Barbarism extended beyond the Museum

Submitted by Julia Reeves (United States), Apr 22, 2003 at 11:53

My only point of reference to what has been going on in Iraq has been the newspapers and television coverage. I have witnessed the Iraqi people's barbarism in ways more than in just the looting of the Museum and the destruction of the Library. When food supplies arrived, many of the Iraqi's were simply out of control, storming the newly arrived shipment of food, etc. One could blame it on hunger, but, I personally did not see it in that light. I thought they were simply barbaric, out for their individual selves, and they violently and destructively pushed many deserving people out of the way. In short, they reacted like a hoard of animals. They displayed no compassion which I have seen in other situations. For example, I saw footage on television which displayed a severly injured child lying on a cot or hospital bed, crying in pain. The adult Iraqi woman at his side appeared to be completely compassionless and the only form of comfort she was giving the child was more of an additional assault, rather than tender and loving. She was slapping her hand on his body in a brusque manner rather than in a calming and soothing attempt to comfort the child. So, while the coalition forces were unprepared for the looting, theft and destruction which took place, it was in fact, the Iraqi people who undertook these actions. There are those who have and will give all the explanations they can drum up to explain away what actually happened, but, in fact these acts were undertaken by the Iraqis themselves, and they are the responsible parties. They showed the world their true natures. This is not true of all Iraqis, I would hope, but, I believe the actions of the many showed them in a poor light to the rest of the world.

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