Susan Crane11 maart 2008 – 15:31

It jolts me to hear "fifth year anniversary" and "beginning of sixth year of the war in Iraq" when we all know that the US never stopped bombing Iraq since January of 1991. That's 17 years. Remember the no-fly zones?
Remember looking on page 12 in the papers and seeing a one inch article about how "sheep were bombed yesterday in Iraq" or some such "news"?

I'm reminded of Carolyn Forche's book of poetry: Against Forgetting. In it she reminds us that Hitler asked his military cabinet before his invasion of Poland in 1939: "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"

The media cultivates amnesia in us; the government requires such mindlessness in us. And yet we have a responsibility as a peace community to remember the nation that Iraq was before 1991: the water systems, the electrical systems, the educational, medical and agricultural systems that were, in some ways, more advanced than what we have today in the states. We have a responsibility to remember the carpet bombing that in 42 days systematically destroyed objects "indispensable to the survival of the civilian population" which is against the Geneva conventions. In those 42
days, Iraq was bombed to a pre-industrial age and then, through sanctions, Iraqis were denied trade, telecommunications, power, sanitation, water repairs, seed, food, medical supplies and equipment.

And how many Iraqi people have been killed? Must be more than 1,000,000: a number too large to comprehend unless you're an Iraqi mother or father or child who has lost a family member. And how many Iraqi people have suffered? The stories of suffering are heartbreaking: the terror of the bombs, soldiers breaking down doors, poisoning from depleted uranium munitions... These stories could fill all the books in the world.

And so we move forward and support all the nonviolent actions on March 19: we're thankful for the work people have put into planning many good and creative resistance actions but we must urge remembrance of the many years our country has punished, bombed, poisoned and killed people of Iraq and done all in its power to destroy their country.

"Love is the measure."

-Dorothy Day

Susan Crane
Jonah House

Bericht aan de Bevolking is een initiatief van Het beschrijf, in samenwerking met het B/Russell/s Tribunal. Een aantal auteurs van deze teksten treedt ook aan op de Literaire Wake n.a.v. 5 jaar oorlog in Irak, op woensdag 19 maart van 20 u. tot 24 u. in Literatuurhuis Passa Porta, A. Dansaertstraat 46, 1000 Brussel. Zie www.passaporta.be

Link naar het overzicht