'You just (expletive) killed a family because you didn't fire a warning shot soon enough!'

--Capt. Johnson, Today, 2/4/03.

There. You have it. Laid in front of your face. The facts. The bare facts. Ten, seven, which ever source you wish to believe, people were killed a few days ago. Five children. Do you believe it? Don't shy away from answering, don't shake your head in disbelief, because it's true. Killed by American bullets. I distinctly remember hearing the phrase 'liberating' quite a few times, from coalition troops. A wounded mother refused to get out of the car, clutching the bloodied bodies of her two dead children. Dead.

Wake up people! All of you who don't read the papers, watch the news, I'm telling you now. People are killed in wars, people die. Not just the so-called 'liberation forces', oh no, families, relatives, friends. Imagine the Iraqi people, watching the coalition forces' stray bombs, stray bullets, goddamned 'nervous fingers' killing those you know, those you grew up with, your loved ones. Imagine. What about the nightly air raids in Baghdad? Imagine hiding in the strongest room in your house, listening. Watching victims limp back to wherever they think is safe, shrapnel in their legs, bodies. Think about it.

Hours after this incident, as if it wasn't already bad enough, US marines go and kill an unarmed Iraqi, just because he drove his truck quickly towards a checkpoint. He was unarmed, this was not self-defence. Only because he drove his truck quickly. I ask you, what sort of logic is that? Killing an unarmed man because he drove his truck quickly. I don't know about you, but it sounds like pretty stupid logic to me. According to the Today paper, the US marines thought he was a suicide bomber, because he drove the truck quickly! Now, because of this, people die. The man who drove the truck is dead, those women and children in the car are dead, and many others too, in other cities. People die, every day, needlessly. Why? The reason the coalition forces give is all well and fine--until you see the bloodshed and gore. In another incident, in a photo published in the papers, an Iraqi man sits against a wall, grieving for his dead wife and three children, whom he lost when a coalition missile landed on Al Fedayliyeh. Let me remind you that they have not yet obtained solid proof that Saddam does possess WMD (weapons of mass destruction).

How can the Americans still have the will, the heart to say that they're liberating Iraq when they're causing them so much hurt, sorrow and anguish? According to Britain's Home Secretary, David Blunkett, the coalition forces are viewed as villians by Iraqis and civilians across the Middle East because of the war.

It pains me to think that we, people in general, can still sit here and watch this happening, and not do anything. Life must go on, yes, but, are we unfeeling? Have we lost the ability to feel? To think? To speak?

I am shocked that one Singaporean girl still found the time to voice her complaints to the MOE about the shortening of the summer holidays! How can anyone be thinking about holidays when people across the globe are dying of SARS, and in the Middle East, being killed by coalition forces, and fighting for their country? Perhaps it's just to try and keep what's left of a normal life, but, to me, it's as absurd as asking whether one's hair is alright in the middle of a battlefield! I, for one, could not care less as to whether our holiday is longer or shorter, so long as SARS is contained.

We read the news, but do we not really empathise with these people? Do we not feel what they're feeling? Are we a bunch of apathetic citizens? No, I'm not asking you to run outside and start protesting; the time for that is long past. I am asking you to just think about those people who are suffering in Iraq. Just think, not hard, is it?

Iraqis are dying daily because of air raids, stray bombs, stray bullets, 'nervous fingers'. I admire all those on the battlefield, whether American, British, or Iraqi, but, is America really 'liberating' Iraq as it claims it is, or is America really after their oil fields, as Iraq has the second largest oil reserves in the world? America seems to want to control Iraq, as it has already handed the control of the port of Umm Qasr to a US company!

Aside from that, there are reports everyday about thousands of Iraqis dying, fighting for their country. Don't you admire them, in a way? For them to stand up against the US' military might is like a boy with a plastic gun standing up to a top marksman armed with the best ammunition and artillery. Yet, they still press on, they still fight, and they aren't giving up, for all that Uncle Sam has more in his arsenal than they ever have.

Think of them, Iraqis dying by coalition missiles, for no reason except that 'we're liberating your country, to do this, we must cause you pain and suffering because we want your leader dead.' No wonder the Iraqis hate the coalition forces. If I had to suffer everyday under bombs, air raids and fearing for my family and friends, I would too. America is ripping apart their life to rebuild it for them, under American control. The coalition forces are killing Iraqis to kill their leader. What did the Iraqis ever do to deserve dying for Saddam, because, for all their technological innovations, the coalition forces just can't stop themselves from killing innocent people?

You tell me.

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