Ed Kinane, a member of the Iraq Peace team, spent three months in Iraq just prior to and during the bombardment of Baghdad, where Kinane was living in the Al Fanaar Hotel. He left three days after the Marines arrived and returned to the United States on Easter Day. On May , he spoke at the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) to an audience of 35 people about his experience in Iraq.
Photo: Ed Kinane with Virginia Rodino who organized the speaking engagement

A baby-boomer, Ed Kinane’s veteran activism led him to hot spots as Nicaragua, El Salvador, Haiti, and Guatemala to serve in the Peace Brigades International. As a Peace Brigade volunteer in the 1980’s, Kinane accompanied threatened human rights workers to protect them from harm. In the 1990’s Kinane became very involved in the movement to close the School of the Americas or SOA in Fort Benning, Georgia. For his protesting, Kinane was arrested and twice spent time in federal prison. Living in Syracuse, New York, Kinane was involved in the local Syracuse Peace Council, which has been responsible for the organization of the local peace movement. He became interested in going to Iraq after hearing Kathy Kelly, founder of Voices in the Wilderness, speak about the situation in Iraq.

NOT A WAR

The following synopsis summarizes highlights of the interactive discussion between Kinane and the audience at AFSC. Kinane called the “war” in Iraq an “invasion.” He made the distinction intentionally to demarcate the 13-year old “war” including the 1991 Gulf War through the period of sanctions, and the current invasion. “In fact,“ he asserted, “who knows how many people died during the invasion? Thousands certainly, but a tiny amount compared to all those who died during the sanctions.”

Recalling his 14 hour drive from Oman Jordan to Iraq, Kinane described the scene as arid and barren. He said that the sight of a few shepherds with flocks felt “biblical.” He detailed the setting in which he lived for 3 months in Baghdad, first at the Andaluse Hotel and then the Al Fanaar Hotel facing the Tigris River. These hotels were adjacent to the Palestine Hotel where all independent journalists stayed during the war.

He noted that it was difficult to get to know the Iraqi people. He said that, “Iraq, under Sadam Hussein might be what you would call a Stalinist state with very developed surveillance, as we learned when some of our people were deported.”

HOSPITALITY – WHOSE AND WHO FOR?

When asked what Iraqis felt about Americans, he said, “In the Iraqi culture being hospitable is of a very high value…I once even had a waiter kiss me. It (the welcoming) felt very real and I wonder if an Iraqi was in Syracuse walking down the street – how would we welcome that person?”

Another audience member asked how the people ate and slept during the invasion. Kinane replied that since the Baath party was quite organized and had an excellent system for distributing food, people were well fed and looked well in Baghdad. Because of sanctions, this food distribution system had to be developed. He pointed out that “one of the corollaries of sanctions was that the people were even more under the thumb of the government. The sanctions helped prop up Sadam Hussein and hurt the most vulnerable – infants, toddlers, the elderly, the very ill.”

Before sanctions he called Iraq a “near first-world country,” with well-educated men and women, many with advanced degrees, highly trained and well traveled. With sanctions imposed, unemployment mounted and there was a downscaling of standards of consumption, living and of career opportunities. It was not unusual to see a former professional driving a cab.

When asked about civilian casualties, he said in war it’s hard to count – especially when there is aerial bombardment. “Neither side had a motivation to keep tabs on civilian casualties. The kill ratio was 12 to 1. For every American soldier killed at least 12 Iraqi civilians were killed – and that’s just what’s reported.”

He talked briefly of the media distortion of the Iraqis welcoming the Marines. He said the issue was complex. “You know, TV was very skillful at creating an impression of significant support for tearing down the statue.” In general, however, his impression was that Iraqi people in general were rather afraid and hesitant to express their views. On the other hand, he stated that a “significant portion of the people would have been relieved that Sadam was toppled. This was a very repressive regime. Now to what extent these same people would have been concerned about the devil they didn’t know…I can’t say.”


Photo: Audience


Asked about the extent and effect of the bombing, Kinane said that he could only make a “purely subjective” report. During the first day of bombing, the intensity of bombing was severe. After the first day, Kinane recounted that the bombing went around the clock and was sporadic. It always felt like it was right overhead and that the hotel shuddered during each bombing.

ENCOUNTERING THE MARINES IN BAGHDAD

Most stimulating was Kinane’s description of encounters with Marines, once they occupied Baghdad. He talked about the Marine’s tanks surrounding the Palestine Hotel and a machine gun nest placed below his balcony at the Al Fanaar Hotel. He recounted that the Peace Team held many discussions regarding how they would relate to the conquering invaders. Particularly, they worried about being arrested for violating sanctions. They imagined that they might be taken to Guantanamo and held incommunicado.

However, their first encounter surprised even these veteran activists. As they heard the tanks approaching the Peace Team placed a 25 foot banner stating “Courage for Peace Not for War!” across several balconies along with other anti-war images and statements. The arriving marines, geared up for combat and backed up by tanks, yelled up to the Team, “Are you Red Sox fans?” “Well, how do you respond to that?” remarked Kinane. “We had just spent three weeks being bombarded. A number of us had been to hospitals seeing kids maimed and dazed, lying there and we saw building in flames and demolished buildings. We had all this very close experience with the war and here come these invaders – these Barbarians so to speak. ‘Are you Red Sox Fans?’”

Each of the Peace Team had their own non-violent approach to the soldiers. Some gave them bottled water to drink and Kathy Kelly offered them a plate of dates. But others were more confrontational. A friend of Kinane’s, Cynthia Bannis who was 73 years old, went right down into the street and began, after a few pleasantries, to discuss her view of the invasion.

Ed Kinane asked the audience how they felt about the various ways that people responded to the soldiers. A few of the audience felt that the Marines did not deserve the special welcoming of dates and water, that the Peace Team should have been more unified in making their anti-war message clear to the soldiers. Kinane responded that though he had difficulties identifying with the soldiers himself, he recognized that some of the team were very religious and felt “they would come from a position that non-violence means trying to see the divine in everyone and in every living thing.”

When asked about the impact of reported oil trenches lit on fire, Kinane replied that the air was extremely smoggy. They used the fires to impair the missile guidance systems. “It got apocalyptic. The atmosphere was so thick. You were dirty all the time from the soot. During that time there would be respiratory problems – the stuff gets thick in your throat and lungs.” But he also said the smoke had mostly cleared by the third day of the occupation of Baghdad.

An audience member drew a parallel between the Peace Team’s lack of orientation when they were discussing how to respond to the soldiers with the peace movement’s lack of orientation about how to proceed now that the war was over. “What is happening about opposition to occupation?”

Kinane replied, “I don’t have good answers to that…Somehow monitor the occupation as closely as can be. It’s a situation rife for human rights abuses and exploitation. And we should say, bring the troops home. It should be the UN and Iraqis rebuilding the country. And I think the US should not use Iraqi oil to finance the rebuilding. It should be patrimony if you will for the Iraqi people – who did nothing to bring this on themselves. They were not a threat to the US in any fashion so they shouldn’t be taxed for it.”