US soldier shoots Bengal tiger in Baghdad zoo
11/11/2004 10:36

Drunken party leads to slaughter of rare animal

After the acts of torture, of rape, of abuse of power, of war crimes,
of mass murder, the fact that a rare tiger is shot in its cage in
Baghdad zoo comes as no surprise.

Yet another horrific incident in the nightmare called George Bush's
personal war against anything that moves, or is a civilian
infra-structure, in Iraq. This time it is not a hospital, nor a
school, nor a cluster bomb dropped near a residential area, nor an
artillery shell lobbed into the middle of a happy family gathering,
nor a Mosque. It is Baghdad zoo.

The "insurgent" in this case was a defenseless Bengal Tiger, locked up
in its cage, shot dead by a drunken American soldier. What fun. What a
brave soldier.

In an event similar to that made famous by the great American heroine,
Lynndie England, a group of drunken American soldiers entered Baghdad
zoo last Thursday night, according to a report released by AFP.

Adel Salman Musa told this agency that one of the group entered the
tiger's cage and started teasing it, whereby the animal attacked him,
injuring his hand and arm. One of the other soldiers opened fire on
the animal, killing it.

The Bengal Tiger is an endangered species, numbering between 3.000 and
4.500 in the wild. How it is possible that the US Armed Forces
continue to run riot in such shocking acts of cruelty, after what
happened at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere, defies logic.

Under international law, Washington is liable, accountable and
responsible for the actions of this rabble and those in command have
to pay reparations for any illegal acts committed. The slaughtering of
a tiger, when compared to the long list of war crimes already
perpetrated, is just one more incident to add to the epitaph of the
Bush regime.

After six-year-old children have their limbs blasted off them for
being "insurgents", now a defenseless animal in a cage is shot. For
being a terrorist?

Freedom and democracy, winning hearts and minds by slaughtering
children and civilians, raping women, torturing prisoners and now,
massacring an animal of a species in danger of extinction locked up in
a cage without any hope to protect itself.