The Crimes at Abu Ghraib Are Not the Worst
Recent days have been hectic ones for the Supreme Rulers in Washington, D.C. President George W. Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld have ceased their accustomed swaggering, put on their most somber faces, and issued one apology after another for the mistreatment of prisoners by U.S. soldiers and mercenaries at Abu Ghraib prison. Although the government had known about these disgusting, sadistic, and idiotic amusements for a long time, Rumsfeld kept a close hold on the information, the better to brush it under the official rug. (We know that the government knew, because the International Committee for the Red Cross, which made several inspections of the prisons in Iraq, confirms that long ago it "told the Americans that what was going on at Abu Ghraib is reprehensible.") Once the photos got out, of course, more than one kind of hell broke loose, and now the government's top dogs all have their tails tucked shamefully between their legs. South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham warned reporters after Rumsfeld's Senate interrogation on May 7 that "there's more to come" and "we're talking about rape and murder and some very serious charges" against U.S. soldiers and civilian employees in Iraq.
Although Bush says that he is sorry for "the terrible and horrible acts," and Rumsfeld says that he takes "full responsibility," the president continues to express confidence in his defense secretary, and the secretary says that he has no intention to step down. Which is to say, neither of these men foresees bearing any real personal cost whatsoever, aside from the momentary embarrassment, the political discomposure, and the time expended in spinning the issue for Congress and the public. Meanwhile the administration is working overtime to pin the blame on some low-level patsies so that everybody can get on with campaigning for Bush's reelection.
Although no principle stands higher in military doctrine than that the commander bears full responsibility for the actions of his subordinates, neither of these two top military commanders has the decency to resign-not just on account of the prison disclosures, of course, but also on account of the plethora of actions by which they have abused their constitutional powers and brought everlasting shame upon the United States-and nobody is in a position to dismiss them except the spineless Congress, whose members would sooner cut off their arms and legs than impeach Bush for his war crimes.
And make no mistake: plenty of war crimes have been, and continue to be, committed for which these men, along with many other civilian and military agents of the government, bear full responsibility. After all, in violation of the rule the Allies enforced against the Nazis at the post-World War II Nuremburg Trials, they chose to launch an aggressive, unprovoked, and unnecessary war against the Iraqi people, and during the past year they have undertaken to impose U.S. domination on the conquered people by rampant military violence. That many Iraqis have fought back against their occupiers in no way justifies U.S. actions. Everyone has a right of self-defense. What would you do if your country had been occupied by murderous and sadistic foreign troops?
The worst U.S. crimes in Iraq have received far less press than the photos of U.S. soldiers having fun and games with the prisoners at Abu Ghraib-not that the prisoners were anything but terrified by these vile amusements-but the truly terrible crimes have not gone totally unreported, especially in the news media outside the United States.
Last May 11, one of the thousands of such stories somehow made its way into the New York Times. It told how on April 5, 2003, a home in Basra had been hit by a U.S. bomb that exploded and killed ten members of Abed Hassan Hamoodi's extended family. British military officials said they had received reports that General Ali Hassan al-Majid-the notorious "Chemical Ali"-was in the neighborhood. Of course, the attack, which demolished a number of houses and killed twenty-three of their occupants, failed to kill al-Majid. (In the phrase "military intelligence," emphasis should always be placed on the word "military.") But one of the bombs brought an end to most members of Hamoodi's family.
"Ammar Muhammad was not yet 2 when his grandfather pulled him from the rubble and tried to give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but his mouth was full of dust and he died." Seventy-two-year-old Hamoodi declared that he considered the destruction of his home and the killings of his family members to constitute a war crime, and he asked rhetorically: "How would President Bush feel if he had to dig his daughters from out of the rubble?"
How indeed?
U.S. forces have expended thousands of cluster munitions in Iraq, often in heavily populated places. (In the Karbala-Hillah area alone, U.S. teams had destroyed by late August last year more than 31,000 unexploded bomblets "that landed on fields, homes, factories and roads . . . many were in populated areas on Karbala's outskirts.") The toll among children, whose natural curiosity draws them to the interesting-looking bomblets, has been heavy.
Khalid Tamimi and four other members of his family were walking on a footpath in Baghdad when his brother, seven-year-old Haithem, spotted something interesting, picked it up and examined it, then threw it down. The bomblet's explosion killed Haithem and his nine-year-old cousin, Nora, and seriously wounded Khalid, as well as the children's mothers, Amal and Mayasa.
