Yesterday, I visited my friends after I finished my work at the office. One of S., my friend, is a governmental employee. He was sent to Anbar Province heading a delegation taking relief to the refugees who left Qaem, a town at the borders with Syria, after the U.S. military operations started there to "get rid of the terrorists."
S, wasn't in the same mood as if he was another person. He was quiet and silent. Usually when we meet, he starts telling us his new jokes. He is a man with a very high sense of humor. This time he did not tell me a joke. He told me what happened with him when he entered the "fallen province".
- When we reached Falluja, the area was scary. No police, no army and no Americans at all. Just them [the armed men] driving their cars freely.
- What were they doing?
- Just driving carrying their weapons.
- What did you do then? You are a governmental employee which means you are a target for them.
- We did not stop until we reached Rawa. We stopped at restaurant to have some lunch. At that time, a man in an OPEL sedan drove near us going further and returning back at the same road.
- Was he looking at you? Did he suspect you?
- I didn't know at the beginning. I was scared and all of us were scared.
- How many employees were there with you?
- Just me and another employee and of course, the driver.
- So what happened then?
- I asked a man wearing a dishdasha what is the OPEL man doing here? He said 'don't worry he is checking the road for his men who are planting an IED on the road.' I was shocked. He said that as if it is something normal. I didn’t know whether to feel happy that I wasn't the target or feel sad as they are destroying the country by that.
"No American state, no Jafari state.. only Islamic state," read one of the banners at the entrance of Rawa which is absolutely run by the armed men, not by the Americans nor the Iraqi government now. "It was signed by Al-Qaeda in Iraq," S. told me. "There were many banners like this one, in addition to the statements that were posted on the walls and the mosques everywhere," he said.
Reaching Akashat, a small town near Qaem, S. and his colleagues thought they felt safe there until a man of the area asked them what they were doing there.
- I had to lie. I told him we were sent by another ministry official who is originally from Anbar province. I told him we are here to help the refugees who left Qaem. Then he took us to the refugee camp where hundreds of families were homeless. Suddenly, he asked me about my colleague.
- What did he say?
- He asked me if he is a Shiite.
- A Shiite? Why??
- He asked me is he a Shiite or a Sunni? I answered him, he is a Sunni.
- What is the difference?
- He said 'I want to you to be frank with me. If he is a Shiite, you should tell me in order to know what to do.' I immediately understood that he is one of the armed men who fight the Shiites and that was very obvious in his eyes which were full of hatred to them. My heart stopped for a minute. I insisted that he is a Sunni and that he is from a very well-known Sunni tribe to avoid the danger of being kidnapped or killed.
- That is ridiculous!
- I know. I believe now that we live in a civil war.
- Maybe it's not obvious in Baghdad but it is very clear in the other cities.
That was part of the conversation with my friend. Returning back to my house, I was thinking of our mysterious future. Are we going to be another Lebanon? Or have we already started to be like them during the civil war? I have friends from Mosul, Falluja, Samarra, Najaf and Kirkuk and even I have Christian friends. We've been friends for years and I don't remember one day we quarreled or fought each other because one of us is a Shiite and the other is a Sunni.
"Tears of the Sun" is the name of one of the most powerful movies I have ever watched. It is about the war in Nigeria and how the life of the people was changed when the new regime came to power. People were kidnapped and killed, women were raped, and children were slaughtered and so on. The same thing is happening now in Iraq. Maybe not exactly the same but it is happening and we don't know whether this will continue for along time or not.
