A little reality for the day...

[kramadas]

Here's a little dose of reality not shown on tv or reported on cnn.com...

Descent into a charnel-house hospital hell

April 10 2003

A searing visit to a trauma ward has Paul McGeough questioning the very essence of humanity.

There's a man who goes up to his roof terrace every time the fighting starts. Often in his underwear, he watches with his hands spread nonchalantly on the parapet wall.

In a vegetable patch down by the Tigris River, a family of gardeners always crane their necks to see what is happening as the F/A-18s, usually in pairs, wheel in from the south.

And now, a Vespa motor scooter is careering erratically down Abu Nuwas Street - its rider with his face turned to the sky as an Iraqi surface-to-air missile whistles off in pursuit of a United States fighter jet.

The plane is so low I can count the missiles clipped to its wings - five. The SAM seems to be catching up; the jet does an evasive belly roll, clears the area, takes a new bead on the high-rise that the pilot and his colleagues are trying to demolish, and fires. It's a direct hit.

Baghdad is gripped by a fatalism about life and death. People can't run, so sometimes they don't even bother to hide as the world's most ferocious firepower is turned on a sprawling city with a defenceless civilian population of five million.

The instinctive reaction of parents is to get their children out of the city. Some are even making them walk to the country. But Wael Sabah was stuck in Baladiyat, on the city's far eastern flank where, neighbours say, she thought her children were out of harm's way.

But their descent deep into hell starts the second the pilot in a low-flying F/A-18 pulled the trigger, unleashing a missile that rips apart their home and their lives.

Tiny 12-year-old Noor, her long black plait a tangle of blood and dust, is dead; in the next cubicle in the Kindi Hospital trauma ward, her younger brother, Abdel Khader, is dead; and across the way, their mother is dying in a sea of her own blood.

If it is possible to have a nightmare within a nightmare, Kindi Hospital is it. The horror of war in Baghdad is distressing, but it is not possible to walk into this hospital without questioning the very essence of humanity as we think we know it.

Kindi has too much death and too much pain. It doesn't have enough medical staff, drugs and equipment; it's running out of body bags and clean water is dependent on electricity in a city of day-long blackouts.

Patients facing emergency surgery can have only 800 milligrams of ibuprofen, the same amount an Australian doctor might prescribe for muscle pain, and there is a critical shortage of anaesthetics. They have resorted to making their own fracture-fixing frames with lengths of steel and moulding clay.

Hygiene is poor - the wards and emergency rooms are filthy and because its laundry has been forced to close by the blackouts, doctors are making do with torn gowns instead of towels and wipes.

Patients keep arriving in a procession of racing ambulances, muddied utilities and battered taxis. An army of exhausted, weepy support staff help them on to trolleys, scattering the flies that feed on the blood of the last patient.

And dozens of relatives stand in the shadows of the forecourt, consoling each other about the dead and waiting for news on the half-dead. Men cry openly, uncontrollably; women wail, clutching each other for support.

Anger at the West occasionally becomes violent. Guns have been cocked and punches thrown at foreign reporters seen to be intruding on Iraqi grief.

A woman drops to the floor in the waiting area, screaming her 12-year-old son's name: "Feran! Feran! Tell me where he is!" Another son tries to console her, assuring her that he is merely wounded after an air strike on their neighbourhood, and that he's going to be fine.

But Feran had just been declared dead on arrival at Kindi.

A utility races in - lights on, horn blaring. On the back, an old man sobs broken-heartedly. He cradles a small boy who seems lifeless, his eyes peering blankly from pools of his own blood; the rose-coloured stain on his white shirt is getting bigger and his tongue hangs from his mouth in a foamy mess.

His head is split open but there is no time to learn his story. He is wheeled into the hospital. A medical team takes one look at him, decides he needs services they can't provide and he is wheeled back out; into an ambulance that screeches off through the hospital gates, to another medical centre.

The utility gives chase, with the man on the back still in tears. And nobody has time for the two corpses next to him which have been locked in an intimate embrace by the movement of the vehicle.

