CPTnet
3 June 2005
FALLUJAH, IRAQ: An unnatural disaster
by Joe Carr
Fallujah is devastating to drive through. There is more destruction and
rubble than I've ever seen; even more than in Rafah, Gaza. The U.S. has
leveled entire neighborhoods, and about every third building is destroyed or
damaged from U.S. in April and November 2004 air ground assaults. The city
looks like it's been hit by a series of tornados. Rubble and bullet holes
are everywhere.
We visited a family's home in a neighborhood where every structure is
damaged or destroyed. Their home was full of holes and black inside from
fire. They said that they'd left during the fighting with their home
intact, and returned to find all of their possessions had burned. Three
families, more than twenty-five people, now live in this three-room
burned-out shell of a home, including four infants.
U.S. checkpoints continue to strangle the city. One shopkeeper said that
farmers from around Fallujah can no longer deliver their produce unless
they have a U.S.-issued Fallujah ID. The shopkeepers have to go out and
pick up the produce. He said the trip takes him around four hours because
of the checkpoint delays. "They mistreat us," he said, "they point guns at
us and insult us, even the women." Both U.S. and Iraqi troops search through
the vegetables roughly, sometimes dumping them on the ground and smashing
them.
Iraqis from the rural areas surrounding Fallujah are now dying of treatable
illnesses because they can't get through the checkpoints to the Fallujah
hospital. One hospital employee said that many patients also die when they
try to transfer them to hospitals outside Fallujah. "It's better to take
them in a civilian car than in an ambulance," he said, "because the troops
delay and search ambulances more."
A Sunni cleric told us that during the first invasion, several families near
his mosque took cover in a home. U.S. troops used megaphones to order all
them out into the street and told them to carry a white flag. They complied,
but when they all got out, the soldiers opened fire and killed five. He said
one boy had run to his mother who'd been shot, and Americans shot him in the
head. A U.S. Commander cried as this happened, "but what good were his
tears?" he asked, "He didn't do anything to stop it."
During our meeting with the cleric, a man told us, "The Americans shot and
killed my 15-year-old daughter, was she a terrorist?" The U.S. military
denied killing her. "With all respect to you," he said, "I hate Americans;
they killed my family. They shot and killed my sister-in-law while she was
washing clothes, and my other brother's hands and feet were blown off." He
apologized for interrupting, but said that he had to tell us because he's in
so much pain.
Someone once told me, "You can't bomb a resistance out of existence, but you
can bomb one into it."
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