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The Monster is Coming

31 March 03

Dear Friends,

Since the last update, several of our people have left Iraq, most of them
ordered out of the country by Iraqi officials. Many if them were in Iraq as
volunteers for the Chicago based Christian Peacemaker Teams. An
Associated Press report of the expulsion and team's eventful journey to
Jordan follows.

We have had almost no contact with our team in Baghdad over the last few
days. However, an email from Kathy Kelly managed to find its way to our
inbox this morning:

"Cathy Breen and I visited Amal at the home of her friends, having heard
that her home had been further destroyed by ongoing bombing. She then
took us to her house which faces the river, graced by a garden where
flowers are blossoming. Picking our way through broken glass at the
entrance, we entered what was once one of the most well appointed homes
in Baghdad. The rooms are in disarray. Several walls are cracked, the
windows are all shattered, and a thick layer of dust and grime covers the
exposed furniture, books, carpets and floors.

"'It was my silly feeling,' Amal said matter-of-factly, 'that this will not
happen. I did not move anything.' She emphasized several times that
neighbors could have removed everything, in the past two days. 'The
house is open. The whole area knows about it. But nobody moved
anything.' Amal wasn’t in her home when the windows shattered and the
doors were blown out. 'By chance, that night, I forgot my key and for that
reason I stayed with my friends.' Ten minutes after we arrived at her home,
the US began bombing. 'They are starting it again," sighed Amal. "We
should go very quickly.'

"We rejoined Amal’s friends, two sisters who, like Amal, are elderly,
scholarly, staunch, and furious. I first met them in the summer of 2002,
when they invited me to tell a gathering of two dozen or so Iraqi friends
about my experiences, in April 2001, inside the Jenin Camp, in the West
Bank, just after Israeli troops had destroyed hundreds of homes in a
civilian neighborhood, using overwhelming military force. Amal and her
friends were deeply angered when I showed them enlarged pictures of
homes in the Jenin Camp that were reduced to rubble. They said they’ve
always felt intense grief for the Palestinians who’ve suffered under
occupation. It was unthinkable, then, that Amal herself would become
homeless and face life under occupation less than a
year later.

"'It is so unfair,' said Amal. 'From the simplest people to the highest
people, all have suffered.' Later that night, we learned that Voice of
America radio had confirmed that an Iraqi military officer approached a US
military checkpoint in Iraq appearing to be a cab driver wishing to
surrender. The driver detonated a load of explosives inside the cab,
killing himself and four US soldiers.

"Amal has paid a high price for guessing wrongly about whether or not the
US would wage a massive attack against Iraq. She didn’t bother to
safeguard her impressive collection of valuable artwork, books, and other
belongings. She and her friends aren’t guessing now. They are positive that
US warmakers will pay a lethal and grisly price for any attempts to overtake
and occupy Iraq. 'We will lose the battle, but the US is not the winner,' she
vowed. 'The children talk about the monster coming. We will push back
the monster, with our hands.'"

We will continue you send you updates on our teams staus and experience
inside Iraq.

All my best,

Jeff Guntzel, for Voices in the Wilderness

*****

Peace activists confirm Iraqi hospital bombed

Charles J. Hanley, AP Special Correspondent, Associated Press

30 March 2003

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) - Bruised and bleeding, in need of medical care, the
Americans stranded in Iraq's western desert approached the mud-brick
town and found the hospital destroyed by bombs.

"Why? Why?" a doctor demanded of them. "Why did you Americans bomb
our children's hospital?" Scores of Iraqi townspeople crowded around.

The American peace activists' account was the first confirmation of a report
last week that a hospital in Rutbah was bombed Wednesday, with dead and
injured. The travelers said they saw no significant Iraqi military presence
near the hospital or elsewhere in Rutbah. The doctor did not discuss
casualties, the Americans said.

U.S. Central Command said Sunday it had no knowledge of a hospital
bombing in Rutbah. The U.S. military has said it is doing its best to avoid
civilian casualties in its campaign to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

For the battered band of peace activists, recounting their nerve-jarring exit
from Iraq on Sunday, it was one of the worst moments in 10 days of war.

That exit had begun at 9:15 a.m. Saturday, when a dozen foreigners - eight
American and one Irish member of the Iraq Peace Team, and three
unaffiliated Japanese and South Korean activists - set out from Baghdad on
the 300-mile trek to the western border with Jordan, through a nation at war.

Members of the antiwar group have shuttled in and out of the Iraqi capital for
months to take part in vigils, small demonstrations and other activities to
protest U.S. war plans. Since March 20, they have borne witness and
compiled reports on the U.S. bombing of Baghdad.

Some who left Saturday had been ordered out by jittery Iraqi bureaucrats for
a minor infraction - taking snapshots in Baghdad without an official escort.
Others said they left to get out the story of the Baghdad bombing.

The journey was a straight shot through the gritty western desert, the Badiyat
ash-Sham, over a divided superhighway eerily empty of traffic. American
special forces and warplanes have been staging raids and air attacks on
isolated targets across the west.

"I'd say we passed up to 20 bombed-out, burned-out vehicles along the
way," said Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, 22, a student from Devon, Pa. Four
were Iraqi tanks and other military vehicles, he said, but the others
appeared to be civilian, including a bus and an ambulance.

