Christmas in Fallujah
By Leslie on December 26, 2007 at 12:56 AM in Current Affairs
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNHF5p4bV_k[/youtube]
Cass Dillon and Billy Joel perform, “Christmas in Fallujah.”
The Guernica of our time may not have ever happened if the Bush administration had remained focused on al Qaeda and bin Laden instead. How many Iraqis have been slaughtered: We don’t keep count. But perhaps one million have died according to estimates. How many millions more have been rendered homeless. How many US troops must die, or lose their limbs and their minds.
Meanwhile, in his weekly radio address Bush said, “America is blessed to have men and women willing to step forward to defend our freedoms and keep us safe from our enemies. We are thankful for their courage and their dedication to duty. We pray for their safety. And we wish them a Merry Christmas, wherever they serve.”
As Keith Olbermann would say, it’s been 1,700 days since Bush’s “mission accomplished” speech May 1, 2003.
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I estimate that at least one million Iraqis are more or less permanently homeless as a result of the United States military destroying or rendering uninhabitable, their homes, or more often their neighborhoods, or their entire village, town or city uninhabitable.
Falluja, a historic city about the size of Cleveland, in which approximately 300,000-350,000 people lived, was approximately 2/3 destroyed by the Americans as of the end of their siege and massacre of November, 2004. According to a comprehensive (and devastating) report by multiple NGO’s on the invasion and occupation of Iraq, Falluja is only the best known of a dozen towns and cities that the U.S. military has reduced virtually entirely or largely to rubble. They have also destroyed or rendered uninhabitable a large number of homes, and neighborhoods in Baghdad, Mosul, and other major cities.
These are war crimes. Some of them, such as the destruction of and massacres in Falluja rise, in my view and that of many others, to the level of crimes against humanity. The reports of Dahr Jamail, who was in Falluja during the first siege and massacre there – the massacre that filled two soccer stadiums with graves – can give some idea of the crimes, which included, but were not limited to, attacks on ambulances trying to evacuate the dead and wounded, the destruction of medical clinics, and the attack on, occupation of, and blockading of the main hospital in the city, during which doctors were treated like criminals, and patients were dragged out of their beds by American troops – there are photographs for those who cannot imagine their troops behaving in such a manner. At least one doctor reported American troops force their way into an operating room and dragging him away from a surgery he was performing.
What the American military did to Falluja should bring shame to the country. Instead, it is touted as a great success and called “The Battle for Falluja” – a sickening bit of P.R. nomenclature.
And maybe tomorrow if I have time I will provide some information on the ironic history of Falluja, and how the Americans managed to turn a calm, and traditionally anti-Saddam city into a so-called “hotbed” of so-called “insurgency”.
What a fool idea. The battle for Fallujah was a GREAT Victory for America. If you love the Muj and their way of life so much Shirin then you should move to Fallujah to be closer to those you care so much about. There was no massacres as you claim.
downblog, i said that cass dillon’s christmas in fallujah might be THE song of this war.
as they say in congress i wish to revise my remarks.
i don’t know how many great songs this war will produce. but on the short list will be robert cray’s, “twenty.” (h/t to taters for bringing it to our attention.)
cray.
* 5 time grammy winner.
* grew up on military bases in the u.s. and abroad. daddy was in the military. who served in vietnam.
the video accompanying this song is excellent. cray’s wife sue was directly involved in this.
i would also like to plug veterans for peace, vfp. the boots you see lined up came from us. a vfp chapter in california did “arlington west” with crosses on a beach. they did it every weekend. there is a documentary about it. staggeringly powerful. also, the amer. friends service cmte, aka, the quakers, (btw, they prefer to be called friends, not quakers), has a memorial exhibit that has toured america. some with the boots in cray’s video.
07.52
http://youtube.com/watch?v=hY4JlbC6wQE
the lyrics.
