elledark:

The City of Deformed Babies

Fallujah in Iraq used to be known as ‘the city of mosques’ because of its holy buildings. Now it’s known as the city of deformed babies. Remember Fallujah ?

In the bitter depths of the Iraq ‘war’ (illegal invasion and occupation)  a group of Iraquis attacked an armed convoy of the notorious and hated Blackwater mercenaries . Four of the mercenaries were dragged from their cars, beaten and killed. The pictures caused outrage in America because, hell, even if these mercenaries were pretty much bad-guys these were godamm Americans those towel-heads were killing .

The need to ‘teach them a lesson’ resulted in Operation Phantom Fury being unleashed punitively against the old city of men, women and children. They were bombarded mercilessly. Vast amounts of explosives and bombs were used. Illegal white phosphorus burned people alive in what some of the troops called ‘shake and bake’. It was claimed that over 1,350 ‘insurgent fighters’ were killed but distinguishing between ‘fighters’ and civilian corpses, especially when they were charred to a cinder, must have been tricky.  Nobody counted the injured.

The U.S. military first denied that it had used white phosphorus illegally as an anti-personnel weapon in Fallujah but later, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, retracted the lie and admitted using the incendiary in the city as an offensive weapon. Reports have alleged war crimes, human rights abuses and a massacre by U.S. personnel, including indiscriminate violence against civilians and children. This point of view was presented in the 2005 documentary film, Fallujah, the Hidden Massacre.
 
The point of bringing this all up again is that now, years later, children with hideous deformities are being born in the shattered ruins of Fallujah. A little girl with two heads. Another with a huge growth across her face. Horrific problems, from abnormalities of the bowels to facial disfigurements. Nearly 50% of babies with birth defects. Many deformed foetuses do not even survive. Doctors blame the huge bombardment of the city and use of chemical weapons by American forces.

Fallujah. A tragedy that need never have happened because let us remember that the whole invasion of Iraq was based on lies. There never was a connection with 9/11. There never was a connection with terrorism. There were no ‘weapons of mass destruction’. All complete and utter lies, told knowingly and cynically. The direct consequences of those lies lives on now in the deformed babies of Fallujah. They are part of the Bush legacy that no-one should ever forget.

There’s an update on this awful story here and here (graphic images)

Girl on the metro the night Mursi was elected. “25 January” (the day the revolution started) is written on her cheeks. 

Living in poverty: Little boy outside of mosque in Cairo.  

Church and mosque share the skyline in Coptic Cairo. 

Angel mosaic on the outside of a building in Coptic Cairo

Announcement of Mursi’s victory on state television. 

Siwan boy sits by his front door. 

Protests in Tahrir the week before Mursi was elected.