"We had to detour around a bombed-out bridge, dodge lightpoles down
across the road," said Shane Claiborne, 27, a community organizer from
Philadelphia.

Three times the group - in a big white GMC Suburban and two yellow taxis -
spotted bomb explosions nearby. The last, in early afternoon, occurred near
the far-western town of Rutbah. Their Iraqi drivers' nerves were fraying as
they sped toward Jordan at 80 mph.

"He kept going faster, faster," Betty Scholten, 69, of Mount Rainier, Md., said
of her driver.

Suddenly the lagging taxi, pushing to catch up, blew a tire. It careened, spun
out of control and plunged down a ditch, landing on its side. "It was a heavy
hit," Claiborne said. All five men inside were hurt. "We pulled each other up
through the side doors."

A passing car eventually braked to a halt. The Iraqis inside got out, helped
the injured into their vehicle and drove back toward Rutbah and a hospital.
Along the way, Claiborne said, he spotted the contrails of a jet streaking
toward the car. The Iraqis frantically waved a white sheet out a window, and
the plane veered off, he said.

In poor, remote Rutbah, a burned-out oil tanker truck sat in the road, and the
customs building and communications center had been wrecked by
bombing. When they reached the hospital, they saw it, too, had been
bombed, its roof caved in.

Claiborne said an English-speaking Iraqi doctor took them to a small
nearby clinic, and 100 or so townspeople then gathered around the building.
The men were worried, but the doctor told them, "We'll take care of you.
Muslim, Christian, whatever, we are all brothers and sisters,'" Claiborne
recalled.

The staff tended to them, stitching up a scalp laceration for group leader Cliff
Kindy, 53, of North Manchester, Ind., and doing their best for the worst hurt,
Weldon Nisly, 57, of Seattle, who suffered cracked ribs and similar injuries.

The two other carloads, missing the third, eventually doubled back and
found the men in Rutbah. All then ventured onward the final 80 miles to the
Jordan border, and then Amman, where Nisly was admitted to a hospital
early Sunday.

As they left Rutbah, said Wilson-Hartgrove's wife, Leah, 22, the villagers
"said to us, 'Please tell them about the hospital.'"

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"Left to the little ones"

28 March 2003

Dear Friends,

Wednesday's New York Times ran a full color photo of an unsettling
communion.  Sitting stiffly at a  table was former Defense Secretary Robert
McNamara,  a man for whom the word "quagmire" - a word recently
resurrected by war pundits - has a deep and unforgiving meaning.  
Reaching over his left shoulder to shake his hand was current Secretary of
Defense, Donald Rumsfeld.  There were smiles all around.  Divorced from
its context, the picture suggests all is well.  

The American writer Robert Bly wrote a poem during the Vietnam War
condemning the indifference with which American war makers  - like
McNamara during the Vietnam War and Rumsfeld today - went about the
business of war.  Men like these "are not men," Bly wrote, "they are bombs
waiting to be loaded in a darkened hanger."

But really the war makers in Washington are no more bombs than they are
men (or women). Unlike a bomb, the hawks in the Bush Administration will
never be any closer to the battlefield than the television or a stack of
briefings and newspaper clippings can bring them.  They do not smell the
corpses rotting in the desert sun.  They do not hear the explosions and the
screams. They go home each night to their loved ones, their kitchen tables
and their beds.  And they probably sleep.

Meanwhile, millions of Iraqis and hundreds of thousands of soldiers thrust
deep inside a complex and far away land cannot walk away from the war
each night at dinner time.

We didn't hear from our people in Baghdad today.  We hope the lapse in
communication is temporary.  But we know that the fighting drags on in Iraq
and the bombs continue to fall and explode and kill.  

More than 50 civilians were killed today when bombs fell on a market in
Baghdad's Shula neighborhood.  Earlier an exploding bomb fell so close to
the Palestine hotel - which houses most of the foreign journalists reporting
from Baghdad - that the entire building shook violently.  The Palestine is just
across a narrow road from two of the three IPT hotels.  

Still, as IPT member Martin Edwards wrote earlier this week, "there does not
seem much cause for alarm. The bombing has been increasing gradually
since the first strikes several days ago, around 5:30 am. We have set up a
system of 2 hour watches from 10 pm to 6 am so at least some of us (those,
like me, who can relax and sleep through almost anything, particularly if we
can relax because we know the individual(s) on watch, will wake us if we
need to take further action to protect ourselves) can catch a few ours of
much valued sleep. Our biggest danger, at present, is from random pieces
of shrapnel falling on the neighborhood from anti-aircraft shells exploding
periodically overhead. But many of us, instead of sensibly seeking cover,
are out under the stars, watching the fiery spectacle unfold around and
above us.

"The most amazing aspect of this is that as we walk the streets of the
neighborhood, in groups of two to ten, even during periods when American
bombs are falling in the distance, with American led forces advancing on
their city, the local residents continue a pattern of heartfelt/heart-melting
friendliness and hospitality toward us."

