by James Glaser
November 10, 2005

First off, it is hard when you know, every day more and more people worldwide, hate the United States and sad to say, Americans too. It used to be that people hated our government, but loved the American people, but the American people have stood by for way too long, and watched as our government continues to be the bully of the world.

The rest of the world assumes that we read and watch the same news that they do, and therefore, we should know what Washington is doing in our names. They have no idea of what our government and media keep from us, and if it wasn't for the internet, we would all be living blind here in North America.

I remember when I lived on the Canadian border in Northern Minnesota, and we could get Canadian television. Many times there would be interviews with Soviet officials, and they would be in the US at some university, talking about how they could not get on American television news shows because Washington would not allow it, but Canada would put them on. Many of these people were very boring and I doubt if they would have swayed US public opinion, however Washington wasn't going to take that chance.

The same thing is going on today with things that happen in Iraq and Afghanistan. Phil Sands, writes for the "Scotsman," out of Edinburgh, it is called, Scotland's National Newspaper. Sands writes about Hameed Hassan, an Iraqi, who was on the way to a small market in Rawah, Iraq with his family. Their car came under fire from American troops and a helicopter gunship, "cutting the car and two of its occupants to pieces."

Sands describes how Hassan's wife was killed instantly and how his youngest son Mahmoud Muhsin, had his abdomen torn open, "a wound that would prove fatal." Hassan told how the soldiers drove off, leaving the family in the street.

Here is the kicker and what really pisses the rest of the world off. "The US military has not apologized for the incident. But it has agreed to pay compensation for the killings, an acceptance that innocent lives were lost.

Now we in America will never see this story on our nightly news, or in our papers, but the rest of the world will. And they will know that America won't even keep a count of the number of innocent Iraqis we kill. As an American General announced to the world. "We don't do body counts." And now the world knows we don't apologize either.... even when we kill a man's wife and child.

In the report, Sargeant Jeffery Murbarak, "a 37-year-old veteran of four US wars, is one of the soldiers processing compensation in Rawah." Murbarak says, "Do I think we're paying the man enough money, No, I don't, but I just work here. I don't set the rates."

People the world over know what our government paid for innocent people killed in the World Trade Center attack, and they look at the fact that we will pay a maximum of $2,500 for an innocent dead Iraqi wife or a innocent dead Iraqi child we have killed. That tells them what we think of the people we claim to be out to help.

Sands' report goes on to tell how America has paid out $100,000 in claims over the last two months, just in Rawah.

"In one incident, seven civilians were killed and five wounded when 25 high explosive mortars were fired on a Bedouin pastoral area: a total of $30,000 was paid out to families.

Think about your wife, child, parent, or best friend getting killed by US Troops and then they turn around and give you $2,500, if you can prove that we did it. This is the kind of reporting the rest of the world is getting. American media won't even show a wounded American soldier, they sure aren't going to show us dead Iraqi kids.

So, again another generation of Americans will only know what war is like from Hollywood movies, and the real horrors we inflict on the rest of the world will remain hidden from the American people.