Incident at Najaf (Iraq)

Brisbane will be commemorating 11 September 2001 by mourning the deaths of so many people in a number of countries as a result of US retribution for the deaths from the attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center. We will be linking up with Cindy Sheehan in Texas, USA, showing our support for her campaign against the illegal war of aggression and plunder in Iraq. Actor Martin Sheen, Rev. Al Sharpton and Joan Baez Come To Crawford In Support Of Cindy Sheehan http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m15162&l=i&size=1&hd=0 Israel's Women In Black have also joined this protest. Cindy Sheehan is part of Gold Star Families for Peace http://www.gsfp.org/ where you can find dozens of links like Iraq Veterans Against War http://www.ivaw.net/

No one really know how many people have been killed in Iraq (in addition to Cindy Sheehan's son, Casey, but Gideon Polya calculates that the death toll is now over 110,000. http://www.countercurrents.org/iraq-polya110305.htm Passive Genocide in Iraq. See also http://www.occupationwatch.org/

Cindy Sheehan's email address Scindy121 at aol.com
Write to:
Cindy SheehanCrawford Peace House9142 East 5th StreetCrawford, TX 76638-3037, USA

Incident at Najaf (Iraq)

The kids from Ohio didn’t know
Why they were sent there
In the sun and the sand all day
They were under orders and hard wired
To expect trouble from these people
They had no knowledge of
Did not understand
And they were shit scared

They knew what to do if the car stopped
Or if the car didn’t stop
But no one had told them what they had to do
If unarmed civilians didn’t understand what they
Were supposed to do and failed to follow orders

There was less than a second to decide
No other option but to shoot first
Too scared to think trained to respond
With military precision
Self-protection more important
Than right and wrong

Its not for their President
Or those who voted for him
To live with this error
Nor their officers
Whose fingers were not actually
Squeezing the triggers
Only they who realised too late
Blowing away whole families
Will relive that moment
Sleeplessly for their lifetime

Willy Bach © 2003

Footnote: This was only one of many reports of the killing of civilians in Iraq by US forces. Soldiers are frequently placed in situations where, if they make a mistake, they will either be killed themselves or may kill non-combatants. This has happened on a number of occasions in the North, East and Northeast of Uganda. The military solution is a very blunt instrument.

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