<font color="#C0C0C0"><a href="http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=24875">War ‘Against Iraqi People’
</a>
Essam Al-Ghalib, Arab News War Correspondent

NAJAF, 8 April 2003 — This is no longer a war against Saddam and his regime, if it ever was. It has become a war against the Iraqi people. The number of civilians killed since the invasion began is massive, and is rising dramatically as American and British forces continue to make their way north through densely populated areas.

Each Iraqi city has lost many civilians, at times entire families, to “Operation Iraqi Freedom”.

Sami Osama, a truck driver, was delivering 5,000 kg of tomatoes through the small town of Sanawa when he approached an American checkpoint. According to witnesses who spoke to Arab News yesterday, he did not understand the orders in English and approached the checkpoint as normal. The US forces opened fire, killing him instantly and injuring two of his passengers.

A friend of the deceased told Arab News: “Had there been a translator at the checkpoint, he would be alive now.”

His friend who was driving with him said that before he was executed he was slowing down and asking what the US troops could be shooting at.

While Arab News was interviewing witnesses to the death of Sami Osama, a woman approached and asked to use a satellite phone belonging to this correspondent. She wanted to call the United States for, as she put it, “a humanitarian reason”.

She explained that her brother had arrived from the United States, where he was living with his wife and 10 children before the war began. He had been on a visit to his own family in Nassiriyah and Sanawa, and was killed there as the US troops advanced.

In Sanawa, witnesses described how American troops were firing at suspected Iraqi positions, some located in residential areas. Huge holes could be seen in virtually every building along the heavily traveled highway to Sanawa, and there was also a burned-out high school.

Saleh Mohammed, a local, told Arab News: “One Iraqi soldier will enter a neighborhood and fire a few shots at the fighter plane, and they will respond with a barrage of shots killing as many as 50 civilians in the effort to get him.”

Further north, in the city of Hamza, a taxi driver told of a rescue operation in progress at a Baath Party center bombed from the air. A witness told Arab News: “It was nighttime and there were civilians walking in front of the building when the first explosions started. They were all buried underneath the rubble.”

The rescue efforts — or, more accurately, the body recovery — had been going on for two days. So far, 22 corpses have been removed. They were laid to rest just near the place where they were killed.

While Arab News was interviewing witnesses at the scene, the body of an eight-year-old boy was removed from under the rubble.

Among the tragedies of war comes desperation, and a loss of dignity.

During the three-hour drive from Sanawa, Iraqis lined the roads, begging for food and water. Arab News came across a three-year-old boy named Ahmed and his father. The boy’s feet were swollen, cut and bleeding as a result of severe eczema.

The father explained: “We were told medical service will be provided for the sick and the injured. But since the Americans arrived, I haven’t been allowed to drive outside Sanawa to get the medication I need for my son.”

Just outside Hamza, a military checkpoint was set up. All Iraqis and their vehicles are being searched thoroughly, including a coffin containing the corpse of a man strapped to his family car.

“He had nothing to do with Saddam or Baath, yet he is dead,” said his family.

Residents of Sanawa, without food or water for several days, complained that the US troops in some sections of the city have not been allowing people to move to other districts. As a result, the river, a lifeline for the people, has not been accessible to the hungry.

At Najaf, the Kuwaiti Red Crescent Society was supposed to be distributing food to the hungry masses. As Arab News approached, a Kuwaiti shouting in Arabic was heard. He was dressed in a US military uniform, and was ordering people to stand back.

He shouted: “If you step back from the fence, maybe we will start thinking of distributing food. If you do not behave, we will not distribute food.”

Angered further by the crowd eager to receive the humanitarian aid, he bellowed: “I have warned you enough times, so there will be no distribution today.”

The food distribution was stopped for at least 15 minutes. Then only women and those with aid permits were being allowed to take away packages.

Arab News asked what was involved in getting an aid permit, but none of the distributors nor the Iraqi civilians knew. Above him a soldier was pointing at the crowd ordering them away from the fence separating the food distributors from the hungry crowd. Every time the soldier passed an order on to the civilians or those arriving in vehicles, he aggressively pointed his 50-caliber truck-mounted machine gun at them, lowering his head to see as though taking aim.

Arab News approached the soldier and asked why he was pointing his machine gun at unarmed civilians here to receive humanitarian aid.

“Any of these people could be suicide bombers,” was his reply.

