Monday, March 31, 2008
Enquiring Minds: Where are the Iraqis in the Iraq War? - Ramzy Baroud, Atlantic FreePress
from Atlantic Free Press - Hard Truths for Hard Times
by Ramzy Baroud
March 31 2008
Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an author and editor of PalestineChronicle.com.
Five years after the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, mainstream media is once more making the topic an object of intense scrutiny. The costs and implications of the war are endlessly covered from all possible angles, with one notable exception— the cost to the Iraqi people themselves.
Through all the special coverage and exclusive reports, very little is said about Iraqi casualties, who are either completely overlooked or hastily mentioned and whose numbers can only be guesstimated. Also conveniently ignored are the millions injured, internally and externally displaced, the victims of rape and kidnappings who will carry physical and psychological scars for the rest of their lives.
We find ourselves stuck in a hopeless paradigm, where it feels necessary to empathise with the sensibilities of the aggressor so as not to sound unpatriotic , while remaining blind to the untold anguish of the victims.
Some actually feel the need to go so far as to blame the Iraqis for their own misfortune.
Both Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have expressed their wish for Iraqis to take responsibility for the situation in their country, with the former saying, we cannot win their civil war. There is no military solution.
It would have been helpful if Clinton had reached her astute conclusion before she voted for the Senate's 2002 resolution authorising President Bush to attack Iraq.
For the sake of argument, let's overlook both Clinton's and Obama's repeated assertions that all options, including military ones, are on the table regarding how to deal with Iran's alleged ambition to acquire nuclear weapons.
But to go so far as blaming the ongoing war on the Iraqis' lack of accountability is a new low for these antiwar candidates...
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