Photography of
Skip Schiel
What Would It Be Like if the United States Were Iraq?
(From the American Friends Service Committee's display Nightmares & Dreams )
What would the US look like if it were in Iraq's current situation? The US population is more than 11 times that of Iraq. Violence killed 300 Iraqis [recently], proportionally equivalent to 3,300 Americans. What if 3,300 Americans died in car bombings, grenade and rocket attacks, machine gun spray, and aerial bombardment [each] week? That is greater than the deaths on September 11th, and if America were Iraq, it would be an ongoing, weekly toll.
THE EVENING NEWS
Capitol Under Attack
The death toll is rising as major attacks continue in the Northeast cities of Boston, Philadelphia, New York, and Baltimore. The White House and other buildings near the National Mall remain under mortar fire. Employees at the State Department, White House, and Pentagon consider it too dangerous to leave their compounds for visits to the suburban enclaves of Crystal City and Alexandria.
Reporters for major foreign television and print media remain trapped in Washington, DC and New York hotels, unable to safely move more than a few blocks and dependent on stringers to know what is happening in Oklahoma City and St Louis. Eyewitness accounts and visits to the Midwest take place only when reporters travel embedded in with occupation forces.
Guerilla Forces Control the Heartland
Every city in the US has experienced a crime wave, with thousands of murders, kidnappings, burglaries, and carjackings. An estimated 275,000 guerilla forces control Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Denver, and Omaha. Local police and federal troops are unable to enter these cities, and the head of security for Washington DC was recently assassinated.
In the last year, the Secretary of State (Condoleezza Rice), the President (George W. Bush), and the attorney general (Alberta Gonzales) were also assassinated.
The occupation force continues to bomb Billings MT, Flint MI, Philadelphia, Watts in Los Angeles, Anacostia in Washington DC, and other urban areas, attempting to target "safe houses" or "criminal gangs." Hospital sources report that the majority of those killed are civilians.
The Response
When the National Council of Churches called for a popular march of civil resistance tens of thousands of believers converged on the National Cathedral to stop occupation forces from demolishing the historic church in their effort to pursue Christian militia armies.
Commercial air traffic has come to a virtual standstill. Major roads are also extremely dangerous, especially I-95 from Richmond VA to Washington DC along with I-95 and I-91 to Boston.
New York City has only four hours of electricity a day. Unpredictable service forces factories to regularly grind to a halt and air conditioners to fail in the middle of the summer from Houston to Miami. The Alaska pipeline is bombed and disabled monthly. Unemployment hovers around 40%.
Several months ago, municipal elections were canceled and the new president quietly installed friends as governors. Two appointed governors--in Montana and Wyoming--were assassinated soon after taking office and several others resigned after their children were taken hostage by guerrillas.
Displaced by the violence, about 16.5 million people have become internal refugees, and many others have fled into Mexico and Canada.
Inspired by Juan Cole
