CNN: War bleeds Baghdad of its best and brightest

[Pirate Smile]

War bleeds Baghdad of its best and brightest

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- In 2003, when Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq, a woman named Hamdiyah al-Dulaimi had three handsome sons. They were good men with wives and families, the shining accomplishments of her life.


A mother walks her children past a building destroyed by a car bomb in Baghdad's Karrada neighborhood. The graffiti reads, "No, no, to terror."

On April 9, 2003, the people of the city cheered invading U.S. soldiers in the city square. Leaders of the coalition troops promised liberty, freedom and life without tyranny.
But Baghdad still has none of those things. And al-Dulaimi has no sons.

One day last spring, a dozen men in black uniforms knocked down her door. They screamed "Filthy Sunnis!" and handcuffed her sons, Haqqi, 39, Qais, 37, and Ali, 31.
"Why? What did my boys do?" the mother cried as the gunmen dragged their new prisoners across the floor.
Al-Dulaimi dropped to her knees, clinging to the ankles of a kidnapper. She begged, kissing his shoes. "At least leave me one. Take the other two. Leave me one."
They beat her unconscious with their gun stocks and took her sons.
The next day, her sons' corpses were on the sidewalk. Haqqi's body was headless. The bodies of Qais and Ali had been mutilated; some parts were missing.

She left behind deprivation and corruption, mayhem and madness. Baghdad is a city that is hemorrhaging many of its best and brightest, while many of those left behind are brutalized and traumatized.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/04/06/baghdad.agony.ap/index.html

You really need to read the entire article.

[Demeter]

1. It's Not Doing Anything For Us, Either

Only the bad guys are getting off on this war.

[saltpoint]

2. Agree. Very good point. /nt

[madeline_con]

3. Who’s killing Iraqi intellectuals?

Who’s killing Iraqi intellectuals?
By David Hoskins
Published Dec 3, 2005 9:29 PM

Iraqis opposed to the U.S. occupation believe there is a systematic campaign of targeted assassinations aimed at Iraqi intellectuals and that a well-organized enemy intent on keeping Iraq weak and susceptible to foreign occupation is carrying out the killings.

The Monitoring Net for Human Rights in Iraq recently reported Iraqi police figures demonstrating that well over 1,000 Iraqi academics and scientists have been shot to death since the beginning of the U.S.-led invasion. The U.S. State Depart ment has confirmed that hundreds of university professors have been killed.

http://www.workers.org/2005/world/iraq-1208/