To a voiceless Iraqi Sister.
My Dear Sister ,
I really don't know how to start this . I am short of words. Seems like all the idioms of the English language will never convey to you what I feel. I will keep it simple. I believe in simplicity.
A holocaust survivor from the Abu Ghraib chambers related your story.
I had heard it before . But I can never hear enough of it .
I am with you in this cell . I am watching it all as it happens.
Your cries and screams went unanswered . Your cell mates could do nothing, they were castrated whilst you were being raped by the Americans.
They heard you shout :" Help me my Iraqi brothers, help me " and they only had their prayers to offer you. Don't be angry at them , they were "detainees " like yourself.
Your story and I have heard many of them , reminds me of this famous line by the Iraqi poet Muddafar al Nawab. He was addressing Jerusalem in it , but I am addressing it in Your Honor.
He said: " Jerusalem is the Bride of your Arabhood, welcome , welcome - so why did you leave all the filthy fornicators of the Night come to her ? You sons of bitches, did you really think that a raped woman will be silenced ?. " (my humble translation)
Sister, I heard that you were silenced. Seems that the other "detainees" heard nothing after your first cry. The silence was overbearing, they could hear a pin drop to the ground.
They silenced you through death perhaps. I don't know. You have remained an anonymous voice amongst many others.
I will lend you my voice . I have vowed not to be silenced. Use it, take it, speak through me.
Take my courage, the little I have left, and tell them what happened to you.
Give me them the gory details so they can spit it out, vomit it .
Tell them the horrors of rape.
Speak out, you have to speak out.
Tell them how you were made to shut up . Tell them the truth. Does not matter if they were americans or if they are current day so called "iraqis".
Say it, proclaim it, shout it, write it in tears, write it in blood. Use me, use my hands, use my voice , use my words.
And so she speaks...
" The cell was dark and damp. They tore my clothes away , taking turns , they said : I am going to fuck you until oblivion, until Death. And then they took turns . One after another. They shuddered and said " Oh God " when they poured their venom into me . All the while they were crying out : Take it bitch, take it you filthy Iraqi whore. I will fuck you until you are blue in the face. "
I am in pain, my womb hurts, my back hurts, I can feel the only warmth , that of my own blood dripping... They are banging my head against the cold stone floor...I am losing it now ... My soul is hovering above my body and am watching it all in cool detachment. I am blue in the face. I think am dead now. I feel light, light as ether, light as air...".
And I continue ...
I am impregnated now . I have conceived a monster. You are about to experience the birth pangs of the New Middle East gushing out of me . So be ready for the delivery and welcome Your new Child about to be born. Yes, be ready.
Painting : Iraqi Artist, Mohammed Sami
Comments
One of the many benefits of the Bush Administration is that it demonstrates, over and over again, just how big a bunch of hypocrites Americans are. The fascist United States has always been involved in attacking sovereign countries. Iraq is novel only in the fact that it was done out in the open, in blatant contravention of international law (rather than covert contravention of international law). Americans, in particular, the CIA and the Pentagon, have always been involved in torture. The School of the Americas is, amongst other things, a school for torture (and see also here and here). The only difference between the Bush Administration and other previous administrations, including those with Democrat Presidents, is that the Bush Administration is proud of what it is doing, and no longer attempts to hide it (plus we have photos). Americans are like the racist suburbanite who doesn't want 'those people' living in his neighborhood, but finds the Ku Klux Klan offensive. It's not the racism, its the in-your-face celebration of racism that is the problem. Similarly, its not the torture, its the pleasure that officials like Rice and Cheney seem to have in advocating it. Most Americans support the use of torture, they just don't like to be reminded of it. The lowest point in the short history of the American Empire has to be Rice going to Europe and insisting that the Americans won't put up with Europeans applying their own laws against torture (not that the United States would do such a thing, wink, wink).
To show you how bad things are, read Juan Cole justifying the bombing of Iraqi civilians (and let's not fool ourselves, any aerial bombardment of Iraq is essentially the bombing of civilians, especially when the insurgents get control of the Iraqi spotters and increase the power of the insurgency by having the Americans commit more and more atrocities) on the justification, if you can believe it, that Americans need cheap oil so that poor Americans not suffer under high gas prices (a lefty version of the trickle-down theory, justifying the unjustifiable because the American poor might get some scraps out of it!), and Juan Cole whitewashing the white phosphorus scandal on the grounds, if you can believe it, that the American soldiers would not do such a thing (!). Cole, who is really just a warblogger with an IQ over 100, called people who disagreed with his writings the 'looney left' (although he has since backed down). And Cole is an American liberal! The conservatives have the same views, but don't bother with the contorted justifications.
Here's a quiz: what's the difference between these three sentences:
1. I had to shoot the bank guard because I needed the money for drugs.
2. I had to defraud the shareholders because I needed the money to maintain my expensive lifestyle.
3. I had to attack a sovereign country that posed no threat to me, and use chemical weapons and bombs on civilians, because I needed the oil.
Answer: It's a trick question. There is no difference. All are the statements of psychopaths who literally see no concern in harming others as long as their gratifications are met. The United States, as a country, is a psychopath, and has been since the end of the Second World War. You can see the psychopathic way in thinking in all the convoluted distinctions between 'torture' (which we would never do), and 'inhumane treatment' (which is just fine). Americans are preoccupied with not leaving physical marks (photos are bad too). If you can't catch me, I didn't do it. Stone-cold psycho.
I need to congratulate you for keeping "sane and lucid" amongst all this psychopathology . Don't ever understimate this .
I would give my soul itself to bring every last one of those psychopathic fools to such a fate, for my soul is worthless in compare to that of the souls of all people. I would gladly go to Hell, if it meant I was sure they would be coming with me.