Bombing resistance into them

CPTnet June Releases: FALLUJAH, IRAQ: An unnatural disaster

The people of Christian Peacemaker Teams are my heroes. Their motto is "getting in the way" and they go to the most dangerous areas and well, get in the way. Get in the faces of soldiers. Ride buses targeted by suicide bombers. Accompany kids to school. Record human rights abuses.

Like in Falluja.

This is from a report from Joe Carr, CPTer in Iraq.

A Sunni cleric told us that during the first invasion, several families near his mosque took cover in a home. U.S. troops used megaphones to order all them out into the street and told them to carry a white flag. They complied, but when they all got out, the soldiers opened fire and killed five. He said one boy had run to his mother who'd been shot, and Americans shot him in the head. A U.S. Commander cried as this happened, "but what good were his tears?" he asked, "He didn't do anything to stop it."

During our meeting with the cleric, a man told us, "The Americans shot and killed my 15-year-old daughter, was she a terrorist?" The U.S. military denied killing her. "With all respect to you," he said, "I hate Americans; they killed my family. They shot and killed my sister-in-law while she was washing clothes, and my other brother's hands and feet were blown off." He apologized for interrupting, but said that he had to tell us because he's in so much pain.

Someone once told me, "You can't bomb a resistance out of existence, but you can bomb one into it."