Last year the whole world learned about Ali Ismail Abbas, the twelve-year-old boy who was sleeping in his home in Baghdad when a U.S. missile struck and the explosion tore off both his arms and killed his parents and his brother. His heartrending photo appeared in news media around the world, as did reports of his anguished cries for help in getting his arms back.
Recently, the ferocious U.S. attacks on Fallujah have yielded hundreds of additional casualties among the innocent. There, as in many other places in Iraq, U.S. troops have fired recklessly and without adequate regard for the thousands of civilians they thereby placed in mortal jeopardy. "I'm sitting at the funeral of my only son, who was killed because of the U.S. Marines' harsh manner in dealing with civilians," Abbas Abdullah told a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. "They shot him in the head, and he died instantly."
In the White House Rose Garden on April 30, President Bush, displaying his usual keen sensitivity, blustered as he often has on the campaign trail that because of the U.S. invasion "there are no longer torture chambers or rape rooms or mass graves in Iraq." The president made this claim even as the whole world's press was featuring photos of the U.S. torture chambers at Abu Ghraib and reporting worse crimes against Iraqi detainees there and elsewhere, including rape and murder.
Moreover, mass graves have been filling up for weeks at Fallujah, for the most part with noncombatants. According to Dahr Jamail's report in The Nation, "two soccer fields in Fallujah have been converted to graveyards." Jamail also reported that "the Americans have bombed one hospital, and, numerous sources told us, were sniping at people who attempted to enter and exit the other major medical facility." Snipers also shot ambulances braving the dangerous streets to bring the wounded to makeshift places of medical assistance.
Along a quiet residential street in Fallujah, nine-year-old Rahad Septi and other children were playing hide-and-seek when the pilot of a U.S. A-10 aircraft dropped a bomb there. Rahad, "little flower" to her father Juma Septi, was killed along with ten other children, and twelve other children were wounded. Three adults also were killed. Jamal Abbas was driving his taxi when the bomb fell. He found his eleven-year-old niece Arij Haki with "the top half of her head . . . blown off." After half an hour of searching amid the devastation, Abbas found his daughter, eleven-year-old Miad Jamal Abbas, "her body bloody and ripped." She died later at the hospital. "There was no military activity in this area," said Saad Ibrahim, whose father Hussein was killed in his nearby shop by the same bomb blast. "There was no shooting. This is not a military camp. These are houses with children playing in the street."
When Daham Kassim, his wife Gufran Ibed Kassim, and their four children tried to escape the hell of U.S. bombing in their neighborhood in Nasiriyah, they stopped on the outskirts of the city at a military checkpoint, where, without warning, U.S. tank crews blasted their car with machine-gun fire, killing three of the children and wounding all the other occupants of the car. U.S. troops, humanitarian as ever, then took the three survivors of the attack to a field hospital, treated their wounds, and let them rest in beds. On the third night, however, the troops expelled them from the hospital to make room for wounded U.S. soldiers. As Kassim relates the story: "They carried us like dogs, out into the cold, without shelter, or a blanket. It was the days of the sandstorms and freezing at night. And I heard [five-year-old] Zainab crying: 'Papa, Papa, I am cold, I am cold.' Then she went silent. Completely silent. . . . My arms were broken. I could not lift or hold her. . . . We had to sit there, and listen to her die."
In Nasiriyah, only Kadem Hashem and his youngest daughter survived when a U.S. missile struck their house. His wife Salima, five of their children, and six other family members who happened to be in the house at the time were killed. Finding a photograph in the debris of his house, Hashem told reporter Ed Vulliamy of The Observer: "This was my middle daughter, Hamadi. I found her burnt to death by that doorway, she had shrunk to about a metre tall." His one surviving daughter, Bedour, described now as "what remains of a beautiful girl," lies on the floor of a relative's house. "She is shrivelled and petrified like a dead cat. Her skin is like scorched parchment folded over her bones. Unable to move, she appears as if in some troubled coma, but opens her eyes, with difficulty, to issue an indecipherable cry like a wounded animal." Hashem dug a mass grave for his family in a nearby holy city. "I collected them all and put them in a single grave at Najaf; my money was burnt, too, and I couldn't afford to bury them separately."
To my knowledge, neither President Bush, nor Vice President Dick Cheney, nor Secretary of State Colin Powell, nor Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, nor Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, nor Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith, nor Richard Perle (who has worked for decades at the highest levels both inside and outside the government to bring about the present horrors in Iraq)-not a single one of them has apologized to any of the victims identified in the foregoing accounts.
