Iraqi city is full of hatred

[truthisfreedom]

http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Nov/11042003/nation_w/nation_w.asp

Iraqi city is full of hatred

By Dexter Filkins
The New York Times

    FALLUJAH, Iraq -- In the epicenter of anti-American hatred, even the most generous of gestures is viewed with a suspicious eye.
    The day after 16 American servicemen died when their helicopter was shot out of the sky here, a group of American soldiers tossed handfuls of candy from their Humvees to the Iraqi children who lined the road.
    "Don't touch it, don't touch it!" the Iraqi children squealed. "It's poison from the Americans. It will kill you."
    The Humvees rumbled past, and the candy stayed in the dirt.
    Loathing for the American occupiers of Iraq looms everywhere in this hardscrabble city, where Saddam Hussein won strong support in exchange for privileges and patronage. Hatred laces the conversations. It hangs from the walls. It burns in the minds of children. As nowhere else in Iraq, Fallujah bristles with a desire to confront the American soldiers, to kill them and to celebrate when they fall.
<snip>
    "The old currency is better," Hamid said, pointing to the face of Hussein on an old Iraqi note, "because Saddam is on it."
<snip>

-------------------
someone should educate these people. it's not America that did this. it's bush, pushing the omnipotent mur'ka button.

never again. anyone but bush. stop diebold's deceit.

[Livadia]

1. humvee drive-bys and candy too ??

Generosity indeed.

[IndianaGreen]

5. "Don't take the candy from the Americans, it is poisoned!"

That's a quote from an American reporter that was shown on CNN's Aaron Brown show last night. He described what he heard Iraqi children say to each other as the Humvees drove by throwing the candy, "don't take the candy from the Americans, it is poisoned!," as proof of the nearly insurmountable problems the US is facing in Iraq.

For those of you that venture into the I/P forum, you might recall reading a story about the people in a Jewish settlement that had just been subjected to a terrorist attack several months ago. A woman quoted in the story was besides herself because, as she told it, whne the bus with Israeli children travelled by a nearby Palestinian slum, the Israeli children would throw candy out of the window to the Palestinian children. The Palestinian children's reaction was similar to the one of the Iraqi children.

It's the Occupation, stupid!

[LeftistGorilla]

14. It's also the sanctions...

how can they forget...


I also saw that segment on CNN... Brown looked confused and scared when he said it... very telling...

[dbt]

2. Yes, it IS America that did this

As far as the Iraqis can tell, all Americans look and act like Robocop.

:cry:
dbt

[truthisfreedom]

3. No, it's not America that did this. It's bushco that did this. It doesn't

matter how it LOOKS, what matters is the truth. America would never have done this. America defends... not offends. What is happening in Iraq used to be the realm of the CIA alone. Now for some twisted reason it's the realm of the Executive Branch. We vote for these people... we didn't vote in bushco, and we don't have to vote them in again. This time, vote them out.

[IndianaGreen]

4. It was our GIs that started the blood feud in Fallujah

To remind you, the pictures were posted in DU at the time there was a demonstration about the closing of a school in Fallujah. The crowd started to throw rocks when a GI manning a .50 cal atop a Humvee swung around to avoid a rock, but he had his finger on the trigger firing indiscriminately on the crowd. I believe there were about 75 casualties among the Iraqi civilians. Pictures and news stories (from the British press, who was there) were posted and discussed in DU. The incident happened shortly after Saddam's fall, and during the brief period of euphoria that followed it.

It was our GIs that started the blood feud in Fallujah!

[Barrett808]

11. Missed that one -- is there a link?

Want to add it to my archive.

[Barrett808]

12. Oh, got it, a couple of posts below! n/t

n/t

[TheLastMohican]

6. All I can say is

when those soldiers stop treating those kids like some animals in the zoo and throw them candies like feeding some wild animals. This is not an act of generosity - this is to show who is the leader here and who is in charge.
Those kids used to have normal schooling and normal feeding and didn't need those crumbs and charities until US military broke in.

P.S. Would you take a candy from someone today who shot your father or mother yesterday? Complete FUBAR.

[IndianaGreen]

7. The Fallujah massacre

The Fallujah massacre
By Alan Woods

"It has been about 20 years since I was last here and I am just looking forward to looking our boys in the eye and telling them what a great job they have done here." (Donald Rumsfeld, in Baghdad this morning.)

The whole world can now see the real nature of the Anglo-American occupation of Iraq. On Monday at least 13 were killed and an unknown number wounded when US soldiers opened fire on a crowd of unarmed demonstrators who were protesting against the occupation of a local school by the US army. Despite the claims of the Americans that they were fired upon by the demonstrators there is not a shred of evidence to support this.

