If In The Distance

"They threw mortars and grenades our way, and we never even saw them running away. My fellow combatants and I never once put an armed enemy in our gunsights. They were on the run and gone while we were still diving for cover against flying shrapnel. We fought back by lashing out at civilians who had no means to defend themselves. It was the only way we could fight back - but it was wrong."
Joshua Key, The Deserter's Tale.

I heard there was a new start on offer. Another fresh beginning. To smote us all; laughing in triumph. The day, that day when it all began, was just another day in an appalling life; his own sea green depression having eaten so totally the person he had once been. The office was quiet when he got there. The only person around was his nightmare chief of staff, who was screaming at him before he sat down. There's been an explosion down the city, she yelled. Get down there now. Now.

Where have you been? What's wrong with your phone?

It's not working, he said, as if everything was his fault. In fact it was, he'd dropped it in the bath.

She gave him the address with all her usual contempt; and he remembered yet again why he hated her so much. So much.

He stood at the front counter; getting his cab charges filled out; and could feel the drama in the distance; heard a siren passing by Central. In this city of hatred, who was hated the most? Who was worth the effort?

He wasn't surprised by the address.

THE BIGGER STORY:

BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraqi investigators have a videotape that shows Blackwater USA guards opened fire against civilians without provocation in an incident last week in which 11 people died, a senior Iraqi official said Saturday. He said the case had been referred to the Iraqi judiciary.

Iraq's president, meanwhile, demanded that the Americans release an Iranian arrested this week on suspicion of smuggling weapons to Shiite militias. The demand adds new strains to U.S.-Iraqi relations only days before a meeting between President Bush and Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.