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CounterPunch
February
21, 2003
Live from Baghdad
A Tight Squeeze
by KATHY KELLY
Last night, while walking home along Abu Nuwas
Street, Charlie Litkey and Jerry Zawada were met by two little
boys who begged them for money, grabbed their hands, and then
went for the wristwatches. The boys are seasoned little workers.
After their father died some years ago, they moved in with their
uncle's family. The uncle sends them out each day and night
to beg on the streets. One of our team members recalls buying
Saif and his brother bananas instead of giving them money. Both
little boys were so hungry that they immediately ate the bananas,
including the peels.
The tiny duo had spotted two of our "softies."
Jerry, a Franciscan priest, is happiest when he is helping someone.
Charlie, who towers over Jerry, is a former priest chaplain
who returned the Congressional Medal of Honor awarded him for
pulling soldiers off a battlefield in Viet Nam. Like Jerry,
he radiates quiet kindness. We had to chuckle over our two "Gentle
Bens" being attacked by the charming but aggressive duo.
The kids had just about scored two wristwatches when Charlie
took matters in hand and tightly squeezed Saif's wrist until
the watch dropped. Saif began to cry. Both watches were returned.
This morning both Jerry and Charlie voiced their regrets. "I
squeezed his hand pretty hard," said Charlie.
Squeeze. The word easily connotes gentle
and helpful measures. You squeeze a loved ones hand in times
of need. You squeeze an orange to make juice. But this morning,
listening to several NGO workers try to work out how they might
manage to distribute relief in the face of a "squeeze"
planned by the US Pentagon, the word sounds ugly and cruel.
You squeeze a country to tighten the thumbscrews, exacerbate
an already existing siege. You squeeze until civilians can't
bear it any more. The squeeze means that people who are trapped
without access to relief may panic. How will they find drinking
water? How can they cook stored rations without water? How
can they get medical care for the injured? Once the electricity
goes down, how will they manage without refrigerators, lights,
communication? Explosions, fires, shrapnel, destroyed buildings,
maimed bodies, unburied corpses.Baghdad's residents have tasted
all this before, --but now comes anticipation of yet another
agony: a squeeze that can cause chaos and panic to flow like
lava.
I think most US people can easily identify
with Charlie's and Jerry's gentle, even affectionate regard for
the little ones who so desperately "attacked" them
last night. I think most would share Charlie's remorse over making
little Saif wince. Charlie's regrets, compassion and courage
are never more needed than now. War planners are readying a ghastly
and protracted squeeze, designed to frighten, sicken and kill
hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people.
Hand holding hand we can catch courage
from one another to raise pressure against war. The time is
for direct action is now.
Kathy Kelly,
director of Voices
in the Wilderness, is leading the Iraq Peace team in
Baghdad. She can be reached at: kathy@warkaa.net
Yesterday's
Features
Jeffrey St. Clair
In
a Land Where Justice is a Game: Killing Amos King
Anne Gwynne
Raid
on Nablus: a Hero in the Midst of Horror
Nelson P. Valdés
Why Americans Can't Travel to Cuba
Jason Leopold
Martin Peretz to Bush: Bomb Iraq
Alan Maass
"A Revolutionary Spirit in a Hostile World":
The Real Martin Luther King, Jr
Jack McCarthy
Hitchens and Booze
Sonia Ebron
Why
Black Americans Should Oppose Bush's War
Russell Mokiber and Robert
Weissman
12
Reasons to Oppose Bush's War on Iraq
Abu Spinoza
Chomsky's Power and Terror
Website of the Day
Bush
AWOL
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February 15
/ 16, 2003
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Cockburn
Colin
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Rep. Dennis
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Norman Madarasz
French Kisses from the Citizens of France
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Bring Us the Head of Osama bin Laden
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The Revolt in Bolivia
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The Invisible Modernities of the Islamic World
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