Kindi's 12 operating theatres are in use around the clock. A haggard and tearful Dr Tarib Al Saddi stands outside the hospital, trying to have a break, hoping to compose himself as the wind whips at his soiled white coat.

"I have done 12 operations today - crushings, fractures and amputations. You see that these Americans are hitting civilians - their homes, their streets, their cars and even those who walk about. They hit anyone. One of the ambulance drivers says they have struck Al Yarmuk Hospital, so now we worry about a strike here."

Lips quivering and cheeks stained by his own tears, Dr Al Saddi goes on: "Everyone is anxious and angry, maybe I'm the only calm one here."

He locks onto a disconsolate woman in black, slumped against a wall. He makes me look at her beautiful face, into her tragic eyes, and says: "She was driving in the car with her 23-year-old son. They put a bullet in the head because he failed to stop at an American check-point."

The woman cuts in: "He was innocent. We were on our way home. Why do the Americans do this? God forgive them!"

Dr Al Saadi asks: "How can anyone who comes to liberate a country do this - lacerate and destroy our people? Do they really think that somehow after a few days this woman will love them?"

There is little talk of Saddam Hussein here.

Hazem Mohammed Jabeel, 37, feels the need to prompt his wounded seven-year-old son, Ayman, to give reporters a V-for-victory sign. And despite the fact that his wounded foot will be keeping him here for some time, Haroot Manouk, a 32-year-old fighter, wants to soldier on: "We'll show them, you'll see, all of you will see."

Surgeon Mohamed Kamil says there has been a marked change in the nature of Kindi's workload since the arrival of US troops in Baghdad at the weekend. "We're now getting not just shrapnel wounds, but pieces of people," he says. "These are wounds from missiles and rockets. They are amputations. They require more urgent surgery."

The numbers have been rising steadily at the hospital - today it received more than 200 injuries and 35 corpses. Six other hospitals serving the city report similar figures and now they are having the overflow from Iraq's hard-pressed military hospitals foisted on them.

Nothing prepares a visitor for the scene at the hospital morgue. I've been into several in Iraq now and I think I know what to expect - the bodies are always mangled, frequently burnt beyond recognition, but usually treated with as much dignity as each having its own cold metal tray allows.

But when the double refrigeration doors are opened on one of several buildings out the back at Kindi, there is just a pile on the floor - maybe 20 or 25 corpses; it is impossible to tell.

Some of the faces are scorched black. Some have their clothes ripped off, their intestine hanging out. Limbs protrude from the pile, lying across other corpses and it is impossible to tell who is who in this Dalian drama.

The traffic to and from the morgue is pitiable. Hospital orderlies wheel the dead in and families bring makeshift coffins to take the dead out.

And when a group of foreign cameraman moves in to film the scene, the four men charged with moving the bodies in and out of the morgue react badly, angrily chasing them away.

"Why are you taking photos? For Bush?" one of them yells, waving his arms. "Tell him to go to hell."

[starvingartist]

Why did you title this "a little reality for the day"? You also said this information one would not find on tv or in the news. Are you then eluding to the fact that if we do not see something, some event, etc we do not think it exist? I'm rather insulted by your post. I accept I do not see or read everything that goes on in this world. But I'm intelligent and mature enough to acknowledge this. And I do not live in a "fake" or "unreal" world. You say this information is a little reality well your right its only a little that does not encompass even half of all the events that make up the state in which we live in, which is in fact REAL.

[pumavisor808]

So if this is not from the TV or the news....then where is the info from???

Where did you get this "story" from?

[Drunk]

Originally posted by pumavisor808

So if this is not from the TV or the news....then where is the info from???

Where did you get this "story" from?

Sydney Morning Herald. . .

Civilian deaths were inevitable in any War. What matters more though is that the modern-day embodiment of Stalin, Hussein, can no longer cause more deaths on top of the million he's caused.

