Her Face

[donsu]

http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2006/07/her-face.html





The United States now officially admits what we already knew: Abir Hamza, the victim of that vicious assault, was born in 1991. She was only 14 when a squad of all-American "Christian" good-old-boys killed her family, raped her, and burned her body. Not a single member of the unit shirked from this task. None of them felt guilty about what they had done to her (although they did regret the retaliatory measures against Americans).

"Our boys," raised within our suposedly enlightened "Christian" culture, considered this girl a sub-human -- a thing to be used. After all, she was Muslim.

The photo above, taken when Abir was but a toddler, is the only one we have at present. I don't mind admitting that when I enlarged the image and smoothed over the jpg artifacts, I got a little choked up. And angry.

I hope every American sees this girl's face. Are our red-state Jesusmaniacs so blinded by their anti-Muslim bigotry -- so blinded by the lies told by our war-loving president and his propagandists -- that they cannot recognise the humanity and innocence in that little girl's eyes? This war has had many victims; let her face represent those we cannot see.
--------------------------------------

[station agent]

1. This is hard to swallow

The worst moment of my life is looking at this girl's picture. I want to go blow my fucking head off. And you know what? Most people won't even accept it. They'll just click away from it.

[laruemtt]

2. what a darling little girl.

i feel sick.

[jobycom]

3. This is what happens in war

Our soldiers do it, their soldiers do it, it has always been thus. Americans believe OUR boys are too good, too disciplined, too well trained, too virtuous. Every nation believes that about their troops. Most of them, on all sides, are too good. But when you put a boy with a gun in a foreign land and give him absolute power to kill, rape or steal with almost no chance of punishment, it will bring out the evil in that boy if it's there. There are people here in America who would do like Ted Bundy if they thought they could get away with it. Put them in Iraq right now, and they'll know they can get away with it.

THAT's why war is wrong. THAT's why you don't go to war if you can possibly avoid it. THAT's why anyone who thought this war was justified in any way was wrong, naive, immature. Wrong. Even those who believed Iraq had WMDs and a connection to 9-11, how can you justify unleashing the hell of WAR on an innocent people?

Thanks for that picture. It got my blood boiling and my temprament chilled, and that's where it should be until we end this monstrosity.

[jobycom]

6. Did I mention? K&R! nt/

[jaxx]

10. I think this way too.

How do you teach people to kill and then send them into a war where there are no rules, no leaders, and no reason for being there. The answer is the chaos we see today.

[Sapphocrat]

17. Generational memory is short.

I want to think that such atrocities are isolated among our military, only because they're ours, but of course that's just my own knee-jerk nationalism. I think nothing ever changes, except that news travels faster now.

The sad thing is, I don't think it really has anything to do with whether or not a war is justified... and maybe it doesn't have anything to do with war at all. I say that because I keep thinking about the number of rapes and other crimes committed by U.S. Marines stationed on Okinawa. I mean today's Marines, on today's Okinawa -- not WWII. The stories are neither apocryphal nor isolated; even Governor Inamine, a hardcore, pro-America hawk, can't ignore the truth:

In talking about the excessive crime rates among American servicemen in Okinawa, Inamine likes to use the metaphor of points and lines-taken from the title of a well known mystery novel of the same name by Seichô Matsumoto. The American high command always characterizes each rape or murder committed by an American serviceman as an isolated "point"-an exceptional "tragic occurrence" committed by a one-in-a-million "bad apple," for which the American ambassador and commanding general profusely apologize. According to Inamine, Okinawans see not points but lines: the 58-year-long record of sexual assaults, bar brawls, muggings, drug violations, drunken driving accidents, and arson cases all committed by privileged young men who proclaim they are in Okinawa to protect the people from the dangers of political "instability" elsewhere in East Asia. ...

...according to Okinawan prefectural police records, during the thirty-year period since Okinawa reverted to Japan's administration (1972-2002), American troops, Pentagon civilians, and military dependents committed 5,157 crimes in Okinawa, of which 533 were the "heinous" crimes of murder and rape. This works out to 17.7 heinous crimes per year or 1.5 per month. In a famous study comparing rates of military sexual assault leading to court martial around the world from 1988 to 1994, the Dayton Daily News found that Okinawa had a rate of 4.12 per 1,000 U.S. military personnel compared with Camp Pendleton's 2.0, Camp Lejeune's 1.75, San Diego's 1.09, and Norfolk, Virginia's 0.80. Inamine stressed that this situation has not changed. In fact, since fiscal year 1996, just after the major Okinawan rape incident, the number of crimes committed by servicemen grew at a rate of 1.3 times per year.