Though we have not connected with IPT today, we know they are out seeing
what they can see and preparing reports and reflections to send back
home.  But IPT member Neville Watson from Australia reminds us:

"It must not be thought ... that the Peace Team is simply about on-site
reporting. There are all too many of those kind of reporters around. Their
task is to report what they see so that their corporate masters can decide
what others should see. With a few exceptions they are interested only in
sound bites and superficial selective reporting. It is left to the 'little ones' like
Voices in the Wilderness and the Iraq Peace Team to report it as it is. War
remains for us the prime cause of human suffering, not only in acts done but
in budgets spent. The initial cost of waging this war was set yesterday at 74
billion dollars and this is the down payment. We see war as stupid. There is
nothing on this planet that does more to create human misery than war."

We will be in touch again as soon as there is any news from our people in
Baghdad.

Thanks, as always, for all that you are doing to create a more just and
compassionate world.

All my best,

Jeff Guntzel, for Voices in the Wilderness

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"Amal, dear friend..."

26 March 2003

Dear Friends,

I had written a rather lengthy update and was ready to send it out when I
received an email from IPT member Cathy Breen in Iraq. Sometimes
brevity is best. This is one of those times. Know that our team in Baghdad is
safe and working hard.

All my best,

Jeff Guntzel

"Amal, dear friend"

By Cathy Breen

March 27, 2003

Amal, dear friend, I visited your once lovely home today. How heavy your
heart is. I can sense your despair and deep sadness, and I am so helpless
to console you. Glass is everywhere shattered and strewn about, the
windows and doors now gaping holes for the raging wind and sand to enter.
Had it been by natural forces it would be easier to bear. But this destruction
is cruel and senseless. Worse yet it is premeditated and purposeful. Its
name is war.

How bitter for you, Amal, you who have given so much to so many. How
harsh and cruel for you who cherish beauty and safeguard it for everyone to
enjoy.

As we walk together over shards of glass, everything looks dismal covered
in layers of sand. Curtains torn and rent and beloved belongings no longer
where they should be. But then nothing is as it should be. As we make our
way from room to room and through the garden area alongside the river, the
jarring boom of bombs tell us that the destruction is not over.

Oh Amal, you whose name means hope. I beg you not to give up, but to
hold fast to hope.

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Dark Days

25 March 2003

Dear Friends,

I doubt many people in Iraq heard the ominous comic book assertion this morning from U.S. Central Command that there were "Dark days ahead for the dark side" in Iraq.  A quick glance at the news this evening suggests that the "dark days" are here...for all sides.

In the Summer of 2000, members of Voices in the Wilderness lived for two months with poor families in the Jumhuriyah neighborhood of Basra. Reflecting on her first night in Basra, Lauren Cannon wrote:

"Summer in Basra - nightmare fears leaping into the everyday lives of innocents who've already endured close to two decades of military and economic warfare. Summer in Basra - a world of imprisoned beauty where we feel no threat. Who does Iraq threaten? Lets be honest. Iraq threatens the US ability to control Iraq's precious and irreplaceable resources."

Kathy Kelly added:

"As thousands of children are sacrificed because of this perceived threat to US security, the US earns a fearsome reputation as the rogue superpower. We feel sure that families here in Jumhuriyah will teach us a new kind of security based on sharing, simplicity and care for others' needs."

Tonight the good people of Basra are without electricity and many are without water as tank barrels stare in at them from the outside edges of the city.  There are reports of "incidents" inside the city that some are saying is an uprising.  Who knows what the future holds.

Meanwhile CNN is saying there will be some 1,400 air missions over Iraq in the next 24 hours.  Little gets in the way of "Shock & Awe."  Bettejo Passalaqua wrote from Baghdad this morning:

"Today there is a tremendous sandstorm. I would have thought that this would have stopped the bombing, as it seems it would be difficult to guide the missiles and planes with any precision, but apparently it is not a problem for guidance, or the military just isn't too concerned if mistakes are made."

Also out of Baghdad this morning, we have a brief reflection from Shane Claiborne called "Dark days and Shiny Shoes":

"I have grown especially close to one of the 'shoeshine boys', a homeless boy (about 10 years old), named Mussef. The first day I met him, he was begging me for money to eat. When I stubbornly said 'no' to his relentless attempts on my wallet, he turned away and muttered, 'Son-of-bitch-mother-fucker.' I whipped my head around in shock, as he took off running. Not the best first impression. Day after day, we have grown on each other. We go for walks, turn somersaults, and yell at the airplanes 'SALAAM!' (PEACE!!!). Now everyday when I walk outside he runs at full speed, jumps into my arms, and kisses me on the cheek. And I have the shiniest shoes in Baghdad.

"One day Mussef joined our group on a walk into the center of town, carrying pictures of Iraqi children and families suffering from the war and sanctions. Press and journalists took pictures and talked to us as we stood in one of Baghdad's busiest intersections, and Mussef begin to internalize what was happening. His shining face became bleak. Nothing I could do made him smile. As the group went home, and the cameras left, we continued to sit. He motioned with his hand the falling of bombs, and made the sound explosions, as tears welled up in his eyes.

"Suddenly, he turned, and latched onto my neck. He began to weep; his body shook as he gasped for each breath of air. I began to cry. Somehow I was glad all the cameras were gone. We wept as friends, as brothers, not as a peacemaker and victim. Afterwards I took him to eat, banquet style (tipping everyone extravagantly so my guest would be welcome). Every five minutes he would ask me, 'Are you okay?' I would nod, and ask, 'Are you okay?' And he would nod. To be honest I think we were both scared out of our minds but we each wanted to assure that the other did not start weeping again."

