By Anna Bachmann
Voices in the Wilderness
Baghdad
April 18, 2004

I went to the University to teach today.

After this past week’s violence in Fallujah when so many Iraqis died at the hands of Americans, I had some trepidation about facing the students. I know I am not personally responsible for the actions of the U.S. Military, but I’m still an American. And my government approves of what is going on. I know that American soldiers killed civilians, they fired upon ambulances, they didn’t allow the hospitals to work properly and they refused to let some civilians evacuate. My friends, the people that I live with, were there and I trust their eye-witness accounts.

There is a deep well of anger that has been created in Iraqis over what has happened in Fallujah. Would the students blame me? Do they have friends and relatives who have been hurt in Fallujah? Did they, like many in Baghdad, participate in the huge out welling of aid and support that was offered to the people of Fallujah in the wake of the U.S. offensive against the town? Will they hold me accountable for the actions of my Nation?