I think we're all scrambling to find reasons people like Steven Green (and Lynddie England) do what they do... while the truth is that it all boils down to U.S. military culture -- dehumanization of the perceived enemy, compounded by the feeling of American "superiority," and entitlement, and (especially in Iraq) exacerbated by the severity of conditions, and the degree of "otherness" (appearance, language, culture) of the "enemy".

(I think it was Stan Goff who once wrote that we shouldn't pay attention to the cry of "Sir, yes, sir!" in all those boot-camp movies; in his experience as a recruit, the appropriate response was "Kill, sir, kill!")

And then there is our (the U.S.'s) willingness to overlook (or, in the case of countless recruitment stories, whitewash) preexisting conditions that should preclude military service.

jobycom, it's almost funny you mention Ted Bundy.

Every time another U.S. soldier abuses his power among the civilian population in another country, I always think of the G.I.'s stationed in Australia while the Aussie soldiers were away in combat against Japan. There was a catch phrase among Aussie civilians (which still hasn't fallen out of popular use) to sum up the behavior of the Yanks: "They're overpaid, oversexed, and over here."

(And, as much as the Aussie people generally like the American people, there's another artifact from WWII still in use Down Under -- I've heard it myself -- "sep" as a synonym for "American." Aussies have their rhyming slang too, you know... and this is shorthand rhyming slang for "septic tank" = "Yank." As painful as that was to hear for the first time, I can't say I took offense, because I know "The Ugly American" isn't just the title of a book.)

Anyway, the reason Ted Bundy strikes a chord is that I'm reminded of how we shipped another serial rapist-killer Down Under during WWII: Eddie Leonski -- called the "Brownout Strangler" because he used to lie in wait for his (female) victims during nightly brownouts (as opposed to blackouts) in the city of Melbourne. He raped and murdered three local women in as many weeks in 1942 before he was caught. He was tried and convicted by U.S. military tribunal -- and we had to borrow the gallows at Pentridge Prison to hang him.

Leonski appeared to be an anomaly, too, but I think the only thing odd about his case was the way the trial was conducted (U.S. tribunal for violation of civilian laws, on foreign land, which was a bit unusual at the time).

The saddest part of the Leonski story is this: He already had a record in Texas (after enlisting) for trying to strangle a girl in San Antonio. For some reason, he was charged, but never prosecuted -- and then he shipped out to the South Pacific.

The point of all this is simply that none of these incidents seems unique; each is just a symptom of a larger disease, which none of the "doctors" is willing to acknowledge, much less treat.

As for the picture in the OP... My heart hurts even more. And not because she looked like me at that age, either.

[senseandsensibility]

4. Is this picture being shown on the corporate news?

I've boycotted them for years, so I have no idea how, or if, they are covering this. Any details would be appreciated.

[sarge43]

5. I keep thinking of Anne Frank n/t

[Mad_Dem_X]

7. Absolutely heartbreaking

Nothing else I can say...:cry:

[helderheid]

8. yes

:cry:

[neoblues]

9. Yet Another Reason War Should Be Avoided

In war, innocent people are abused in the worst ways. Violence and ugliness are human nature, like it or not, and when the pressures are increased, killing becomes commonplace and restraint is scarce, it comes out in all it's glory for all to see.

Certainly that includes our own troops, yet there is no excuse. Contributing circumstances yes, excuses no. And even the fact that such atrocities are common throughout IRAQ and Afghanistan (and in many places in the world) owing to other hands than American yields no justification. Indeed, the fact that we only seem acutely aware of such things when they're apparently caused by Americans, itself seems wrong. We should feel guilt and we should redouble our efforts to make it clear in the minds of our troops that they must still be civilized no matter what their situations (and know that they must make war as "honorably" as possible--or face the consequences). Yet, we should also take notice of the hundreds of similar murders taking place each month, many easily as atrocious, and occurring in a country over which we have the responsibility of maintaining civil order. We are failing in that, our duty, to the people whose country we "occupy"--and such failure goes far beyond the occasional, abeit utterly unforgivable instances of American criminal acts.

Sadly, there is simply no good answer. When we leave, things will probably be even worse (quite probably much, much worse). How much of that will be on our heads... Sure enough, going into IRAQ was the most naive and terrible mistake our nation has made in who knows how long. We, and they, will be paying for it for a long, long time. Even then, they won't forget. How could they. Will they forgive? Could we even hope?

I don't want to know this. I don't know what I did (or what I could have done differently) to contribute to our presence in IRAQ. Saddam initiated the whole sorry affair by invading Kuwait. Even so, the "sanctions" against IRAQ were killing untold numbers of people, primarily children every year... so it really wasn't something that should have been allowed to continue indefinitely. Still, invading under some notion we'd be "freeing" the people (and getting our greedy little hands on oil and military bases in the middle east) wasn't a viable answer.

