In Falluja, Finding a Place for the Dead (NYT)

[gottaB]

FALLUJA, Iraq, April 27 — The paint on the gravestones is as red as blood. And on some of them, it has not yet dried.

"A young brother and sister are buried here," said one of the gravediggers, who gave only his first name, Hamza, as he pointed to two crudely cut blocks propped up on a dirt mound.

The place where the dead lie in this town, 30 miles west of Baghdad, was once a soccer stadium named the Falluja Sports Club. But now, after more than three weeks of fighting between American marines and insurgents, it is known as the Falluja Martyrs Cemetery.

Smeared in hand-written Arabic lettering on the stone markers were the names of Amal and Mustafa Alawi, killed in the Hay Julan district, a poor neighborhood in Falluja where much of the fighting has taken place.

In Falluja, Finding a Place for the Dead....

[Insider]

1. if they won't show coffins of OUR soldiers

how much will we actually know about iraqi casualties? pitiful

[ConcernedCanuk]

2. The reality of Fallujah

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The "Liberated"











"The Liberators"

[CharlieBakerAble]

21. Not even one picture of the attackers of our troops?

Why not?

[ConcernedCanuk]

24. . . Buh-BYE ! ! - surprised you lasted this long

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[keithyboy]

3. You won't know the truth unless someone can smuggle pictures out.

This is being called 'fierce fighting' as though the Iraqis are actually able to fight back at bombs dropped on their heads and missiles being launched from ships. This is not combat...this is massacre.

[daleo]

4. Falluja Martyrs Cemetery

It is of course their own choice how to name this cemetery, but they might want to work in some remembrance of the man who brought this horror upon them - Falluja Martyrs Cemetery and G.W. Bush Mass Grave.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

5. The bodies must be buried within 24 hours, how convenient for PR.

Regarding Numbers.

Check the president's approval numbers as
Fallujah buries its dead.
What's the death count?
What the hell?
Who knows

How many bodies shattered by bombs.
Or burned away by fire.

Or buried promptly according to custom.
Where ever possible.
At home. In a stadium.
By the side of the road.

"The Marines are very good at what they do," the general said.
How fortunate for the coalition of the willing.
Hired guns don’t even count.
Under the table.

Disappearing targets in a video arcade.
No damned numbers.
'Pop.' All gone.

Not like Enron. We can grasp loss in hard numbers.
But the bodies, like the books, are cooked.

No one we knew.
All gone.

[walmartsucks]

6. I have an idea

The can set them on fire, drag them through the streets, beat them with sticks, kick them, and then hang them from a bridge.

[not systems]

7. I would want no less for any carpet bagging SOB's looting...

my county.

[truth2power]

8. Huh?.....

[walmartsucks]

9. I'm sorry, I thought that was how they respected the dead...

in Fallujah. Maybe I shouldn't make assumptions based on the way the 4 security personnel's bodies were denigrated, but I thought that was S.O.P. in Fallujah. While I may not agree with the war in Iraq or the U.S. being there, the actions of the Iraqis in regards to those 4 bodies was less than human.

[samadhi]

10. youre in denial

dragging the bodies of opressors is very much human and goes on all over the planet.

[Magleetis]

11. May I remind you

that is was the US that invaded Iraq and started the war.

[walmartsucks]

12. I agree

It was. But have we resorted to putting severed heads on stakes around the city of Fallujah? The burning, beating, kicking, dragging, and hanging of charred remains was essentially the equivalent. Do I blame them for fighting back? No, I think it's to be expected. However, celebrating the desecration of the dead is less than human. What if U.S. soldiers began doing similar things to the corpses of Iraqis? I can only imagine the outrage that would be expressed here.

[Magleetis]

14. In my mind

there is no difference between blasting people to bits with a C-130 gunship and what happened to the mercenaries in Iraq.

[gottaB]

13. Quite apart from the moral turpitude of "collective responsibility"

As a practical matter, the world wouldn't be livable if, for instance, the misdeeds of soccer hooligans were met with aeriel bombardments and the like.

[ConcernedCanuk]

17. Maybe you aren't aware, that almost 11 months to the day

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before the "denigration" of DEAD bodies,

the USA opened up on UNARMED demonstrators at a school in Fallujah killing 17 students, and wounding 75 others

I don't think what we saw with the 4 bodies was "SOP" by any stretch of the imagination,

but plain pent up fury, frustration and revenge.

Try to remember Who is in who's country here.

The USA and their coalition are responsible for the death of over 10,000 Iraqi civilians so far that we know of. That's civilians DEAD, not just wounded or in camps somewhere, thats "extra".

That is comparable to 140,000 dead American civilians at the hands of an invader/occupier.

How well "behaved" would an American be if they thought they had their hands on some the invader/occupiers responsible for the death of their mother/child/husband wife/ etc. ? :shrug:

Things that should make one go

hmmmmm :freak:

[SOS]

18. Suggestion

Read the history of the draft riots of 1863 in New York City.
Blacks were dragged through the streets, kicked, clubbed to death, hung from lampposts and set on fire.

[walmartsucks]

19. So?

Those people were no better. It was also 140 years ago. One would hope that we'd have advanced as a species over that time.

[SOS]

23. Just wanted to point out

that these types of atrocities have happened here too.
It would be nice if the human race could evolve beyond this savagery, but it doesn't look hopeful.

[Just Me]

15. Heartless,...cold-blooded,...disrespect for human beings.

You are being worse than those who celebrated the deaths of OCCUPIERS!!! The people whose lives you readily spit upon, those thousands (in lieu of four occupiers),...WERE NOT YOUR ENEMIES!!!! THEY WERE NOT GUILTY OF 9/11!!! THEY DID NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING TO THREATEN YOU OR YOUR LIFE!!!

THEY ARE INNOCENTS!!! YOUR COUNTRY INVADED THEIR COUNTRY!!!! YOU KILLED THEM, KILLED THEM, KILLED THEM AND KEEP KILLING

KILLING

KILLING

KILLING

THEM DEAD, DEAD, DEAD!!!!

are you brave and courageous enough to imagine,...being in their shoes? i totally fucking doubt it. few have that kind of guts and courage.

[walmartsucks]

16. Wow, now I feel terrible

I am worse than those who celebrated the deaths of those 4 HUMAN BEINGS????? You're right, I Am a monster! Do you see me celebrating any of the deaths? Absolutely not. They're all tragic. What makes the lives of the 4 dead security people worth any less than the Iraqis? I never said the Iraqis' lives were worth less than those of Americans, but you do appear to believe that every dead American essentially got what he deserved.

[cambie]

20. Language please.

You have used that phrase “less than human” twice now. You might want to be subtler as many readers are not of pure racial stock. Some of my own ancestors were untermenschen.

[walmartsucks]

22. Apologies

I was referring to the behavior as less than human

[abracadabra]

25. insurg-ents or Resistance ?

I am sick of this "insurgent" shit-
Those guys are defending their country from occupation.
Insurging???
NO... it's the Invaders who are doing the Insurging.
What a great media we have.
Justifying military takeovers that involve the murder of thousands upon thousands--
Civilized--Advanced Society--

[demgrrrll]

26. I think Juan Cole put this atrocity in perspective when he noted that

certain actions that occurred today were in violation of
the 4th Geneva convention.