Understanding the enemy's mind
by Don Nash, Unknown News
May 31, 2005
The sun breaks free of the eastern horizon and a man greets his day, resigned to his dread and apprehension. Being awake is worse than the nightmares that are his dreams.
The man’s morning prayers are for release, release from his misery and worries.Lord, keep my family safe for just today, tomorrow is another day of death and I can’t think about that now. Give us a little something to eat even if it is only bread. Just a little to keep my children from their tears of hunger. Lord, keep us safe from the bombs and the bullets. Keep us safe from the soldiers.
Lord, forgive me but, I hate the soldiers. These foreigners that have taken our home and killed so many. I hate these soldiers even more than the soldiers that were here before. Lord, these soldiers feast on death and it is a horrible thing to have to witness. When are they filled? When are they satisfied with their killing?
Welcome to the cradle of civilization. Iraq is old, as old as history itself. Much has taken place in this old land, and much continues to take place. Only now, what takes place in the cradle of civilization is destruction and chaos and death.
See that building over there on that slight rise? The building that is shattered and crumbling? It wasn’t always like that, but the soldiers were here.
The soldiers came after the raining. The raining is an evil thing. The bombs fall almost silently. You don’t even know they are falling until the explosions. So many explosions, and the bombs birth more bombs and the bombs spread the fire. The fire is a curse from hell and it sticks to skin. For a little while, at least. Soon the skin turns crisp and falls from what used to be a person. This raining is without conscience, it kills men, women, and children, old and young, and how is such a horror devised by men? Someone created this evil, by design, with only one design in mind, to kill and kill as horrifically as is possible.
When these foreign soldiers came at first, they promised us liberation, but they were lying. They promised us democracy, but they have only given us death, and they have destroyed everything as far as an eye can see in every direction.
In a time not so long ago before these foreign soldiers came here to destroy our homes, we could grow our own food. The land was green and truly it was beautiful. My children could eat. And now they cannot eat, because we cannot grow any food. There is nothing left and certainly there is no green thing. Not a living green thing. You see, it all has turned brown or burned black and everything is charred and the bullet holes are some kind of soldiers' decoration. The soldiers leave us their bullet holes to remind us that they have brought us liberation or democracy or whatever in hell this is. If this is what liberation or democracy looks like, I don’t want any more of it. This is too much for a people to have to bear.
There was a town here. A town filled with real people who laughed and cried. There was birth and even death, a natural part of life. Now, though, the death is horrendous and capricious. Death no longer takes just one soul, death takes whole villages and towns and when the death comes no-one cries out of grief or mourning. There are no tears left to spare. When death comes now, it is suffered. We will not let the soldiers see our tears.
The soldiers take our homes and our children and then they shame our wives and women. The soldiers leave us destruction and holes where there were once fine trees and fields. How are we to grow food in craters?
The soldiers break down the gates of the few homes that are left, and they ransack a man’s home, and they will even beat women and children. Is this bravery or honor? They come in their machines of war, and they carry their guns, and they don’t speak our language. Yet they will beat or even shoot anyone who does not kneel when they yell whatever it is the soldiers yell at us. Why must they yell at us?
When Saddam was in power, things were sometimes bad, but even Saddam did not destroy what little we possess. Saddam did not steal away with our women. Saddam did not shame our children.
The soldiers tell us that Saddam is now in prison. He must pay for his crimes against Iraq. But when will these soldiers and their commanders pay for their crimes against Iraq and the Iraqi people? Will they have to pay for what they have done?
The soldiers tell us that they have done a good thing for Iraq and the Iraqi people. These soldiers have a strange idea as to what is good. I think that the children of the soldiers must eat, and they must eat well. They must still have homes that are not destroyed. We have nothing to eat and our homes are gone. I hate these soldiers.
Iraq is the home of the two great rivers. The Euphrates and the Tigris are well known in history. The rivers carry only the dead now, always the waters are filled with bodies. Waters that once gave life to Iraq now carry only death.
When these soldiers came, death came with them. The soldiers said they are bringing us democracy and that is ridiculous. The soldiers bring us death and misery. The soldiers have polluted the mighty rivers with the foul pollution of death.
Iraq is not the cradle of civilization any longer. Iraq is a casket, an open tomb. Iraq is the killing field for the soldiers unquenchable urges to kill and then they kill more and more.
These soldiers curse us and then they kill us. Saddam was not as murderous as these soldiers, and Saddam did not curse us. These soldiers look at us as if we are not human. These soldiers see us as lowly animals that are fit only for slaughter.
What could Saddam have done that the soldiers would want to punish us? What could Saddam have done to these soldiers home? Did Saddam kill these soldiers' children and destroy their homes? Saddam is in prison now, so why don’t these soldiers go to the prison and punish Saddam? The soldiers punish us, over and over, and that is hard to understand.
There has been much destruction in my land and there has been much death. I know of no-one that has not been touched by the icy hand of death. But it is worse for those that have disappeared. For them, life is far worse than death. Death is final.
What could we as a people have done to be treated in this way? The soldiers take those that they do not like and those taken are considered to be worse than having died. We have all heard the stories of those that have disappeared. It is too horrible to speak of. There is nothing that I can think of that could make the soldiers want to take the Iraqi people and then commit the Iraqis to horrors that are worse than death. What could Saddam have done to make the soldiers take Iraqis and do these unspeakable things to them?
What could the Iraqi people have done to these soldiers that these soldiers would hate us as they do? The soldiers hate us and they kill us and they take some of the Iraqi people to the place for the disappeared.
I pray that someday I may find an answer. I pray that someday I might not hate these soldiers like I do on this day. What could Saddam have done that these soldiers would hate us and kill us and destroy the cradle of civilization? These soldiers do not know civilization. I hate these soldiers.
When I am awake, life is worse than the nightmares that I dream every night. I spend my days with the fear that soldiers will come and take my children to the place for those that are not dead. I spend my days praying that the soldiers will not drop their bombs with the fire that spreads and sticks to those that are in the bombs way. I pray that my home is spared. I pray that my children are spared. I pray that these soldiers will go back to where they came from and that they will take their horror with them.
© by the author.
What do you think?
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See that building over there on that slight rise? The building that is shattered and crumbling? It wasn’t always like that, but the soldiers were here.
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