[kramadas]

Damn, some of you people need to calm the fuck down! First of all I did not say this is not from the "tv or news" - I said this is something not found "on tv or cnn.com". Since when did cnn.com mean *all news*?!?! Yeah, maybe I should have said "US TV"...but unless some of you are NOT from the US or are getting international satellite channels, then it is assumed that you ARE watching US tv. The Sydney Morning Herald is an AUSTRALIAN newspaper - just in case some of you need me to spell that out for you...I normally post the link too, but I forgot to in this case.

And maybe "a little reality for the day" was not the greatest title to pick either...maybe I should have labelled it the "dark side of reality". But you know what - for someone to get offended by something so small is, IMHO, just plain silly. And maybe it is only "little" for you, but not for the mother who lost her children, or the husband who lost his wife, or the boy who's arms are now missing...for you to call this "little" is the only offensive attitude here.

OK, bring it on!

[kramadas]

Originally posted by Drunk

Sydney Morning Herald. . .

Civilian deaths were inevitable in any War. What matters more though is that the modern-day embodiment of Stalin, Hussein, can no longer cause more deaths on top of the million he's caused.

I never said they weren't ... just wanted everyone to be aware of the deaths though, and not think everything was hunky dory.

[mrmatas2277]

Originally posted by raver_mania

Damn, some of you people need to calm the fuck down!

NO!!! FUCK YOU!!!

sorry i had too much coffee this morning....carry on;)

[frenchbread]

Originally posted by raver_mania

I never said they weren't ... just wanted everyone to be aware of the deaths though, and not think everything was hunky dory.

i agree with you...

all you see here in the states is people laughing...dancing...

they don't talk about the casualties...

everytime, a tv station, news building, or hospital is hit it's a "deplorable mistake"...

but best of all i think is how personally some people took your post...

i think that in itself is quite revelatory...

[kramadas]

Originally posted by mrmatas2277

NO!!! FUCK YOU!!!

sorry i had too much coffee this morning....carry on;)

I'm gonna need a lot of coffee this day...how do happy hours turn into drunk nights

[kramadas]

Originally posted by starvingartist

Why did you title this "a little reality for the day"? You also said this information one would not find on tv or in the news. Are you then eluding to the fact that if we do not see something, some event, etc we do not think it exist? I'm rather insulted by your post. I accept I do not see or read everything that goes on in this world. But I'm intelligent and mature enough to acknowledge this. And I do not live in a "fake" or "unreal" world. You say this information is a little reality well your right its only a little that does not encompass even half of all the events that make up the state in which we live in, which is in fact REAL.

Oh BTW, please re-read the first line of my original post..here it is for your convenience:

Here's a little dose of reality not shown on tv or reported on cnn.com...

since you want to get down to technicalities, that first line insinuates that the passage was a little dose of reality NOT FOUND on tv or cnn.com...never once suggests that what YOU read or are exposed to is fantasy!

[mrmatas2277]

Originally posted by raver_mania

how do happy hours turn into drunk nights

one word: Vicman

[cintron]

In War, People Die.

this war isn't exclusive in the fact that children and mothers and fathers die, and tragedies happen. wherever there's light, there's also a shadow. But the "glass is half empty" attitude isn't doing anything except hurting peeps.

Yet that won't stop others from celebrating the fact that it's [mostly] over.

Should we feel bad about stories like this, yeah i think so.

Am i going to stop my day and mourn the death of these people? not really.

If I did, then i should also be mourning the thousands of other people who die each second around the world. Murdered or Raped or Beaten or Tortured...

it's a part of the bittersweet story of life, but at least these people have a future. We will give them food and water, safety, shelter and try to help form for them a government that will continue to provide these things and hey that's considerably more than they were getting for the past 12 years.

[sassa]

Originally posted by cintron

In War, People Die.

this war isn't exclusive in the fact that children and mothers and fathers die, and tragedies happen. wherever there's light, there's also a shadow. But the "glass is half empty" attitude isn't doing anything except hurting peeps.

Yet that won't stop others from celebrating the fact that it's [mostly] over.

Should we feel bad about stories like this, yeah i think so.