When you’re used up, where do you go
Soldier
Mother dry your eyes, there’s no need to cry
I’m not a boy, it’s what I signed up for
When you’re used up, where do you go
Soldier
I can’t take the heat, and I hardly sleep anymore
What’d we come here for
Standing out here in the desert
Trying to protect an oil line
I’d really like to do my job but
This ain’t the country that I had in mind
They call this a war on terror
I see a lot of civilians dying
Mothers, sons, fathers and daughters
Not to mention some friends of mine
Some friends of mine
Was supposed to leave last week
Promises they don’t keep anymore
Got to fight the rich man’s war
When you’re used up, where do you go
Soldier
Late in 2004
Comes a knock at the door
It’s no surprise
Mother dry your eyes
“The song is about an innocent young guy, who, after the events of 9/11, wants to do his part for his country,” Cray explains. “He doesn’t know he’s going to end up in Iraq, watching the horror that’s going on there…and he ends up losing his life. It’s a subject that needs to be spoken about and is in some ways, a continuation of one of the songs we did on the last album.”
Cray’s last album, the 2003, Time Will Tell, in fact, contained two songs, “Survivor” and “Distant Shore”, inspired by the potential conflict in Iraq that was impending at the time the songs were written (the first by Cray, the second by bandmate and co-producer Jim Pugh).
link for reference purposes only.
http://www.modernguitars.com/archives/000728.html
…..the destruction of medical clinics, and the attack on, occupation of, and blockading of the main hospital in the city, during which doctors were treated like criminals, and patients were dragged out of their beds by American troops…..
Shirin, apparently, the dragging of sick patients out of their hospital beds is a very American thing. Just 1/2 hour ago, I saw a report on BBC about hospitals in California expelling sick patients from their beds, afterwhich they arrive, still in hospital gowns, at homeless shelters, to die of pneumonia 15 minutes later. It’s getting so bad that authorities are now training security cameras on these hospitals to see how many sick patients they are throwing out. This is what America has also become under the direction of war criminals.
Yes, I have heard about this “patient dumping” practice, even on the mainstream media, and my impression is that it is general seen as scandalous, and is fortunately not widespread.
Of course the “patient dumping” issue is a completely different matter from what the Americans did in the hospital in Falluja and in other cities. Patient dumping is an economic matter in which uninsured patients who are unable to pay are “dumped” by the hospital, and, as you said, dropped off at homeless shelters, often still wearing their hospital gowns – terribly shameful. Whether it is criminal, or even illegal, I haven’t heard, but if it isn’t, it ought to be, although it only has affected a small number of people
What the American troops did in the Falluja hospital, and have done in other hospitals, is one of many signs of the complete contempt on the part of American occupying power and its military forces for the Iraqis whom they insist they are there to “liberate” and “help” and “protect” from “terrorists” and “insurgents”. They do things like this and then they whine that they are being attacked by Iraqis, are outraged when Iraqis won’t do anything protect the American troops, and wonder, with wide-eyed innocent looks on their faces, why “they hate us”, especially after everything “we have done for them”.
PS What the American troops did in the Falluja hospital, and in other hospitals as well, is clearly a war crime.
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/14045.html#more-14045
Notice the unelected war criminal and his family spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in the White House this year. I bet that’s because they wouldn’t dare spend Christmas in the White House next year — knowing the people can’t wait to kick them out on their ears. Scram thugs. Back to Crawford. The sooner, the better.
thought they were at camp david. (i don’t know. i do know that they are scum.)
“Somewhere in Texas a village is missing it’s he idiot.”…they had a 1 in sometimes 50 chance.
as the bumper snicker, sticker says: it goes somehting like: “call the village. i found their idiot.”
from maybe the coolest website for bumper stickers i have found: stamp and shout. com
about 35-40% down the page. left side.
http://www.stampandshout.com/shop/all/mini-stickers_pg9.php
what would happen if everyone who bitched about w. had a bumper sticker on their car? imho, it would wildly change things. (disclosure: i have the w with a slash thru it on mine.)
get to work people.