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The cold months grip half the world, and this shall pass.
The Season of lies is upon us. And perhaps for quite a while.
On Saturday the 3rd of January 2004, my son and his cousin were travelling back to our residence in Samarra, they were driving a small cargo truck belonging to a third party from which they earn their livelihood in a country torn by wars and sanctions. Yes, they were back from Baghdad yet misfortune followed them from the beginning, their car broke down on the road which caused a delay in their arrival to Samarra when the curfew hour was just about to start in the city...And this is where the first chapter of the tragedy takes place. An American army patrol stood in their way, and after they went through the whole procedure of searching my son and his cousin, and inspecting the cargo load, they tied them up both and led them to an area about three kilometres from the scene and...in front of one of the gates of the Tharthar dam where water flows at its strongest rate and to my son and his cousin's horror, they ordered them to jump into the water, it was midnight and the cold was unbearable, when they hesitated, they were pushed by the soldiers. Unfortunately my boy cannot swim, even though swimming at this time of the year wouldn't have helped. Yet my sons cousin survived miraculously after he got stuck in a tree branch to give us his account of this tragic event which could have went untold. He tried saving my son, but the water current was stronger than him...After days of search we found my sons jacket floating with the stream, it shall remain with me as a memory and a symbol of the injustice brought against him by soldiers of the United States of America's army, who came to our country under the banners of human rights and democracy only to send my son to his demise on his wedding days...Zaydun's cousin said that the soldiers were drunk and looked tired, and that during their ride they even chatted and joked with one of the soldiers who spoke a little Arabic. After he managed to get out of the water he remained hidden because he could see that the unit was searching for them using flashlights and he was scared to death.
This story and the previous from Fisk contain amazingly similar elements. A friend who miraculously survives to tell the tale (the ineptitude of the soldiers or the divine will of Allah?) a tragic family left behind, an outrageous lack of action or any official response...
Such similarities are the hallmark of the urban legend.
What have we in this dark mirror?
A suicide martyr? A tragic accident? A murder victim? A young man in hiding?
People desperately in need of protection from their protectors?
Or a new tactic from a diabolical foe desiring to incite post-Saddam rage?
All that can be reliably stated at this time is that in every case stated, someone is lying.
The great mass of people ... will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one.
--Adolf Hitler
The season of lies is upon us. Perhaps it is ever so.
Update:
More here from Blackfive. He also hears a familiar ring...
And here's an updated compilation of things that don't make sense about the "Healing Iraq" murder at Blackfive's.
More here from Andrew Olmstead
Smash calls for justice (as do we all!) but hears something familiar...
John of Argghhh checks in.
Cpt Patti's husband Tim says what he thinks. (Always does, actually.)
Hook listens for the ring of truth and doesn't hear it. I know just what he means.
And here's an opinion from a Homicidal Maniak.
And I think that if nuclear weapons were found buried under a mass grave in Iraq discovered via a full confession from Saddam, that no one anywhere would change their minds about anything.
