World wide media frenzy continues a week after deadliest terrorist attack since 911, world leaders promise to bring the killers to justice
Yes, last Tuesday was the worst terrorist attack since 9/11, hundreds of men, women, and children were blown to bits as they went about their daily business. A week later, and they are a footnote in the news. If they had been stockbrokers in New York or coeds in Virginia the media frenzy would be ongoing and Americans would be screaming for justice. Instead, the model democratic government we installed in Iraq has announced that they can’t even be bothered to search the ruins for the 200 or so victims still unaccounted for. The humanity of it all just makes shivers run down my spine.
I mean, I guess they weren’t even Christians or Muslims, so who cares? I waited a week to see how this story would play in the media. For the most part, it didn’t. Hundreds of innocents dead and it’s just another blip in the daily carnage in Iraq. See, this is why they hate us. Or more on point, why many people in the world loathe the America. Many Americans don’t seem to even notice when brown people die, let alone recognize our role in their deaths.
It’s depressing really. For those interested, last Tuesday there was a coordinated truck bomb suicide attack on two Yazidi villages in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. The Yazidis are primarily ethnic Kurds who practise a pre Islamic monotheistic faith. There’s tens of thousands or possibly hundreds of thousands of them living in Iraq, who knew? I didn’t, and I’m more informed than most on the subject of who lives in Iraq.
The Pentagon immediately blamed the attacks on Al-Qaeda. Of course the Pentagon always blames the most politically expedient enemy, Pentagon pronouncements have no bearing on reality. And no mention was made of the reality that there was no Al Qaeda-in-Iraq before the USA occupied and started running the place. And that’s basically the end of the it. If the Maliki government can’t even search the rubble for bodies and survivors, obviously there’s not going to be any investigation. The Yazidi will bury their dead, some imaged above, and go about their lives.
Did America cause this attack? Of course not. Did America want this to happen? Of course not. Is America responsible for this attack? Well, we were the ones who turned Iraq into one of the world’s worst failed states with our misguided crusade in a land most Americans would have trouble finding on a map. Iraq didn’t dissolve into chaos and violence on its own, it took the utter destruction of the Baathist central government and Paul Bremer’s incompetent occupation policies to do that. Are Americans responsible for that? You tell me.
Lord, thou art gracious,
Merciful. Faithful.
Thou art Lord; I am nothingness,
I am a fallen sinner,
A sinner by thee remembered.
Thou hast led us out of darkness into light.
Lord! My sin and my guilt,
Take them and remove them.
O God, O God, O God, Amen!Excerpt from the Yazidi Book of Revelation
(The above image is claimed as Fair Use under US copyright law. It is not being used for profit and is central to illustrating the post. Credit: Reuters TV)
Doug's Darkworld 
Yazids are a fairly unique entity in Iraq. they try to keep to themselves. it’s easy since many don’t want to have much to d with them. This story will if it walks a little be the “other” story people acknowledge the Yazid. The other is the stoning of the teenage girl. That initially got play imo secondary to muslim bashing.In closing is the US responsible. I think we’ve caused something but I also believe the three majors of Iraq could stand together. If not for themselves then to get us out. Further closing side the Yazidi stoning of that girl resulted in 23 executions.
in2thefray
August 21, 2007 at 8:53 am
Would the selfish, violent dudes with no life (sex or otherwise) PLEASE stop murdering the people who are trying to build a life? PUH-LEEEZE? Yeah, Bush is a moron. You don’t have to repeatedly stress the point on the softest victims you can find, we get it already okay?
Just stopped by to note that WordPress lets you view your graph in Months now. i.e. you can see your entire blog history.
Scott Thong
August 21, 2007 at 5:31 pm
Doug,
I saw a news item long ago on the weapons used in the war. Have you heard of depleted Uranium. It is banned in every international convention. But it has been used extensively in Iraq war, both in this and the previous war and so many children are suffering the ill-effects of radiation.
While we notice these suicide bombs, there are so many of people dying behind the scenes, which mostly goes unnoticed.
I also read another story about people in Iraq tattooing their address on their thighs. Many of the bodies are being disposed without being properly identified. They want to their bodies to be handed over to their families. This inspite of Islam banning any kind of tattooing / marking on the body. Such is the desperation among the people.
Archana Raghuram
August 22, 2007 at 1:37 am
Yes, I’ve posted about DU before. There are many ways that some western nations commit terrible atrocities while maintaining a pretense of “civilization.” DU, cluster bombs, sanctions, attacking infrastructure including water treatment plants and hospitals all kill huge numbers of innocents…yet it is largely ignored in the west, or worst, justified in some torturous fashion that usually boils down to “they made us do these things, we had no choice.” And this doesn’t even include the staggering number of civilians killed by so called “collateral damage.” As the lady said in Repo Man…”No one is innocent.”
unitedcats
August 22, 2007 at 8:42 am
Humanity has not progressed above red-clawed nature: Whoever is strongest, wins. Whoever wins, dictates what is right and wrong.
If everyone would just openly admit that they practise (if not preach) this philosophy, from Bush to Iran, and cut out the righteousness-and-justice bullsh*t that nobody believes.
Heck, even the once-unbowed China has gone from instant smiting of all your family members – three generations vertical and three lines removed hortizontal – to limp-wristed letters of complaint to the UN.
Scott Thong
August 22, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Doug,
The government says it doesn’t have the resources to help any trapped survivors. They may be telling the truth.
misterlister
August 25, 2007 at 12:35 pm
Good example of a “does not follow” fallacy. Ration cards are a bureaucratic issue, what does that have to do with dispatching people to dig through rubble for a few days? Nothing. If the American government claimed it couldn’t make any attempt to rescue survivors of a natural disaster because they were “running behind on issuing food stamps” would anyone believe them? Nope. I would say this quote is actually another example of just how corrupt and irrelevant the “government” of Iraq is.
unitedcats
August 27, 2007 at 7:33 am
I could pretend that your comparing the resources of America to those of Iraq. But you’re not. You’re just making an argument.
It is certainly possible that Iraq did not have the resources to aid those people. The allegation that they “can’t even be bothered” is way too strong given the situation in Iraq.
misterlister
August 27, 2007 at 10:09 am
OK, I was using hyperbole. However, I am curious, have there been other large scale attacks in Iraq where the government has announced they didn’t have the resources to search for survivors? If not, I stand by my case if not my exact words. :)
unitedcats
August 28, 2007 at 9:51 am