An Iraqi man, who asked not to be identified, told Arab News that as the Iraqi troops begin to see that they are becoming weaker and weaker, many of them are not surrendering but withdrawing and moving ahead of the Americans. As the Americans are moving north, they are fighting the same soldiers from the cities they have “conquered”. Iraqi soldiers from the southern districts are moving north and joining their counterparts there. The biggest battle is going to be the battle of Baghdad, they say.

The Americans are becoming more and more scared as they lose more of their soldiers. And they appear to have little if any respect for the civilians they say they have come to liberate.

To them all Iraqis are a threat. “They have no respect for us, so we have no respect for them,” one civilian said. “As they kill us, the time will come when we will kill them.”</font>

"The Americans are becoming more and more scared as they lose more of their soldiers."

That sentance alone told me this is pure propaganda.

[ 04-08-2003, 08:37 AM: Message edited by: Mordenheim ]

We need a BS flag in the icons list. [img]smile.gif[/img]

<font color=skyblue>How right you are! Are we really gullible enough to believe an Arab news report? Give me an news link from any country in the world not associated with this war before giving me this garbage. </font>

<font color="#ffccff">If any of you are bemoaning the "Massive Civilian Casualties" in this war with Iraq, I refer you all to this site, this shows what "Massive Civilian Casualties" really looks like, ...now after seeing this link....take a look at your evening news and look at Basrah and Baghdad....I think the pictures say it all.

http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II/Dresden

Edits: to get the Link to work properly.</font>

[ 04-08-2003, 10:16 AM: Message edited by: MagiK ]

I see. So we killed far more innocent people the last time, so no-one has a right to complain this time because it's only about a few thousand people?

That's an unusual argument.

Arab News is based in Saudia Arabia - you know, the place with all those US bases?

I agree that the above article seems rather slanted. There were some interesting tidbits in the article however.

For example, the incident at the food distribution area. IMHO the Kuwaiti in US military garb was perfectly justified in telling the people to behave themselves. I've seen some of the early food/water distribution coverage down at Omm Qasr. What a mess. If gaining some order at a food distribution site requires threatening the people with not getting food, so be it.

"To them all Iraqis are a threat."

In a situation where suicide bombers have been used and at other times attemtped unsuccessfully and where most of the fighters are fighting in civilian garb, it is completely rational to see nearly every civilian as a threat. To do otherwise is utterly foolish. To blame someone for having this opinion in this situation is just plainly ignorant.

Arab News is based in Saudia Arabia - you know, the place with all those US bases?</font>[/QUOTE]<font color="#ffccff"> You seem to be misinformed, Saudi Arabia doens't have many US bases at all...as a matter of fact,t hey don't want US infidel troops mixing with the arab populace so they built King Khalid City in the middle of the desert far from the populace for the US to use as a base. (to protect them from Saddam Hussein at that!)

How many US bases can you name that are in Saudi Arabia?</font>

[ 04-08-2003, 10:41 AM: Message edited by: MagiK ]

Off the top of my head, Dhahran, Jidda, Riyadh and I think that there are four other 'official bases' and several other 'unofficial' bases.
Also the presence of United States forces helps to keep the ruling royal family [read: dictatorship] in power.
Why?

[ 04-08-2003, 10:52 AM: Message edited by: Skunk ]

It is war - civilian casualties happen. The forces in Iraq are among the most considerate of civilian casualties of any countries in the world - because their FREE citizens WHO HAVE A VOICE demand it. Some will still die.

I must admit, I sniffed the BS in this article in the first 2 sentences and judged it not worth my time.

The presence of military bases in Saudi is the principal THREAT to the ruling family. You seem to think that Saudi's hate the ruling family, but I never saw that when I was there. The average Saudi citizen lives a very comfortable life, and they don't seem particularly purturbed by anything except infidels in the heart of Islam... just go ask Osama.

I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see all Americans kicked out of the country not long after Saddam is confirmed defunct.

<font color="#ffccff">Those are cities not bases...name the bases.
As for keeping the Royal family in power....nope not even close. US military presence is not making the royal family many friends in the arab world, and those forces are not there acting as police for the royals.

Edit: Just because there are a few military people in a place does not make it a base.</font>

[ 04-08-2003, 11:34 AM: Message edited by: MagiK ]

It is funny how the article is simply dismissed as being false by almost everyone here just because it is from an Arab newspaper. I am not dismissing it as false, or truth but I expect to some extent the killings listed in the article are true. Possibly taken from scattered areas and instances. They are probably a small percentage compared to the amount of traffic that goes through the checkpoints. Nevertheless very real.

As for some US soldiers being scared, and fidgety on the trigger, it is quite a possibility. We all do not face death the same way.

