ingrained in the soul of every Am erican man, woman and child. Then we could really be proud of our family values.
Then we would really carry out our Judeo-Christian-Muslim-humanist heritage.










































 





 




 

[anti_shrub]

1. Someone (symbolman maybe?) needs to do a flash

Of the carnage in Iraq set to the tune of any freeper country song, call it "Have You Forgotten (Who Really Was Behind 9/11)"