The War of Amnesia 04/28/2004

Ah, Fallujah. As it continues to be a hotbed of violence, and as the death toll for both sides continue to rise, I find it hard to remember what started the whole thing. Do you remember?

Do you remember, it was only last month, hearing about, reading about, or watching on television, the four men who were pulled from their car, shot, and then dragged through the streets after being set on fire? That happened in Fallujah, didn�t it?
Government officials have been quoted as saying the men were contracted by the occupation authority to guard "food convoys" coming into Fallujah.
So these men, who were not in the military, were given the job of guarding food convoys. Unless they were mightily powerful talkers, you can be sure that they were authorized to use deadly force to guard them convoys.
Hey, what�s on the barbecue tonight? Gee, smells like mercenary!

But still, something must have prompted the people of Fallujah to commit such a heinous, barbaric act.
I can remember the military, and the Bush Administration for which it stands, telling us that there are Iraqi �insurgents� and �supporters of Sadam�s regime� still in Fallujah. Is that what this is about?
Because I can remember, exactly one year ago tomorrow, reading about, hearing about, and watching on television, �U.S. fires on Iraqi crowd, killing at least 13� (MSNBC). Didn�t that happen in Fallujah?

Hey, come on, our good ole boys wouldn�t have fired on just anybody!
That�s true. The crowd they fired on was a group of demonstrators, ages between 5 and 20, who were protesting the U.S. occupation of a school where they normally studied, but is now being used as troop headquarters.
After hours of protesting, clamoring, and chanting, tempers began to flare. Some of the kids began to throw rocks. The troops opened fire. Afterwards, U.S. Central Command released a statement saying that some of those protestors had AK-47�s. Too bad you can�t get a clear story out of anyone present that day, it would have cleared things up immensely.

Even so, there had to be a good reason for the troops to occupy Fallujah, right? Surely there were rebels and insurgents to kill and weapons of mass destruction to find, right?

Guess again. After the fall of Sadam�s regime, and prior to American troops setting up headquarters in town, Fallujah was one of the more stabilized cities in Iraq. Their hospitals were running smoothly, their children were going to school, they had even elected their own officials to maintain peace and stability in town.
Then the troops move in, close the hospitals, set up their headquarters in the school, and remove the elected leaders from their positions and install leaders of their own choosing.

Yeah, we�re still calling ourselves the �liberators of the Iraqi people.�

The sad part about all this, is that it happened only one year ago, almost exactly. And we�ve forgotten. We�re enraged that these people would dare fight against us after we so graciously liberated them from a monster.
It astounds me that we�ve forgotten the details, and swallowed the �insurgent� and �Sadam supporters� bullshit that the administration feeds us.

The violence in Fallujah is our fault, and it breaks my heart that America is too proud, arrogant, and amnesiac to realize it.