Am i going to stop my day and mourn the death of these people? not really.

If I did, then i should also be mourning the thousands of other people who die each second around the world. Murdered or Raped or Beaten or Tortured...

it's a part of the bittersweet story of life, but at least these people have a future. We will give them food and water, safety, shelter and try to help form for them a government that will continue to provide these things and hey that's considerably more than they were getting for the past 12 years.

...and then they will exploit the iraqis until they have squeezed out every dollar they can from this impoverished, desparate land....the US made $30B from the last gulf war, i wonder how much they'll make now...

[mr mahs]

Exploit them like we did the Kuwaiti's???

In 91 it was funded by ALLIES like Japan and England, you obviously don't know anything about the Unites States Economy. Our economy pumps out 3 trillion dollars and your implying we actually drastically benefited from that net.. This countries throws billions around like I tip bartenders and you think we needed it.. so that's why we went to war in 91?

Will some of our companies land some big fat contracts

YOU BET YA rightfully so for liberating them but we were def not starving.. I love to see you drag the conspiracy theory in your 1 sided post.. The poeople are free, we R finding WMD sites and SADAM IS GONE FROM POWER..

[sassa]

Originally posted by mr mahs

Exploit them like we did the Kuwaiti's???

In 91 it was funded by ALLIES like Japan and England, you obviously don't know anything about the Unites States Economy. Our economy pumps out 3 trillion dollars and your implying we actually drastically benefited from that net.. This countries throws billions around like I tip bartenders and you think we needed it.. so that's why we went to war in 91?

Will some of our companies land some big fat contracts

YOU BET YA rightfully so for liberating them but we were def not starving.. I love to see you drag the conspiracy theory in your 1 sided post.. The poeople are free, we R finding WMD sites and SADAM IS GONE FROM POWER..

please. how much in net assets did the US economy generate in the past 2 years? where is your proof it is around this amount? i know countries throw billions around, so do many individuals...

i didn't say that's the sole reason they're there, there are a lot of factors, elaborate as many are, around to consider. you are just assuming...

you cannot deny they're going to make a nice profit from all this, why would they go there if it wasn't going to give them some demand...you can never do anything without expecting anything in return...especially in economics/politics...

the iraqi people are just going to go from one bs situation to another...yeah, you see people cheering but who wouldn't, especially since saddam really was a freak...don't tell me you think these people are going to embrace the americans and what the represent entirely? no way...their values are too different...they will show gratitude, who wouldn't....but they won't change for the american military, or bush...but i guess at this point, they will have to kneel down to another powerful entity: the US...just another vassel state it will become...just like the US has bitch whipped so many other states into control...or so they think...

i am sure the majority would see this if they were to understand the perspectives of other people...but being in this country, you can be blinded from a lot of things...sadly...

anyways...

[starvingartist]

Originally posted by raver_mania

Oh BTW, please re-read the first line of my original post..here it is for your convenience:

Here's a little dose of reality not shown on tv or reported on cnn.com...

since you want to get down to technicalities, that first line insinuates that the passage was a little dose of reality NOT FOUND on tv or cnn.com...never once suggests that what YOU read or are exposed to is fantasy!

Well then pardon me for misinterpreting your post. I just felt as if you were trying to make an erroneous statement of how the public is somehow "blind" and "ignorant" to the tragedies of war because we do not understand the biases of the media we are exposed to. Maybe I am wrong for giving the common individual "too much credit" for thinking that most understand that war is in fact bloody, brutal, and unfair. Yes mothers, children, and innocent will die and just because we do not see this in our everday news coverage it does not mean that it hasnt happened. I believe most people with even the faintest hint of common sense can grasp this simple concept. This is why I was somewhat offended by your post. Because I feel you are underestimating our intelligence and our sensitivity towards mankind. Yes reality is not perfect. Oh and trust me I did not lose any sleep over your comment, hehe.

[starvingartist]

Originally posted by frenchbread

i agree with you...

all you see here in the states is people laughing...dancing...

they don't talk about the casualties...

everytime, a tv station, news building, or hospital is hit it's a "deplorable mistake"...

but best of all i think is how personally some people took your post...

i think that in itself is quite revelatory...

