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Thursday, April 03, 2003

HILLA, IRAQ IS THIS WAR'S MAI LAI MASSACRE 

Hilla, just south of Baghdad, and scene of recent carnage by American bombing, is going to become this war's Mai Lai Massacre. There will be an international investigation, no, there must be an international investigation. The description of the physical carnage done to the villagers of Hilla, provided by Tyler Hicks and John Burns of the New York Times in the link above, will be a cry for justice. Who perpetrated this indecent bombing and why?
Then again, all of war is indecent, and it remains to be seen that in the face of what is a looming coalition "victory", will the rest of the world that opposed this war dig deep in its gut to continue to express outrage and demand change, change that will possibly prevent another war like this from happening? Will the rest of the world have the courage to stand up to the imperialist aggression of the United States? Will Americans have any interest in hearing about, and demanding an explanation for civilian deaths in this war? Are Americans capable of feeling the pain of any who aren't their own?

It is my belief that it was this indifference to the pain of others, notably, the Palestinians, that originally led to another group of people targeting our country for attack. Are we destined to repeat this pattern, over and over again, like the Isrealis and Palestinians, trapped on the treadmill of war and destruction? Who is next after Iraq? Iran? Syria? North Korea? And the countries that dare to disagree with us, will we continue to react in such a juvenile fashion and continue to erode international relations, and continue this path towards isolation? We're the bully on the block, and eventually the bully gets socked in the nose; its only a question of how, and when.