As for having a translator at checkpoints I think it is a very good idea. Are there translators at coalition check points? Often in different cultures hand signals can mean something different.

<font color="#ffccff">Pritchke, that is what I was trying to say, it is understandable for men in combat to be on a hair trigger, snipers are one of the most feared encounters. It also makes sense for people in a WAR ZONE to keep their heads down and to find safe holes to hide in...not high rise hotels That make good sniping platofrms.. </font>

[ 04-08-2003, 01:10 PM: Message edited by: MagiK ]

Noooo.....

Magik, we are not suppose to agree. :D I am suppose to be like your polar opposite.

Just kidding!!

It is good to find a few things to agree on.

Well I actually did read it all before deciding that the volume of potential BS in the article overwhelmed the volume of potential data. I can understand that arab media behave very much like Fox... bias for the "home team" is virtually expected, but that article went quite a bit over the top IMO. Al Jazeera seems to be the only Arab source I've read/seen that can provide real information, with only a medium smattering of bias.

<font color="#ffccff">Err While I admit FOX is obviously biased toward the US side of the war, I believe they are covering the events and reporting them impartially. The reports good and bad get made. The Oped pieces are not used to hide the facts...so while FOX is PRO-USA and Conservative in make up, I still theink they report better than CNN or any of the other networks. The others see no problem with quashing a story if it doesn't agree with their point of view. </font>

I am glad to be disagreeing again, MAGIK I thought for a moment the planets were aligned or something. I think FOX has the worst coverage it is way to pro-war to provided impartial coverage. CNN at least shows some reports from the other side and interviews people from Al-Jazera to get their view and opion on coverage. This sort of thing I find interesting. I find CNN is probaly more impartial than most American news I get.

[ 04-08-2003, 03:20 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

<font color=skyblue>And I agree with that! CNN is the news website that I run to, even if they are the last to report. I tend to wanna hope that their delay is for confirmation of data...whereas the other news sites tend to be quicker but less trustworthy. I dunno.

Why am I not more involved in trying to beat IWD2? </font>

<font color="#ffccff">Yep we are apart again as CNN is probably the most spun and non-impartial news source this side of Al-Jazeera. [img]smile.gif[/img] FOX is biased but they acknoledge the bias and report both sides, I have seen them showing and talking to people from Arabic News services and to anti-war types as well. I have yet to see CNN really cover a pro-war side of a story.</font>

MSNBC! [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img] :D

<font color="#ffccff">Yep we are apart again as CNN is probably the most spun and non-impartial news source this side of Al-Jazeera. [img]smile.gif[/img] FOX is biased but they acknoledge the bias and report both sides, I have seen them showing and talking to people from Arabic News services and to anti-war types as well. I have yet to see CNN really cover a pro-war side of a story.</font></font>[/QUOTE]I don't remember any coverage that I would call anti-war either.

As a side note I watched some CBC coverage the other night of marines storming one of Saddam's Palaces. It was kind of cool as they were searching the rooms, some of them took a well deserved break to sit and rest on some of the really expensive furniture.

<font color='white'> The only reason I watch Fox instead of CNN or MSNBC is because they have better looking ladies. ;) </font>

Rudi Bakhtiar on CNN Headline News is.. fine.. :D

I am going to have to jump in and call this BS propaganda as well...in the Cent Comm briefing this morning, Brig. Gen Brooks showed video tape of members of the 82nd Airborn handing out food packages to people in Najaf...mostly men and young boys as a matter of fact. There were also shots of the people giving thumbsup, men shaking hands with U.S. soldiers, people smiling, waving, and appearing to be very happy everywhere the camera looked.

People in Sanawa are also getting food, water and medical supplies as are the villages in between the Kuwaiti border and as far as Karbala as supply trucks are making their way across the country.

Iraqi dock workers are also back to work, helping to unload tons of food from ships carrying humanitarian aide...aide that is being given to the people of Iraq, not being put in warehouses in efforts to starve and terrorize the people, as was practice under the regime.

Yes, U.S. soldiers are coming under fire from pockets of resistance in those areas but their commitment to the safety of civilians remains a priority.

I think had I seen any reporters at the briefing asking about those Arab-reported atrocities, there may be some validity to the article, but from what I've seen, from what I have heard...the Arabs are making it out to be a lot worse than it actually is.

I hadn't noticed. :D

Last I heard Fox is winning the "War Coverage" battle, so it seems most of the country agree's with our opinion of their "journalistic assets"