FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF DISASTROUS WAR IN IRAQ

Today there will be many public protests against the War in Iraq as we approach the fifth anniversary of its start on March 19, 2003. George Bush keeps repeating that he has no doubts or qualms over his decision to send U.S. troops and war planes into Iraq.

Yet today on BBC Radio, listeners heard stories of the lesser known casualties of the war. Someone shot a five-year-old Iraqi boy in the neck soon after the war began. He is now paralyzed from the neck down. U.S. soldiers shot a ten-year-old Iraqi child in the head when his father misunderstood an order from U.S. soldiers to stop. He is now blind and mentally incapacitated.

These wounds are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to "collateral damage." How can George Bush be glad he did what he did when he started the war in view of all the civilians and children killed, maimed or grievously wounded as a result? Has Bush no humanity? Does he merely shrug off any awareness of the terrible human calamity he has caused? Are wounded and blinded children just an unfortunate by-product?

U.S. BOMBS CIVILIAN HOMES IN BAGHDAD, KILLS WOMEN AND CHILDREN

Juan Cole points me to this McClatchy story by Hannah Allam and Jenan Hussein about the casualties from a U.S. air raid against two homes in the northern outskirts of Baghdad. Residents claim it was women and children who died in their beds. The U.S. military claims it killed six "insurgents."

"The U.S. military said the dead were insurgents and the homes in the Husseiniya district probably served as weapons depots; troops observed seven or more secondary explosions after the air assault. By the military's tally, six fighters were killed and five wounded.


"Iraqi residents told a different version: the dead came from two Shiite Muslim families who lived in an area controlled by the powerful Mahdi Army militia. The bodies pulled from the rubble, locals say, were ordinary parents killed with their children in the middle of the night. Locals counted 11 corpses - two men, two women, and seven children. Another 10 were injured. Some Iraqi authorities put the death toll as high as 18."

I have called for an end to U.S. bombing raids before. See here and here and here. The U.S. military has no justification in sending war planes and/or attack helicopters to bomb and strafe residential neighborhoods. I don't care whether the generals think there are insurgents hiding out somewhere in the vicinity. Bombing and killing civilians is a war crime that should never happen.

I repeat what I wrote back on June 30, 2007,:

"Because of incidents like the above, my solution is simple. Ban all war planes, do away with the American squadrons, retire everyone in the Air Force. Air planes must be restricted to peaceful purposes, such as commercial aviation. No one should be allowed to shoot a cannon from an air plane, or drop a bomb."

The U.S. needs to ground all of its bombers, all of its killing machines that fly. Otherwise this slaughter of civilians in their beds will continue until the last soldier has left Iraq.

U.S.: STOP DROPPING BOMBS ON CIVILIANS

The BBC reports today that a U.S. coalition air-raid killed seven children in eastern Afghanistan.

"Seven children were killed in a US-led coalition air strike against a suspected al-Qaeda hideout in eastern Afghanistan, the coalition has said.

"A statement said that a number of militants were also killed in the raid in Paktika province, near Pakistan.

"The children are believed to have been students at a madrassa, or Islamic school, at the targeted compound."

There is an important lesson from this report. STOP THE BOMBING. Dropping bombs on targets is inherently reckless and dangerous to civilians. It is impossible to drop a bomb and kill only soldiers. We all know this. Why then does the United States continue to manufacture bombs and drop them from airplanes?