**‘All we want are answers,’ said Qassam Hassan. ‘All we are asking for is justice.’ **
** Farah Fadhil was only 18 when she was killed. An American soldier threw a grenade through the window of her apartment. Her death, early last Monday, was slow and agonising. Her legs had been shredded, her hands burnt and punctured by splinters of metal, suggesting that the bright high-school student had covered her face to shield it from the explosion. **
She had been walking to the window to try to calm an escalating situation; to use her smattering of English to plead with the soldiers who were spraying her apartment building with bullets.
But then a grenade was thrown and Farah died. So did Marwan Hassan who, according to neighbours, was caught in the crossfire as he went looking for his brother when the shooting began.
What is perhaps most shocking about their deaths is that the coalition troops who killed them did not even bother to record details of the raid with the coalition military press office. The killings were that unremarkable. What happened in Mahmudiya last week should not be forgotten, for the story of this raid is also the story of the dark side of the US-led occupation of Iraq, of the violent and sometimes lethal raids carried out apparently beyond any accountability.
For while the media are encouraged to count each US death, the Iraqi civilians who have died at American hands since the fall of Saddam’s regime have been as uncounted as their names have been unacknowledged.
[quote] 'All we want are answers,' said Qassam Hassan. 'All we are asking for is justice.'
[/quote]
Aisay logoN ko iss duniya main justice nahin milnay wali hai. Such a sad story, but perhaps the saddest part is that Farah is just now another one, another statistic - she'll be forgotten in less than a week's time.
No, they were spraying rose petals. This highlights the problem with the US presence in Iraq - it's caused more divisions between Muslims and nonMuslims. How is the world a better place, i really don't know. We can't even seem to get agreement on a discussion Forum between different 'sides' - if anything, the communication barriers have dug in their roots even farther down.
With all the noise surrounding the upcoming remembrance of 11th September, Farah's death, like that of her fellow Iraqi citizens, will be buried deep inside the papers if at all.
[QUOTE] Originally posted by underthedome: *
**How do you know she was Muslim?
[/QUOTE]
*
Farah was one person, whether or not she was Muslim i have no idea. But with all due respect, that's not my point; dozens and dozens of Iraqis have been killed since the official end of the invasion, how many were killed during the invasion itself - only God knows. It's headlines like these and pictures of corpses blown at checkpoints that make the front headlines in many Muslim countries. And stuff like that only furthers to widen the gap between peoples living in different parts of the world. It doesn't matter whether or not she was Muslim. The point is that, the invasion has done everything possible to make Iraq and that region in general a more unstable place... and the repercussions of that will be felt long after the next US election comes around.
There is no point arguing with UTD, he has shown time and again that he has no capacity of understanding the anguish and pain Muslims suffer at the hands of the occupying forces. You just have to see how he is trying to divert the argument if Farah was a muslim or not. That is because he has no other excuses to give at this time. Give him time, he will be back with the propoganda from Fox news (Hanity, Orielly etc). He just has not been able to get around to listen to their views on this yet or mybe he has not recieved his weekly copy of "The Forward" yet.
Any way, the reason it did not make news was because an American did not get injured or killed. You should know by now that being the supreme beings on Earth, only American injuries and deaths are news worthy. The Iraqi people (injured or dead) are just unfortunate idiots who get in the path of a bullet or bomb.