9-11-06, 9:09 am
As empathy withers, ethnocentrism and xenophobia flourish. The Other—in this case the Iraqi—is perceived as threateningly exotic and entirely unfamiliar, outside the human family. Or she is not perceived at all. She’s anonymously hidden under the rubble of collateral damage.
What most debilitates empathy is toxic mass media. We are mesmerized by celebrity worship, sensationalism, consumerism and the self-righteous cant of political entertainers posing as journalists. We are inspired by banal slogans, entertained by perpetual one-click shopping opportunities, and titillated by the gore and glam of the rich and blonde.
We recognize the names Natalee Holloway, Jonbenet Ramsey and Paris Hilton, but we couldn’t name one Iraqi casualty of war if our lives depended on it.
Iraqi lives do depend on it. The war in Iraq won’t end unless we get our ethical bearings and recover our empathy. It won’t end unless we learn the names Roesio, Khadem and Hosam as well as we have learned Paris, Natalee and Jonbenet. It won’t end unless we care as much about “their” dead in Baghdad as “our” dead on 9/11.
What we have done to Iraqis is no secret; we cannot plead ignorance. Real American journalists like Kathy Kelly of “Voices in the Wilderness” have been reporting from Iraq’s hospitals since Shock and Awe began on March 19, 2003.
Kelly told us about Roesio Salem, a 10-year-old girl from a place called Hai Risal, severely wounded by our weapons on the first day of the war.
She told us about Fatima, a 10-year-old from Radwaniya, who suffered multiple fractures when a wall fell on her as she ran from our bombs.
She told us about Khadem, 63, who was shopping for food when shrapnel punctured his intestine and wounded his leg.
She told us about Hosam, a 13-year-old who was wounded in the stomach and now has a colostomy bag. This killing and maiming has continued under our watch for three and a half years.
Just days before the 5th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, CNN reported that we reached another macabre milestone in the Iraq War. US military dead surpassed the number of people who died in the 9/11 attacks. The civilian death toll is, of course, very much higher. The Defense Department reports that over the past quarter, Iraq has averaged 3,000 war deaths per month.
Iraq has about one tenth of the population of the USA. An equivalent disaster for our population would be the death of 120,000 Americans between May and September. That’s twice the number of soldiers who died in the entire Vietnam War. That’s forty 9/11s.
If Americans were being killed at the rate Iraqis are, we’d be losing almost 30,000 citizens each month, 1,000 per day.
The dead wouldn’t be thousands of miles away in Baghdad or Falluja; they’d be people we know from church, school and soccer practice. They’d be children from our daycare centers. They’d be seniors on park benches. The maimed and wounded would fill up our hospitals and long-term care facilities from Maine to California. We would know their names.
The Iraq war never should have happened. It has brought misery, poverty, pain and death to a people who deserved only our love and humanitarian assistance.
Now, as we reflect on the fifth anniversary of 9/11 and remember what it is like to be the victims of a murderous attack, we have before us a solemn peace mission that remains tragically unaccomplished. It is time to forget Paris Hilton and remember Roesio Salem. It’s time to end the Iraq War and occupation. There will never be a better time.
--David Howard serves on the Board of Directors of Citizens for Peaceful Resolutions/CPR. Contact him at