In these dark days, we are anxious for a new beginning in Iraq.  It was new beginnings that Andrew Mandell - who traveled to Iraq with VitW two years ago -  had in mind recently when he penned an open letter to a friend in Baghdad.  "It is time for a modest sunrise" for the people of Iraq.  That sunrise, he writes, "will slip around to my children's dawn as well. There is no seam to divide the dawns of this confused species. The only way to promise my daughter a morning will be to promise yours one as well."

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"Collateral Damage"

24 March 2003

Dear Friends,

Today we received a flood of phone and email updates from our people in Baghdad.  On most everybody's mind is the looming siege on Iraq's capitol. What follows is a collection of excerpts from today's updates:

April Hurley:

"I'm at the al Fanar Hotel right now. Baghdad is still being bombed.  We were bombed as recently as fifteen minutes ago. It rattled all the windows and shook the walls.  It was a series of explosions, but that seems to have passed.  I don't know where the bomb hit, but it was not too far from here, apparently."

Kathy Kelly:

"General Tommy Franks described the bombing as a mosaic and we can understand that. We simply don't know the time of day when bombs are suddenly going to burst overhead. It continues to be horrifying when you think about what's happening to families, particularly now as members of the Iraq Peace Team have started to go to the hospitals and to the sites where family people have been harmed. We were utterly appalled when we heard that the Bush Administration is saying the war is a success because there have only been hundreds of casualties in spite of ... thousands of cruise missiles and bombs.

"But we now know of some of these so-called success stories and it can make you wonder what kind of perversity can be possessing the oval office and the defense planners.  Some of our team members today, with Dr. April Hurley, encountered a family that was just rushing into a hospital after a bomb hit the picnic lunch they were having in front of their home.  At least one child was killed, two others are in uncertain condition.

"And at both of the hospitals we visited today, doctors are working around the clock really trying their best to heal people and - if they have minimal injuries -  send them on their way so that they can make beds available for the many, many more casualties they expect to come. Particularly as there are reports of more massive bombings and a possible siege of Baghdad.

"Meanwhile of course, we are very, very concerned for people of Basra on their third day without electricity and water [ed. note: we are hearing water service has been partially restored in Basra]. They cant survive without water.

"The air raid sirens are wailing.  This has been a frequent daily and nightly event.  We are all sleep-deprived.  I continue to marvel at how well people handle themselves -  from the youngest of children to the most seasoned of peace activists to the people who are new to war zones.  And of course these many, many families that are no strangers to war."

Lisa Ndjeru:

"We get many phone calls from the media wanting to know casualty numbers and information about  places hit.  There's a lot of talk about precision.  Are the Americans hitting precise targets? Are they keeping casualties to a minimum? It makes me very angry. Even if it were precision bombing, precision being that not a single civilian or home were hit, it still doesn't make this war legitimate.

"I don't know how were going to hold the American administration accountable. But it isn't that precise. We've gone to a hospital to see the civilian casualties.  We've gone to visit bomb sites. There are civilian homes that are being hit.  It makes me angry. I wonder how many people, little girls, little boys, mothers, fathers, grandparents do we need to see either dead or maimed in order to say this is wrong.

"I watched TV yesterday and I saw some American casualties, some prisoners of war and some dead, and it breaks my heart to see those young soldiers stripped of their gear and their teams and their armaments and their weapons and their certainties, alone in the enemy camp. It shouldn't come to that."

Scott Kerr:

"The city has been engulfed in a thick black smoke caused by large ditches of oil fires.  These smoke clouds are supposed to make it more difficult for missiles to hit their mark.  There were also winds from the south today which brings a heavy dust covering.  It seems like twilight everyday.

"We have all heard about 'shock and awe' but I can tell you that on the ground it feels a lot more like 'misery and terror'. For the last week people have not been working, there has been a very limited access to food, and other basic necessities. I would say that about 95 percent of the city is shut down."

Stewart Vriesinga:

"Most of the Iraqis we meet seem to remain calm in the face of bombing.They ask us, 'Why?' They ask us after each bomb, 'How many people do you think died in that one?' The question is rhetorical. We know that. We do not respond because there is really nothing to say.

"While the Iraqis continue to be friendly, many see the invasion as hostile, and there are many civilians with guns. Perhaps not state of the art guns, and perhaps not with any uniforms, but it seems clear that there are many people here who - in addition to the armed forces -  are prepared to defend themselves from any invasion forces."

Thorne Anderson:

Note:  Thorne Anderson and Jerry Zawada left Baghdad for Amman, Jordan yesterday.  Having heard reports about everything from bombing to looting on the road connecting the two capitals.  We were relieved to receive this update from Amman this afternoon:

"The trip from Baghdad was lonely and creepy .  We saw burning oil pits, bombed and burned out cars on the side of the road, a couple of downed bridges, a destroyed roadside tea stand (the place we always stop on the trip to Baghdad from Amman), a destroyed ambulance abandoned down the embankment, a few routes hastily blocked with piles of rocks, etc.

