Being in the middle of action is hard but being away and aware of it is even harder. I can’t stop thinking about Baghdad and the daily horror people are going through every single minute in their lives. Some people may think that I am safe now and should not think about it anymore. I have to say that I am more horrified and worried than in any time before. My heart breaks and aches everyday when I read the news. My breakfast nowadays is internet. Even before I wash my face, I go to my desk, turn the computer on, and read the news. Usually, I end up depressed and sad thinking of the ordeal that seems is not going to end.
The last two weeks have been incredibly terrible for Iraqis. The government seems to be obviously unable to do anything, literally nothing. The members of the so called “Council of Representatives” are busy spitting at each other by the time people are being kidnapped, tortured and killed in cold blood every minute, if not every second. The scene of the dead bodies seems to be haunting on the “new free” Iraqi lands, blood is now seen more than the water people drink, and the Tigris is deserted and full of bodies drilled, beheaded and torn. Moreover, if I want to talk about black funeral banners, I need hundred pages to be fair talking about those whose names are dug on these black cloths which are almost in every street now.
Few days ago, newspapers rushed to talk about how the “friend” forces were able to arrest Dulaimi’s bodyguard suspecting him being linked to al-Qaeda. Well, DAH!! Good morning! Finally, someone woke up. Or maybe they did not wake up. They were already awake but when the snake reached their safe haven, they felt the real danger coming. So they decided to stop it.
What made me so angry is the debate that happened afterwards. Since they detained the bodyguard, Parliament members started spitting and throwing stones at each other, including Dulaimi as if they were shocked that he and the Vice President Hashimi [thanks to democracy that brought them to power] are part of insurgent armed groups in Iraq. What is funny in all of that is that Bahaa al-Araji, another Member of Parliament from the Sadr list, attacked Dulaimi in interviews as if his Mahdi Army thugs are peaceful like birds. Who knows? Maybe weird creatures came from another planet and are breaking into houses and setting up checkpoints in the middle of the day.
As I was reading the news on the web the last month, a Washington Post article drew my attention. It was about the death squads and the checkpoints they set up to hunt civilians and then kill them. I was reading the article for two reasons: first because part of my studies is to read them and the other was because I wanted to see how is it in Baghdad after I left few months ago. The story was very detailed and accurate. The writer described how the situation looks like there by putting the reader in there. I even felt the horror through the words. As I reached the end, I felt myself sinking in tears of fear and horror. I looked at myself in the mirror and remembered every moment of fear I went through. I still have the same feeling but not for me. Just the idea of imagining my family and friends in this situation makes feel sick. I urge you to read the article here.
Last month our lovely president visited the United States. He disputed on reports of growing violence in Iraq and declared, "I can assure you there will be no civil war." Now, what do I make of this? Is he blind? Or what? Someone tells me because this is really irritating. If there is “no civil war”, what does he consider what is going on now? What does he call what the militias and armed groups are doing? Oh Oh! I forgot… It’s only “terrorism”. Oops, I can’t differentiate between his voice and Bush’s. They sound so much alike. Well, it doesn’t matter. They are two faces of the same coin.
"The media is only focusing on the negative and exaggerating it," the Associated Press quoted Talabani. Ok, now tell me anything positive happened. Don’t tell me “restoring water to the marshes in southern Iraq” like what one of 24 steps’ readers said in a comment about reconstruction because that’s stupid. Zarqawi is killed? Nah! Nothing is changed. Iraq is “free”? Nope! It is not.
It’s funny that by the time our “representative” was saying that setting a deadline for withdrawal of U.S. troops would be a tragedy for Iraq, new polls by the U.S. State Department revealed that “a strong majority of Iraqis want U.S.-led military forces to immediately withdraw from the country, saying their swift departure would make Iraq more secure and decrease sectarian violence.” If you read the details in this Washington Post article, you’ll know the reasons. People attacked me previously when I said although Saddam was a tyrant, we were able to live relatively normal life. In this article, other people are saying the same thing.
He paused for a moment, then said, "We just want to go back and live like we did
before." from the WP article
Out of this unplanned war, people and U.S. soldiers are being killed everyday due to unforgivable mistakes the U.S. administration committed. In today’s paper, the Washington Post reported “Thirteen U.S. soldiers have been killed in Baghdad since Monday” registering the highest three-day death toll for U.S. forces in the capital since the start of the war. This happens by the time Bush indifferently says that this traumatic period in Iraq will be seen as "just a comma" in the history books. Wow! I didn’t know that for him the value of more than 2,700 U.S. troop and the hundreds of thousands Iraqis' deaths is "just a comma."
