Erin Go Bragh, Ireland's not part of this!
Hello Everyone-
I'm sorry that the news looks so grim after the Azores, my father's base during
WW II. He would be so upset that the islands were used this way. Those people held his heart and he dreamed of returning before he died.Now, the Iraqis are in high gear preparations, stocking more materials, taping windows, putting screens over windows and doors. They have been resigned to the atrocity of the impending bombing and invasion, recalling how indescriminate it was last time and deferring to fate, Allah, again.
I went to the Almiriya Shelter where more than 400 terrorized Iraqis waited out the bombing last time and were struck not once, but twice, by serial missiles which exploded and incinerated all who weren't blown out of doorways. It's no wonder that they don't choose to go into bomb shelters this time. In fact, some of the twenty eight on the Iraq Peace Team won't be staying in our hotel shelters just to honor the experience and fears of our neighbors, the Iraqis staying in their homes. They will stay in their rooms just as families are staying in high rise apartments. I'm undecided right now since I believe we will have locals in my hotel shelter and those conditions may be more difficult. As a doctor, I need to be where the people and medical supplies are and while war occurs, we may be locked down in our hotel.
I believe that the Iraqis will try to defend Baghdad and construction suggests some efforts. The troops patrol with machine guns and are friendly/appreciative of our presence among the neighbors. So many of them, and so human. Young, earnest faces, efforts to speak to me in scant English words. I can't stand the horrible view of our country, such unconscionable behavior at every turn. I can't stand the thought of our soldiers forcing their [the young Iraqi troops] hands in the defense of their city and families.
Before the Gulf War, the Iraq currency, dinar, was worth $750. Now it is worth 12 cents. Iraq was the first third world country to rise to first world status with free university and health care. It was our manipulation of UN sanctions that crashed their economy and George Bush Sr. did blast them into the Stone Age as promised.
The kids are dying of cancer in incredible numbers, much induced by our depleted uranium weapons radiation, our toxic exposure through starting refinery fires difficult to control. (our Special Forces soldiers have admitted to doing this assignment) I've been with physicians trying to treat them, seeing them relapse because each course of chemotherapy is sabotaged by some disallowed missing medication in the protocol for each type of cancer. The kids are always nursed by their mothers who stay with them twenty-four-seven leaving other children without a mother for months at a stretch. There are few professional nurses, the mothers learn to administer platelets, intravenous drugs and fluids.
I see doctors trying new rounds of incomplete chemo hoping to buy time for the child and mother, hoping the sanctions will be altered to permit healing. Physicians work day and night for week stretches and have to deal with inadequate supplies as well. The country is impovershed, 60% on UN food for oil, much of the exchange absorbed by the UN for other expenses. What a forgiving people! Amazingly accepting and warm toward me, an American. They don't understand why we attack them for oil and I can't help them there! I feel responsible for all the devastation that I allowed without civil disobedience sooner. I'm sorry for the risks that I didn't take before. How could it come to this?
I once said that America deserved Bush; the vote was too close, even without the fraud of Florida and other states. But does the whole world deserve this administration or the handlers/corporations/financiers behind them? The world is wise to us; the international press is not so controlled and other populations are not so sedated by TV hypnosis that they miss the incredible repercusions promoted by our foreign policy.
We will bring to Justice those responsible and we'll flush each one into the open to do so. The World is watching and no one will tolerate what we plan to do. And, on that note, my time is up here at the internet cafe at the Hotel Palestine here in Baghdad, a block from my hotel, the Andalus Apartments.
Love, April