Report from Baghdad--Hospital Closings and U.S. War Crimes
Rahul Mahajan
2004-04-19 16:00
NOTE: Doctors from four hospitals in Baghdad were interviewed in compiling this report; all asked that their names be left out.
Baghdad, Iraq -- "Why do you keep asking about the closing of the Fallujah hospital?" my Iraqi translator asks in exasperation. I explain that this is big news, and it hasn't really been reported in English. He looks at me, incredulous; all Iraqis know about it.
When the...
Winning Hearts and Minds
Rahul Mahajan
2004-04-14 16:00
Baghdad , Iraq -- Aadhamiyah. The mosque of Abu Hanifa, built around the tomb of the founder of the mainstream Hanafi school of Islamist jurisprudence, has stood for 1250 years in the Aadhamiya quarter of Baghdad . When Hulagu sacked Baghdad in 1257, he used it to stable his horses, but otherwise it has escaped indignities from the many invaders and foreign overlords to which Baghdad has been...
Report from Baghdad--Opening the Gates of Hell
Rahul Mahajan
2004-04-12 16:00
Fallujah, Iraq -- Fallujah is a bit like southern California. On the edge of Iraq's western desert, it is extremely arid but has been rendered into an agricultural area by extensive irrigation. Surrounded by dirt-poor villages, Fallujah is perhaps marginally better off. Much of the population is farmers. The town itself has wide streets and squat, sand-colored buildings.
We were in Fallujah...
Report from Baghdad--Opening the Gates of Hell
Rahul Mahajan
2004-04-07 16:00
Baghdad, Iraq -- Before the Iraq war, at a meeting of the Arab League, Secretary General Amr Moussa famously said that a U.S. war on Iraq would "open the gates of hell."
In Iraq, those gates are yawning wider than they ever have before -- at least for the United States.
"Sunni and Shi'a are now one hand, together against the Americans," a man on the street in the mostly Shi'a slum of Shuala on...
The New Humanitarianism: Basra as a 'Military Target'
Rahul Mahajan
2003-03-30 16:00
Iraq's desperate humanitarian situation has suddenly become a retroactive justification for the war, even for the attacking of civilian targets. The need to get aid into Basra has apparently prompted a British military spokesperson to designate it as a "legitimate military target," language reminiscent of Gulf War I, when the saturation bombing of Basra was justified on the same basis.
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