Yahoooooooo! Groups

Imprisoned in their houses, young men and women in Iraq have one companion only. Internet is the only thing that makes them feel they are still alive and can communicate with others in their age.

Before I left, the Iraqi youth used to exchange Iraqi jokes. By course of time, the jokes developed from being innocent into being indirect attacks against the Americans, Iraqi government, Iranians, insurgents, militias and of course the collapse of the aspects of life there. But the case has changed. Something other than jokes is being exchanged through the Iraqi Yahoo youth groups. Some of the widely-read messages stress on how Iraqis should unite in these hard times while the others warn Iraqis from the “imperial plans” of how to divide Iraq and the whole region.

I got the maps posted here in an email from a friend of mine who joined one of the dozens of Iraqi youth groups. The hundreds-if not thousands-group members were exchanging such kinds of emails in the last couple of days.

My other friend who is also a member of the same group sent me another email he got from the other group members. It was about how life was far better under Saddam. It was accompanied by powerful pictures of Saddam in his military uniform and with beautiful pictures of Baghdad before the war.

In spite of all of these messages, the biggest number of shared emails so far includes jokes, but bitter ones. Let’s hope these messages do not go beyond this limit. Otherwise, God knows what would happen.

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