New Haven Independent

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In a fitting commemoration of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the New Haven peace community staged a dramatic reading before a full house in the Little Theater on Lincoln Street, based on the book, “What I Heard About Iraq,” by Eliot Weinberger.

The readings were mostly the words of U.S. officials, who first raised the possibility of invading Iraq just hours after the attacks of Sept. 11. But first, Marlene Buchanan took the stage to read an open letter that Cindy Sheehan sent to President Bush last year, after her son Casey was killed and after the election gave Bush another four years in the White House. She warned him that she and other mothers of fallen soldiers were going to be vocal in opposing the war: “We are going to scream until our last breath to bring the rest of our babies home from this quagmire of a war that you have gotten our country into.”

Then the actors — Kim Mikenis, John Watson, Barry McMurtrey, Jose Monteiro, Bill Dyson, Aleta Staton, Daniel Smith and Rachel Kobasa — filed out to sit on stools across the stage, except for McMurtrey as the president, who stood behind a podium and did a fair representation of W, all bluster, swagger and mispronunciations.

Rachel Kobasa, 15, was one of the narrators. She read from an official report describing the torture of Iraqis by Americans. She read the matter-of-fact but horrific descriptions matter-of-factly. But afterwards she said, “It was hard to read something like that out loud, and to think about that this actually happened to people.”

One of the many assertions by Bush administration officials of Iraq’s possession of WMDs was then-Secretary of State Colin Powell’s statement to the United Nations in 2003 just before the U.S. invaded Iraq: “Every statement I made today is backed up by sources — solid sources. These are not assertions. What I’m giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence.”

The two narrators also conveyed the anguish of some Iraqis, like Muhammad Abboud during the siege of Fallujah. “Unable to leave his house to go to a hospital, he had watched his nine-year-old son bleed to death, and, unable to leave his house to go to a cemetery, he had buried his son in the garden.”

Rachel Kobasa said she was deeply affected by her participation, and she hoped the audience would be too. “I just hope people go away with a better understanding of what’s happening in this world, and they actually want to get up and do something about it, and not just sit back and say, oh, this is sad, but get out there and work towards a better goal.”

The reading was adapted by Stephen Vincent Kobasa (Rachel’s dad) and directed by Christopher Arnott. It was sponsored by Reclaiming the Prophetic Voice and the Connecticut Peace Coalition/New Haven. Proceeds will provide medical relief for the people of Iraq.

Click here for more information on sponsors of Sunday night’s event.