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US
soldiers have uprooted ancient groves of date palms.
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Day after day, disturbing news
continues to emerge from Iraq, detailing the systematic and callous destruction of
Iraq’s flora and agricultural areas.
Citing
security issues, US troops have cut down precious date trees
–often the life-sustaining source of many Iraqi villages,
burned and razed crops, agricultural yields and fields, drained
swamps, and burned grassy knolls where it is alleged that Iraqi
‘terrorists’ are hiding.
In
June, CNN aired a segment on US military efforts to pursue and
capture ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. In the backdrop,
CNN viewers were allowed a three-second glimpse of
US
soldiers lighting bushes, trees and grassy riverbeds. The bushes
came to life in a blazing fire. Presumably, kerosene or some
fuel was used. Then CNN cut in with another shot of a US
patrol.
The
segment showing US soldiers burning the aforementioned areas was never shown again.
Now,
evidence is coming to light that US soldiers at the very least
are unfazed and negligent of Iraq’s agriculture and at the
very most carrying out a systematic campaign of punishing
farmers and their farmlands on the suspicion that they harbor
‘Saddam loyalists’ or other anti-American forces.
Ironically,
the punitive measures themselves are spawning a new breed of
anti-American might that cares little for Saddam and even less
for politics.
The
psyche of the Middle Eastern farmer, whether it be in Jordan
,
Upper Egypt
or in the Tigris-Euphrates river valleys of Iraq, is that life is based on the land, and the land is the pride
and honor of every farmer. When the land is defiled and
violated, it becomes incumbent upon the farmer to avenge the
honor of his family and tribe.
This
is nothing new; it has existed in this fashion since Sumerians
began using irrigated farming techniques 5,000 years ago.
Yet,
probably because of cultural ignorance, the US
forces continue to destroy valuable crops.
“US
soldiers driving bulldozers, with jazz blaring from
loudspeakers, have uprooted ancient groves of date palms as well
as orange and lemon trees in central Iraq as part of a new
policy of collective punishment of farmers who do not give
information about guerrillas attacking US troops,” says
journalist Patrick Cockburn in The Independent.
Last
week, Israeli forces bulldozed 220 homes in Gaza, leaving some 1,500 Palestinians homeless. Israeli forces cited
security concerns: tunnels used to smuggle weapons could have
been under these houses. Israeli forces have also been known to
blow up the homes of families of suicide bombers.
Collective
punishment. But in Iraq
it is producing deadly results for US forces.
Farmers
have sworn to destroy every American they see, whether it be a
journalist, businessman or soldier – it does not matter.
Iraqi
farmers have long issued complaints against US forces, dating back to the mid 1990s when the Baathist government accused US
and UK
fighters of firebombing valuable crop fields in the south and
north of the country.
In
April 1999, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that
Iraqi doctors had complained of depleted uranium making its way
into the Iraqi food chain and contaminating Iraqi farmland. The
doctors cited the unusual rise in stomach cancer and leukemia in
farming and rural communities.
According
to an investigative article
by Jeffery St. Clair in Counterpunch, the war in
Iraq
has proven particularly difficult for farming communities to
stomach. He says that the consequent looting and wanton violence
left precious irrigation systems destroyed, warehouses and grain
silos unusable, and very little fuel for nearly-defunct tractors
and harvesters.
The
farmers have not received any assistance or guidance from the
Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) or the Iraqi Governing
Council (IGC).
Further
adding to the farmers’ frustrations is that both the CPA and
IGC are about to abolish the food rationing system set up by
Saddam’s government – a system that the United Nations
labeled the most efficient in the world. Economic analysts have
warned that this would seriously endanger the livelihood of the
60 per cent of Iraqis who rely on that system for sustenance.
While
foreign governments meet to pledge financial assistance to the
rebuilding of Iraq (the European Union has promised 234 million
dollars, the UK government 300 million dollars), and the US
Congress debates demanding that Iraq pay back a suggested
20-billion-dollar loan, the Iraqi farmer is left in a quagmire.
He must care for his extended family and endure constant
harassment from US troops who smash their way into the sanctity
of his home, rummage through his private things, and see his
wife (wives) and female relatives in a private setting. He has
no one to voice his concerns to, no one to take up his cause and
no one to reimburse his financial losses.
When
political commentators question who comprises the Iraqi
resistance, they now have their answer. It is not the radical
“Islamists,” as western media has called them. It is not the
misguided impudence of Osama bin Laden’s flock. It is not
foreign fighters who seek to find Iraq
a convenient battleground against all things American.
No,
it is the Iraqi farmer, the most basic of the Iraqi peoples –
a man who has toiled the land in the tradition of his
forefathers, stretching back to the Sumerian, Babylonian and
Assyrian empires.
Firas
Al-Atraqchi is
a Canadian journalist of Iraqi heritage. Holding an MA in
Journalism and Mass Communication, he has eleven years of
experience covering Middle East issues, oil and gas markets, and
the telecom industry. You can reach him at
firascape@hotmail.com.
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