What the U.S. government did at Abu Ghraib was bad, but what it did to Ammar Muhammad, to Haithem Tamimi, to Ali Ismail Abbas, to Abbas Abdullah's son, to Rahad Septi, to Arij Haki, to Miad Jamal Abbas, to Zainab Kassim, and to Bedour Hashem was far far worse.
Their stories are but a very few of the tens of thousands that might be told if more complete information were available to provide the details associated with the gruesome statistics on deaths and injuries among the Iraqi population. Relatively few of the people slain were "terrorists," Baathists, or even insurgents. Most were noncombatants; thousands were women, children, and elderly people. The military euphemism for these deaths is "collateral damage," but they are actually murders. After all, they did not happen by accident; in the circumstances, they were as predictable as the sun's rising in the east. By choosing to engage in the kinds of military actions that made these deaths inevitable, the U.S. government thereby chose to cause these deaths. The claim that they were not intended has no substance whatsoever.
Bush and Rumsfeld have been busy with apologies this past week, to be sure, and the prison hijinks at Abu Ghraib certainly cry out for apologies, as well as for a great deal of additional effort to restrain the sadists and sexual psychopaths among the U.S. troops in Iraq and to bring some measure of justice to those who have been wronged. Yet this whole mess, its powerful symbolism notwithstanding, has constituted a gigantic distraction from the truly monstrous crimes committed, and still being committed daily, by U.S. forces in Iraq.
Saddam Hussein now languishes in U.S. custody; his government has been overthrown; no weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq, and therefore "disarming" the Iraqis of such weapons proved unnecessary. In short, the declared U.S. mission has long since been accomplished fully. Why then does the U.S. government persist in slaughtering the Iraqi people?
Robert Higgs is Senior Fellow in Political Economy at The Independent Institute and editor of its scholarly quarterly journal, The Independent Review. He is also the author of Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government and the editor of Arms, Politics and the Economy: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives.
Topics: George W. Bush, Government And Politics, Iraq
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Laughable and pitiful.
She should be sent to Iraq as all war mongering terrorists.
Hello American friends I just want to sent this
message to apoligize for my stupid,racist comment I made Earler About the americans occuping my country. I'm sorry I realized that you are here to help us in our time of need. Just two days ago my village was being attacked by al Qada rebels my mother and sister where both raped right in front of me by al qada men.I tried to stop this. I was beaten so badly that I could not move. But then like an angel,A U.S soldier came and attacked back at the rebels and killed them,I was so happy that my life was saved by an American that I prayed to alla and thanked him for this gentalmen that saved me.
Thank You again U.S
abu bakar al khirid
sadistic as in we worship saten? get real talk to the crazy guys that cut heads off. by the way usa doesnt want iraq, most of us wont to see to crazy people be civil elect a leader so we can get out. Sadom would have you shot if you wrote these thing about him i just wanted to see how the otherside see's things.
I call upon all Arab countries to contribute weapons and men to fight the American infidels.
The longer they stay in Iraq the more coffins will arrive in the dead of the night at Delaware airport. Ask the parents of those dead and maimed soldiers: is it worth it?
Question: it is a crime for insugents to kill Americans soldiers? Not when they invaded a sovereign country like Iraq.To these Iraqi freedom fighters the Americans are invaders and occupiers. Pure and simple.
Rgds.
Abu Bakar
"What about the the torture of american civilians in iraq? ... why do these so called martyrs hide in schools, hospitals, mosques, and other places that women and children go for refuge?"
Obviously you do not understand the ferocity of war. You just invade a weak country with mega fire-power and expect every single person to bow down to your might. That seems to be the problem with Bush and his ill-advised advisors and you seem to mirror the same ignorance. let me explain a little of the human nature. Nothing to do with being a Muslim.
The weak when confroned by the powerful will go into hiding and will use any feroceous tactic to inflict maximum FEAR and damage to his enemy. Africans would paint their faces with war colours or wear chita head to scare their enemies. others wud cut the head off and send it to their enemy. These are the tactic of the weak who aims to scare not to mention what others refer to as 'suicide bombers'. Yes they hide in places of worship because if the americans bomb mosques then they wud inflame the masses and it wud feed the resistance. so, why are you so ignorant about such reaction when you have so-called experts in your army who shud be fully aware of such warfare tactics. It worries me because:
A) Either they knew of such opposition and ignored the consequences. OR
B) They are idiots.
