Do You Really Still Believe in Your Government?

The American people have been hearing that the "Surge" has been the main reason why Baghdad is "safer" and why violence has dropped down. But have Americans really known if they have been deceived or not? From what I see and hear here in the U.S. is that they do. Five years after their country's occupation to Iraq, there are Americans who still believe that what their government is saying is true. And the worst part is that there are Americans who have no idea what the hell happened in Iraq, and have no intention to know. Their lives are better off without knowing Iraqis and Americans are dying.

This post is dedicated to the Americans who still believe that the "surge" has "improved" the country's situation. They can see what I -an Iraqi from Baghdad- was shocked to see. I couldn't even recognize my own neighborhood surrounded by walls. Here, I would like to refer to a three-series video reporting by the Guardian's Iraqi reporter, Ghaith Abdul Ahad. Ghaith managed to capture in photos and videos what his British and American counterparts have failed to do: the real story of how Baghdad has turned to be five years after a bloody, ongoing war. (Thanks to BlogIraqi and another friend of mine who blogged about it.)

For the fifth anniversary of the US/British-led invasion of Iraq, the Guardian's award-winning foreign correspondent Ghaith Abdul-Ahad has teamed up with ITV News to bring us a series of extraordinary films for the ITV News and guardian.co.uk. In these unprecedented films he, as an Iraqi, goes where foreign journalists can no longer go - to the heart of Baghdad's most dangerous sectarian zones. He uncovers Iraq's own killing field where only the 'killers and the killed' can visit; and he reveals the desperate truth of the trafficked children of Iraq.

The Series is as follows:

Baghdad: City of walls: In the first of Ghaith Abdul-Ahad's extraordinary series of films to mark the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, he investigates the claims that the US military surge is bringing stability to Iraq. By travelling through the heart of Baghdad he exposes how, by enclosing the Sunni and Shia populations behind 12ft walls, the surge has left the city more divided and desperate than ever.

Baghdad's killing fields: In the second of Ghaith Abdul-Ahad's series of three films he visits Baghdad's killings fields on the edge of Sadr City. The scene of thousands of sectarian murders over the last three years, it is a desolate and evil place: 'Only the killers and the killed ever come here' says Abdul-Ahad. Here in the thousands of unmarked graves lie the victims of the Shia militia gangs Baghdad's Killing Fields was made by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad with GuardianFilms for ITV News.

Iraq's lost generation: In the final instalment of Ghaith Abdul-Ahad's series of films to mark the fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, he travels to an orphanage in Sadr city, where children speak of their hatred of America. A generation of Iraqi children have been radicalised and anti-westernised by the war Iraq's lost generation was made by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad with GuardianFilms for ITV News.

baghdadtreasure@gmail.com

Long Live Iraq

Let's build our country. Let's put the differences aside and remember that we are all Iraqis as we always were. Let's not give our enemies a chance to tear us apart. History has already recorded their crimes that will never be erased. What remains is us, our unity, our freedom and our Iraq.

Long Live United Iraq

baghdadtreasure@gmail.com

Very Hospitable!

The American war has led Iraq to be a “Nation of Refugees.” With the no-future plans policy, the Bush administration has cost Iraq the terrible death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and the displacement of the millions.

For the five years since its invasion of Iraq, the U.S. has not yet stood up to its moral duty of rescuing Iraq from the swamp they dragged it into. And yet, we hear voices of American officials calling on the return of the Iraqi refugees “to go home.”

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) argued that with the military troop buildup having bolstered security in Iraq, "I don't think it's the time that we should be accelerating our refugee efforts. . . . Now is the time that we should be calling on the refugees from Iraq to go home."

What a nerve! People whose lives are in danger and are displaced from their homes and have lost loved ones because of the U.S. should go home now. Indeed, typical. It's because of such officials Iraq has fallen down to this level. Alas!

baghdadtreasure@gmail.com

Awakening Threatend to Collapse

There is no doubt that the Sahwa (Awakening) forces in Iraq have contributed in bringing down the massive terror attacks against the Iraqi people, especially in the Sunni areas like Anbar province.

After defeating al-Qaeda in the former restive Anbar province, a new phase of the struggle for power has emerged. Who is going to represent the Sunnis of Iraq in the elections and who deserves to do so?

Sam Dagher of the Christian Science Monitor has recently written a comprehensive article regarding the future of the Sahawa in Iraq. He reported that divisions and competition have made their way between two rivalry Awakening groups: Sheikh Ahmed Abu Reesha (the brother of Assasinated Sheikh Sattar) on one hand, and Sheikh Ali al-Hatem, one of the Sahwa founders, on the other.

Sheikh Ahmed has already forged an alliance in Anbar with Iraq's top Sunni party, the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP) of Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, and was named as a possible minister within Mr. Hashemi's Sunni bloc should it return to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government. It has boycotted the government since August.

Notably absent from Tuesday's meeting was Sheikh Hatem, who regards himself as the rightful chief of Sahwa. He has assailed Hashemi for trying to hijack the movement to serve what he calls the IIP's corrupt goals in Anbar. He has even accused the party of maintaining links to Al Qaeda. IIP officials deny those charges.

"More dangerous than Al Qaeda are the political parties that continue to support Al Qaeda.… Al Qaeda is a convenient scapegoat for a lot of things.… It's open war against our enemies and our response will be swift," Hatem said Monday, hours after a truck bomber rammed into the parking lot of his Baghdad office, killing six of his guards and wounding 20. Minutes later a second car bomb exploded nearby. The combined death toll was 22.

