The convoy rolls on along the dusty road

The hazy mirage-like horizon of the desert looms ahead

In the lead vehicle a young American sits, 21, fresh out of college, a US army reservist

Gripped by the promise of college fees paid, and health care subsidised -if only he would sign up

“Only one weekend a month” is what they said

“Sure, it will be fun, no one ever gets called up, no one winds up dead”

So he joined; at least this way he could go to college

Deprivation in the world’s richest nation was his recruiting Sergeant

Over a ridge, a young Iraqi waits

Crouched behind a rock, an RPG rests on his shoulder

A laser guided bomb destroyed his house, one night; burnt his family

He was out working, earning money to pay for his university education

Since the occupation began, the university has closed

Like many others he is destitute, nowhere to go

A quiet whisper from a friend of a friend

Lured him into the shady resistance movement

Stirred by an internal fire of revenge and cries of ‘burn the sky’

He traded his pen and writing pad for a keffiyeh and an RPG

The convoy drew ever closer

The tracks of the occupier’s tanks pressing down on the dusty old Sumerian sands

Weapon shouldered, ready to die a martyr, the young Iraqi forever changes two lives

Two members of the working class pitted against each other in a sick imperialist game- a game with no winners

A fiery explosion burns away the hopes and dreams of the young American … little did both men known that they had more in common than each would have thought

Both shared a common enemy- the ruling class for whose benefit wars are fought (the common people being drugged with a diet of false nationalism)

The young Iraqi dies under a hail of bullets from the surviving soldiers

Also killed are several shepherds whose animals were grazing nearby

The occupiers take out their revenge on the civilians in the area- shooting anything that moves

Millions of lives ruined just to realise a free-market imperialist’s wet dream

If only the people of the world realised that they have a common enemy: The enemy has always been and still is the ruling class

Or better still, if only wars could be fought by the bastards who instigate them: the ruling class

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Carol Anne Grayson is an independent writer/researcher on global health/human rights/WOT and is Executive Producer of the Oscar nominated, Incident in New Baghdad. She is a Registered Mental Nurse with a Masters in Gender Culture and Development. Carol was awarded the ESRC, Michael Young Prize for Research 2009, and the COTT ‘Action = Life’ Human Rights Award’ for “upholding truth and justice”. She is also a survivor of US “collateral damage”.