Tuesday, October 14, 2003
US soldiers bulldoze farmers' crops. Argh! They're doing this as punishment for the farmers not telling them where the guerillas that are attacking US and UK troops are hiding.
1) Why do they assume the farmers know? I don't even know who lives two doors down from me.
2) These communities are inter-related over hundreds of years. That, plus the complete chaos and anarchy in Iraq after Hussein was deposed, why should people believe that the Americans want to help, and why should they risk being tossed out of theirn communities for helping the US?
3) This action is actually illegal under the Geneva Convention. But hey, fuck it, we all know how much a signature is worth when it's on a document that would stop the current US administration from doing what it wants to.
4) As this Iraqi woman makes clear, the trees are either far more important to the communities than the US realise, or the US do know how important they are, in which case this act is even crueller. And comparable to when Hussein drained marshland because he thought his enemies were there. Déjà vu, perhaps? Or maybe the orchards differ from the marshlands in that Saddam wasn’t playing jazz when he dried up the marshlands…
1) Why do they assume the farmers know? I don't even know who lives two doors down from me.
2) These communities are inter-related over hundreds of years. That, plus the complete chaos and anarchy in Iraq after Hussein was deposed, why should people believe that the Americans want to help, and why should they risk being tossed out of theirn communities for helping the US?
3) This action is actually illegal under the Geneva Convention. But hey, fuck it, we all know how much a signature is worth when it's on a document that would stop the current US administration from doing what it wants to.
4) As this Iraqi woman makes clear, the trees are either far more important to the communities than the US realise, or the US do know how important they are, in which case this act is even crueller. And comparable to when Hussein drained marshland because he thought his enemies were there. Déjà vu, perhaps? Or maybe the orchards differ from the marshlands in that Saddam wasn’t playing jazz when he dried up the marshlands…