"The Iraqi border crossing was surprisingly painless - Jerry and I had separate 'conversations' ('This is not an interview or an interrogation,' the man told me) with a Jordanian official on the border. UNHCR (United Nations High Commission on Refugees) observers at the border told us that they had seen ZERO Iraqi refugees crossing into Jordan and were worried about that. Many young Iraqi men were being expelled from Jordan back into Iraq. They walk across the border into the empty dark desert with small bags slung over their shoulders."

To read more, visit iraqpeaceteam.org.

Today we also received the first in a series of reports and photographs fromBaghdad's emergency rooms.  The first of those reports, written by physician April Hurley, can be seen at:

electronicIraq.net

Some of the pictures are quite graphic.  Our decision to share the images is an urgent attempt to show the real face of war at a time when so much of what we see is antiseptic and distant.

Thanks to all of you who have called or emailed us with words of support.  It means a lot to all of us - from Chicago to Baghdad - to know people are listening...and acting!

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The Living and the Dead

23 March 2003

Dear Friends,

Tonight, as we mourn the mounting casualties on both sides of the battle in Iraq, I wanted to share this excerpt from a statement against war issued by a group of women peacemakers during World War One:

"Whoever may be the enemy, our sons are bidden to fight in the next war. We know their lives will be sacrificed in vain.  War settles nothing.  Every victory has within its womb the seeds of future war. No country is ever wholly in the right or wholly in the wrong.  In every nation there are good and bad. You cannot punish the pride of an Emperor by killing numbers of his peasants.  We are not willing to go through the long months of pregnancy and labor merely to produce more cannon fodder."

One of the first U.S. casualties in Iraq was Kendall Waters-Bey, a 29-year-old Marine from Baltimore, Maryland.  He died, along with 11 others, when his helicopter crashed near Umm Qasr.

Michelle Waters, the Marine's oldest sister, spoke to a reporter for the Baltimore Sun shortly after hearing news of her brother's death, "It's all for nothing, that war could have been prevented," she lamented. "Now, we're out of a brother. [President] Bush is not out of a brother. We are."

Similar despair must grip the family members of the two dead Iraqi soldiers I saw in a photograph today.  Their lifeless bodies were collapsed in a trench, one soldier still gripping his white flag of surrender.

In the face of such overwhelming tragedy, we offer up an unusual story.  It is the story of a young girl and a birthday party in Baghdad.  We hope you will find some glimmer of hope in this parable of the human spirit:

"Amal Shamuri is the fifth child in a family of eight, living in a small apartment off Baghdad's Karrada shopping district. Irrepressible and precocious, Amal joked last January that she wouldn't mind a war if George Bush would only bomb her school.

"Today was a different story. Today, Amal celebrated her thirteenth birthday on the fourth day of American air strikes on Baghdad with plumes of black smoke surrounding the city and darkening the sky, reportedly from oil set afire by Iraqi forces defending the capitol.

"Her family and friends gathered with members of the Iraq Peace Team in a small garden near the Tigris river to mark the occasion. They blew balloons and soap bubbles, strung party streamers, played tag, and ate barbecued chicken, potato salad, deviled eggs, and chocolate cake. True to form, the kids ate the cake first, before serving the rest of the meal to the adults present.

"Cruise missiles exploding to the south and east occasionally interrupted the party, one powerful enough to rattle tableware and partygoers alike. The explosions only temporarily silenced the festivities; but with moments the garden once again erupted to squeals of laughter and boisterous childhood games, played beneath rising plumes of air-borne debris and smoke in the distance.

"'Life is more powerful than death,' said Shane Claiborne, age 27, from Philadelphia. 'How can George Bush bomb these kids?,' he asked.

"Lisa Ndejuru, age 32, from Montreal, quietly remarked, 'What a day to be thirteen.'

"Amal's mother, Kareema, sat silently to one side, watching her kids play. Her husband died in a car accident eight years ago, leaving her to raise eight children by herself. To her credit, none of them beg in the streets, and all save the oldest remain in school. Amal herself dreams of becoming a lawyer one day.

"When asked what she wanted for her birthday, Amal - whose name means 'hope' in Arabic - smiled and simply replied, 'All I want is peace.'"

For photos of the party, visit: electronicIraq.net

Members of the Iraq Peace Team have begun visiting hospitals in Baghdad to interview the wounded.  We hope to have something to share with you from those visits soon.

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A Campaign Unlike Any Other

22 March 2003

Dear friends,

In Baghdad as I write, things are relatively quiet.  Today IPT delegate Wade Hudson had a chance to take a limited drive around Baghdad with a driver and a government minder.  After passing by the still smoking Ministry of Foreign Affairs building, he drove to a residential neighborhood where he reports having seen "a bomb crater 8 to 12 feet deep in the middle of awide, divided street. Traffic in one direction was blocked."  He also reported passing by  "many small homes in the neighborhood with all of their front windows blown out, presumably from the blast that created the crater."

A few hours ago, we spoke with Kathy Kelly at the Al Fanar hotel in downtown Baghdad.  Kathy told us that they will be going around and visiting some hospitals tomorrow where there are apparently quite a lot of children.  It is expected that the worst is yet to come.

This grim forecast is not mitigated by Gen. Tommy Franks' promise earlier today of "a campaign unlike any other in history, a campaign characterized by shock, by surprise, by flexibility, by the employment of precise munitions on a scale never before seen, and by the application of overwhelming force."

