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NORTH COAST TIMES E A G L E , MARCH 2003
LETTER FROM BAGHDAD
BY SAN BRIM
The following is a letter from peace activist San
Brim sent to the Cowlitz County (Washington) Public
Citizens. She wrote it Thursday, February 4 from Baghdad
and reported on conditions there.
Dear friends, Greetings from Baghdad. It is very late
here and I am sleepy. The hotel will not stop playing the theme
from The Last of the Mohicans over and over again and we
have had an exhausting day. And once again I will try to give
you some idea of what it is like to be in Iraq during this time.
And once again, as I have little time, this may be somewhat
disorganized But first I just have to share some very strong
impressions.
It becomes clear so quickly here that the Iraqis are not
and cannot prepare for war. They wait for the terror to come as
helpless as any people have ever been. They are totally unpre
pared. They are severely lacking medically and only have food
to last three months.They have nowhere to go and if Team Bush
does as they have threatened, and Baghdad is “leveled to the
ground," they will have murdered five million helpless people.
These people are sitting ducks. The U.S. is the biggest military
might in the world. The Iraqis are a depleted people, stripped of
all economic support and without resources. The word 'genocide’
had been raised by some of the humanitarian workers here and
as the days pass I see it also. It is the murder of a whole people.
Do you remember the old movies of Christians being
thrown out into the coliseum to be killed by lions? It seems a
little like that from the view from here.
The insidious nature of the sanctions become more
and more apparent as we go deeper into the society and see
the lives of everyday people. Every person in Baghdad receives
rationed food. Iraq cannot supply its own people under the
sanctions. The UN oversees the “Food for Oil" program and
people receive ration papers based on the number of persons
in a family. At one time the Kurds in the north grew wheat which
was sold throughout Iraq. But with the sanctions they can no
longer sell directly in Iraq. Without a market they have stopped
growing the wheat. An ancient agricultural tradition dies as the
fields grow dusty. And a culture begins to wane.
People are beginning to come to us for medicine. A
waiter needs cough syrup for his little boy. A woman is waiting
for us at the hotel for vitamins for her children. Someone’s uncle
has pneumonia and needs antibiotics. (The waiter has tears
streaming down his cheeks and you can see it is humiliating for
him to ask.)
Today we saw a part of the food distribution, visited an
orphanage and walked in a very poor neighborhood where we
were mobbed by children.
Yesterday was a very difficult day as we went to a bomb
shelter which was hit in February 1991. It was filled with over a
thousand people, mostly women and children. 480 died. The
shelter was a very long concrete structure built into the ground.
The walls were at least six feet thick made of concrete and
rebar. The shelter was two stories deep into the ground. We
were told that the people came there from the surrounding
neighborhood to feel safe. They made their beds on the
floor and slept during the bombing of Baghdad. At 4:30 in
the morning a rocket sliced open the roof of the shelter and
exploded. A few minutes later another rocket bore in through the
hole made by the first and went through the second level. From
the survivors we hear that there was horror and chaos. People in
the immediate area were incinerated on the spot. As the inferno
grew the temperature was estimated to reach 450 degrees.
All along the floor of the shelter you can see the marks of
incinerated bodies. You can see the shape of the person and
sometimes even the features of the face. I will tell you the
hardest thing was to see a mother and her child, a black blotchy
outline and smears of blood, etched into the floor. I just could
not imagine it. There are photos of the victims on the walls and
you cannot help but look at the outlines etched on the walls and
floor and the photos and wonder, “Was that her?"
And I wonder exactly who shot that rocket. Does he or
she know the horrible result. What officer gave the command?
Who authorized this?
Another thing that is becoming clear is the resignation
of the people here in Baghdad. They seem to believe that it is
inevitable they will be bombed; that war is coming and they will
be destroyed. I have come to recognize this kind of sigh when
they speak about the coming onslaught. A little shudder. It is
difficult for them to talk about the future. Or perhaps it might be
better to say a future.
I have never spent time with people anywhere without
hearing about plans for the future. “This child is planning to go
to the university" or “This summer we hope to take a vacation"
or “Tomorrow I will see my friend" or whatever. People in Iraq
don’t speak about the future. At first I just could not figure it out,
SUE COLE
what was lacking in conversations.There was a missing element.
It was the future. They do not know if they will have a future.
When they speak of this inevitable war they just hope
that somehow they and their families might survive. They know
that within a few weeks they will lose friends; perhaps family.
You can see that parents are overly protective of their children.
There is this desperation. And you can see that they want to
believe that we can somehow help them. “You are Americans,
perhaps you can speak to the President and explain that we are
no threat."
