Good Riddance

When people’s lives, souls and blood have no value in the eyes of their leaders, one should not be surprised by all the slaughter, killings and kidnappings. When all what they care about is fighting each other instead of being united, one should not expect progress. When greed and hatred filled their heart instead of possessing the sense of camaraderie, one should not have any hope any time soon.

While reading the always-bad news this morning, I read yet another article about another political group in Iraq announcing their boycott. Following a month-long spat, all six ministers from the Tawafuq Sunni bloc tendered their resignation from Maliki's government. Their excuse was that the current government has failed in meeting a list of about a dozen demands.

We all know that the current Iraqi government is nothing but a piece of rock thrown at people to hurt them. Have you imagined being hit by a rock without being hurt? What kind of democracy is this when every now and then we see one of the “political blocs” announcing boycott without paying attention to the hundreds of innocents killed by day, the hundreds of thousands being displaced, and the millions who fled the atrocities of the war. When we heard of democracy, we thought those who would come to power were supposed to keep our unity stronger, not weaken it by greed and fights which reached the extent of slapping fights at the Parliament headquarters.

The game of withdrawal from the parliament and the government has become very easy as if it is a video game where players sit on their sofas and use the joystick to move their characters as they like. First, there were the illiterate, uneducated, terrorist and fanatic Sadrists. Now we have the terrorist, hateful, insurgency-booster Tawafuq. But our life is no game. It’s reality. It’s people with flesh and blood.

Have all the political blocs seen how seventy people were killed just in Baghdad today? Aren’t they supposed to sit down and try to find a way to help stop this mayhem? Aren’t they supposed to unite instead of divide? Oh I forgot. They don’t have to, because they are on vacation! What a bump! Hundreds are dying and millions are being displaced and the “democratic” parliament members take a 30-day vacation. How insulting this is to every Iraqi to see their representatives having fun while they suffer every single minute of their lives?

That’s it. I talked a lot about this failure government and parliament, but no one is listening. All the efforts of good people are gone. All the patience and strong will Iraqi possessed gone unappreciated, and all the hopes of a new democratic Iraq have faded away by these monsters who distorted the image of democracy. No Iraqi trusts democracy any more. Maybe, only those outside who have never experienced horror every day do. But for us, no. How can anyone make Iraqis trust this process anymore? How can they go to polling centers in 2009 if all the roads are closed and barbed with bombs and insurgents? How are they going to decide to vote when all they could see is a bunch of extreme Sunni and Shiite Islamists running for the elections? How can they bring secularism back to their country if America, the freedom-boasting country supports these Islamists?

For now, let’s count the dead. The number is increasing, the horror became more terrifying and life became miserable for everyone living there. Hopefully, none of the Paradise-seekers-vacationists come back to their seats. If that happened, I would be more than happy to not to look back. I would look straight for the future and for the right people to run the country, and tell those behind me: GOOD RIDDANCE.

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