Another Crime
There are a thousand and one windows into memory and the preservation of those full of pain, and agony does not fade away. For Iraqi society, memory abounds with events of American heroes, and whatever the event, some tried to replace it with another as an attempt to cover up what happened in one detail or another. It won’t be easy to forget what happened, and it’s not possible for the victim or victims to forgive the one who pulled his dagger and severely wounded other people, whether women, children or the elderly.
The American crimes against the Iraqis did not stop, as the embargo was already imposed in August 1990. Insisting on the continuation of the embargo did more than direct the crime against humanity: It led to many more, many of which impacted the Iraqis.
When the first Gulf War ended at the end of February 1991 under a ceasefire agreement between Iraq and the international coalition forces led by the United States, the agreement was meant to stop targeting people everywhere because even war, with all its atrocities, remains governed by law. He who raises his hand to the trigger becomes a simple man, and as long as he does not point his gun at the other, then it has become part of the peace resolution even though he was a loser or defeated because the goal of war is not the continuation of fighting or the destruction of the other, but rather reaching the threshold of peace that one party or both or all yearn for.
What happened after the announcement of the ceasefire was a historic moment of separation between two eras. The first threatened an increase of killings, bloodshed and destruction, in which crossfire from missiles and bombs would continue between the two forces; the second breathed in life far from such tremendous bloodshed. Peace and the meaning of war were understood, and for this reason, important figures, countries and organizations are seizing the initiative to stop war, wherever it arises, in order to stop wasting human lives and loss and bloodshed, and shut down the vehicle of destruction by military force.
In one of the heinous war crimes that the United States committed against the Iraqis, it was not one crime but one in a long series with many pages and aspects, which affected tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers who withdrew from Kuwaiti territory after the announcement of a ceasefire. U.S. fighter planes and helicopters stormed the thousands of soldiers retreating on foot or in vehicles without any weapons, while they marched through the middle of the desert completely exposed, and then those criminal fighter planes directed their missiles with all malice to claim thousands of soldiers, creating a graveyard on the desert sand.
So, Iraqis will hold in their collective memory a picture of the monstrous, murderous criminal. Thousands of families record images of fathers and sons from among the victims of that crime, everywhere from the house and the river to the Iraqi tree.
The American crimes against the Iraqis did not stop, as the embargo was already imposed in August 1990. Insisting on the continuation of the embargo did more than direct the crime against humanity: It led to many more, many of which impacted the Iraqis.
When the first Gulf War ended at the end of February 1991 under a ceasefire agreement between Iraq and the international coalition forces led by the United States, the agreement was meant to stop targeting people everywhere because even war, with all its atrocities, remains governed by law. He who raises his hand to the trigger becomes a simple man, and as long as he does not point his gun at the other, then it has become part of the peace resolution even though he was a loser or defeated because the goal of war is not the continuation of fighting or the destruction of the other, but rather reaching the threshold of peace that one party or both or all yearn for.
What happened after the announcement of the ceasefire was a historic moment of separation between two eras. The first threatened an increase of killings, bloodshed and destruction, in which crossfire from missiles and bombs would continue between the two forces; the second breathed in life far from such tremendous bloodshed. Peace and the meaning of war were understood, and for this reason, important figures, countries and organizations are seizing the initiative to stop war, wherever it arises, in order to stop wasting human lives and loss and bloodshed, and shut down the vehicle of destruction by military force.
In one of the heinous war crimes that the United States committed against the Iraqis, it was not one crime but one in a long series with many pages and aspects, which affected tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers who withdrew from Kuwaiti territory after the announcement of a ceasefire. U.S. fighter planes and helicopters stormed the thousands of soldiers retreating on foot or in vehicles without any weapons, while they marched through the middle of the desert completely exposed, and then those criminal fighter planes directed their missiles with all malice to claim thousands of soldiers, creating a graveyard on the desert sand.
So, Iraqis will hold in their collective memory a picture of the monstrous, murderous criminal. Thousands of families record images of fathers and sons from among the victims of that crime, everywhere from the house and the river to the Iraqi tree.
Your narrative neglected the beginning of the 1st Gulf War story. Without any provocation, Iraq invaded its wealthy neighbor Kuwait for plunder and power. Iraq also threatened Saudi Arabia and briefly invaded that country. In Kuwait, they killed many people, ransacked the country, and set its oilfields on fire. The U.S. and coalition forces then counter-attacked and drove the Iraqi’s back into Iraq.
You correctly state that the U.S. killed many, many Iraqi soldiers and looters while they were retreating from their Kuwait defeat. But you err about the timing of the unilateral U.S. ceasefire. America’s leaders were so appalled by the thought of more slaughter of retreating Iraqi’s, that they stopped hostilities after only 48 hours.