This is a rant that will piss off some of you. I will not fall for the 9/11 forever mentality. I will not continue to mourn endlessly for American victims while turning a blind eye to Iraqi, Afghani, Somali, Yemeni and Libyan victims of American terror.
I work at a university helping international applicants get to the United States for their education. My university hosts several Iraqi students, and I hear from many others who want to come to the United States. I keep a box of tissues in my office to deal with the deluge of tears after talking with these students. The heartbreak they have experienced is too hard to bear. I will relate the story of one of these students, Daham Kassam.
A 2005 CNN story reported the following:
On or about March 25, 2003, the beginning of the Iraq war, Daham, his wife, Gufran, his brother, and their four young children piled into the family's white Peugeot and headed north out of Nasiriya to escape the chaotic U.S. bombing and fighting.
They had waited all morning for a violent sandstorm to subside, but fear of being caught in the crossfire prompted Daham to leave despite the bad weather.
"There is sandstorm there and I don't see. I see nothing because sandstorm. So there is four or three tanks American tanks in the gate, Nasiriya gate," he says.
Daham says he stopped his car and after about a minute the tanks opened fire, instantly killing his 2-year-old and 9-year-old daughters.
He says two American troops approached his car. He remembers they called themselves "Chris" and "Joe."
"I saw them take my son, Mohammed ... it is difficult to breathing," he says, describing his son's grave condition. "My daughter, the fourth one, my daughter, Zainab, is still OK as I see her."
Daham was gravely injured, suffering gunshot and shrapnel wounds to his arms, legs and face. Gufran was shot in the chest and the blast broke both of her arms.
Mohammed, age 6, died minutes later.
Daham, Gufran and Zainab were taken to a U.S. field hospital a few miles away, but were moved to the Nasiriya Air Base hospital that evening when their beds were needed for wounded American troops.
"It is very, very cold," he says, remembering that night. "Then my daughter, Zainab, said, 'Pop, it is very cold.' But you know, I have nothing to help her, because I can't stand up. ... My legs is also broken. And my wife also, the two arms are broken. It is difficult to help my daughter, and [she] also died."
Daham and Gufran were eventually moved to the USS Comfort, a Navy hospital ship, where they stayed for approximately one month.
There, Daham's right leg was amputated and according to hospital ship records provided by Daham, his "poor" prognosis improved steadily.
Another CNN story reported on the incident:
A U.S. military spokesman said they found "an incident reported up the chain of command that appears similar to what Mr. Kassim tells CNN." The incident, the spokesman said, "did not violate our rules of engagement" and was an unfortunate "part of the tragedy of war."
Did not violate our rules of engagement? An unfortunate part of the tragedy of war? God help us and this country.
Let that U.S. military spokesperson tell his bullshit to someone else. I see Daham struggle with his prosthetic leg across campus to get a second Masters degree in Engineering after running an electrical plant in Iraq. All this and U.S. employers tell him he is too old for a job.
My television will remained turned off for the next week. I can't stand the hypocrisy.