US Troops Killing Civilians in Iraq · Friday June 2, 2006
As accusations mount, Iraq furor grows
BAGHDAD, Iraq – A third set of allegations that U.S. troops have deliberately killed civilians is fueling a furor in Iraq and drawing strong condemnations from government and human rights officials.
“It looks like the killing of Iraqi civilians is becoming a daily phenomenon,” the chairman of the Iraqi Human Rights Association, Muayed al-Anbaki, said Friday after video ran on television of children and adults slain in a raid in March on the Iraqi village of Ishaqi north of Baghdad.
Is anybody actually surprised at these allegations? Accidentally or otherwise, US troops have killed thousands of Iraqi civilians since the illegal invasion began in 2003. The military exists as an institution of violent subjugation and dehumanization, so why should we expect anything else than violent subjugation and dehumanization?
“Our training teaches us to treat the enemy as a target; we try to dehumanize them as much as possible. But when it’s over and I’m in a safe area, I certainly reflect upon the fact that a human life has been taken. But I believe that when we are doing our jobs, we’re actually saving lives — whether it’s taking out an enemy who’s going to take out some of our guys, or taking out an enemy so we don’t have to drop a 2,000-pound bomb on a building and have collateral damage.” Source
So you reflect upon taking lives AFTER it’s over and you are in a safe zone? Unless, of course, your buddy has just been blown up and you randomly run into a house and start shooting people because they’re less than human to you. It’s a spiral of violence and dehumanization on both sides, and we’re sinking deeper every day.
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cindy writes:
i was listening to cbc radio today. they were interviewing on of the christian peace activists that were taken hostage a last winter in iraq. what i found amazing is that he wonders about his captors all the time. he wants to go back and talk to them find out what kind of people there are, what there daily lives are like. i keep thinking the uk troops handed them over to the us troops and they were quietly dealt with. the horrors of war, indeed. it’s so desperate, the situation over there.
posted Jun 6, 03:16 PM ~ #