Friday, January 09, 2004
Sunday Dec. 28, 2003
It is 8 o’clock in the morning and outside it is raining and we have heavy fog. Yesterday I got several emails. I appreciate all of them regardless of whether they are encouraging or critical. I wish to thank everybody who wrote for their concern for us, it help us get through the pain when we know that there are people around the world that care about us. The world has become a small village and a common dialog is possible as long as we don’t think is selfish way. Thank you all.
Today I return to the story of the idiot that came to the house to sell me stolen stuff, I got angry and kicked him out. In reality this didn’t exist before the war, not to such an extent. I think that the American army has unintentionally introduced these new concepts to our midst, especially to the ignorant of us. The American army broke open the doors to the presidential palaces and invited everybody to come in and take a look inside. This awoke the ugly side in some people that committed foolish acts while laughing. I know many poor and needy families but they didn’t do such a thing. Because they found it to be a shameful act that they would feel ashamed about for many years to come. I know other families that were not poor and were not oppressed by Saddam, to the contrary they were benefiting from the Saddam regime; these people couldn’t wait to start looting and they were happy about it and laughing…. I guess they thought this was an entertaining game!
There is an Arabic proverb that says “People follow the religion of their kings”….. The leader led by example. When the regime fell, the American army became the leader and the example. They allowed these idiots to loot and the army didn’t realize that things would get out of hand very quickly. These people when they were finished looting the crumbling state property, they started to loot their fellow citizens as if they were in a crazy state of greed and gluttony that couldn’t be stopped or controlled.
Now with the shortage of gasoline, the American forces are distributing leaflets asking people to buy gas from the gas stations only and not from the black market. There are very strict penalties for people who don’t comply yet nobody is paying attention to these leaflets and people continue to buy gas on the black market. Do you know why? Because when you come in and on the first day you allow people to steal and loot, it becomes difficult now for people to listen to you when you take on the role of the reasonable party that is dispensing with wise advice.
Had an Iraqi party removed the regime, non of this would have happened. Because they would have preserved everything, not because they love Saddam, but because they would have realized that this belongs to their country and they must look after it. They would have realized that all state property must be kept and can’t be squandered away like what happened. They would have urged the people to stand united and act in a reasonable way under a strenuous situation, because unless we stand together and act in a rational way we won’t be able to get through this crisis.
Off course, there is another party who encouraged these foolish acts and these are the opposition parties that came from abroad riding on American tanks into our city. I also accuse our Kurdish brothers from the north, the area names Kurdistan. Kurdistan is now full of these stolen state cars. Some cars where stolen form storage places and others by force from their owners. Some car owners were killed in the process. The civilian cars that were stolen and their owners killed and now being sold in auctions. Maybe the owner’s soul is hovering over its car. I wonder why do people commit such evil acts? Why don’t they say, hey! I can secure my daily bread and other necessities without spilling somebody’s blood. The Kurdish people in the north are crying and complaining that they have been oppressed and killed by Saddam, so why do you allow the same thing to happen?
If I criticize my enemy for being unjust and committing foolish acts, how can I act like them when I am in their place, in that case how am I any better?
Another issue is the allowance of killing of previous Ba’athists without any due process and no questions asked…. Applying the program of thinning out the Ba’ath party. More that half of Iraqis were members of the Ba’ath party. How many Ba’athi will get his day? How many have their name of the list? How many Ba’athi was killed in front of his wife and children? When is this inhumane scene that people are committing against each other going to end? The fools are fighting one another. In the end we all lose!
[translation provided by www.ihath.com]
It is 8 o’clock in the morning and outside it is raining and we have heavy fog. Yesterday I got several emails. I appreciate all of them regardless of whether they are encouraging or critical. I wish to thank everybody who wrote for their concern for us, it help us get through the pain when we know that there are people around the world that care about us. The world has become a small village and a common dialog is possible as long as we don’t think is selfish way. Thank you all.
Today I return to the story of the idiot that came to the house to sell me stolen stuff, I got angry and kicked him out. In reality this didn’t exist before the war, not to such an extent. I think that the American army has unintentionally introduced these new concepts to our midst, especially to the ignorant of us. The American army broke open the doors to the presidential palaces and invited everybody to come in and take a look inside. This awoke the ugly side in some people that committed foolish acts while laughing. I know many poor and needy families but they didn’t do such a thing. Because they found it to be a shameful act that they would feel ashamed about for many years to come. I know other families that were not poor and were not oppressed by Saddam, to the contrary they were benefiting from the Saddam regime; these people couldn’t wait to start looting and they were happy about it and laughing…. I guess they thought this was an entertaining game!
There is an Arabic proverb that says “People follow the religion of their kings”….. The leader led by example. When the regime fell, the American army became the leader and the example. They allowed these idiots to loot and the army didn’t realize that things would get out of hand very quickly. These people when they were finished looting the crumbling state property, they started to loot their fellow citizens as if they were in a crazy state of greed and gluttony that couldn’t be stopped or controlled.
Now with the shortage of gasoline, the American forces are distributing leaflets asking people to buy gas from the gas stations only and not from the black market. There are very strict penalties for people who don’t comply yet nobody is paying attention to these leaflets and people continue to buy gas on the black market. Do you know why? Because when you come in and on the first day you allow people to steal and loot, it becomes difficult now for people to listen to you when you take on the role of the reasonable party that is dispensing with wise advice.
Had an Iraqi party removed the regime, non of this would have happened. Because they would have preserved everything, not because they love Saddam, but because they would have realized that this belongs to their country and they must look after it. They would have realized that all state property must be kept and can’t be squandered away like what happened. They would have urged the people to stand united and act in a reasonable way under a strenuous situation, because unless we stand together and act in a rational way we won’t be able to get through this crisis.
Off course, there is another party who encouraged these foolish acts and these are the opposition parties that came from abroad riding on American tanks into our city. I also accuse our Kurdish brothers from the north, the area names Kurdistan. Kurdistan is now full of these stolen state cars. Some cars where stolen form storage places and others by force from their owners. Some car owners were killed in the process. The civilian cars that were stolen and their owners killed and now being sold in auctions. Maybe the owner’s soul is hovering over its car. I wonder why do people commit such evil acts? Why don’t they say, hey! I can secure my daily bread and other necessities without spilling somebody’s blood. The Kurdish people in the north are crying and complaining that they have been oppressed and killed by Saddam, so why do you allow the same thing to happen?
If I criticize my enemy for being unjust and committing foolish acts, how can I act like them when I am in their place, in that case how am I any better?
Another issue is the allowance of killing of previous Ba’athists without any due process and no questions asked…. Applying the program of thinning out the Ba’ath party. More that half of Iraqis were members of the Ba’ath party. How many Ba’athi will get his day? How many have their name of the list? How many Ba’athi was killed in front of his wife and children? When is this inhumane scene that people are committing against each other going to end? The fools are fighting one another. In the end we all lose!
[translation provided by www.ihath.com]
# posted by Faiza Al-Araji @ 10:19 am 
