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Why Casey Sheehan Was Killed
excerpts from an article by Aaron Glantz. August 25, 2005
Like Army Specialist Casey Sheehan, I was in Baghdad's Sadr City on April 4, 2004. I was there as an unembedded journalist. Unlike Casey Sheehan, I came out alive.
I had traveled to Sadr City to cover the Bush administration's attack on the movement of Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. It didn't matter that the cleric had millions of followers or that he was the scion of an important political family with a history of standing up to tyranny. (His father was killed by Saddam Hussein's regime for fomenting revolution in 1999. His uncle, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr, was killed for leading an insurrection against Saddam's Ba'ath rule in 1980.)
It didn't matter that Sadr's forces were providing food aid to the poor or organizing traffic patrol and garbage duty in an atmosphere with no basic services. The problem for Bush and his Iraq administrator, L. Paul Bremer, was that Sadr was against the US occupation. So he had to be dealt with.
First his newspaper was closed. Then his top advisor was arrested. Then Bremer announced an unnamed judge was demanding that Sadr be arrested on charges of murder. "He's effectively attempting to establish his authority in place of the legitimate Iraqi government," Bremer told reporters. "We will not tolerate that."
That was the last straw. Until April 4, 2004 Muqtada had urged his followers to protest peacefully against the occupation. But the US assault led him to urge his followers to "terrorize the enemy". In the first 48 hours of fighting, Sadr's followers seized police stations and government buildings across the country, including the governor's office in Basra.
At least 75 Iraqis and 10 US servicemen were killed, among them Army Specialist Casey Sheehan.
You have been reading excerpts from "Why Casey Sheehan was killed" by Aaron Glantz. You can read the entire piece here: tinyurl.com/b4gj8. Thanks to Asia Times Online: atimes.com.
excerpts from an article by Aaron Glantz. August 25, 2005
Like Army Specialist Casey Sheehan, I was in Baghdad's Sadr City on April 4, 2004. I was there as an unembedded journalist. Unlike Casey Sheehan, I came out alive.
I had traveled to Sadr City to cover the Bush administration's attack on the movement of Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. It didn't matter that the cleric had millions of followers or that he was the scion of an important political family with a history of standing up to tyranny. (His father was killed by Saddam Hussein's regime for fomenting revolution in 1999. His uncle, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr, was killed for leading an insurrection against Saddam's Ba'ath rule in 1980.)
It didn't matter that Sadr's forces were providing food aid to the poor or organizing traffic patrol and garbage duty in an atmosphere with no basic services. The problem for Bush and his Iraq administrator, L. Paul Bremer, was that Sadr was against the US occupation. So he had to be dealt with.
First his newspaper was closed. Then his top advisor was arrested. Then Bremer announced an unnamed judge was demanding that Sadr be arrested on charges of murder. "He's effectively attempting to establish his authority in place of the legitimate Iraqi government," Bremer told reporters. "We will not tolerate that."
That was the last straw. Until April 4, 2004 Muqtada had urged his followers to protest peacefully against the occupation. But the US assault led him to urge his followers to "terrorize the enemy". In the first 48 hours of fighting, Sadr's followers seized police stations and government buildings across the country, including the governor's office in Basra.
At least 75 Iraqis and 10 US servicemen were killed, among them Army Specialist Casey Sheehan.
You have been reading excerpts from "Why Casey Sheehan was killed" by Aaron Glantz. You can read the entire piece here: tinyurl.com/b4gj8. Thanks to Asia Times Online: atimes.com.