Sheikh Hatem has repeatedly criticized Sheikh Ahmed for his alliance to the Iraqi Islamic Party, whose head is Tariq al-Hashimi, the Vice President of Iraq. Hatem accuses the Iraqi Islamic Party for trying to use the achievements of the Sahwa forces for their own propaganda:

Now, he claims, Iraqi Vice President Hashemi is attempting to undermine the movement by joining forces with Sheikh Ahmed. The vice president's real goal, he says, is to bolster his standing among Sunni Arabs and gaining a hand in lucrative Anbar contracts.

"We will not allow the rebellion of the tribes to be stolen and used by others to make them look good; we want the victory for the Iraqi people."

In a recent development, Radio Sawa reported on its website yesterday that the tension between the two groups turned into a direct threat. Sheikh Ali al-Hatem has extended the time limit to the IIP to close its offices in the Anbar Province. "Hatem threatened that a ‘disaster’ is about to happen in case the IIP kept its office open in Anbar after the time limit he set (March 24)."

I am afraid that Anbar Province may fall down into fighting again if the IIP does not pull out of the province. The Americans in way or another support both sides and are stuck to what to do in case violence makes its way back to Anbar.

baghdadtreasure@gmail.com

Random Ramblings

Recently, I came across some interesting stuff on the major news outlets I check every day, and thought of sharing them with the readers of this blog. Of course, most of these things are about Iraq, yet some are related to the Middle East and the Arab world in general and are connected to Iraq indirectly. So bear with me!

*I would like to start off with something very interesting in my own point of view, that is the launching of the BBC Arabic TV network. This new network follows the same moderate line its radio counterpart follows. The BBC has proved to be a very moderate and real world news service, unlike the American ABC News in which Charles Gibson calls it “World News” while the only non-American news mentioned there are those about Iraq, Iran or Afghanistan- all have to do with American interests, of course.

Since it was launched a few days ago, the BBC Arabic started broadcasting on TV, Internet, and even cell phones. Before I go to work every morning and while I get my morning coffee, I listen to their news update. Their coverage of their news are that similar of the English version with neutral opinions and documentaries. This step, I hope, will have a big impact on the Arab population that already have a massive respect to the BBC radio. However, I think the network will face an incredible amount of competition as there are many powerful news networks like Aljazeera and Al-Arabiya.

*The other thing that also attracted my attention recently is the new New York Times Blog, “Baghdad Bureau.” The blog posts are written by the Times’ Iraqi and American staff of the Baghdad Bureau. Their posts reflect what many newspapers, including the NY Times previously, failed to report: Iraq from the Inside.

*A very interesting Op-Ed piece in the New York Times published on Tuesday analyzes why after five years from the invasion, Iraqis have not yet enjoyed the simplest service that could ever be provided to a human being, that is electricity. In his “Keeping Iraq in the Dark” piece, Glenn Zorpette points out the reason why Iraq is still in living in the dark. He indirectly blames the Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani who is well connected politically to the ruling parties. He also blames it on the bureaucracy that is eating out Iraq's infrastructure. He writes, “Yet several studies have concluded that if the gas from the southern oil fields alone were used to generate electricity, it could provide 4,100 megawatts, nearly doubling Iraq’s total capacity. Nevertheless, the Oil Ministry has pushed back on every Electricity Ministry proposal over the past five years aimed at capturing and delivering the gas to generating plants.”

*In an interview with the Washington Post, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said that “Iraqi leaders have failed to take advantage of a reduction in violence to make adequate progress toward resolving their political differences.” The Washington Post reporter wrote that “Petraeus conceded that some elements of both the Awakening movement and the Mahdi Army may be standing down in order to prepare for the day when the U.S. presence is diminished.”

It’s very obvious to note Petraeus’ frustration, which is good. But, where has he been all these years we’ve been talking about how these politicians do not care about Iraq as whole more than they care about their own religious and personal interests. Well, there you go! That's when you don't listen.

*The day before yesterday, I watched the live coverage of an event that I took as a positive sign for the future of the unity of Iraq. For the first time in Erbil city, the capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq embraced the 13^th Arab Intro-Parliamentary Union Conference (AIPU) with participation of 19 Arab countries. Throughout the coverage of the conference, the unity of Iraq was stressed as a fact and that Iraqi Kurdistan is inseparable part of Iraq. In my opinion, it was a good chance to open a new relation between the Iraqi Kurds and the Arabs.

*A few days ago, Jordanian authorities released Jordanian Sheik Abu Mohammad al-Maqdisi, a leading al-Qaida mentor, after several years imprisonment without trial, security sources said. It seems the American friends are unable to believe their former terrorist Zarqawi is dead. They decided to release his mentor so that the world becomes much safer than it was. Good job, Jordan. Day by day, you prove your support to peace.

*Finally, I would like to finish off with a new decision made by the British Authorities. A leaked Home Office correspondence seen by the Guardian revealed that “More than 1,400 rejected Iraqi asylum seekers are to be told they must go home or face destitution in Britain as the government considers Iraq safe enough to return them.” Hmm! Safe? Haven’t there been dual car bombs in the busiest markets recently? What about the insurgents and militias who might harass the returnees? Won’t they consider them “traitors” who preferred to live in the “blasphemous” Britain than in the “Pure Muslim” lands? Yeah, thanks to Britain! Very obvious the amount of the international support being provided to Iraqis!

baghdadtreasure@gmail.com