Today we went to a restaurant high above the city. As
we were looking out at the city a young man approached two
of us. He wanted to know why Americans wanted to bomb Iraqi
people. We tried to explain the oil thing and he kept on asking,
with a genuine innocence, “Why?" We could tell that he really
thought we knew something and could explain it to him. It just
did not make sense to him and he really wanted to understand.
It’s gotten out that there are these American women in
town who are working for Peace. Everywhere we go we get a
thumbs up. We flash the peace sign and they flash it back.
Sometimes we are treated almost like celebrities, with people
coming up in the streets and thanking us. Men in suits, women
in chadors, young men and women in jeans with hip haircuts,
they all take a moment to thank us. They tell us they know it
is not the American people who want to bomb them. They are
LEHER TO CONGRESS
To all of Oregon's Congressional delegation:
We, as patriotic Americans, should acknowledge
right now that certain prerequisites should be imposed when
(apparently not if) American armed forces are to be engaged
in a war with Iraqi armed forces. Congress should legislate
to make sure that “Freedom of the Press" as described in the
First Amendment of the Bill of Rights is in effect during this
war. America must demand that the Press have complete
freedom to record and report on the “progress" of the war.
The Bush/Cheney administration will certainly attempt heavy
restrictions on any information that exits the war zone. They
will institute strong censoring of printed or oral reports and
censor filmed accounts of the battles (especially scenes that
might bring the war home).
You, as the elected representatives of the citizens of
Oregon, must make sure that parents and families know the
truth about their sons’ and daughters’ fates. Most of you voted
against this obsessive campaign against an historic personal
nemesis. Nonetheless, neither you nor the President or any of
his advisors, save perhaps Colin Powell, have any idea of the
effect that the mutation in America's international strategy will
have on the world. When it occurs, not only America but the
rest of the world must be informed of the terrible events as
they happen.
You may think I am an over-reacting peacenik. I'm not.
I am a decorated combat infantry veteran. Indeed, I served at
the same time our President was bravely defending our border
from Mexican imperialistic intentions. With that in mind, I must
say that no matter how many Hollywood movies or CNN news
clips or History Channel specials concerning war that you or
the President’s advisors might review, until you have smelled
last night's battlefield, you have no real idea of the horror!
Add thousands of civilians. ..I won’t go on. But if you truly want
peace and really abhor war, you will at least assure a free press
in “Bush’s War”.
-RON BETTS
Ron Betts is president of Want'um Fisheries, Inc., in
Waldport He is a Vietnam veteran and formerly Oregon State
Coordinator of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War
completely lacking in hostility. When we say we are from the
United States at first there is surprise and then immediately a
smile.
Last night three of us also met with this totally wonder
ful group of 43 Spanish actors, dancers and singers. They plan
to take over their embassy here. They completely embody the
word “vivacious". After we had talked awhile and described our
work here and in the U.S., one of the reporters with them began
to ask us about the American people. Why were they allowing
this to happen? How could they tolerate this action by our Presi
dent? Don't Americans read? How is it possible that Americans
would allow their government to commit this horrible atrocity and
not take action? Whoa, these were such hard things to describe.
And we never did completely satisfy their questions. Maybe we
don’t fully understand it ourselves.
There are many Europeans here Members of the
European Parliament are here.They are all outraged and radical.
They speak of the American “Bully" and in one press conference
yesterday the U.S. was described as arrogant and “full of itself."
It's kind of the way I see it. It's embarrassing when you see the
common view Europeans have of people in America.
We are moving about the city a lot and seeing many
things. Orphanages, hospitals, etc., and meeting with officials of
various programs. There has not been time for small quiet talks
with Iraqi people. We are moving fast.
I am with Diane Wilson. She is a fourth generation
fisherwoman from the Texas Gulf coast. She has spent the last
15 years fighting environmental pollution. She has tied in the
environmental issues to this war very nicely. Tonight we were
talking about the reality that if we had developed or were in the
process of developing alternative energy, there would be no
Iraqi war. Without the need or greed for oil, we would not be
bearing down on these people to take control of their oil.
Thursday we go to Babylon. We will spend the day with
a family and see their buffalo farm. Doctors Without Borders are
here and tomorrow morning we will meet with them. Every night
here as I go to sleep I cannot help but think of faces of children
I have seen that day. I think of them being put to bed by their
parents and how it will be if the bombing starts. It is beyond the
imagination that these little children are seen as so expendable,
“acceptable collateral damage." What kind of monster finds that
acceptable. All for oil.
And I cannot help but think of that one young man who
looked at me so direct and asked with such urgency, "Please
help us."
Good night all Peace.