Ali Jaafar al-Noamani, a noncommissioned Iraqi officer with several children, was posthumously promoted to colonel and awarded two medals for defending attacks on Najaf on Saturday that killed four US soldiers and himself, as the US officials claimed.

The mourning for the four US soldiers in their hometown was touching, with the family members, relatives and neighbours praising their memory.

Dying this way is tragedy for all of them - the killer and the killed.

As part of the US war machine, the soldiers go to Iraq and to kill their "enemies" by order of their commanders. To them, the destination is not of their choosing.

But things are seen differently by the Iraqi people.

This is not a war of their choosing either, but some of them have chosen to defend their country, their homeland, with suicide attacks.

Call them extremist acts or not, they have been resorted to out of despair and hostility.

However, Pentagon officials were quick to label the suicide attack as terrorist.

Major General Stanley McChrystal, US Joint Chiefs of Staff vice-director of operations said: "It looks and feels like terrorism."

It might be convenient to call it "terrorism" in today's world politics. But how about "Shock and Awe"? By that, does the United States and its allies not intend to strike terror into the hearts of a country across the ocean?

All lives are equally precious.

The Iraqis' determination to choose to end their life in a tragic way should provide enough food for thought.

According to Iraqi sources, some 5,000 people from 23 Arab countries have been coming to Iraq, volunteering to be martyrs.

This should be compared with an assumed large exodus of refugees from Iraq predicted when the war started.

Still, there are no flowers and there is no cheering to welcome the self-proclaimed "liberators" of Iraq.

Even Iraqi opposition groups have preferred silence and inactivity to joining the "liberation army."

It is not difficult to find that the attitude of the Iraqi civilians to their "liberators" will decide their fate.

Obviously, the stiff resistance of the Iraqis, army and civilian, shows that this war will not help the fight against terrorism.

(China Daily April 2, 2003)