I believe in A) since they are intelligent and do not care for human rights and how many they kill or maim given what they do at Gitmo, Afghanistan and AbuGharib. Truly a bunch of thugs who deserve what they get. Yet the common man with a heart must come to the conclusion that it is futile to dictate upon another unsavory terms in his own homeland, by force of gun. It just does not work and Israeli army's filthy tactics is a prime example yet the US Army is on record for using the IDF tactics. How low do you want to get?
WAKE UP! GET OUT! ENOUGH BULLYING! ENOUGH BLOODSHED!
GET OUT OF THEIR COUNTRY.
actions of his soldiers in the field? Was he not the
one who only last year fully supported a bill
permitting torture and assassination?
Where does the blame lie? Ask a few simple questions...
What sort of command system puts women guards over
Muslim Men? What sort of prison system makes men strip
naked in front of women warders?
You ask about terror. "Do this to the least of my
brethren, you do it to me". J.C. gave you the answer!
"The beheading of the American civilian in Irak sets an example of barbarian attitud non different from the atrocities commited by the coalittion forces agaisnt civilians in Irak."
Yes, in essence there is no difference, but in substance there is a lot of difference. One calls himself the power of good who has come to liberate and introduce democracy and human rights. It is a super power with civilisation. The others are a band of thugs who care not for any rule except to avenge the death of its own. One can hardly compare the two.
There are so many questions the American public must ask itself before they fall for more lies from this admin. Such as:
1. What was the real reason for invading Iraq?
2. How was Iraq a threat to US security?
3. Were Iraqis a threat to US civilians before this invasion?
4. Was it not anticipated by most thinking people worldwide, that invading Iraq would bring in more violence and terror?
Yet despite all the writings on the wall, Bush and his followers invaded Iraq evn though the UN did not approve, even though Hans Blix himself asked for more time and more patience. The irony is that this Bush has never given up looking for WMD! and in the process he is comitting genocide against innocent people.
Here is a clue. If you want WMD then look no further than Tel Aviv. Plenty there and Vanunu has already testified but NO after Iraq, Bush is looking for WMD in Syria and Iran. The guy in a nutcase. Please: Just get rid of him in the next election and let us all cleanse our hearts of the hatred for ever please.
GOD BLESS IRAQ!! NOT AMERICA!!!
www.stratofortress.org
These days the B52 is what the 8th Air Force is flying. The aircraft turned 52 years old in April. Rather obscene looking, isn't it?
As an alternative I suppose one could paste together a picture of some "gauleiter" holding the leashes of a pack of rabid marines or something like that. Who knows?
Again, may Allah be with you always (Ameen).
As an American Muslim, I absolutely understand your anger and disgust. I have seen the clip and I have to say I am terrified and feeling sick to my stomach of this horrific act of barbarity. Even though Nick was Jewish and he ardently supported an unprovoked war, there's no religion that comes from God justifies butchering him like a sheep.
These criminals can't be Muslims. There is a fundamental principle of accountability in Islam. The Quran states five times that no one should be held accountable based on the acts or deeds of others. See verses 6:164, 17:15, 35:18, 39:7, and 53:38.
In fact, I am very confident that the enemies of Islam are behind these savage acts. How convenient is it for this monstrosity to come up right after the prisoner abuse scandal to deflate its impact? I place all my bets on the Israeli Mossad, or some covert Zionist group. It's very apparent that whatever the so-called "Alqaeda" does only benefits Israel and its amen corner here in the US, be it Jewish neocons or Fundamentalist Christina Zionists.
Unfortunately, the moderate and reasonable people are unwittingly dragged into this down-ward spiral of violence and bloodshed primarily through ignorance.
An average American like you who take all his information (or propaganda) from the Jewish-controlled media would undoubtedly have the same reaction you do, even worse. In fact, the prisoner torture and rape is a result of many decades of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab indoctrination by the Jewish media and Hollywood.
Let's open our eyes and stand up to true enemies of both Muslims and Americans before it's too late.
God bless amerikkka, land of the thief and the home of the slave.
There should be no question that these pictures are meant to shame and humiliate the Muslim nation of Iraq. The timing of when these pictures where released, right after the US military back off from Fallujah is interesting. However, what is more interesting is that private contractors were given authority to interrogate so-called prisoners.
Since when did private contractors take on responsibilities that should be exclusive to the military?
