An Accident or Cold-Blooded Revenge?

In every country, all children in their early years enjoy their childhood. Children in allover the world wake up early to go to school accompanied by their parents whom they bid a farewell with a smile on the faces. But for Eman, it is not the same. In one morning, she was left with no one of her family next to her but her eight years-old brother, Abdul Rahaman.

In Haditha, a restless town in western Iraq, Eman, 9, recalled how she and her brother became orphans. Talking to a reporter from Time Magazine, the parentless child remembered how she and her youngest brother became orphans. "We heard a big noise that woke us all up," she told the reporter. "Then we did what we always do when there's an explosion: my father goes into his room with the Koran and prays that the family will be spared any harm." Like everywhere in Iraq during the continuous hard times, the family gathers in one room. The rest of Eman’s family--her mother, grandfather, grandmother, two brothers, two aunts and two uncles--gathered in the living room, she said.

A group of trigger-happy U.S. Marines stormed the house. Eman says she "heard a lot of shooting, so none of us went outside. Besides, it was very early, and we were all wearing our nightclothes." When the Marines entered the house, they were shouting in English. "First, they went into my father's room, where he was reading the Koran," she claims, "and we heard shots." Then, the worst part happened: “I watched them shoot my grandfather, first in the chest and then in the head. Then they killed my granny."

Shielded by the adults, the other children eventually died of the continuous shooting. Then Eman recalled the troops firing towards the corner of the room where she and her younger brother Abdul Rahman, were hiding. Bleeding, Eman and Abdul Rahman were later rescued by Iraqi soldiers who entered after the marines left.

The incident happened on the morning of Nov. 19, 2005, when a roadside bomb struck a humvee carrying Marines from Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, on a road near Haditha, where Eman and her family lived. The bomb killed Lance Corporal Miguel (T.J.) Terrazas, 20, from El Paso, Texas.

After leaving Eman and her brother, the Marines claimed that they heard lots of shootings form the next-door house. They fumed the house of the neighbors killing eight of its residents, including the owner of the house, his wife, the owner's sister, a 2-year-old son, and three young daughters.

Then, they felt thirsty to storm a third house, and they did. They killed all the residents and did not allow and elder son, who lives next door, to go and see his executed family. He found them in the morgue the next day. "The Americans gathered my four brothers and took them inside my father's bedroom, to a closest," Time quoted the son. "They killed them inside the closet."

Eman’s family’s death was false-reported by the US Marines first. On Nov. 20, 2005, “a Marine communiqué from Camp Blue Diamond in Ramadi reported that Terrazas and 15 Iraqi civilians were killed by the blast and that "gunmen attacked the convoy with small-arms fire," prompting the Marines to return fire, killing eight insurgents and wounding one other, the Time Magazine said.

To record the crime in history, an Iraqi journalism student videotaped the criminal scene at the local morgue and at the homes where the killings had occurred. Colonel Barry Johnson, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad was given the tape by Time. After reviewing the evidence, Johnson passed it on to the military command, suggesting that the events of Haditha be given "a full and formal investigation."

Time reported that a Marines official went to Haitha to probe the incident. The probe concluded that the civilians were in fact killed by Marines and not by an insurgent's bomb and that no insurgents appeared to be in the first two houses raided by the Marines. What a tragedy!

The worst part in the whole crime was the "compensation". The US paid the relatives of the victims $2500 for each of the dead civilians.

A day after Time's revelation of the crime, another crime showed up. In the very early morning of March 15, five children under school age, four women and two men were killed by the US army in Ishaqi, an Iraqi town north of Baghdad, Iraqi and international news agencies reported. As usual, the US army denied the incident. Though, Iraqi police revealed the crime to the public. "It's a clear and perfect crime without any doubt," Faruq Hussein, an Iraqi police colonel told Reuters.

Video tapes showed the dead people, including the children, all in a burned and half-destroyed room. Iraqi police said the ages of the dead ranged from 6 months to 75 years. To shut the mouth of the general public, the US army claimed to open an "investigation".

Now, the question is: what is going on? Was it a self-defense or cold-blooded revenge? Why do the US forces keep doing this? Since, I have started my blog, I received many emails from American people encouraging me not to misunderstand US troops as "most" of them believe in the mission of "freedom" they are sacrificing for. I believed that for some time. But what has changed? A crime after a crime, a scandal after a scandal, how much should we bear? Isn't there a way to stop that? Whether the Americans stop these actions or Iraqis make them stop it peacefully or by force?

From the bottom of my heart, I wish an American soldier or officer reads these lines? I am addressing the US army and marines here: I want to ask you, were these women, children, and old men fighting you? Were they carrying RPJs? Have you seen them planting a bomb on the road?
Let's suppose that one of the men was doing that INSIDE the house. Does that give the troops the right to kill his father, mother, wife and children? Don't they understand that by doing this, they are creating a generation that is going to hate them and hate the whole idea of freedom they brought?
Have you heard that Eman's youngest brother is traumatized? What about Eman, herself? Do you think she is going to forget the day she saw her entire family killed by these troops? I bet not.
Just an advice to the future: if you invade a country, try to be nice with the people. Try to remember that you have a sister, a brother, a mother and a father. One more thing for you to know: the more innocent civilians are killed by you, the more the gap increases and the more hatred and will of revenge increases. I heard many stories by people who lost dear relatives and friends who were killed "by mistake". They said they "will never forget about it and will take revenge whenever they are ready." That's why you find people fighting you, that's why there are people who joined terrorists in their operations and that's why you are not winning the war in Iraq and may never be able to, until you take into considerations that these are people who survived dictatorship and oppression.

Let's all pray that these dead innocents rest in peace.