(((((((((((((((((( We the Blog Update: Trail of Death ))))))))))))))))))
April 7, 2003
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http://wetheblog.org/archive/000028.html
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"It was three hours of organized chaos" - Lt. Col. Eric C. Schwartz,
3rd Infantry Division, US Army
This is not Apocalypse Now. This ain't Hollywood. This is George
Bush's War on Iraq brought to you live by CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News.
Saturday the troops stormed Baghdad. The headlines in the Sunday New
York Times, read, "Barrage of Fire, Trail of Death in the Capital."
Colonel David Perkins of the Second Brigade estimated that more than
1,000 Iraqi fighters died. Countless civilians were caught in the
crossfire.
The Army had no intention of occupying Baghdad. Not just yet. No,
this is what the military called an "I.O. campaign," or information
operation. More shock and awe, you could say.
Forty tanks rolled into the city from the Southwest on Highway 8,
took a left turn in the central area, and then headed for Saddam
International Airport, or rather, what has now been tagged Baghdad
International Airport. Oh, how easy it is to rename an airport in time of war.
Four of those tanks bear the name of the four airliners that were
hijacked on Sept. 11. Apparently the names were placed on the cannons
for motivational reasons, even though the men who stenciled them were
not quite sure there was a direct connection between the attack on
the World Trade Center and the one grinding its way through Baghdad.
Oh well.
Later that day, a captured Republican Guard colonel, who spoke a
little English, was asked if he thought it was the right thing to
take out Saddam. The Iraqi replied that it was. Whew.
Eventually, the first battalion of tanks made its way to the newly
occupied airport, leaving in its wake an endless of trail of burning
military vehicles, charred soldiers, families and children dead,
lying in the streets. A Sergeant Casady, who manned a .50-caliber
machine gun on the roof of an armored command vehicle, waxed, "Being
a dad myself, that's the hardest part. I've got six kids at home, and
I can't imagine it. I'd just as soon die than see that happen to my
kids. Just to drive by and be helpless, man. It makes you feel
selfish."
This is one selfish war. The horror.
Randall M. Packer
Secretary, US Department of Art & Technology
We the Blog Update: Trail of Death
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Type: discussion