Cathy Breen
Voices in the Wilderness
Baghdad
Thursday, September 11

Dear Friends,

I must say I am not sad to miss the September 11th commemoration events in the U.S. today. Quite the contrary. To keep fear alive and continue to fan the fires of the war on terrorism in the states and around the world is, I believe, our government’s main objective presently.

An example of this is President Bush’s request for 87 billion dollars, more than all 50 states need to finance their own budget shortfalls. In an article on 9/9/03 in a Nashville paper, Mike Allen (a Washington Post staff writer) writes: “A day after using a prime-time television address to reveal his $87 billion budget for the war on terrorism next year, Bush and his aides said the stakes in Iraq are so grave that they should dwarf any diplomatic disagreements or skepticism about the costs. “Def. Secty. Donald H. Rumsfeld warned that to oppose the plan would be to coddle terrorists.” Allen continues that in a fundraiser in Nashville Bush said “Terrorists declared war on the United States in America, and war is what they’ve got.” The enemies of freedom are not idle, and neither is America.”

By Cathy Breen
Voices in the Wilderness
Baghdad

Dear Friends,

The last two nights on the roof have been restless ones. Last night especially the roar of helicopters and planes nearby was unrelenting. So were the sounds of gunshots and explosions. It was obvious that something was going down, and the tension in the neighborhood was palpable. I got up this morning feeling tired and unnerved.

This past Friday 9 Iraqi police (trained by coalition forces) were shot and killed in Faluja by American soldiers. In white and blue police vehicles, the police were chasing 2 thieves in a BMW. Killed by “friendly fire” was the term the media used. As one “accident” after another of this type occur, one is left speechless. This event unleashed a call for revenge from the townspeople of Faluja. The next day we heard that 2 Amercian soldiers were killed and 5 wounded. Daily we hear personal accounts of car bombs being placed around the city, of carjackings and kidnappings. There is not a person we speak with who hasn’t been affected by the violence. We are sitting on a time bomb!

Planes and helicopters fly low overhead. Tanks appear periodically driving down the street. The city of Baghdad is militarized and yet no one is safe.