It is clear that the soldiers who where involved where chosen for their gullibility and light headedness. Now we have President Bush and the US congress trying to put out the fire, but the question must be asked: What has Bush received for his loyal support for Israel? A kick in the butt along with all Americans.
GOD BLESS AMERICA!! NOT IRAQ!!!
A war profiteer (helping villagers make bricks in Ghana)? A supporter of the war on terror (detained and questioned three times)? A supporter of the U.S. administration (his family filing suit against the government for his detention - and criticizing the government upon hearing of his murder)? Supposedly there will be new information about him available later today. Astaghfirullah!
At worst, this gentle person appears to have been guilty of being a believing Jew. Which detainee of his killers' choosing would the U.S. military have traded for him? And whom among the monsters of Abu Ghraib has the loss of Nick Berg's life spared?
I ask that the Ummah not promote its adversaries' deceptions simply because the Ummah finds something embarrassing about the truth. Reflect on Amir Mullah Omar and Sister Yvonne Ridley. What did our brother in Islam, Mullah Omar, avoid early on?
Wassalam wa rahmatullahi.
Why did Americans go to Iraq in the first place.
If someone enforces himself to enter your
home, won't you stop him? If he tries to take command and control in his hands, won't you resist? Isn't your resistance justified? During his stay, he kills and destroys your family members/assets/house, won't you do everything in your capacity to defend yourself, your home and your family members and harm him in every possible way to stop him?
Why this simple thing doesn't dwell in your mind?
Put your feet in the shoes of Iraqis for a second and you may be able to feel the intense pain/sufferings they are going through.
May God protect innocents and may He punish all the tyrants.
What is it we hope to gain from them? Why are we looking for apologies, etc from our oppressors?
If we hope for Allah to help us, then we must first help ourselves. We must proclaim ourselves as Muslims, first; not as Palestinians, Syrians, Egyptians, Americans, Moroccans, Malaysians, etc. All of those descriptions are man made, but Allah Hoo gave us a better description and set up for us a code of living so that we could be successful in both the worlds. Wake up Muslims, It is time to reclaim our Islamic heritage and join together as the Ummah of Rasoolullah (SAS)
You should remember that American Occupiers went to occupy a country Iraq and pretext was Weapon of Mass Destruction!!!!!! Now, I think you are very much clear that it was nothing but a lie of two people, Mr. Bush, the representative of American people and Mr. Blair, the representator of majority Britain............ Did you lost the humananity or feelings of a human? I can just pray that may God guide you to the right path and he may give you a sense of humanity.
What do I call the cutting off of the American stray dog's head(what was he doing in Iraq in time of war?!)? Mercy and honourable execution! If the terrorists would have scooped to the jailors of Abu Gharib, they would have sodomized him first, display him naked to the Iraqis, make him masturbate and eventually release the dogs on him. Your comment:"But, now I hope that the USA and it's people rise up against all that fight against us." Who the hell is fighting whom, idiot? Isn't the US in Iraq, or is Iraq in US, you confused imbecile? You continue:"I am so angry at this barbaric act of cowards" Oh yeah, I totally agree with you, what your service men and women did to the Iraqi detainees is coward, barbaric and immoral, not fit for the US standards.
The United States is the big brother to the world providing more money, education, medicine, food and technology that all other countries combined. We have the character to admit our mistakes, hold people accountable and take corrective action when necessary. This is the primary difference between us and the rest of the world and rightly so. Take a look around you right now and see what a ddifference America has made in your life. You would not even be able to use the internet or your computer, take your medicine or get a weather report without the US.
The United States is a dynamic force which single handedly made the most sigificant impact the world has ever known. We are the peacemakers, peace keepers, soldiers, friends of the world. There is a reason no one asks Canada for help, or even cares what opinions they hold - their country lacks the character needed for seriousness.
God has smiled upon the US and made us the most peaceful and prospurous country in the world and it is no mistake. If you don't agree, ask the 4 Million people whom applied for citizenship last year in 2003.
Have a tablespoon of the real truth.
God Bless America
good shall win and the devils will loose
With all do repect,
Rob
United States of America
God created us with reason and conscious. Those two tools are a blessing from our God. The question now is how can we balance justice in a global world where basically those who do not have power can have an equal say. America is one country among the rest of the human race. What America does also affects the whole of human race.
God told us that if one person is affected the whole of the human race will feel the consequence. This means if one person causes pain the rest of the human race will share that pain. This is exactly what is happening both in Iraq, Palestine, Israel and the rest of the world.
