Is This What We Are Fighting For?
A 14-year-old boy has been shot by Iraqi police officers for the apparent crime of being gay, the Independent of London reported.
According to his neighbors in Baghdad’s al-Dura district, Ahmed Khalil was shot at point-blank range after a scuffle with the police.
Ali Hili, an exiled gay Iraqi who is Middle East affairs spokesman for the London gay rights group OutRage! said, “According to a neighbor, who witnessed Ahmed’s execution from his bedroom window, four uniformed police officers arrived at Ahmed’s house in a four-wheel-drive police pick-up truck.”
“The neighbor saw the police drag Ahmed out of the house and shoot him at point-blank range, pumping two bullets into his head and several more bullets into the rest of his body.”
Hili claimed that Ahmed was a “victim of poverty” and apparently killed by “fundamentalist elements in the Iraqi police.”
It is believed Ahmed slept with men for money to support his poverty-stricken family. They have since fled the area. (source)
You know, since I’ve returned from Europe, I have avoided the news. I have tried to avoid it on TV and have not read newspapers to any great extent. But I can’t seem to get this story out of my mind, and I guess at this point, I’m sorry I read it. But now that I have and my mind keeps dwelling on it, I will say something about it.
I guess the real burning question in my mind is... well, there are a few.
What was it like for this child (yes, he was a child of only 14 years old), to be dragged out in front of his home and executed by none other than the police - the people who are supposed to protect citizens? The same police that WE PUT IN POWER!
Will there be more of this to come?
Will the United States do one damn thing about it?
And finally, and this is the big question, Is this what we are defending? Is this the “democracy” that we are so proud of putting in place?
Please tell me that this isn’t the best we can do, because if it is, my President, his administration, and our Congress have done a horrible disservice to our men and women in uniform, our country, and to the spirit of democracy itself.
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I know. I believe that the Bush Administration is the most corrupt administration since Richard Nixon's Administration. In fact, more so. Nixon didn't get away with breaking the law. President Bush openly ignores the law (wire tapping of U.S. citizens without a court order), spending like there is no tomorrow (maybe he knows something we don't). And his answer to give Americans relief at the gas pump is to tap into our reserves. Those reserves are there for a reason, and that reason is not to gloss over incompetence. On top of that, Congress proposes to give every American family $100 in gas relief. Give me a break!
I don't believe a thing this administration says anymore. But more than that, I don't trust Congress and all the back-room deals. And all, ALL, at our expense.
And nothing is more important to this administration than their end goals. They don't care about people like this 14 year old youth or the fact that the government that is replacing Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq is just a tyrannical to the people of Iraq. If you don't believe that, just ask the family of this 14 year old youth, if they are still alive, that is.
It's really hard to feel good about being an American with this incompetent loser running the country.
This is just sickening. Not like I had any hope for a democratic Iraq. But we are wasting lives in the hope of some miraculous turnaround that doesn't have a chance.
"Meet the new Saddam, same as the old Saddam".
See, what you've got to realize is that everything...EVERYTHING that comes out of Bush's piehole and this mis-Administration is a lie. Pure and simple. If Bush says "white," he means black. If he says "good," it means bad. "Love" is "Hate," "Peace" is "War," and "Democracy" is "Dictatorship." That's how you decipher what the Repugs really have in mind.