November 5, 2007: This website is an archive of the former website, traprockpeace.org, which was created 10 years ago by Charles Jenks. It became one of the most populace sites in the US, and an important resource on the antiwar movement, student activism, 'depleted' uranium and other topics. Jenks authored virtually all of its web pages and multimedia content (photographs, audio, video, and pdf files. As the author and registered owner of that site, his purpose here is to preserve an important slice of the history of the grassroots peace movement in the US over the past decade. He is maintaining this historical archive as a service to the greater peace movement, and to the many friends of Traprock Peace Center. Blogs have been consolidated and the calendar has been archived for security reasons; all other links remain the same, and virtually all blog content remains intact. THIS SITE NO LONGER REFLECTS THE CURRENT AND ONGOING WORK OF TRAPROCK PEACE CENTER, which has reorganized its board and moved to Greenfield, Mass. To contact Traprock Peace Center, call 413-773-7427 or visit its site. Charles Jenks is posting new material to PeaceJournal.org, a multimedia blog and resource center.
Search
site - New! Calendar - Calendar
Archive Contents - Archives - War Crimes - GI Special - Student Activism - Links |
Mr. Nicholas D. Kristof
The New York Times
229 West 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036-3959Dear Mr. Kristof:
I urge you to investigate the precise stance of U.S. forces in the plundering of Baghdad. At a minimum it shows that we were better prepared for swift victory than for its aftermath. But that doesn't exhaust the issue. Given the extraordinarily cavalier statements of Secretary Rumsfeld and President Bush, it seems at least possible that we planned to allow for a period of chaos, both to let off steam (so it would not be directed at us) and to make the Iraqi public desperate for anyone to restore order, even if it means accepting U.S. military rule.
I raise questions, not certainties. It is as prejudiced to dismiss them a priori as "conspiracy theories" as it is to accept them without further inquiry. Granted, the Shiites of Baghdad's slums were seething at the symbols of Saddam's power, so the sacking of government ministries is unsurprising. But the targeting of the French cultural office, the German and Chinese embassies, and UNESCO represents more sophisticated knowledge and perhaps planning. Were all of the following accidental: the firing on the Palestine Hotel, the firing on the Russian convoy, the embassy looting, and UNESCO? Clearly, events got out of control, including that of U.S. forces. I see no purpose, only unspeakably tragic loss, in the plundering of the National Museum and of hospitals. But I am ashamed of my President for saying only "Well, no kidding," and refusing to acknowledge the pity of it. What are we to think of the American troops who went to the museum for half an hour and then left, allowing the plunder to continue -- while Americans had time to tear up the floor at the Al Rashid?
The report below is from Dagens Nyheter. It is clearly unconfirmed. I send it to you in the hope you can shed light on the truth. I know your instinct is to be constructive and move on, but sometimes that is possible only on the basis of an honest reckoning with history -- in this case less than a week old.
With best wishes,
David Keppel davidkeppel@earthlink.net
["David expressed gratitude to Mike Ferner of Voices in the Wilderness for sending him the Swedish article, below."]
This is a translation of an article from April 11 from Dagens Nyheter, Sweden's largest newspaper, based in Stockholm. The article was written by Ole Rothenborg and translated by Joe Valasek. Khaled Bayomi, has taught and researched on Middle Eastern conflicts for ten years at the University of Lund where he is also working on his doctorate.
Khaled Bayomi looks surprised when the American officer on TV complains that they don't have the resources to stop the plundering in Baghdad. "I happened to be right there just as the American troops encouraged people to begin the plundering."
Khaled Bayomi traveled from Europe to Baghdad to be a human shield and arrived on the same day that the war began. About this he can tell many stories but the most interesting is certainly his eyewitness account of the wave of plundering.
"I had gone to see some friends who live near a dilapidated area just past Haifa Avenue on the west bank of the Tigris. It was the 8th of April and the fighting was so intense that I was unable to return to the other side of the river. In the afternoon it became perfectly quiet and four American tanks took places on the edge of the slum area. The soldiers shot two Sudanese guards who stood at their posts outside a local administration building on the other side of Haifa Avenue. Then they blasted apart the doors to the building and from the tanks came eager calls in Arabic encouraging people to come close to them. "
"The entire morning, everyone who had tried to cross the road had been shot. But in the strange silence after all the shooting, people gradually became curious. After 45 minutes, the first Baghdad citizens dared to come out. Arab interpreters in the tanks told the people to go and take what they wanted in the building."
"The word spread quickly and the building was ransacked. I was standing only 300 yards from there when the guards were murdered. Afterwards the tank crushed the entrance to the Justice Department, which was in a neighboring building, and the plundering continued there".
Page created April 14, 2003 by Charlie Jenks