Will some one please look at them as humans?

This is a heart-wrenching plea, written by someone at the McClatchy Baghdad Bureau, about the conditions in the city of Falluja. It has some specific “asks” that the writer would like the US authorities and US military to fulfill. Falluja was once known as “the city of mosques” and was known for it’s good food. It was also known for it’s resistance to the former government of Saddam. Today, it is known for it’s resistance to the presence of US troops in their city and county. In 2003, they were among the first to hold a protest against the presence of US troops in a local school. They were particularly upset about the fact that the troops were looking out at the people in the city from the roof of the school, which they felt was invading the privacy of the local women. But all that changed. Those early protests were met with shooting from US troops, which started the whole city on the path to violent retaliation. Here’s a clip from a recent story that mentions that incident:

Fallujah, the second biggest city in the province after capital Ramadi, ignited fierce resistance to U.S. forces after they killed 17 unarmed demonstrators protesting in front of a school occupied by the military in May 2003.

With the two US military attacks on the city in 2004, (the attack in November 2004 was very brutal) conditions have deteriorated significantly. About two-thirds of the homes in the city were damaged or destroyed, thousands of Iraqis killed, and local football (soccer) fields turned into new mass graves. Many of the deceased were women and children, who either could not or would not leave the city. Many who did leave ended up living in tents in the desert. Many who returned found their homes, schools, and businesses in ruins. It only stands to reason that a bombardment like that, in an old city, would destroy the water pipes and sewer pipes. And in the two and a half years since then, they have not been replaced.

As to health care in the city of Fallujah, I found this clip recently on the web:

Video: Violence Simmers in Iraq

At least 12 people are killed and 40 wounded in three separate car bomb attacks in Iraq. Hospital sources say three people were killed and 15 others were wounded when a car bomb blew up in a popular market in Iraq's western city of Falluja. The blast turned market stalls into mangled wreckage and demolished a number of shops and buildings in the market. In the Iraqi capital Baghdad, police confirmed at least a further nine people were killed and 25 wounded when two car bombs exploded in quick succession as motorists queued for petrol in the southern district of Saidiyah.

One of the many things I found deeply disturbing in this short video is an Iraqi child, crying in pain, face covered with blood and bandages, while someone is putting pressure on a bandage on his chest. The person holding the bandage on his chest has bare hands. They don’t have gloves, they run out of gaze, and they don’t have the medicine that they need either. They don’t have electricity to run electrical equipment for most of the day, and they cannot store blood, so they run out of that too.

There has more recently been a crackdown on the city by the US troops. That led to this report from Electronic Iraq:

A month-long security crackdown is preventing aid workers from getting to displaced families in the central Iraqi city of Fallujah and its outskirts, while a curfew imposed by US forces is restricting residents' ability to go out and buy much-needed supplies. "We are living like prisoners, lacking assistance at all levels. Aid support, which last year was always here, can't be seen any more. We depend solely on ourselves, drinking dirty water to survive, even knowing that our children are getting sick from it," said Muhammad Aydan, 42, a resident of Fallujah, some 70km west of the capital, Baghdad. "Power supply is less than two hours a day in some areas of Fallujah and sometimes we have to go three days without taking a shower to save water," Aydan added. Local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) said they had been denied entry to Fallujah by the Iraqi and US military as a security crackdown in the area, which started on 21 May, could put their lives at risk. The NGOs have called upon security forces to help in the delivery of aid to families who are in dire need of assistance. "We have supplies but it is impossible to reach the families. They are afraid to leave their homes to look for food and children are getting sick with diarrhoea caused by the dirty water they are drinking. We have information that pregnant women are delivering their babies at home as the curfew is preventing them from reaching hospital," Fatah Ahmed, spokesman for the Iraq Aid Association (IAA), said. "[What is happening in Fallujah] is a crime against the right to live. Such behavior is seen by locals as a punishment for recent attacks on US troops, but innocent civilians are the only ones who are paying," Ahmed added.

Today, the city of Falluja is under siege, with check points that require a badge for entry or exit. This author claims that Falluja is allied with the American troops now – which they prefer over al Qaeda. The first thing this author asks for is to move a checkpoint, so that the former amusement park will not become the next cemetery.