We are getting unconfirmed reports of fighting in Basra, Iraq's second largest city.  Regretfully, we have no IPT presence outside of Baghdad.  We are trying to reach friends in Basra and have had little success.  Just two very shaky connections that were terminated after less than a minute.

This war is an explosion of uncertainties.  In the recently "liberated" town of Safwan, on the Iraq-Kuwait border, a reporter for the Guardian may have unwittingly provided a window into the next weeks,months or years in Iraq:

"Yesterday afternoon a truck drove down a side road in
the Iraqi town of Safwan, laden with rugs and furniture. Booty or precious possessions? In a day of death, joy and looting, it was hard to know."

"[T]he marines' presence was light. They had not brought food, medicines, or even order. All day hundreds of armoured vehicles poured through the town. But they did not stop, and the looting continued. Every government establishment seemed to be fair game. People covered
their faces in shame as they carried books out of a school. Tawfik Mohammed, the headmaster, initially denied his school had been looted, then admitted it. "This is the result of your entering," he said. "Whenever any army enters an area it becomes chaos. We are cautious about the future. We are very afraid."

Exactly one month ago, also in Safwan, the Iraq Peace Team released an open letter to members of the United States Military.  The letter, read to the press as nearly 100,000 soldiers prepared an invasion just miles away, attempted to provide some measure of clarity in a time of hysteria:

"To U.S. soldiers and sailors: our prayer for every one of you is for a quick return to families and loved ones without having to participate in the horrors of war. We recognize that you have been placed in a position full of anxiety and danger, and we share in the responsibility for you being here. We recognize you are in this position because back home we do not truly govern ourselves but are instead ruled by a minority who decide questions of war and peace in the interests of the few instead of the many. Our inadequate democracy has led us into deadly quagmires in the past, and now to the brink of another conflict that can only be described as a tragic war of empire.

Today we are neck deep in a conflict millions of us worked tirelessly to stop.  Still, the protests grow.  As the war-makers threaten a "campaign unlike any other in history," let us continue to match their promise.

Sincerely,

Jeff Guntzel, for Voices in the Wilderness

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Before "Shock and Awe"

21 March 2003

Dear Friends,

Earlier today, I spoke with Kathy Kelly and Ramzi Kysia in Baghdad.  As I was editing the transcribed conversation, CNN announced that "Shock & Awe" had begun.  I don't know when we will hear from our friends in Iraq again.  I hope it will be soon.  We are on the phone constantly trying to reach any of the three hotels housing the 25 Iraq Peace Team delegates in downtown Baghdad.  

Here is what Kathy and Ramzi had to say this morning:

Kathy:

"People in our team here are heartened by news of actions in the United States to continue antiwar momentum.  The bombings last night were intense for about thirty minutes beginning at 9:10 last night.  But, compared to what people were bracing themselves for, which was the "Shock & Awe" saturation bombing, these attacks have seemed limited.  We're getting rumors and some hard news, mostly
from journalists who tell us what seems to be going on.  

"Today I had a chance to go and visit families in three different neighborhoods and the neighborhoods were fairly calm.  There is still not much in the way of a military presence on the streets other than sand bags that are piled up at various intersections.

"I visited the family of a friend who left for Amman a few weeks ago, and that is always a wonderful place to be.  Her family - all women - are full of energy, there is no man in the house. They were very welcoming towards us and didn't want us to go.  The grandmother just held on to me, clung to me, begged me 'Please, please stay and spend the night here with us.'  But  I would be no protection. They are quite close to what I think is a military storage depot. They begged us to come back and eat with them. With their slim rations I think that is very telling.  

"And then there is Kareema's family. They have just now come to visit us at the hotel.  This is the family I am the most worried about. They are in a pretty precarious spot, and their neighbors seem to know it.  Many of them have left now.  I will get a chance to talk more with them this afternoon when they come here to stay with us.  But we haven't received permission from the hotel owners for them to stay here."
 
Ramzi:

"Wednesday, the day it started, I went around to some of the high schools that we've been working with to do letter exchanges and diaries.  Schools were in session. About half the students weren't there. Some were staying at home with their folks but a lot of families did leave Baghdad if they could.

"I talked to the teachers, talked to some students. Everybody seemed to be in pretty good spirits. One of the English teachers did break down in front of me afterwards. She was really, really scared. She was scared about the U.S. possibly using chemical weapons here, she was scared about this new bomb she heard of - you know, 'the mother of all bombs'.  She really just wanted to vent with somebody. So I listened to what she had to say, tried to comfort her as much as I could.

"The kids talked about how hard it had been the day before on Tuesday. That was the last official day of school even though some kids came in on Wednesday. On Tuesday everybody said good-bye to one another. They said it was a really emotional experience. They didn't know whether they were going to see their friends again or how long it might be. Wednesday had a very strange feel to it. Sort of like a holiday. Not that people were joyous, but everything was very slow, very easy. Not too much traffic. It was slightly overcast. It was as if you know, you're living somewhere in the United States and the weather reports are saying there's about to be a hurricane and people are just going about their business preparing for the hurricane. No panic. But you saw people taping up their windows, getting supplies, just trying to get ready for what was about to happen.

