Monday, February 13, 2006

imagine this

read this. it's riverbend's latest post from baghdad. she was staying over at a relative's house after a birthday celebration and the neighborhood was raided by iraqi police.

it could have been much worse, i suppose. the old man who died could have been in their house, not a few houses over. the small child could have been a teenage boy, who could have thrown a bottle and gotten shot, or just rounded up and taken away.

it was the mention of the three-year-old that hooked me, no surprise there.

My aunt had dressed too and she was making her way upstairs to carry down my three-year-old cousin B. “I don’t want him waking up with all the noise and finding those bastards around him in the dark.”

imagine what that must be like. to hear trucks approaching your house, to wait in silent fear for hours, to have your space invaded at any given time, to have your children terrified, to wonder whether someone would spook and shoot, or whether your man would be hauled off next?

to find out later that the old guy down the road, you know, that guy who worked on your lawnmower that one time and whose dogs play with yours, that guy whose health wasn't ever great, had died from fear during the raid.

this is not humane. this is not compassionate. this is not how the good guys act. 9/11 did not change the definition of virtue. this kind of crap is wrong. our involvement does not make it right. the ends still do not justify the means.

{edited by the author to remove useless and painful expletive directed at highly impeachable heads of state}

2 comments:

Handsome B. Wonderful said...

I'm 100% with you on as many expletives that I can think of. This is a terrifying story and one that is repeated over and over again all night and day long most likely. This whole thing is beyond embarrassing.

SB Gypsy said...

9/11 did not change the definition of virtue.

You got that right! 9/11 didn't, Bushco did.