Instead of being the city of mosques it will be the city of cemeteries and this will be another achievement of the invasion that residents of Fallujah will remember through generations. Please don’t let that happen. Don’t give extremists more arguments and evidences to fuel anger and to deceive and recruit young men with them.

It can be avoided by allowing the residents to burry their beloved in the northern east cemetery through Al Sichir checkpoint (as locals call it). Just move that check point 300 meters away and then it is solved.

So, that is their first request: to move a checkpoint to accommodate a cemetery.

As I am sure you know, there is limited electrical supply in Iraq. Many areas get only an hour or two a day for electricity. The US forces seem totally unable to correct this situation. Many people in Iraq have gone to using cell phones, due to their portability and due to the fact that the former telephone lines are gone. This author has a request about the cell phones:

Restore cell phones. Take a bold action and bring cell towers to the American camps or provide security to the existent ones so Al Qaeda won’t attack em. Prove to the people that you can do things right. People can not understand how great armed forces, like the U.S. army and marines, can not help restoring electricity, water not even cell phones so people can cooperate with the authorities at least.

So, they don’t have land line phones anymore, they have a horrible security situation, and they are very dependent on cell phones…. But the cell phone towers are not secure. This seems like it would be quite possible to fix this situation, if the US military put their minds to it. The author goes on to describe the driving ban in Falluja:

The city, for the last three weeks and still, is under vehicles curfew. Students walk for long distances to do their final exams. Can you imagine the heat over here in Fallujah? It is about 130 F. patients, pregnant women and old men who can not walk. Add to that those who have to earn some money for their families.

He further comments on the way everyone looks at the people from Fallujah:

People are afraid and oppressed by every one; Al Qaeda is killing them, the Shiite led government look to them as Sunnis not Iraqis, the Americans look to them as Saddam loyalists and their bitter enemy.

No one, it seems, sees them as human beings. He then goes on to comment on the “badges” issued by the US military in Fallujah and the checkpoints that they run there. Even people in need of a hospital or health care have to walk to their destination, and if they are leaving Fallujah, make sure to carry their badge.

Why the military can not allow people to enter the city freely like any other place in the world? In a prison you can enter but you can not leave. In Fallujah you can not enter and you can not leave. Let them leave the checkpoints in place if they think it must but make it easier. Don’t issue that racist badge? When the southern Iraqi provinces raised against Saddam in 1991 he didn’t issue them badges that say they are residents of that certain city and can not enter to that city unless they carry it not even for Kurds not even for Ramadi residents after 1994 incidents. This badge is bad to the limit that even Saddam was shy to make it.

I would encourage you to click the link to the original article, because this author is asking that we forward this on to every politician, congressman, congresswomen, or anyone who can help the people of Fallujah.

Please help these people for the sake of any thing that you believe in whether it was God, a tree, oil or above all humanity sake. Please send this to any politician, congressman and any one who can help these people. They are suffering more than the most of others. Help giving these people some hope.

And here are some security incidents in Falluja for last week:

06/17/07

Suicide bomber attacks police recruitment center, kills 6, injured 15. This center opened last week, after attacks on several others.

06/18/06

On Monday, four civilians were killed and 13 injured when a parked car bomb ripped through a busy vegetable market in Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, police said.
Two people were killed and 10 wounded by a truck bomb in central Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

06/21/07

Al Anbar Prv: Two Marines assigned to Multi National Force-West were killed June 20 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar Province.

06/22/07

A suicide bomber killed two people and wounded four when he blew himself up in a telecommunications office in Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad, police said.
Four people were killed and 48 wounded in an explosion on Thursday evening in a shop in Falluja, police said.

06/23/07

Gunmen killed Ahmed Jasim, deputy chairman of the sports committee in the local council of Falluja, on Friday
A U.S. air strike killed five gunmen who had opened fire on a patrol seeking al Qaeda insurgents near Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

THIS IS BY NO MEANS ALL THE SECURITY INCIDENTS IN FALLUJAH THIS PAST WEEK.

Iraq Moratorium Day – September 21 and every third Friday thereafter

"I hereby make a commitment that on Friday, September 21, 2007, and the third Friday of every subsequent month I will break my daily routine and take some action, by myself or with others, to end the War in Iraq."

May Mercy Come and Wash Away – What We’ve Done…….

More information on Iraq and Afghanistan on the links at the side, along with pictures of Iraqis today, under Faces of Grief. This will be posted on Daily Kos also.