Melville Cooke Yu eena me lan
Quite illegal-
Fight Apartheid, Peter Tosh
ON SUNDAY, Anne Arthur of Family Support Group of Jamaican Families of Soldiers in Iraq wrote a letter in reply to last Thursday's column, "A long hot summer in Iraq". In that column I wrote, "How comes these new-fangled types (of hand grenades) do not seem able to take out more than two or three (soldiers) per pop?"
Expressing her outrage, Ms. Arthur writes: "Sir, these children to be taken out are our sons and daughters! We, as family members of Jamaican-American soldiers, not only pray that our loved ones return home safe and sound, we also pray that no Iraqis be killed or hurt anymore (those are two rather conflicting prayers, but if you feel you must)
"As strange as it may seem to Mr. Cooke, none of the soldiers wants to go to war. However, they will do so when the chain of command gives the order to deploy. They neither like to kill or be killed."
And it goes on.
One of the images which most incensed me from the American networks' coverage of the assault on Iraq was US soldiers signing bombs which were to be dropped from thousands of feet in the air. Those soldiers were grinning like hell as they scrawled messages on the missiles.
And those messages, as well as other missives, sure reached between 5,000 and 7,000 Iraqi civilians during this year's version of blitzreig (figures compiled by Iraq Body Count, reported in The Guardian, June 13, 2003).
The figure could reach 10,000, when all is said and done and, quite frankly, the true figure will never be ascertained.
The US used some things called cluster bombs, which make hand grenades look like firecrackers. They weigh 1,000 pounds, are 14 feet long and carry 145 "bomblets"; one cluster bomb takes care of an area the size of a US football field, with six small bombs for every 1,000 square feet.
They shred, incinerate, maim and kill like hell.
And while Ms. Arthur is on the subject of having children on the front-line, I wonder if she can identify with this lady:
A woman who this week survived one of the most tragic killings of civilians to date when U.S. soldiers on 31 March fired on a family car approaching a checkpoint near Najaf recently described in detail how her two little girls died. Lamea Hassan, who is nine months pregnant and was riding in the car with her husband and other relatives, said: "I saw the heads of my two little girls come off. My girls I watched their heads come off their bodies. My son is (also) dead. (April 3, 2003 (RFE/RL)
And that was just one of many many.
The US has not sent soldiers to Iraq to do duty, they have sent them to do "dutty" acts. There are no weapons of mass destruction to be found, the explicit reason for going to war, so there is no reason for them to be there.
SLAUGHTERED CIVILIANS
You see, the United States, chiefly, slaughtered civilians from the safety of the air or far distance on land and I am ecstatic that they have now come within range of those who they hurt.
I love when the odds in an unfair fight are shortened. I just love it. And I am still very dissatisfied with those grenades. The more than 50 US soldiers killed since May 1 is nothing compared to the thousands they have slaughtered in the farce of a war.
Ms. Arthur said that if I had the courage I should come to one of their meetings, so I "may tell those among our sons, who have returned from duty, about his fantasy of Iraqi grenades killing the buddies they left behind".
Nah, I have a better idea. I have just seen an e-mail that there will be an anti-occupation protest in front of the US Embassy at 3 p.m. on Saturday. I would strongly suggest that she and her crew burn a fire, sing a sankey and find their way to Oxford Road and join in, because it is in their best interests that the US withdraws its troops from Iraq.
Bush has no sons or daughters there. Neither does Rumsfeld. Or Powell. The members of the Family Support Group of Jamaican Families of Soldiers in Iraq do. And, if things go to plan, your boys won't be coming home anytime soon and your group will become "of Soldiers in Saudia Arabia, of soldiers in Iran, of Soldiers in North Korea etc."
You have been had although it seems that you rather enjoy it.
A bullet from the back of a bush took Medgar Evers' blood
A finger fired the trigger to his name
A handle hid out in the dark
A hand set the spark
Two eyes took the aim
Behind a man's brain
But he can't be blamed
He's only a pawn in their game
Only a Pawn in Their Game, Bob Dylan
Next week: Virginity tests.
Melville Cooke is a freelance writer.
