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Bereaved Iraqi Mother Vows Revenge On US
Um Saad, a middle-aged woman living in the Sunni district of Khadra in west Baghdad, blames the Americans for the death of her husband and two of her sons and threatens revenge.
"They are monsters and devils wearing human clothes," she exclaims vehemently. "One day I will put on an explosive belt under my clothes and then blow myself up among the Americans. I will get revenge against them for my husband and sons and I will go to paradise."
Just as the White House and the Pentagon were trumpeting the success of "the surge" - the dispatch of extra American troops to Iraq last year - and the wire services' claim that the country has enjoyed "months of relative calm", Um Saad saw Saif, her second son, shot dead as he opened the door of her house.
Iraq is still convulsed by violence and security has only improved compared to the height of the sectarian civil war in 2006 and early 2007 when 65 Iraqis were being killed every day. By this February the number of dead had fallen to 26 a day though this has risen to 39 in March so far.
The misery of people like Um Saad is the cumulative result of years of war. Dressed in dark robes, sitting in the bare sitting room of her modest house in al-Khadra, this 49-year-old woman tells how her family was slowly destroyed. "I am not educated and I only went to primary school," she says. "I married an air force pilot called Latif and we had three sons and one daughter."
Latif was stationed at Bakr airforce base at Balad, north of Baghdad, during the 1990-91 Gulf War and was killed in an American bombing attack. "I didn't get support from our uncles and aunts so we lived on his pension and we sold a car, a Chevrolet Malibu, he had been given by the government because he was a pilot," says Um Saad.
Her eldest son, Saad, wanted to enter the military academy just like his father. Um Saad said she did not want to lose him and instead he went to the police academy and had graduated as a police lieutenant when Saddam Hussein was overthrown in April 2003. She wanted him to resign. "After the fall of Iraq the police were the second target [of Sunni guerrillas] after the Americans."
Saad equivocated over resigning since he held the Americans responsible for killing his father, but the family needed his salary. He finally decided to leave the police, but before he could do so, on 25 October 2003, his police station at Khadra was hit by a large car bomb. He was uninjured by the blast but, as he ran with his pistol drawn to help a friend, American soldiers at the scene thought he was attacking them. "They shot him dead with six bullets in the head and many more in the body," says his mother.
Um Saad says it was at this point she began to hate the Americans: "I do not look on them as human beings." Her priority was to try to save her three surviving children. She was particularly worried about Saif, 17 and in his fifth year in secondary school, because many of his friends had joined al-Qa'ida in Iraq. Um Saad thought it would be safest if Saif went to Syria and she enticed him to go there at the end of 2006 by telling him that his cousin Mariam, whose family had already fled there, was in love with him and wanted to marry him. Saif came back to Baghdad in October last year when Syria changed its visa and residency requirements.
Um Saad was "desperately worried because the security situation was bad". It was at this time that the US forces in Khadra had set up al-Sahwa, the Awakening Council, as a Sunni anti-al-Qa'ida force.
"I was so stupid," says Um Saad bitterly. "I thought the danger was that Saif would join al-Qa'ida because the Americans had killed his father and brother." In fact he secretly joined al-Sahwa and was expecting to earn $400 a month. On the night of 15 February as the family were having their supper there was knock on the door. Saif answered it and Um Saad heard shots. "I was too late," she says. "He was lying dead on the doorstep and on his chest was a piece of paper saying: 'Death to al-Sahwa and all enemies of al-Qa'ida'."
© 2008 The Independent
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13 Comments so far
Show AllMultiply this by how many;for how many years?Tony
I feel like sending a massive email to all my coworkers with this story. But sadly, they would be so offended to know the truth about their "innocent" country.
"They are monsters and devils wearing human clothes," she exclaims vehemently. ...I do not look on them as human beings."
I wholeheartedly agree, especially the vile, robitic, evil monster they call their "commander in chief".
Eight years ago, I neverthought I could look at a man, and not see a man but a monster, I am a peace-loving, man; I never believed in blood-vengence - even for the likes of Jonn Wayne Gacy, Dahmler, or Mcvey. But now, there actually exists a handful of men and at leat one woman, whose humanness I refuse to recognize. They better have good bodyguards, because they have no right to life.
Also, eight years ago, I never believed in heaven, and particularly anything as monstrously vengeful and manifestly unjust as hell; now I still dont believe in heaven, but I dearly hope there is a hell so I can find solace that these monsters will find justice.
