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Monday, April 26, 2004

And the sounds of silence would be?

From the recent Coalition Provisional Authority briefing with Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, Deputy Director for Coalition Operations, and Dan Senor, Senior Adviser, CPA, Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, April 22, 2004.

The first question asked of Kimmitt and Senor was this:

(Through interpreter.) Ibrahim Hassan (sp), from an organization of Faily Kurds. A group of families have recommended me to give you a message that is in form of a question, so please be so honest in answering this question.

The helicopters who are flying a low profile in the areas where they are fully populated, in different times and different circumstances, so that also has just scared the children and the innocent people and the families, and also (consequently ?) so some of those members of the families have been inflicted and they just were scared, and there have been so many diseases-- psychological diseases, skin diseases also, due to these, I mean, illegal flying low profile helicopters in those areas. So they are just seeking for a solution. If it is possible, please find a solution to save the lives of those people who are—who were harmed and inflicted with harm because of these actions.

OK, no matter what your position on the U.S. occupation of Iraq, you can probably agree that we’re not actually spreading diseases from low-flying helicopters.  Surely this man is thinking of Saddam’s Anfal campaign against the Kurds, the single most notorious incident of which was the massacre in Halabja in 1988.  (Leo Casey recently wrote a terrific essay on Halabja denial here.) But what reply does this man get from the CPA?  Check this out:

GEN. KIMMITT: Yeah, number one, the low-profile helicopter flights have a purpose. It allows our helicopters to fly low and fast. It allows them to conduct their operations to provide security to the people of Iraq.  Having spent most of my adult life either on or near military posts, married to a woman who teaches in the schools, you often hear the sounds of tank firing.  You often hear the sounds of artillery rounds going off. And she seems to be quite capable of calming the children and letting them understand that those booms and those bangs that they hear are simply the sounds of freedom.

Well, that should help everyone sleep at night.

(Thanks to Chris Borthwick for the link.)

Posted by Michael on 04/26 at 02:06 PM
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