Time Travel 04: I Fight the US in the Middle East

Baghdad, outside the morgue at the city hospital.

Swarms of flies arrived, and the stench of corpses filled the air. The morgue's freezers were already full of bodies, so the rest had to be placed on stretchers. Even though it was already night, the temperature in Baghdad was still scorching!

This kind of weather is already irritable, not to mention some family members wailing and some children touching the bodies on stretchers, unable to comprehend the concept of death...

Robert Fiske walked through the crowd, and the scene before him was unbelievable, as if he had returned to a year ago when the US military invaded Baghdad, and according to his investigation, tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians were killed.

And what about today?

What's going on today?

He walked into the morgue and watched a middle-aged man silently weep.

"May his lost life become your life in the future," Robert Fiske said. "Brother, let me introduce myself. I'm Robert Fiske, a reporter for The Independent. Now, can you tell me how your loved ones were murdered?"

Robert Fiske was born in Maidstone, Kent, England in 1946. From the 1970s, he was a correspondent for The Times in the Middle East, and his work took him to countries and regions that had experienced war or ethnic cleansing.

He has lived in Beirut, Lebanon for over 25 years! He has repeatedly escaped death, for which he has been hailed by The New York Times as the most famous foreign correspondent.

In the 1990s, he interviewed Blake Lively three times and was considered a neutral Western journalist.

In previous years, he joined The Independent to continue reporting in the Middle East. During last year's war, he stayed on the front lines and wrote many famous reports. His style remains neutral!

He believes that a journalist's duty is to be an impartial witness to history, and secondly, to challenge those in power!

He exposed the facts that were ignored or even distorted by the mainstream Western media, and told the ordinary audience the bloody truth that was covered up by high-sounding reasons!

Today, the events that occurred in the Green Zone have drawn his great attention, but... he is not welcome by the U.S. military and cannot enter the Green Zone, so he can only conduct interviews outside the Green Zone, and then... he chose the hospital he is most familiar with.

The dead can tell him a lot.

Upon hearing the Westerner speaking fluent Arabic, the middle-aged man looked up: "This noon, my three sons drove their pickup truck to the Green Zone to deliver goods, and then... when I received their message, I was already here..."

His face was filled with sorrow: "I originally had five sons, but now I only have two left, and I don't know how much longer they have to live..."

No one knows what happened to the deceased, and everything in the Green Zone is covered up!

Are the Americans... planning a massacre inside the Green Zone?

He looked at a woman beside him: "Madam, could you tell me? Perhaps I could report what's happening around you..."

"I...we were having our wedding on the east bank of the Tigris River, and some guests were firing shots into the sky in celebration, and then...helicopters flew over and opened fire on us..."

There are too many guns in Italy, and many people have a tradition of firing shots into the sky in celebration, since setting off firecrackers is not common here, and then...

Even if they were wrong to fire, the fact that the Apache helicopters swooped down and opened fire without any explanation is wrong on the part of the Americans!

Robert Fiske began, "They went too far. I will report these things exactly as they happened. If you have any footage from the scene, that would be even better..."

"It seems... there is one."

A dozen minutes later, Robert Fiske emerged carrying a long, thin metal fragment with English and numerical markings on it. Those damned bastards actually preyed on innocent poor people; they really were…

Just as he was reflecting on this, a voice sounded beside him: "Excuse me, are you Mr. Robert Fiske?"

"It's me. And who are you?"

Robert Fiske looked curiously at the person who greeted him, dressed in a Muslim robe of a commoner. Did the person have some suffering to tell him?

"I have a videotape that I hope to give to a Western journalist with a sense of justice so that it can be made public. I wonder if you... would be willing to do that?"

"What videotape?"

"The Confession of Colonel Chris, Staff Officer of the U.S. Army's 3rd Mechanized Infantry Division!"

While Shehid was sending Colonel Chris to meet God, Azam was not idle either. He transcribed the videotape and gave it to the Caliph, instructing him to send it to Majid. He also told Majid to find Western journalists and even gave instructions on how to do so.

Robert Fiske, who liked to visit hospital morgues, was indeed found by Majid when he arrived!

This guy has exposed a lot of the US military's dirty laundry! With so many innocent civilians killed in Baghdad today, he is even more indignant and will stand firmly on the side of the people!

At this moment, meeting Majid's expectant gaze, Robert Fiske spoke up: "Alright, as long as the authenticity of this videotape can be confirmed, I will release it!"

"Thanks."

After handing over the videotape, Majid was about to leave.

"Please wait a moment, could you tell me who you are?"

"A righteous Itauman!"

Of course, I can't say that I'm a member of Juba the Grim Reaper!

Watching Majid's departing figure, Robert Fiske returned to his residence with the videotape.

I pushed open the door and saw my colleague typing away at the computer.

"Joe, what news have you come up with?"

"I met a deserter who came out of the Green Zone and was trying to blend in with the civilians to escape to Kotto. According to him, the commander of the 3rd Mechanized Infantry Division was shot dead by Juba the Grim Reaper," Joe Wilding said.

He is a young independent journalist and writer in Britain, as well as a UN human rights observer. He came to Baghdad after the war ended. He is also a big fan of Robert Fiske, so... his approach is the same as Robert Fiske's: to report objectively and fairly, which is in stark contrast to the mainstream reporting of Western media!

Upon hearing his words, Robert Fiske understood what was happening, and his face grew even angrier.

So many civilians died today, and it turns out it was... the US military retaliating? They couldn't catch Juba, so they shot ordinary civilians to vent their anger? This is a crime!

"Hey, what's that in your hand?" Joe Wilding looked at the videotape in his hand with great curiosity.

"It was given to me by a commoner from Yituo. Let's take a look together."

After saying that, Robert Fiske turned on the television and VCR, inserted the videotape, and the moment the image on the screen became clear, they both widened their eyes.