But FOX News says things are so much better over there now......
Cheney says we're liberators and they love us.......
bush sits and smiles, staring blankly as he nods his head.....
It used to be a dictatorship. Now it's a bombed out hellhole. What an improvement.
Just a sample of the consequences of actions that by default has been done 'in our name'.
As mustbefree states 'Multiply this by how many;for how many years?'
In 2000, I was in the Middle East in a shop trying to replace glasses. Two women came in behind me, dressed in black chadoors indicating they were Shia. When they heard my voice , they realized I was from the US and they started screaming and crying and stick their fists in my face. I was dumbfounded and just stood there while these women were physically pulled away from me to the back of the shop.
The shopkeepre was very apologetic and asked me to forgive them. He told me that both women were widows whose husbands had been killed by US forces in Gulf War I.
One's husband had been killed as he was part of the retreating column napalmed by US planes at the end of the war. If you reacall, this incident was considered a war crime as the retreating column was clearly not engaging in threatening moves as they had all weapons pointed at the ground in an international sign of surrender when our army attacked them.
The other lost her husband after we encouraged the Shi'ites in Southern Iraq to overthrow Hussein and then stood by and watched as Saddam's Guards slaughtered them. She had apparently been close enough to see the US troops doing nothing.
I cried out of shame and humiliation at these acts carried out 'in my name.'
But, someday, we may all pay collective penance for our collective monstrous acts...
the real criminals have neither shame nor conscience, the best solution is to lock them up together …
The WAR to create TERRORISTS is "mission accomplished"
I am so sorry, Um Saad, for your loss. My heart breaks for you. I wish that you and Cindy Sheehan could sit down and talk. You both know sorrow and loss. Maybe you two mothers could help us find peace.
I respect the sorrow for this woman. .She has experienced the murder of her husband and her sons. .She has experienced the brutal disaster of the U.S. Military occupying her nation. .She has experienced these Western Christian Crusaders destroying her religion, culture and history.
This poor woman, and millions of men, women, and today's children will savagely kill all these Western Invaders.
The sand and streets will be red with blood. .The American troopers' bones will join the bones of Greek and Roman Invaders.
The spirits of their slain, will not rest until all Westerners are dead, or evacuated from the Middle East.
Soon the Oil of the East will not flow to the West.!!!!
Evil Empires, Mafia, street gangs: violence leads to wealth, for a little while.
Spain became fabulously wealthy working the Native Americans to death in the mines. England had quite the wealthy racket with India and other 'darkie' places. Even little Holland made a killing in Africa.
And so it goes.
Finally, with the Internet, Americans are learning the horrors underpinning their wealth. Of course, wiping out the American Indians and the tens of millions of African slaves sort of gave big hints in past centuries...
But not to worry. That wealth is going away, soon the U.S. will not be able to screw up millions of lives all over the planet.
Will some new SuperBastard rise up ? Or can humans just extend the concepts of 'neighbor' and 'country' that last step, to encompass the whole planet ?
Could somebody please tell me when the Iraqi people will understand that they are beaten and surrender. It seems to me its just like Nam, we kept giving body counts of killed [gooks], but the vietnamese just never knew they had been defeated. Year after year they just never understood just how strong Amerika was. Finally we just got tired of their lack of sensivity and left, we showed them!
It is very hurtful and sad to read about how much pain the greedy racist frauds are causing in the middle east. We should have learned the lesson when the CIA helped prop up the Shah of Iran on nothing more than guns, an overabundance of medals, pomp and parade. The damage by this administration is going to take generations to undo and perhaps global warming will have numbed us to extinction and we won't have to worry about it.
SRD
http://www.bccmeteorites.com/misconduct-planetary.html
Ladybug:
For every co-worker offended you will probable touch a lonely and hurt heart. And if others are offended...well, good. It took me 7 readings of Kucinich's Prayer For America before doing so without collapse. Yes, it was painful but I'm better off for it, breaking through that level of naivety has been very rewarding. And it's the kind of reward this Nation could use. We are naively spewing "depleted" uranium into the atmosphere and sinking it into our ground water - coddling the generalized state of childish innocence that helps sustain this behavior pales in comparison to what we could accomplish with a clearer focus on uplifting human social and environmental relations - go for the glory.
Peace