We are a cancer on that country (Iraq). Thoughts

after a pretty much sleepless night.

< sitting here with my coffee feeling like I've been run over by a truck >

The insurgency is ravaging the body of their country while trying to rid it of the cancer that's infected it since 3/03. It's unknown at this time whether the body will survive the attempts to remove the cancer.

I say this, in part, because the last thing I read before going to bed last night was that now there's typhoid and hepatitis E, because of the lack of clean water. Surely, I think, if the Iraqis were willing to bow to the invaders, they'd be shopping at the mall and spending the afternoon in the food court by now. But they want their country and their culture and their resources. So they continue the struggle. How much more do they have to suffer?

>>>>>

There's something else that disturbed my sleep. I watched Nightline last night. Three former prisoners at Abu Grahib were interviewed.

One older woman described having a bag over her head for days(?). (I wish Nightline provided online transcripts; I could go back and check the details). She endured other things that would surely be considered torture. She thought her family would kill her, because of the shame, when she was released, but they stood by her.

But the most horrific, IMO, was the man who had a deformed hand. A doctor was performing numerous surgeries to try to repair it. The man described how a soldier (I think this was Graner) would, every day, make him push his hand thru the bars of his cell and would stomp on his had with his boot. The man related that his doctor has now told him that his hand will never be able to be repaired.


If there is a God, she/he will surely, surely, punish us for what we have done to these people. :cry:


********

I won't be at a computer for the rest of the day. Will check back later this afternoon.

:kick:

Any thoughts?

criminal

since we won't back the World Court i just don't know where to go with this

on the SBS show "Dateline". I have to say, after seeing American soldiers treating Iraqis like shit, and hearing the accounts of Iraqis, it is really, really hard not to despise the US troops in a similar vein to the Germans during WWII.

Yeah, I know, "not all of the coalition forces are like that", but the same applies to any occupying army.

Your words describe what I bet a lot of people feel. Whether they've the courage to think about it, I don't know.

Life was harsh for Iraqi's long before America ever got involved- that I do know- although it shames me- and it should shame all of us, that we haven't made it any better. We've only made it worse.

But you know what? If there's one thing we can all latch on to from last week's convention it's this: We can do better.

Both abroad and at home....

is creating literal cancer all over Iraq, and Afghanistan, for that matter, and will continue to do so for generations.