May 26, 2013, by Blue Bird, 121Contact
It is the 26th of May, 2013 in Baghdad, Iraq. In one neighborhood the streets are quiet under a blanket of fear. People are talking to each other by phone, passing the news from one house to another.
After sister called we called whoever we could. Voices weak with trembling, or loud and angry, or shrieking in despair—and some flat—without emotion…
“They took 2 young men, the only sons of their family, from their home. Kidnapped and killed them. They killed them right there in the street. They left their bodies in the street. Who can do this? Why is this?”
“There is a special squad moving around. You don’t know when they will stopping you in the street. You don’t know why…on what basis. Maliki gave them permission because Fallujah, Ramadi.”
“The government gangs are roaming the streets here. No one will go out. The children are locked in the houses.”
“Yazid’s father called him. He told him not to go out of the house. They argued for a while and then Yazid just became quiet. Since this call he has a bad diarrhea. He won’t talk to me or to the boys.”
“The street is silent now. Too quiet. Do you know what I mean? Can you feel me? What life is this?”
[We can’t find anything about this in the media. Is Baghdad still in the world?]
issued a report this week calling
for fundamental reforms in US drone policies, surfacing sharp differences in official circles in response to widespread questioning
and protest. Micah Zenko writes in the 