Beyond Resistance

Baghdad, Iraq -- "Why do you keep asking about the closing of the Fallujah hospital?" my Iraqitranslator asks in exasperation. I explain that this is big news, and it hasn't really been reported inEnglish. He looks at me, incredulous; all Iraqis know about it.

When the United States began the siege of Fallujah, it targeted civilians in several ways. The powerstation was bombed; perhaps even more important, the bridge across the Euphrates was closed. Fallujah's mainhospital stands on the western bank of the river; almost the entirety of the town is on the east side.Although the hospital was not technically closed, no doctor who actually believes in the Hippocratic oath isgoing to sit in an empty hospital while people are dying in droves on the other bank of the river.

So the doctors shut down the hospital, took the limited supplies and equipment they could carry, andstarted working at a small three-room outpatient clinic, doing operations on the ground and losing patientsbecause of the inadequacy of the setup. This event was not reported in English until April 14, when the bridgewas reopened.

In Najaf, the Spanish-language "Plus Ultra" garrison closed the al-Sadr Teaching Hospital roughlya week ago (as of yesterday, it remained closed). [This report was written on April 19 -- ed]

With 200 doctors, the hospital (formerly the Saddam Hussein Teaching Hospital) is one of the most importantin Iraq. Troops entered and gave the doctors two hours to leave, allowing them to take only personal items --no medical equipment. The reason given was that the hospital overlooks the Plus Ultra's base, and that theroof could be used by resistance snipers.

Al-Arabiya has also reported that in Qaim, a small town near the Syrian border where fighting recentlybroke out, that the hospital had been closed, with American snipers positioned atop nearby buildings.

The United States has also impeded the operation of hospitals in other ways. Although the first Westernreports of U.S. snipers shooting at ambulancescaused something of a furor, two days ago at a press conference the Iraqi Minister of Health, Khudair Abbas,confirmed that U.S. forces had shot at ambulances not just in Fallujah but also in Sadr City, the sprawlingslum in East Baghdad. He condemned the acts and said he had asked for an explanation from his superiors, theGoverning Council and Paul Bremer.

There are also persistent claims that after an outbreak of hostilities American soldiers visit hospitalsasking for information about the wounded, with the intent of removing potential resistance members andinterrogating them. Nomaan Hospital in Aadhamiyah and Yarmouk Hospital in Yarmouk (both areas of Baghdad) gotvisits from U.S. forces in the first days after the fighting in Fallujah started -- the lion's share ofevacuated wounded from Fallujah were taken to those two hospitals. Doctors generally resist being turned intoinformants for the occupation; one doctor actually told me that he has many times discharged people straightfrom the emergency room, with inadequate time to recuperate, just to keep them out of military custody. As hesaid, "They are my countrymen. How can I hold them for the Americans?"

While the American media talks of the great restraint and "pinpoint precision" of the Americanattack, over 700 people, at least half of them civilians, have been killed in Fallujah. And, according to theMinistry of Health, in the last two weeks, at least 290 were killed in other cities, over 30 of them children.Many of those who died because of the hospital closures will never be added in to the final tally of the"liberation. "

By any reasonable standard, these hospital closings (and, of course, the shooting at ambulances) are warcrimes. However afraid the Plus Ultra garrison may have been of attack from the rooftops, they didn't have toclose the hospital; they could simply have screened entrants. In the case of Fallujah, it's clear that one ofthe reasons the mujahideen were willing to talk about ceasefire was to get the hospital open again; in effect,the United States was holding civilians (indirectly) hostage for military ends.

After an earlier article about attacks on ambulances, many people wrote to ask why U.S. forces would dothis -- it conflicted with the image they wanted to have of the U.S. military. Were they just trying tomassacre civilians? And, if so, why?

In fact, it's fairly simple: the United States has its military goals and simply does not care how manyIraqi civilians have to be killed in order to maximize the military efficiency of their operations. A seniorBritish army commander recently criticized the Americans for viewing the Iraqis as Untermenschen -- a lowerorder of human being. He also said the average soldier views all Iraqis as enemies or potential enemies. Thatis precisely the case. I have heard the same thing from dozens of people here -- "They don't care whathappens to Iraqis."

Although this relatively indiscriminate killing of civilians may serve American military ends -- keepingthe ratio of enemy dead to American soldiers dead as high as possible -- in terms of political ends, it is adisaster. It is very difficult to explain to an Iraqi that a man fighting from his own town with a Kalashnikovor RPG launcher is a "coward" and a "war criminal" (because, apparently, he should go outinto the desert and wait to be annihilated from the sky) but that someone dropping 2000-pound bombs onresidential areas or shooting at ambulances because they may have guns in them (even though they usuallydon't) is a hero and is following the laws of war.

When I was here in January, there was a pervasive atmosphere of discontent, frustration, and anger with theoccupation. But most people were still just trying to ride it out, stay patient, and hope that thingsimproved. The wanton brutality of the occupation has at long last put an end to that patience.

Before, the occupation might have succeeded -- not in building real democracy, which was never the goal,but in cementing U.S. control of Iraq.

It cannot succeed now. The resistance in Fallujah will be beaten down, with the commission of more warcrimes; if the United States invades Najaf, it will be able to win militarily there as well. But from now on,no military victory will make Iraqis stop resisting.

Doctors from four hospitals in Baghdad were interviewed in compiling this report; all asked that theirnames be left out.

Rahul Mahajan is the publisher of the weblog Empirenotesand is currently writing and blogging from Iraq. His latest book is Full Spectrum Dominance: U.S. Power inIraq and Beyond.