You my ignorant friend are suffering from a bad case of misguided anti american sentiment. How can you possibly say that "all you see in teh states is people laughing and dancing". Are you kidding me? There are millions of people who are in fact anti-war who have also protested on the very streets and sidewalks of "the states". Death is no "laughing" and "dancing" matter. Please give people a little more credit then grouping them into one large group of hateful, niave, insensitive, and careless beings. And please refrain from labeling this group "Americans" or people from the states. Its called stereotyping. And its wrong.

[frenchbread]

Originally posted by starvingartist

You my ignorant friend are suffering from a bad case of misguided anti american sentiment. How can you possibly say that "all you see in teh states is people laughing and dancing". Are you kidding me? There are millions of people who are in fact anti-war who have also protested on the very streets and sidewalks of "the states". Death is no "laughing" and "dancing" matter. Please give people a little more credit then grouping them into one large group of hateful, niave, insensitive, and careless beings. And please refrain from labeling this group "Americans" or people from the states. Its called stereotyping. And its wrong.

lollol...

calm down there starvingartist...

you again jumped the gun, and took everything the wrong way...

what i said was refering to the original post and noting that "all you see here in the states [in the media] is people laughing and dancing in the streets [of baghdad]"...(i even quoted raver_mania...go back and look at my post)...

raver_mania was giving a "dose of reality" by showing one of the bad side of this conflict that is not shown in the media...

and i was just agreeing with him that "here in the states, all you see is people laughing and dancing" as opposed to the people described in his post, suffering and dying...

why do you take everything so personnally?...

and i am not anti-american...i am american...

i know there are many people that are anti-war and that protested in the streets...i am one of them right here in beautiful nyc...

[mr mahs]

Originally posted by sassa

please. how much in net assets did the US economy generate in the past 2 years? where is your proof it is around this amount? i know countries throw billions around, so do many individuals...

i didn't say that's the sole reason they're there, there are a lot of factors, elaborate as many are, around to consider. you are just assuming...

you cannot deny they're going to make a nice profit from all this, why would they go there if it wasn't going to give them some demand...you can never do anything without expecting anything in return...especially in economics/politics...

the iraqi people are just going to go from one bs situation to another...yeah, you see people cheering but who wouldn't, especially since saddam really was a freak...don't tell me you think these people are going to embrace the americans and what the represent entirely? no way...their values are too different...they will show gratitude, who wouldn't....but they won't change for the american military, or bush...but i guess at this point, they will have to kneel down to another powerful entity: the US...just another vassel state it will become...just like the US has bitch whipped so many other states into control...or so they think...

i am sure the majority would see this if they were to understand the perspectives of other people...but being in this country, you can be blinded from a lot of things...sadly...

anyways...

Do the Kuwaiti's "kneel down to another powerful entity"??

You claim that we will exploit the Iraqi's but when I give you an example of another country that we liberated and did not exploit you dodge the question....

Name one country we went in and forced our values after war.

Japan? WRONG! Germany? WRONG Afghanistan? WRONG!

Your argumant holds no weight except what you assume will happen. We understand they have their culture that's why the interim government will be led by Iraqi's until a governement can be selected by the Iraqi's.

I really have to say that I have never met anyone with such a prejudice against the U.S. that is just so 1960 pro- hippie, the american just an imperialist machine way of thinking that makes YOU sound very ignorant. I constantly hear you play down what was accomplished in Iraq why? I bet now your buddies in high places in the middle east realise that the party is over and the governement actually has to give a shit about it's people.. Are you a socialist? do you beleive capitalism is evil? I just want to know seriously.. Cheer up baby the Iraqi's are free and the world is a better place...

[kramadas]

Central and South America - 80's - School of the Americas...

Oh, BTW, Afghanistan is not a success story (yet?) - just the same way, it'd be wrong for me to call it a failure, its wrong for you to call it a success....time will tell.

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