Monday, December 06, 2004

He has no more dreams

Dahr Jamail is an unimbedded freelance journalist reporting from Iraq. This is from his blog. I am trying to imagine the horror of eating rice soaked in dirty water, and of course imagining the inevitable gastro-intestinal consequences.

“There were families with nothing. I met a family with three daughters and two sons. One of their sons, Mustafa who was 16 years old, was killed by American snipers. Then their house was burned. They had nothing to eat. Just rice and cold water-dirty water…they put the rice in the dirty water, let it sit for one or two hours, then they ate the rice. Fatma, the 17 year-old daughter, said she was praying for God to take her soul because she couldn’t bear the horrors anymore.”

The families’ 12 year old boy told Suthir he used to want to be a doctor or a journalist. She paused then added, “He said that now he has no more dreams. He could no longer even sleep.”


One of the most disturbing things that Jamail is reporting is that refugees have reported seeing U.S. tanks with dead Iraqis strapped to the front like trophies. I wonder if one of those photos would be reported in the mainstream press?

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