American voices on the war
Al Jazeera guages the mood in the US towards the war in Iraq five years on.
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In a presidential year and around the fifth anniversary of the country’s invasion of Iraq, Al Jazeera’s War in America documentary looks at the current mood in the US surrounding American involvement in Iraq. Five years on, the conflict has been longer and bloodier than many people expected and some polls show a majority of Americans now oppose the war in Iraq. More than 3,900 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq since March 2003 and an estimated 29,000 wounded. It is estimated the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost US taxpayers about $610 billion since September 11, 2001. Al Jazeera’s Abdallah el-Binni and Abdeddayem Sammari spoke to anti-war protestors; grieving mothers who have lost their sons; and the architect of the term “axis of evil” who still supports the war in Iraq. |
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Nadia McCaffrey’s son, Sergeant Patrick McCaffrey, was killed in the town of Balad in Iraq on June 22, 2004. She has campaigned against the war ever since and for more information about her son’s death to be released by the Pentagon.
“The officer from the military came here to this house and told me very calmly and coldly ‘Maam, I have to regret to tell you that your son was killed at 1145, July 22 2004, shot multiple times by insurgents’.
And basically that was all I was told.
Patrick did not agree with being Iraq and did not agree with the war. He did not know why we were in Iraq in the first place.
| The War in America | ||
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Immediately after his body was returned from Iraq he was sent to Dover first and an autopsy was performed.
And his coffin arrived here in Sacramento airport and at the time there was a ban forbidding flag-laden coffins to be photographed. I did not agree, with this.
The day Patrick was deployed against his will, he waved at us and tried to cheer us up.
Why in the world was I going to hide him – coming home in a coffin especially?
I was not going to hide him and from that moment I became the mother who defied the Bush administration.
Advocate
There was one other soldier that actually found Patrick lying after he was shot, because two soldiers were killed and one was wounded in the attack.
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| Shaun McCaffrey was killed in 2004 |
The soldier who was wounded was picked up by an ambulance and taken away.
Patrick was left in the dirt and his artery was severed by a bullet from an AK-47 and he basically bled to death, but he still had a pulse and he still was breathing.
Now why did they not pick him up in the ambulance – I am talking about the Americans here – I still want answers for that.
I think the whole thing was planned, I don’t think it was an accident. No, I think Patrick was definitely taken out of the way.
He had become an advocate for the soldiers and he also reported quite a few incidents and things that he had witnessed that nobody wanted to hear and were never reported.
I do not have proof of it but I would not be surprised if he would have been silenced.
We are the most hated country in the world and there are reasons for that. How could it be changed? We have a long way to go.
I think it is a game, a political game, and the rules of that game are basically power and money.
You know one thing I am afraid of is that now that we have created such hatred in the world that our children and grandchildren are going to pay dearly for that.“
Watch part one of The War In America on YouTube
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Watch part three of The War In America on YouTube
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