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“‘Bang, you're dead!’ we said. ‘I got you!’ we said. When we played, it was always war. A bunch of us together, one-on-one, or in solitary fantasies—always war, always death.

“‘Don't play like that,’ our parents said, ‘you could grow up that way.’ Some threat—there was no way we would rather be. We didn't need war toys. Any old stick became a weapon in our hands, and pinecones were bombs. I cannot recall taking a single piss during my childhood, whether outside or at home in the outhouse, when I didn't choose a target and bomb it. At five years of age I was already a seasoned bombardier.

“‘If everyone plays war,’ said my mother, ‘there will be war.’ And she was quite right—there was.”

—Sven Lindqvist (A History of Bombing, p1)

Note: Lindqvist is a Swedish writer. He turned five in 1937, shortly before the outbreak of World War II in Europe. He died in 2019. In his writings, he argued that the racist brutality of European imperialism led to the dark horrors of the 20th century and survived into the 21st.

*       Does it teach that the invasion of Iraq was illegal under international law?

*       Does it teach that the invasion of Iraq was preceded by United Nations sanctions (Yes, the United Nations!) that destroyed Iraq's ability to provide clean water to the extent that 5,000 children under five years of age died of water-borne disease each month (above what would have been expected from historical data)?

*       Does it teach that two successive UN Humanitarian Coordinators for Iraq resigned because of the inhumanity of the sanctions regime?

*       Does it teach that the rationale for the invasion of Iraq, that Iraq threatened the United States with weapons of mass destruction, was a deliberate lie?

*       Does it teach that even if you argue (FALSELY!) that the invasion was legal because Iraq might have had weapons of mass destruction; troops should have been withdrawn immediately upon ascertaining that Iraq had nothing of the kind, long before the Rape of Fallujah?

*       Does it teach that the Rape of Fallujah was a War Crime and a Crime Against Humanity?

*       Does it teach that the United States and allied troops lay siege to the city of Fallujah before subjecting it to intense bombing?

*       Does it teach that hospitals and ambulances were attacked in violation of international law?

*       Does it teach that copious amounts of radioactive munitions (U-238) were used against Fallujah causing elevated rates of cancer and congenital birth defects?

*       Does it teach that incendiary weapons (white phosphorus, napalm and its derivatives) that can stick to the skin and can burn clean to the bone were used against Fallujans?

*       Does it teach that thousands died in the Rape of Fallujah?

*       Does it teach that Fallujans trying to escape the city by swimming the Euphrates while holding a white flag were shot dead in the water?

*       Does it teach that US troops would fire into houses without even an attempt to ascertain if children were inside?

*       Does it teach that in January 2020 the Iraqi Parliament voted to expel US troops from Iraq? (They are still there today, 17 years after the Rape of Fallujah.)

*       Does it teach that today many US veterans of the War Against Iraq suffer from moral injury, and that many have suicided?

*       Does it teach that Fallujah is often compared to Guernica for its monumental inhumanity, brutality and stupidity?

Note: Dahr Jamail was one of the few “unembedded” Western journalists on the ground during the War Against Iraq. Visit his website. Read his description of the Rape of Fallujah through Iraqi eyes.

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