IRAQ DIARIES Bombs at Dawn
Bettejo Passalaqua, Iraq Peace Team 20 March 2003
We were prepared for the bombing to begin Thursday at around 4AM. 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 3AM 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 IV 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.
Bettejo Passalaqua, Iraq Peace Team 20 March 2003
Please see other eyewitness accounts at:
http://electroniciraq.net/news http://electroniciraq.net/
and please visit the Iraq Peace Team; http://www.iraqpeaceteam.org
Please continue for Jo Wildings Diary ...
Bettejo Passalaqua, Iraq Peace Team 20 March 2003
We were prepared for the bombing to begin Thursday at around 4AM. 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 3AM 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 IV 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.
Bettejo Passalaqua, Iraq Peace Team 20 March 2003
Please see other eyewitness accounts at:
http://electroniciraq.net/news http://electroniciraq.net/
and please visit the Iraq Peace Team; http://www.iraqpeaceteam.org
Please continue for Jo Wildings Diary ...