Airplane noise....

The animals, with their sensitivity, sensed it and fled to higher ground.

The humans took longer to hear. And when it came, few had more time to do anything except look up in startled horror.

Many tsunami survivors tell of the noise they heard prior to the arrival of the deadly wave that swept away their families, destroyed their homes and villages, and sucked all their belongings out to sea. They say it sounded like a jet airplane “whoooshing” through the sky. That “whoooshing” noise was the last thing 150,000 people ever heard.

Several thousand miles to the northwest another disaster has befallen an innocent population. The death toll among them, according to The Lancet’s Johns Hopkins study, is slightly less: Only about 100,000 men, women, and children have perished. But what these deaths have in common with the tsunami victims is that “whooshing” sound.

The “whoosh” heard in Sri Lanka and Thailand was the sound of the gigantic waves rapidly approaching. The “whoosh” heard in Iraq that brings death and destruction was the sound of American-made hardware ripping though the sky.

Since March 2003, Iraq’s citizens have huddled beneath a sky that suddenly begins to “whoosh,” then rains down with death. The source of this “whoosh” over Iraq is American-made. Sometimes it comes from a squadron of F-14s dropping high explosives into the middle of densely inhabited cities. Sometimes the noise comes from huge artillery shells fired from 20 miles away. Sometimes the whoosh is created by rockets fired from Blackhawk helicopters.

Last Saturday, the “whoosh” of death came from a 500-pound satellite-guided bomb “mistakenly” dropped on a civilian family home in the village of Aaytha, 30 miles south of Mosul.

The US military claimed only five people were killed, and it “deeply regretted the loss of possibly innocent lives.”

“Possibly innocent?”

The owner of the US-bombed home told news services that the satellite-guided bomb killed 14 people, including 7 children.

“Possibly innocent?” What might they have been doing that they were targeted by a satellite for death?

The Washington Post reported that the US military claims its satellite-guided giant bombs were part of “a cordon and search operation to capture an anti-Iraqi force cell leader.” The intended target was not at the house the US military actually bombed, but was at “another location nearby.”

Oops.

Oh well. Don’t get all broken up over the dead Iraqi family, since they were only “possibly innocent.” Maybe the grown-ups were busy conspiring not to vote in the US-instigated upcoming elections.

Not voting? How very American of them!

Yes, it may come as a complete and utter shock to Iraqis that most Americans willfully fail to vote in most elections. About half the United States is unregistered to vote, often by choice. Some people are vociferously anti-electoral. And yet, the Pentagon does not target our neighborhood homes with satellite-guided bombs.

When we hear a “whoosh,” it’s generally just...a plane.

Sept. 11, 2001, was the day that “whoosh” was deadly for us, and we haven’t forgotten it. America’s initial response to Al-Qaeda’s horrendous provocation was swift and direct... we had the right of reprisal back then. But that was then — Afghanistan, and this is now — Iraq.

The seven dead Iraqi children and the seven dead Iraqi adults who cared for them can be read about on page 11 of my hometown paper. But the headline on page 1, “War Across Globe Truly Hits Home,” is about six local US National Guardsmen from Houma, Louisiana, who heard no “whoosh,” who were killed near Baghdad by a booby-trapped bomb that tore through their Bradley Fighting Vehicle as it led a patrol convoy. Ordinarily, American grief over such a military loss would be spread thinly, across many different states. But here in south Louisiana, it has finally “hit home.” Unlike the US Army or Marines, National Guardsmen usually all come from the same places and, like the ones killed last week, often grew up together and are even relatives of one another.

Houma is pronounced “home-ah.”

The Bush administration insists America must fight the war in Iraq so that the insurgents stay there, and don’t attack our homes. Or Houma, and places like that. But do people in Houma really believe the Iraqis are coming to besiege us in south Louisiana? Are the six sons, brothers, husbands, fathers, uncles, the hometown men whose lives were lost going to help Americans take a little closer look at whether Iraqi Sunni insurgents are really coming to Main Street, USA? Perhaps only if we give them good reason — by “accidentally” killing mothers, fathers and children who are “probably innocent” of any wrongdoing whatsoever.

“Whooosh”....and 150,000 people are swept away within a couple hours, and the entire world gasps. “Whooosh” again and again and again... and 100,000 people are blown away within 22 months, but it’s only seven children here and seven adults there, and does the world gasp?

No. They were only “possibly innocent.”