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Maan News Agency
Rashid Shahin, who was an eyewitness to the
crimes against Iraq, is writing a series of episodes depicting his
own visions and commemorating the fourth anniversary of the American
invasion of Iraq.
Episode One:
 On the morning of this day four long dire years
ago, the United States of America launched their assault on the
'land of Rafidayn' [referring to the two great rivers in Iraq, the
Tigris and the Euphrates, or Mesopotamia]. That war can only be
portrayed as a criminal act against humanity. It was never
justified, because it contradicted the will of the whole world,
which unanimously agreed to deal with the Iraqi question
politically, excluding a military solution, especially considering
the international inspectors were progressing very well.
In their book, ' The Iraq War', Williamson Murray
and Robert Scales Junior ( 2004, pp. 155-156) said: "On the morning
of March 20 (Riyadh time), lieutenant general Michael Moseley (Buzz)
received an urgent telephone call from the chairman of the joint
chief of staff Richard Meyers. The chairman asked Centcom's air
component commander whether his F-117 could attack a discrete target
in downtown Baghdad before dawn. Moseley asked the chairman to
please insure that General Tommy Franks was informed and with that
the phone call ended. This tense conversation set the war against
Iraq in motion."
It is well known that the target was meant to be
the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, and the rest of the Iraqi
leaders, which the American administration and their intelligence
thought were holding a secret meeting in a given place on the
outskirts of Baghdad.
The book added: "Lieutenant colonel David Toomey
and Major Mark Hoehn were to execute the mission. They launched
within two hours of receiving their orders at 3:38 local time. As
the aircraft neared the capital, the GPS unit on one of Toomey's
bombs went dead. He worked desperately to reset the faulty guidance
system, and got it working just in time to drop both of his 2000
pound bombs at 5:36 Baghdad time. All four bombs from the F-117s hit
their target squarely." (The same source, pp. 156-157)
The writers spoke in the same boasting tone of
their president, Bush Junior. It is the American culture. This is
the way the Americans are, even in their literary works. Both
writers did not comment for a moment on the unimaginable terror
caused by those raids on the Iraqi children and women. They never
tackled the destruction, chaos, murder, terrorism and atrocities
which prevailed in Iraq following that war. The victims mounted to
at least three quarters of a million Iraqi people. More than five
million were forced to migrate both inside and outside Iraq as a
result of the Bush war, by which he aimed to eradicate the Iraqi
state including the history, culture and people of several
nationalities and sects.
So, four years have passed since that war. They
were very long years, yet, in the Arab region, we do not care for
time. What do four years mean? It is just a figure. Isn't it?
Nevertheless, these years were loaded with the flesh of the Iraqi
people, and were coloured blood-red. That blood, which was spilt in
the streets of each Iraqi city. Most days of those years were full
of Iraqi blood, death and terror. They were very scary years far
beyond one's imagination. Four years passed while eyes were
watching, and consciences, "which are dead for sure," were
witnessing. Four years passed in order for the Bush culture and the
American atrocities to be revealed.
Starting on 20th of March, four years will have
passed, full of brutal and barbarian violations of basic human
rights, which Bush and his Zionism-affiliated group had always
talked about. During those four years, noble Iraqi women were raped;
whole families were murdered; the history and culture of Iraq were
robbed in broad daylight. The Iraqi Museum, the National Library,
and the 'Waqf' [Islamic endowments] Library were also robbed and
destroyed. Endless series of atrocities and scandals were committed
by the Americans and the gangs of traitors affiliated to the Persian
state, such as the scandals at Abu Ghreib detention center - and the
worst is still to follow.
The situation in Iraq is far below the level of
reason. It is beyond imagination. Can anyone imagine that he cannot
feel safe and secure while he sits with his family in his own house?
Imagine that you live in Baghdad knowing that nobody can prevent
that gang of burglars and militiamen from storming your home and do
whatever they want without being able to stop them? They can rape,
murder, steal, expel, set fire to anything. Imagine after that, that
you have nobody, no authority to receive your complaint, and if you
find any, you have no guarantee against the fact that they might be
members of the same gang which stormed your home. Then you have to
pay double for your complaint.
Yes, that is the Baghdad which Bush wanted to
free from the dictator. That is the Baghdad which Bush Junior (as
the Iraqis call him, but I call him "The Mean") wanted to relieve
the world of its leader because he represented a threat to the
world's peace and security. What I am talking about is taking place
here in the Baghdad of the Arabs. It is not happening on another
planet.
After those dire and miserable four years, I must
recall the long days of war, which passed like years due to the
severe images of murder, terror and destruction they witnessed. It
was a massacre by all standards, about which I wrote a book soon to
be published. In that book, I said:
The evening of Thursday March 20, 2003 was
different from its predecessors and successors. Everyone was
watching and waiting. They were asking either in public or secretly
whether Bush will launch his aggression or delay his raids. Nobody
knew about that except Bush and his guilty gang. Many Iraqis awaited
the attack, and many remained awake until late at night awaiting the
attack. When they were over-exhausted, they went to sleep which was
not concluded as they wished.
I did the same as the other Iraqi people did. I
remained awake until late, hoping to get up as dawn approaches in
Baghdad, as usual. I was sleeping so deeply, but my pleasure was
interrupted. My wife woke me up in a state of great fear. She asked
me to answer the telephone to find my brother calling from Palestine
to check up on our situation after the war had begun. While I was
talking to him, I heard heavy explosions shaking my apartment. My
children woke up too. The first raid was relatively far away, as my
wife told me, and that was why I did not hear it. The rest of the
raids were closer to my residence, and may be stronger. But that
could be due to the fact that we were sleeping before. I really did
not know. All I knew was that the explosions were very much louder.
I felt my brother was very eager to talk to me as
much as he could. He told me that he was watching something very
terrifying on the satellite channels. He said it was almost similar
to the first Iraqi war in 1991. I think I was eager to talk more
with my brother, yet the yelling of my children over the sounds of
explosions, and the arrival of our neighbours to my apartment, which
they thought might be safer given the fact that it was on the first
floor, led us to end the call prematurely.
As soon as the deadline of the warning passed,
the doors of hell were opened on Baghdad. The raid was so heavy that
it shook the beds under those who were sleeping. They were sure
either consciously or unconsciously that the assault was coming.
Explosions were heard everywhere in Baghdad,
which made it very hard for the people to concentrate on one
direction. As they tried to find out what happened to one area,
dozens of bombs, rockets and shells fell on another area and nobody
knew the consequences. Smoke and flames rose everywhere. People were
asking each other what was going on. What should they do? But, the
issue was far beyond imagination. The war had begun….
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