HW 28: An Open Letter to Riverbend

In Baghdad Burning, you discuss all of your interactions and feelings that you had to go through living in Iraq during this time. Reading some of your blogs I am shocked at how you handle yourself, because I know that if I were in many of those situations I am not sure what I would have done exactly but I would not have reacted as calmly as you have. "Today a child was killed in Anbar...Do they show that on Fox News or CNN?" (Riverbend 8). I think that this is a horrible thing that kids so young are being a killed and you are right by saying that no one even notices because they never talk about this like this on the news which are just as important as what cities have been bombed and the attacks. On page 11, when you and your brother E hear the bullets, and you immediately start guessing how far away what kind of gun and whether it was "them" or "us", I think it is incredible but also extremely sad that you hear those thing so much that you have started to determine all the information about the gun shots. "Females can no longer leave their homes alone." (Riverbend 16). That statement right there is absolutely ridiculous, yes there is war going on and it is very dangerous to be out of the house, but to completely take away a women's freedom is just unfair. Yes it is one way to protect a young girl or wife from getting beaten and have bad things happen to but it's just another way for them to show that they have more power over you. April 9, 2003 as you said, was a terrible day for you, your friends, family and all of Baghdad. I however, do not know much about it which is unfortunate. You say that American troops were everywhere, killing, bombing explosions all over the place and Iraqi people getting hurt. Since this was such a tragic day for people in Baghdad, i think that it is important for people in the the US to know about it and have knowledge about days like this however I was completely unaware of this day. Living in the US who you happen to be at war with is weird when reading your blogs, because as you describe everything that you have been going through many of the occurrences that have happened people here as well as I are uninformed about some of the tragedies that have been going on there.