Iraq’s UN-doing

I don’t know why the 2003 bombing that killed Sergio Vieira de Mello and 22 other U.N. personnel, and instantly spelled the end of the U.N. mission in Iraq, is so personal to me. Reminded of it, it seems I can almost taste dust in my mouth.

The holes in that flag — literally standing for the world’s body — feel like rips in the skin. Associations to BushCo. are unending, including the shredding of the U.N. weapons inspection process, the meager and token participation of countries under our flag in the so-called Gulf War “coalition,” and more than anything, the way Bush/Rove defended and justified the occupation and the so-called “War on Terror” (1, 2, 3 etc.) by endlessly wrapping themselves in the Stars and Stripes.

(image: Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images. caption: U.S. President Barack Obama (L) stands with Ahmad Fawzi (2nd R), who was the UN spokesman in Baghdad and now director of news and media at the UN, and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in front of a flag from the bombed Canal Hotel in Baghdad, during a wreath laying ceremony for fallen United Nations staff members at U.N. headquarters September 23, 2009 in New York City.Obama is in New York to attend the 64th United Nations General Assembly.)