We have blood on our hands and whether there was any justification for any or all of it... doesn't even matter, it's still there. I suspect that no amount of washing will clean anything. I even begin to suspect that the only way to even come close to finding a way to live with it, will be to find a way to help most IRAQIs to regain and enjoy decent lives. But it seems we need to leave as now we're just making things worse. Again, no good answers.

May George W. Bush be remembered long, not for what he'd like to claim, but for what he really wrought.

[Bluerthanblue]

11. For Abeer:

this song that has brought me much comfort-
by a woman who understands all too well-

"In My Eyes"-
It can get so cold for a little girl
In the dark of night in a mixed up world
There's not much room in a place like this
For the innocent that the angels kissed
But in my eyes you shine so bright
And in my eyes you are dressed in white
A precious child in my eyes
They tell you lies and take you down
They're just so lost around this town
But I see you just like a star
Whose little light fractures the dark
But in my eyes you shine so bright
And in my eyes you are dressed in white
A precious child in my eyes
Through my eyes of love
A perfect child is all I see
You'll find your true reflection
When you look at me
So keep my words hide them in your heart
Cause that's the truth of who you really are
If you should stumble if you should fall
They'll wash you clean just to recall
But in my eyes you shine so bright
And in my eyes you are dressed in white
A precious child
A precious child in my eyes



From Julie Miller "Invisible Girl"
Street Level Records 1994
Tinkie Tunes Music

(this song is written as if sung by God/Christ/the Lord/our higher power..- no offense intended to anyone of differing perspective.- It comforted/s me, even still)

peace,
blu

[cassiepriam]

12. She must have been an exquisitely beautiful young teen.

Her last moments were absolute hell on earth.

[undergroundpanther]

13. Aaargh.

What a beautiful little girl.
I hate the ways of this world.
What a sweet kid
I hate the culture of domination and control
What a helpless baby
I hate the bullies who would crush the spark within her because they can..
What a precious little life destroyed
I hate the culture of make believe.
I wonder who she was?
I hate this mad creator god that makes sure we never will know
when it possesses cowardly people with guns and dicks and makes them ruin the beautiful.

This song is for her..

Everybody knows that we live in a world
where they give bad names to beautiful things
Everybody knows that we live in a world
where we don't give beautiful things a second glance
Heaven only knows that we live in a world
where what we call beautiful is just something on sale

And the leaves turn from red to brown
To be trodden down
To be trodden down
And the leaves turn from red to brown
Fall to the ground
Fall to the ground

We don't have to live in a world
where we give bad names to beautiful things
We should live in a beautiful world
We should give beautiful a second glance

And the leaves fall from red to brown
To be trodden down
Trodden down
And the leaves turn green to red to brown
Fall to the ground
And get kicked around

You strong enough to be..
Have you the courage to be..
Have you the faith to be..
Honest enough to say..
Don't have to be the same..
Don't have to be this way
Cmon and sign your name
You wild enough to remain beautiful?
Beautiful

All the leaves turn from red to brown
To be trodden down
Trodden down
And we fall green to red to brown
Fall to the ground
To be kicked around

You strong enough to be..
Why don't you stand up and say
Give yourself a break
They laugh at you anyway
So why don't you stand up and be
Beautiful.


Sekhmet,
It is so painful to see,and endure the bars of this iron cage . Seeing the world destroying the beautiful again and again. That mad archon working through so many broken humans with their sparks beaten out of them by this.. I see a blind mad man doing as he was commanded, killing little toddlers with a gun,pillaging like a barbarian thug ,so blinded with lust of ownership,dominance,status and control in subserviance to his mad master..

I will not bow down to evil that demands I put out the sacred spark within me give up my inner locus of control,and destroy the beautiful and kill it's sparks.I would rather die myself than be like this world.Survival IS NOT the highest law.Death will NOT bully me into swallowing evil and peretending as if it is good.The road to Hell is paved by good intentions..

Mother,Sekhmet hold my heart,Protect it..Remind me..
So That I will always remember where I came from..and who I am.
So I am not swallowed up by this evil world,putting out sparks..
Do not let me be coerced into a bloodbath by my betraying aching heart. I will not be manipulated by the"authority" of that mad impotent blind god that everyone thinks is a glorious sun of conquest...That murderer..

[bdamomma]

14. there have been so many beautiful children killed in Iraq

due to this smirking monster. Bush will live in Hell for a long time.

[SheilaT]

15. Back before this most recent

war against Iraq, someone posted here a bunch of photos of Iraqi children, and I have to say that they are the most gorgeous children I've ever seen. Yeah, I know that all children are generally attractive, but those young Iraqis were far more so than any others I'd seen. None of my other favorite ethnic groups (which may as well remain nameless) can hold a candle to the collective beauty of Iraqi children.

