It was a horrific turn of events to an otherwise joyous occasion. Guiliana Sgrena, an Italian journalist who was a few days earlier featured in a video aired on Aljazeera pleading for her life at the hands of those who kidnapped her, had been released in Iraq.

She was being hurried out of the hostile and dangerous country that has over the course of the past few years become a war zone. Her car, carrying her and three Italian secret service agents who had secured her release, was making its way to the airport when it was fired upon.

An initial statement from the US military said her car had been speeding towards a US military checkpoint, that a blaring light had flashed into the incoming car to warn it to slow down and that warning shots had been fired.

Sgrena, however, begs to differ. She says a torrent of bullets sprayed her car from the side, that there was no light and no warning shot. She says one of the Italian secret service agents jumped on top of her to shield her with his body. Almost immediately, he was killed, a bullet to the head.

Sgrena and the other two agents were wounded and treated at a US military hospital before flying home.

The Italian government, usually at odds with its own constituency, found itself in the precarious situation of having to disagree with its greatest ally, the US.

Italian ministers have rejected the US version of events and called for an immediate inquiry.

Headlines in almost all prominent Italian newspapers scream cover-up and doubt the US will,—despite its best public relations face-saving call for an investigation—tell the full truth.

World media, bar the US, dedicated much space and airtime to the Sgrena affair. Blogs have debated whether she was deliberately hit or was the victim of the trigger-happiness and nervousness of US soldiers.

According to Italian accounts, the car carrying Sgrena was hit with some 300 bullets, but this has not been independently verified.

An analyst who appeared on FOX, Bob Bevelacqua, had this to say: “It’s unfortunate that she was released. She didn’t deserve the faith and honor that was given to her in the death of an Italian Intelligence officer. She is supporting the animals that took her hostage and she’s using the death of a fellow countryman to help push her cause. It’s disgusting.”

Whether you side with Sgrena or want her dead, there is something inescapable about the entire affair. Iraqis have been facing this danger on a daily basis and almost every day there are dead Iraqis brought into morgues after being cut down by US gunfire. 

But no coverage for the Iraqi dead. No public outcry in the world. No debate in the blogs. No mention in FOX or otherwise. No, they don’t have pretty Latin names and dirty-blonde hair. They don’t have their own columns and candlelight vigils held for them on the streets of Europe.

When they are killed their bodies are not carried on the shoulders of state police and given posthumous awards.

They are not called heroes by the world press.

They’re just another bunch of stinking Iraqis.

When Iraqis protest, they are called ungrateful by the US press. When dozens die in US air raids, they are called terrorists by prominent US newspapers. The same newspapers that swore there were weapons of mass destruction.

One reader recently wrote and said Iraqis should fix their own house so US troops could get home. Problem is, the house is becoming more broken with the US presence in the country. Saddam is the weapon of mass destruction, the reader said.

No, my friend. It is the US Army in all its trigger-happy glory that is the weapon of mass destruction in Iraq, committing genocide of a few Iraqis at a time.

And if you happen to be a foreign journalist researching the deaths of Iraqis, well you automatically lose your civility and are Uncle-Tomized, if I am permitted to create a new term.

The Iraq war was propagated by racism. A racism which claimed every Iraqi was a terrorist, a liar, a chemical weapons expert. A racism which allowed for the wholesale destruction of “sand-niggers.” A racism which turned the other cheek when 1.5 million Iraqis—500,000 of them children—died because of the most punitive sanctions regimen ever imposed on a sovereign nation.

The same kind of racism which allowed the massacre of Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda. Nearly 800,000 died before the world recoiled in horror. Much too late. But, hey, they were black, so no matter.

The survival of Sgrena is certainly a heart-warming affair, but one demands of world media: Where are you when Iraqis are suffering this ordeal?

Alexander Gainem is a seasoned journalist who spent many years covering issues in the Middle East and Europe. He can be reached at alex_gainem@hotmail.com.