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Departments War in Iraq Why is violence escalating in Iraq? by Eric Straatsma, Peace Think Tank August 1, 2005 To understand why opposition to the US is growing around the world and in Iraq, you have to get inside the head of an average Iraqi. When was he last time you spoke to an Iraqi citizen living in Iraq? These average Iraqis have many reasons to commit suicide by bombing or shooting US troops or their supporters. First, their women are raped in our military jails across the country. We do not hear about this in the US news, but other countries have this on their news all the time. Their family members are honor bound to defend their women to the death. Their extended family is around three thousand people. Each time one woman is raped in prison, we create 3,000 terrorists. Second, when we break into Iraqi or other country's homes looking for terrorists at night, with no search warrant and without any rights to privacy, they are insulted and their family honor is ground into the dirt. US troops usually tie everyone up, put bags on the heads of the males and force everyone into humiliating positions. This breaking of honor in the family is punishable by death in their culture. When we do this to them, we create terrorists and/or enemies of the US out of peaceful families. The troops usually round up a lot of men and take them to jail with no charges, and then release them after three months or so, with no explanation. Again, family honor is at stake, and family members take this personally. This also creates suicide terror bombers and enemies of the US. When US troops fire on crowds who are innocently protesting, killing women, children and men who are doing nothing but expressing their free will to have an opinion, we create 3,000 terrorists in each family where someone is killed. This same thing happens when families are killed by soldiers at checkpoints. Usually they speak and read no English and have no idea that they are supposed to stop way back. They drive up and get blasted; women, children, seniors, etc. Again, their families defend this wasting of human life by killing those who killed their family. Every person killed, creates another potential 3,000 terrorists. When innocent Iraqi men are tortured in US or other jails, and if they make it out alive, they tell their neighbors, friends, people on the street. This torture is still going on and is reported in the news in other countries, but not here in the US. This story spreads, again creating hatred and terrorists against the US and all other allies. What would you do to occupying troops who tortured your civilian comrades? Give them flowers? Civilians want their government to create and maintain peace. The opposite is happening in Iraq. The level of violence is escalating, not getting better. The civilians there see it but the news media here do not report that. They get more and more frustrated and see us as the problem, since we promised security and are legally bound to create it. US troops do not protect Iraqis, they just protect US troops and either shoot civilian Iraqis or let them all die. They want us out, and will help terrorists to accomplish this. Civilians want fresh water, food, housing and electricity and gas. They are getting less and less of each of these, and they see it. US news does not report this. They get frustrated waiting in three day lines for gas and have electricity for three hours a day. Under Saddam there were none of these problems. Iraqis see US companies taking the money for reconstruction and stealing it, not rebuilding anything and taking care of only US troops and the dozens of military bases across the country. Again, out of the hundreds of billions sent over there, almost all of it went to US troops and contractors. Too little and too late for Iraqis. This is not like the Marshal plan, where the people got direct loans and administrered their own plan. US contractors and advisors control and spend almost all of the money and pay off those who need to be paid off, further aggravating the corruption and domination of of Iraq by the military. He who controls the money controls the country. The US controls everything including the money over there, and the Iraqis see this. Iraqi troops follow US army orders, not the other way around. The Iraqis support terrorists to get us out, since we are taking over their sovereign country, not giving it back to them. When 100,000 Iraqi civilians are killed in a war that killed only 1,000 US troops, you have to think about how they died. They died from bombs on civilian homes, strafing from planes, napalm on cities, soldiers shooting them, dying in jails, dying from preventable diseases, etc. US troops get blamed for all of these deaths, including those that die from Iraqi terror bombers. US troops are responsible for Iraq security and it is not safe in Iraq. How does that make Iraqis feel towards US troops who are bunkered down in concrete and barbed wire, safe and secure, while leaving Iraqis to defend themselves? This is just the tip of the iceberg. Learn about their culture. Talk to an Iraqi. You might learn something about the real situation and how the average person feels in Iraq. That is what I did. I did not talk to terrorists to come up with the above. I talked with an average Iraqi. Email this article to a friend |
Don't forget to check out articles from 2007 and 2008
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December 28, 2005
David Swanson
"Behind the steel curtain: the real face of the occupation"
December 20, 2005
Sabah Ali
"Waiting is the hardest part"
December 20, 2005
Greg Rollins, CPT
"Scotland: stop the war!"
December 10, 2005
David Swanson
"Not even to save our lives"
December 9, 2005
Mike Ferner
"Inconvenient journalists"
December 1, 2005
Robert C. Koehler, Tribune Media Services
"How pre-war Iraq intel was cooked"
November 24, 2005
Jason Leopold
"Chalabi pushes Iran card in last ditch self-promotion offensive"
November 16, 2005
The Insitute for International Mediation and Conflict Resolution
"Staying a wrong course"
October 17, 2005
Stephen Crockett
"US war photos"
October 16, 2005
Richard S. Ehrlich
"Banging at the gates of empire -- Washington, DC; September 24-26"
October 6, 2005
Peter Chabarek
"What Else Shall We Do?"
October 2, 2005
Mike Ferner
"Will we use the power we have on September 24?"
September 21, 2005
Mike Ferner
"The war in Iraq is increasingly unpopular and must end -- An interview with Dennis Kucinich"
September 8, 2005
Kevin Zeese, DemocracyRising.US
"What eating Cindy Sheehan?"
September 8, 2005
Jason Leopold
"Waiting for the outside world"
September 4, 2005
Mike Ferner
"Families ask that fallen soldiers be honored Sunday by a tolling of bells"
August 27, 2005
Faithful America, National Council of Churches
"Making the Iraq War and Occupation Personal"
August 25, 2005
Ralph Nader
"President Bush Knows the True Reasons He Started A War in Iraq, But He's Not Going to Tell"
August 25, 2005
Jason Leopold
"Armstrong bikes with president over Sheehan grave"
August 25, 2005
Greg Palast
"Sheehan breakthroughs, unbridgeable divides, and taboos unbroken"
August 22, 2005
David Swanson
"The people must demand peace: An interview with Tom Hayden"
August 22, 2005
Kevin Zeese
"Will celebrity-addicted America miss the point? "
August 18, 2005
Mike Ferner
"Jefferson would have stood with Cindy Sheehan "
August 16, 2005
Thom Hartmann
"Why is violence escalating in Iraq?"
August 1, 2005
Eric Straatsma, Peace Think Tank
"How the United States Marked the 3rd Anniversary of the Downing Street Memo"
July 23, 2005
David Swanson, www.afterdowningstreet.org
"Someone Tell Bush That Iraq Wasn’t Responsible for 9/11 Before another War Breaks Out"
June 21, 2005
Jason Leopold
"More damning than Downing Street"
June 21, 2005
Paul Rogat Loeb
"Messengers of Truth: Untangling a Knot of Lies"
June 18, 2005
Kevin Zeese
"How Much Proof Needed Before the Truth Comes Out? "
June 17, 2005
Kevin Zeese
"Silent Death in Iraq "
June 13, 2005
Ghazwan Al-Mukhtar
"Media Black Out Downing Street Minutes"
June 8, 2005
David Swanson, www.afterdowningstreet.org
"Getting Out of Iraq Will Be Tougher than Getting Out of Vietnam"
May 3, 2005
Kevin Zeese and Linda Schade
"No Troops, No Wars"
March 24, 2005
Yoshie Furuhashi
"Iraq’s Election Will Not Guarantee Democracy"
February 5, 2005
Gene C. Gerard
"The U.S. Supreme Court is AWOL on Iraq"
January 29, 2005
Gene C. Gerard
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