God is testing us and we are the ones who are at the end have the choice to live with peace among the human race or create war and create unnecessary sufferings.
Humanity is the chord that binds the human race. We must treasure that and look after it. Revenge is not an option in Islam neither killings of innocent people. He/she who declares war against humanity will have his/her self to blame.
Please let us bring peace and love before war and revenge to safeguard humanity. Surely if we all think from our hearts rather than our brains life would have more meaning.
Human rights in Islam:
http://www.dislam.org/womaninislam/humanrights.html
Where does man's perfection lie?:
http://www.dislam.org/islamandhumanity/islamtheequilibrium.html
Pearsl of wisdom and justice:
http://www.pearls.org/pearls/humanity.htm
http://www.pearls.org/pearls/justice.htm
Please read Geneva conventions & Mr. Taguba report.(the soldiers are committing war crimes with the OK of superiors directly/ indirectly- Those involved must be tried for WAR CRIMES including any superior to the topmost.
Invading other country and comitting such things(rape,sodomy,sexual perversions including children(girls and boys,extreme physical torture terrorising women and children in their homes,taking hostages( so called detainees/POW) using veto power in foreign for our selfishness and oil and more......)Who approved these(any religion/any decent civilised country constitution?
Remember somebody is watching you ALLAH-HE knows the best and Has best justice and punishmentfor wrong doers.
Please comment on this.
Think it through.... Would the beheading even happened if it had not been for the photos of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners?
Probably not. I think the worst is yet to come and we are going to see atrocities on both sides of this war.
The sincere person will be shocked by all the attrocities; not just the ones committed by the "other side".
It is obvious that people like him are in the U.S. military and kill people at random and at will because it gives them kicks, or because they are full of insane anger and hatred. The U.S. Military is more dangerous than Al-Qaeda. This is evident from the many studies taken even in Canada which asked Canadians if they see President Bush as being a threat to world peace, and I recall that over 80 percent of Canadians did feel this way. Mind you this is way before the Abu Ghraib pictures were released.
When, I mean IF the videos Rumsfeld spoke about are released, depicting the same and evne more disturbing acts we saw in those Abu Ghraib photo's, what will people like Geoff say then? That they hope Al-Qaeda beheads every American soldier? Twisted, idiotic logic is what I call it.
May Allah'Taala have mercy on their souls.
Wassalaam.
Perhaps as Nick Berg (may he rest in peace) unfortunately did, his killers might outlive their usefulness to the locals. As for myself, my quarrel would only with those who promote brutality and oppression - regardless of what they call themselves - insha'Allah.
Allah hafiz wa barakatuhu.
Americans really do try to understand the plight of the Palestinians and Islam in general. However, we watch in disbelief the willful slaughter of innocent people in the name of a religion (WTC, Madrid, etc., etc.). We wonder what kind of god could condone such acts? We wonder why men of morals and religious leaders do not publicly condemn these barbaric acts for the shame they bring to Islam. The entire religion is complicit by its silence.
Also in your article, why no mention of the good things that are coming to the Iraqi people? Schools, hospitals, commerce, legal system... all better now than under Saddam. And things will continue to improve over time.
Acts like the broadcast beheading in the name of Allah, and the silence from the Islamic world that follows, only tends to reinforce the civilized world notion that Islam = Evil.
Would he not feel the same anger as you are feeling with just one beheading? I am not justifying this heinous act, if it indeed was committed by the Iraqis, then it's deplorable. BUt you need to Just remember that when your cluster bombs cannot distinguish between combatants and civilians so would an angry and agitated Iraqi on the street. You are a hostile enemy in an occupied land and an Iraqi bent upon revenge for humiliation suffered at the hands of your troops, he sees no distinction between a civilian American and an American soldier, both are to him enemies and he would surely take the brunt of his anger on the enemy given the situation.
Instead of condemning the act of Terrorism in general, you would exhort your soldiers to just kill and maim everyone in their way, you are a disgrace to the human race Geoff. Shame on you!
A good read: please read John Pilger's articles ,thanks.
Hopefully your misguided comments are due to emtion and not logic. Surely, you can't equate the actions of an group of fundamentalists with the behavior of a professional and accountable army. Else, I feel sorry for you and if enough others feel the same and ratchet up the violence quotient abroad, it will only result in more innocent lives being lost. How could you possibly want that?