HELIOLITH

I have found no better record of the least reported news from the ground in Iraq than Dahr Jamail’s Dispatches. From breaking news, to in-depth interviews, and photography found nowhere else, Jamail is a beacon of information in a savage war.

Information and education shall serve as a basis for all action. Sometimes I cannot stomach the war and its brutality, but as a citizen that pays taxes it is my reponsibility to know. Yesterday, Jamail started an article with the following anecdote,

I’m in need of a haircut, so I ask Abu Talat if he thinks it would be safe to get one here, risking the time on the street required to do so. Smiling, he says, “Yes Dahr, it may be possible, but we must make sure we have confidence in the barber so you get a haircut, and not a head cut!”

His guide’s black humor serves to buffer the extremely unsettling content of the rest of his post entitled, “This time last year” He reports that token U.S. efforts to help civilians are ineffective and that most of the Iraq relief is coming from Iraqis themselves. Jamail often allows the people to speak for themselves, “The tanks rolled over wounded people in the streets,” said 45 year-old Abu Aziz near his tent, “They shot so many wounded people who went to mosques for shelter. Even the graves were bombed.” He closes the post with a doctor explaining why so many have turned against America.

“I had so much hope when the Americans came here,” he said while drinking tea, “But now I am shocked by the reality. I know the Americans came here for their own interests, for oil and their so-called national security.” He paused, listened as another mortar exploded in the distance and said, “Many of us accepted why they came to Iraq, but there has been no improvement for us with their occupation, even when we tried to work with them. In fact, all has gotten worse. This is why so many people are now fighting them now.” This time last year, the thought of 100,000 dead Iraqis and over 1,200 dead US soldiers seemed difficult to imagine.

I fell compelled to know what my taxes are paying for, no matter how horrific; whether it’s dogs eating bodies in the streets of Fallujah, while people can’t go out to bury the dead without being shot by snipers, or doctors forced to abandon their patients during a serious operation leaving them to die, or in childbirth,

“I was with a woman in labor,” she said, “The umbilical cord had not yet been cut. At that time, a US soldier shouted at one of the (Iraqi) national guards to arrest me and tie my hands while I was helping the mother to deliver. I will never forget this incident in my life.”

The reality of what our country is supporting in Iraq is so far beyond the spectre of atrocity. How long can these stories continue unreported in the mainstream press as we watch the “breathtaking displays of firepower” over enemy skies? These people who are trying to stay alive, and others who are defending their ravaged country are not my enemies. I would rather walk to work ever day for the rest of my life than hear of one more slaughtered refugee in the name of our cheap oil and political desperation.

Go see Jamail’s site for yourself