Creating enemies
Other farmers said that US troops had told them, over a loudspeaker in Arabic, that the fruit groves were being bulldozed to punish the farmers for not informing on the resistance which is very active in this Sunni Muslim district. "They made a sort of joke against us by playing jazz music while they were cutting down the trees," said one man. Ambushes of US troops have taken place around Dhuluaya. But Sheikh Hussein Ali Saleh al-Jabouri, a member of a delegation that went to the nearby US base to ask for compensation for the loss of the fruit trees, said American officers described what had happened as "a punishment of local people because 'you know who is in the resistance and do not tell us'." What the Israelis had done by way of collective punishment of Palestinians was now happening in Iraq, Sheikh Hussein added.And
But for Khalil and his neighbors, the destruction of more than 25,000 square meters (30, 000 sq. yards) of palm groves and fruit trees by U.S. forces which farmers said were feeding around 500 people is inexcusable. "They came in last week without prior notice, cut off the main road and worked for three days and three nights to destroy our plantations with their bulldozers," recalled farmer Fida' Shehab. "Some women and children tried going into the fields to pick and salvage some of the fruit from destruction, but the American troops fired into the air to scare them off," he said. Mubarak Saleh, another farmer from the area, explained that a delegation of farmers and municipality officials held meetings with the top U.S. officer in town in a bid to settle the spiraling dispute. "We tried to make them stop destroying our fields or at least ask for compensation," he said. "But all they said was: 'When the resistance will stop, we will stop destroying the fields,'" said Saleh. "We are not responsible for the Americans' failure to stop attacks, and killing trees will not stop them," he added. Khalil, a 35 -year-old father of seven children, said: "I just lost 15 million dinars (7, 500 dollars) in dates and eight million dinars (4, 000 dollars) in oranges. "This is a fortune here in Iraq and my only way of living," he said. A tall man standing behind the crowd suddenly raises a warning finger and says: "Some people who lost their fields are begging, others are stealing cars, but now that we have nothing to do, maybe we will join the resistance. "Is this what the Americans want?"With U.S. troops being ordered to do stuff like this and Iraqis feeling humiliated and angry, doesn't the Bush administration's continued explanation of the 22 attacks a day on U.S. troops as coming from Saddam or Saddam loyalists ring hollow?
originally posted by zagg
Comments
What the Israelis had done by way of collective punishment of Palestinians was now happening in Iraq, Sheikh Hussein added.
Couldn't one also say that this is the same thing that happened in Iran in the late 1970's? Though, I would concede, there was no actual military occupation of Iran by U.S. troops.
Posted by: d fresh | October 15, 2003 12:14 AM
From the Fourth Geneva Convention
(CONVENTION (IV) RELATIVE TO THE PROTECTION OF CIVILIAN PERSONS IN TIME OF WAR)
"Art. 33. No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited."
Nice to know that we have joined the Israelis in violating international law in the spirit of occupation (and their experience has been so successful and gratifying).
Posted by: Joseph Morris | October 15, 2003 2:45 PM
since the republican spinmeisters' declamation that terrorist bombings in iraq are a sign of progress, nothing can surprise me any more, although the bile continues to rise.
they have discarded any compunction toward even the most cosmetic appearance of concern for the people of iraq. this is a message that needs to be broadcast from the rooftops. what we don't want to do is end up imitation israel's wonderful [and effective!] military policy.
more and more every day these people are demonstrating that they do not want to prevent 'another 9/11'. if paranoid enough one might even suspect they want to cause one.
Posted by: r@d@r | October 15, 2003 5:25 PM
We cannot avoid the trouble going on among Muslim nations and peoples, with the bitter introduction of factions of Islam that seek to divide and smother a peaceful Islam that is focused having a co-existence with the rest of the world.
One of the things that was horrifying about the Iranian situation was the fanatical brainwashing political movement that Islamicized an entire country, eradicated its past, and nullified its future.
The same rhetoric and attacks against Muslims, from within the Muslim community, goes on in Palestine and it goes on in other parts of the world.
Comments like these, from the Malaysian Prime Minister, which are certainly not supported by other ASEAN and OIC members, indicate this feeling still exists, and is not simply a result of feelings about Israel and The West.
Something else is going on.
Something very troubling and isolating.
And if you ask Muslims living in Indonesia, the Malay peninsula in Thailand, and the ostracized and troubled Uzghur peoples in China, they will indicate that this is true.
In Bali, there is so much rage over the loss of money, jobs, lives and there is a sense of shame and fear that non Havadi Muslims would rage against their "own people" enough to kill like that. To this day, Christians and Muslims share religious and community space in Indonesia, but they still say that these other Muslims, fanatics from the Middle East, are spreading a type of Islam that does not ring true with the rest of the world.
And it is not simply a reaction against the Israeli-Palestinian situation, because the words that they use have more to do with a deeper vision that goes beyond history.
What is your feeling about this?
Posted by: d fresh | October 16, 2003 2:28 PM
In Azerbijan, a country formed by the Soviet Union--and then ignored, except for its oil--they just had elections.
Well, they weren't really elections, just a crushing takeover by a totalitarian government switching members.
These countries, long ignored for the Muslim-rich populations, are radicalized and fervent i ntheir beliefs, and it shows.
Posted by: d fresh | October 16, 2003 2:44 PM