[bobbieinok]

19. I remember those pictures... does anyone have a link??

I have often thought:

--compare the backgrounds of those pictures to what they look like now

--what happened to those children?? would it even be possible to find out??

And remember the picture of the boy whose arms were blown off in the early days of the war?? Anyone have a link??

[myrna minx]

16. Thank you for this post.

:cry:

[DELUSIONAL]

18. She has the "Frodo" eyes -- big beautiful

I suspect that most of us who protested this illegal invasion BEFORE it happened knew that we would be seeing and hearing stories like this.

During the candle light vigil immediately before the invasion -- I was speaking with others and we worried about the children -- we were grim because we knew that although this was a world wide protest by MILLIONS -- our light and voices would be ignored.

And now everything we fear is coming true . . . strip the social/cultural inhibitions from humans and too often the worst comes out.

Children should never have to suffer -- and it is ALWAYS the children who pay the price for war.

Thank you for posting this photo -- we need to remember her.

[Just Me]

20. But for the neocon corporacrat psychopaths, this would NOT,...

,...have happened.

Hey, George and Dick,...what if it were your girls,...hmmmm?

Freaks of human nature are ruining this nation and spreading their disease across the earth.

[DesertRat]

21. So sad. Look at what Bush's war-mongering has done

:cry:

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God" (Matthew 5: 9)

[alcibiades_mystery]

22. Doesn't stop CBS News from referring to her as a "woman"

twice on tonight's show, even while they showed the very same ID card in a graphic to identify her! :eyes:

[blm]

23. Thankyou for this post, donsu.

As hard as it is, we MUST look into her eyes and condemn her death along with the deaths of so many because of decisions made by George W Bush.

[Octafish]

24. Her Story.

Iraq's Story.

America's Story.

From Counterpunch:

Iraq: Raped

An Illegal War Degenerates

By RAED JARRAR
July 11, 2006

A few months ago, Abir Al-Janabi was just another 14-year-old Iraqi girl in a small town called Al-Mahmudiyah, south of Baghdad. Both of her parents are from the Al-Janabi tribe, one of the biggest tribes with Sunni and Shia branches.

Omar Al-Janabi, a neighbor and relative, was informed by Abir's mother that the young girl was being harassed by U.S. soldiers stationed in a nearby checkpoint. That is why Abir was sent to spend the night in her neighbor's home. The next day, Omar Al-Janabi was among the first people who found Abir, with her 34-year-old mother Fakhriyah, her 45-year-old father Qasim, and her 7-year-old sister Hadil, murdered in their home. Abir was raped, killed by a bullet in her head, and then burned on March 12, five months before her fifteenth birthday.

Muhammad Al-Janabi, Abir's uncle, reached the house shortly after the attack as well. Iraqi police and army officers informed him and other angry relatives that an "armed terrorist group" was responsible for the horrifying attack. This is exactly what the angry relatives of the 24 Iraqi civilians killed in Haditha four months before this incident had been told as well. In that case, U.S. officials initially claimed that a roadside bomb planted by terrorists had killed the 24 Iraqi civilians and one U.S. soldier in Haditha, but the Iraqi people knew that it was the Americans.

Unlike the case of Haditha, where Iraqi public opinion was furious about the massacre months before it reached to the U.S. mainstream media, the Iraqi press had not even heard of Abir until the U.S. army accidentally found out information about her while investigating another incident. This raises questions about the number of other similar cases that were never investigated and were blamed on non-occupation parties instead.

According to Iraq Body Count, a credible project documenting Iraq's civilian casualties, the occupation armies are directly responsible for killing more than one fourth of civilians in Iraq since the beginning of the war. This makes the assumption that Abir's case is just one of many even more plausible.

CONTINUED...

http://www.counterpunch.org/jarrar07112006.html

[OhioChick]

25. Poor Little Angel.........

:cry:

[pitohui]

26. what does her face matter?

would the crime be more acceptable if she wasn't a pretty girl?

all i'm seeing is a red x in a box, so maybe the image has been taken down, but rape is rape even if the girl is not pretty and everybody laughs when she tries to file a complaint -- hell, in that circumstance, it can be even more tragic because everybody thinks it's just a joke

you don't have to have a pretty face to have feelings and not want to be violated and killed

[pinto]

27. Locking.

re: "red state jesusmaniacs"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/forums/rules_detailed.html

Please note that sweeping statements about entire groups of fellow progressives are not categorically forbidden (except in the case of race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, lack of religion, disability, physical characteristics, or region of residence, as mentioned above). However, they are often inflammatory and counterproductive and the moderators have broad discretion to remove such posts in the interests of keeping the peace on the message board.


Thanks for your consideration.