Last night BBC television carried harrowing pictures of the scene of the massacre in Fallujah, a dust-blown Sunni Muslim trucking town 35 miles west of Baghdad. The BBC's correspondent on the spot was in no doubt that the American soldiers had fired indiscriminately into the crowd, hitting houses in a residential area and killing civilians who were still indoors and had not even participated in the demonstration. By contrast, there was not a single bullet mark on the school and no American soldier had been injured. This was a massacre, pure and simple.

Iraqi doctors and city officials say that 13 people were killed and many more injured. The US military speaks of up to 10 deaths but admits that it is "possible" the figure is 13. The final death toll may be far higher. The report in today's Independent describes the scene of mayhem in the town: "Large patches of congealed blood. Discarded shoes scattered in terror. Angry Iraqi neighbours and wailing relatives, recounting a tale of the random killing of young men whose only crime was to demand that their new, heavily armed masters leave the neighbourhood."

http://www.marxist.com/MiddleEast/fallujah_massacre.html

Published on Wednesday, April 30, 2003 by the Boston Globe
US, Iraqis at Odds on Protesters' Deaths
by Elizabeth Neuffer

FALLUJAH, Iraq - Angry Iraqis accused US troops yesterday of killing at least 13 people when they fired on protesters in this city west of Baghdad in one of the worst clashes between civilians and American forces in the US-led war on Iraq.

A pool of blood stained the sand yesterday near the elementary school where the shooting occurred Monday night, evidence that US bullets found their mark. But little else was clear about the shooting, with residents and US soldiers offering contradictory accounts.

Local officials and neighbors said that US troops shot without provocation at a peaceful demonstration aimed at getting the soldiers to evacuate the school they had been occupying since Friday, so children could return to classes.

''This was random shooting without justification,'' said city councilman Sabah al-Rawi, 41, pointing out bullet holes in the walls of a home near the school.

But US forces said armed demonstrators infiltrated the crowd and threw rocks, chanted pro-Saddam Hussein slogans, and fired AK-47s at soldiers.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0430-09.htm

[EdGy]

8. this is typical of American foreign policy

Bush's moves are just not as diplomatic as most US administrations.

But make no mistake, Bush's foreign policy is not that different from US foreign policy in general, it just doesn't have the "velvet gloves" that the US usually has.

Face it Americans, your country acts like a big bully in the rest of the world and has done so for decades. Handing out "foreign aid" that is actually subsidies to US corporations, though it may make americans feel "generous" and good, does very little to cancel out the bullying that the US does.

This candy episode is a perfect example and I think you should look at it as a typical example of the combination of arrogance, ignorance and stupidity of US foreign policy.

And I do think all Americans should be held responsible for it.

[Bandit]

13. "And I do think all Americans should be held responsible for it."

Sad commentary indeed. I believe most of the world feels this way also. America is responsible for Bush* and his Cabal being in power and being allowed to attack a sovereign nation without provacation. America will reap what it sows and it ain't gunna be pretty. Of course we will blame everyone else for our enemies but it won't change the fact that we bring it upon ourselves. America with it's gun culture and violent movies and glorifying mobsters and street toughs. I am truly ashamed to be an American in these trying times.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

9. bush* has done more to harm America than 500 Osama'a ever could have

[liberalmuse]

10. I disagree

that only Bush did this. AMERICA did do this because not enough of us opposed this atrocity of a war. Our media promoted this war and the people 'patriotically' cheered on the bombing of civilians. Unfortuately, Bush isn't one of the faces these people see in tanks mowing down children. His face isn't on the soldiers who shot up an entire family in their car. His face isn't the one they see when their houses are searched in the middle of the night. He's sitting in the White House thousands of miles away, while our soldiers have become all too convenient, and unfortunately, rightful targets, because they are essentially the arm of Bush policy. I would hate anyone who did to my country what the U.S. has done to Iraq. I do blame Bush as I blame Hitler for instigating an entire population towards war using deception, but information was out there and available that showed there were no WMD's and that Saddam was not a direct threat to the U.S. There is blood on his administration's hands. That being said, I am saddened and angered that our troops are being used to occupy and oppress an entire people. I want our troops home NOW.

[duvinnie]

15. good comments

in this thread! As much as I hate to admit it, there is enough culpability to go around. Our
foreign policy, specially in the mideast, did not just start to stink in Jan 2001; it was brutal
and exploitive and has been for decades now. I don't think Clinton was a paragon of
virtue in foreign affairs, he is just a whole lot smaarter and put together a very capable
cabinet to maintain the velvet glove approach. Though I have to credit his handling of
the Palestinian situation.

If I and people like me had been more actively following foreign policy since Gulf I,
and holding our govt more accountable, who knows, maybe things would be different.
(Its nice to dream isn't it?!)