"Thank God we haven't had saturation bombing here in Baghdad for the last couple days. The life here has been very normal. People are out on the street. The markets were open. I think though that its not going to stay like this. We hear there are several American armored divisions approaching Baghdad, the B-52s in Britain are being fueled up and are ready to go for saturation bombing, maybe tonight. And you know, there is an air of bravado among people here. They tell you that the United States has bombing them for the last 12 years and they're still here. But I think underneath that everybody is very scared. I know I'm very scared.

"Personally, I thought that the United States wasn't going to being bombing last night until after midnight, wait until people had settled in, in order to minimize civilian casualties. That was the time frame that I was going on. And I went upstairs to my room to take a shower and I heard the air raid sirens. And then the sirens cut off after a minute. I brushed my teeth and waited a little bit - nothing happened for about 10 minutes so I  figured that it was a false alarm. Then I got into the shower. I was all lathered up and then BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM! they started bombing. I very quickly rinsed, put on my clothes and went downstairs. Everybody had gathered in the tea room here at the Al Fanar, and I think I was the most nervous of everybody here. The team seemed fine. They were playing chess, people were drinking tea, journaling. The Iraqis here were all talking and laughing. They hit a couple buildings across the river. We've heard conflicting reports. Two buildings behind the Ministry of Planning, some people have said it was the old National Assembly, others said it was the building that housed Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz's office.

"There's a little bit more military out on the street than you usually see here, but there is in no way an overwhelming presence. In fact when I was in Lebanon, 3 or 4 years ago, I saw much, much more military on the streets there. It's really kind of eerie. To look at Baghdad it does not seem to be a nation that is at war. But I do know that things are much worse in other parts of the country.

"Were talking about the possibility of doing several things if there is a real heavy bombing. One is to do war crimes monitoring. Curtis Doebbler, who is an international lawyer has been in touch with us and he has a sheet that he prepared for the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] in Bosnia to do monitoring of violations of humanitarian law. So were going to see if were going to be able to go to hospital emergency rooms and to bombing sites to interview people in order to provide that information to groups that are going to be looking at what the United States does here. We've also been talking to relief agencies and if its at all possible were going to try and volunteer with them to provide direct assistance to people. And of course to do journaling and writing and to be a presence in the city to visit with the people that we've come to love -  to be a voice in the wilderness for them.

"The group mourns what is happening to Iraq and what has been happening the last 13 years. Its really horrendous. Hundreds of thousands of people in this country have been killed because of greed and short-sightedness on the part of politicians on all sides. Millions of people now are risk. And who knows what's going to happen in this war. If they do saturation bombing here thousands of people are going to die. I don't know how many have died already in the campaign. And I think the long-term consequences really could be horrendous.

"So we mourn. We really do mourn for what's happening to this country. I think at the same time though, were trying to not let George Bush or Tony Blair or Saddam Hussein depress us. You hear the phrase: life is a joy. It should be a joy. The reason that we work so hard here in Iraq is because that choice for life to be a joy has been taken away from so many people. Violently taken away from them. And I don't think we can let that happen to us."

Kathy:

"It is almost impossible for me to imagine that bombings to the extent of what I heard here last night and the previous morning - if they happened in Chicago - would result in people carrying on with ordinary days. Part of it is people having been inured to warfare and its also a sign of a really particular kind of courage and dignity within the population here. Its really very, very amazing to me.

"If Chicago was under attack - and people known to be from the attacking country were in Chicago - it's hard for me to imagine that they'd be sitting in a pleasant hotel tea room together. So when I think of Baghdad and Chicago in that light,I love Chicago, I miss it - I think it's a city that's full of a terrific diversity of people - but I often think: What would be happening in Chicago if what's happening here were happening there?

"I really think it is not overstating the case, because we are hearing this kind of news from all over the world, that we are approaching what would be near critical mass for stopping war-makers. I hope with all my heart that the Bush administration doesn't go ahead with this shock and awe.  I think that if they don't do it there probably will be more of a tapering off.   If they do it, I think that the momentum is going to be very steady and every long day everybody puts in, it can be worth it now for a long, long time."

Thank you again for all that you are doing for peace.

Sincerely,

Jeff Guntzel...and everybody at the Chicago office: Danny Muller, Bitta Mostofi, Stephanie Schaudel, Joe Proulx, Laurie Hasbrook, Laurel Severns, Sue Mackley, Angela Garcia, Ceylon and Amy Mooney, Heidi Holliday, Tom Walsh, Lindsay Foreman, and Nick Savage

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Hospital Visit

20 March 2003

Dear Friends,

Baghdad, as you must know, is now under heavy bombardment.  We last spoke with our team in Baghdad two hours ago. The team is split up between three hotels in downtown Baghdad.

Iraq Peace Team member Bettejo Passalaqua managed to get this diary to us between bombings:

"We were prepared for the bombing to begin Thursday at around 4 AM. We congregated together until around midnight when we started hearing that a sandstorm had grounded the military planes and the invasion would be called off. Then at 3 AM we received word from the States that the planes were on the way. Some of us went to the shelter and some remained together in rooms. At 5:30 AM the opinion was that if it didn't come by dawn, it wouldn't come tonight. The first explosion came just as Cathy Breen remarked, 'Well, dawn is here, so I guess we can go back to bed.'  The attack lasted for about 1 1/2 hours. Two explosions rocked our building, but they were pretty far away, I think.

