CPTnet
February 7, 2003
IRAQ: "I WON'T GO TO THE BOMB SHELTER THIS TIME"

by Ed Stoltzfus

[The author was part of CPT's January 11-25 delegation to Iraq. Other
members were Carol Hochstedler (Stratham, NH) and David Metzler
(Bridgewater, VA.)]

"What will you do if war comes to Baghdad?" I asked this question to three
people during a recent two-week trip to Iraq to attend a three-day
Peace Symposium for University teachers sponsored by University of
Baghdad. Here are three replies:

First: "Well, here in Baghdad if we survive the initial bombing of military
and civilian targets-- power stations, water purification plants--and our
house is not hit, she (he pointed to his wife) and the children will try to
go south to her people; I'll go north to mine. I was a front line
commander in the Iraq-Iran war. I know war first hand; it's an
uncivilized, illegal action. I will not kill fellow human beings again."

Second (a mother living in a residential area): "I won't go to the bomb
shelter this time. We learned from Amariyah that these shelters were
considered military targets." (Amariyah was an underground bomb shelter in
which about 400 women and children were incinerated when two "smart" bombs
hit it in the Gulf War.) "They are too dangerous. We will try to survive in
our house even with blasts and flying glass and fire around us."

Third, from an official in the state bureaucracy: "If invaded we will fight
to defend ourselves. In the city, adult males have a weapon provided by the
military. But why this bitter conflict with the U.S.? We seek independence
as a country just as you did 200 years ago and we believe we should be free
to dispose of our own oil reserves. We believe your aggression against us
will fail. Though you can win militarily, you will lose our respect for
your people and political system. If this world is to be run by force, it
will be a very bad world indeed. We are a proud people with a long history.
We want to continue working to develop a democracy in our own time and way."

My own reaction to these conversations is that war against Iraq is illegal,
immoral, and will not accomplish what the US hopes.