"There hasn't been any bombing since, so Cathy and I went to the hospital ward where I had been working.  It was entirely emptied. Even the sound of the children crying as they did when I.V. infusions were given would have been a welcome sound to drown out the ghastly silence.

"But even this silence was eclipsed by the scene I encountered when I walked into the hospital. The corridor was lined with empty beds (at least 20 beds on either side) awaiting war casualties.

"I spoke with a nurse on the vacant ward and she said she had worked all night in the emergency room of a regular hospital. There were many elders brought in with heart problems, most of which were a response to the stress of the situation.

"Thank you all for all you are doing to stop the atrocity of this war before more lives are claimed. I don't know how many people died in today's bombing. But it is too late to save them. I don't know how many people have
died in wars past. But I know it is too late to save them. I don't know how
many people will die in the days coming from this war, but I know it isn't
too
late to save them."

We expect to lose contact with our people in Baghdad for a few days or
more.  We will continue to share with you any useful information we receive.


Sincerely,

Jeff Guntzel
for Voices in the Wilderness

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Sand Storm

19 March 2003

Earlier today a sand storm hit the desert south of Baghdad stretching all the way to Kuwait. There, columns of advancing US and Allied infantry were slowed. It is poetry, I guess, that mother nature would make one last desperate attempt to delay terrible violence when all other desperate attempts have failed.

In Baghdad, the 26 remaining Iraq Peace Team members are making final preparations before an attack begins. I spoke with Kathy Kelly in her hotel room Monday morning, immediately after hearing that the UN resolution calling for war had been scrapped and a deadline for the dictator Saddam Hussein would be set.

Kathy was busy gathering her things for a move to the hotel's lower level. Closer to the street and the basement. "We don't know what will happen to us," Kathy said, "but we are ready for anything."

Then a friend grabbed the phone from Kathy's hands. "Hello Mr. Jeff!" came the booming voice of Abu Hasan at the other end. Abu Hasan works in housecleaning at the Al Fanar hotel, where I have spent months over the past four years. He was busy helping Kathy with her move.

Abu Hasan and I don't talk much because we don't speak the same language. We make conversation out of simple greetings constructed with broken English and Arabic. In person we can communicate more complex thoughts and feelings with gestures and facial contortions. Today, after a parade of such greetings delivered with an unexpected and somehow comforting enthusiasm, Abu Hasan said two words as if reading a war-time telegram in another century:

"Baghdad. Finished."

"I know, I know," was all I could muster. We prolonged the conversation for a few more minutes - neither of us wanting to say goodbye - with forced variations on how are you in Arabic. Finally there was silence. No goodbye.

Soon Kathy was back on the other line, telling me of a group of pregnant women she had met at a nearby hospital. The women were waiting for caesarian surgery to force a birth that might otherwise be forced during bombardment. Food and water prices have doubled and in some cases tripled in Iraq's capital. She told of a friend who could hardly afford a sack of potatoes on a recent stockpiling trip to the market.

Here in Chicago we like to think we are ready for whatever may come. We are in touch with the friends and family members of IPT members remaining in Iraq. We have prepared statements for the media. The office will be covered around the clock.

Around the country we are emboldened by the creativity and persistence of antiwar actions. If the bombs fall, the millions who have stood against the failure of war have not lost. We have seen a glimpse of what it might take to reverse the course of an empire out of control. We must continue to work every day the bombs are falling and continue to insist on humane and just policy in Iraq once the last shot is fired.

Below you will also find contacts for regional Voices spokespersons and our call for the formation of domestic Peace Teams.

Expect more frequent Voices updates in coming weeks. And if you write or call the Chicago office, please be patient. We are receiving hundreds of emails each day and our phone lines are constantly engaged.

With the future so uncertain, thank you for all you are doing to create a more just and peaceful world.

Jeff Guntzel and Danny Muller
for Voices in the Wilderness

Please continue to visit:

http://www.electroniciraq.net
http://www.iraqpeaceteam.org
http://vitw.org
http://epic-usa.org


Local Voices in the Wilderness spokespersons and local contacts

BOSTON/NEW ENGLAND

* George Cappacio tel: 781-641-9846, email: capaccio@3b.com
* Ken Hanaford Ricardi tel: 508-831-3622

NEW YORK CITY

* Simon Harak tel: 646-644-7079, email: gsharaksj@yahoo.com
* Mary Anne Muller tel: 718-859-9009, email: brooklynbluebird@vitw.org

GEORGIA/SOUTHEAST

* Andrew Mandell, Nathan and Mikilu Peters tel: 706-543-2783, email: andrew@vitw.org

CHICAGO/MIDWEST

* Stephanie Schaudel, Danny Muller, Ceylon Mooney and Jeff Guntzel 773-784-8065, email: info@vitw.org

PORTLAND/NORTHWEST

* Dan Handelman tel: 503-299-4798, email: danhan@agora.rdrop.com

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

* David Smith-Ferri tel: 707-467-0468, email: smithferri@pacific.net

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

* Leah Wells tel: 805-402-5258, email: leahvoices@yahoo.com

UNITED KINGDOM

* Milan Rai tel: 0845-458-2564, email: voices@viwuk.freeserve.co.uk
* Voices UK tel: 0845 458 25645, address: Caledonian Road, King's Cross, London N1 9DX