A Family in Baghdad

  
 
Tuesday, 13th., July, 2004
Good morning….
We are still in Amman. We will go back to Baghdad next week, by God's will. I miss our home, our garden, and the generator, and the cat that we got to know before we traveled, I hope to find her still in the garden, and haven't run away yet… I miss the relatives, the neighbors, my friends and work colleagues, the busy streets of Baghdad, the tired faces of the people, the old shops, the soaring palms of Baghdad, and the immortal Tigris….
Here in Amman, almost every evening we hear the noises of explosions that frighten us, thinking them artillery or fighting noises, as in Baghdad… then we discover that they are only fireworks, celebrating a happy occasion. We laugh at our selves, wishing that the noises of explosions would disappear from Baghdad and all other Iraqi cities….
We do not even want to hear the fireworks noises there…as every one is basking in the quiet…quiet…how lovely the world is with the quiet…..
**********************
I received many letters from old friends and new readers, bearing various comments; I thank them all, whether I agree with them or not, it is not important, the important thing is learning how to share, in thinking or dialogue, maybe that would be the best and most beautiful way between humans…the makers of civilizations, instead of wars, hatreds, and foolishnesses… we have to break this ice, these fences, by dialogue….this, I think, is the comfortable way…. it does not lack troubles, but it is a peaceful way with no violence….and we all hate violence, because it is an uncivil way to talk, that is not worthy of humans….
************************
When I wrote about the history of America, I did not invent it myself, nor put any additions upon it, I might have forgotten some points, but I didn't intend any disfiguring or lying…. I will list the references at the end of the article, these being by American writers who love their country, respect its history, and find it a shining history, because it is the History of Their Country….. But when I read it, and watched it, it was by a different eye, a different view point…. I saw it by the eye of the oppressed people, whose countries has been interfered with, and Iraq is one of these… I saw that history by the eyes of people such as Mexico, Cuba, El Salvador, Chili, Vietnam, Korea, Cambodia, and Afghanistan, and other people whom America interfered in their lives one way or another, for one reason or another, to impose itself as the order-giving policeman….and all others should listen, and obey…
Is there any right or justice in that? Who gave them this right?
And some angry American asks me: How could you read our history, then explain it your way, judging us???
And I laugh…look who's talking?! Who is the one playing this game against the other, torturing him by it?
I, the Iraqi, who is suffering from foreign occupation armies filling the streets of my city, and raking havoc against the land and people?
 
 
 
 
Or you, who are deforming our past and present, speaking by our tongue, behaving as if we are under age, as if you are responsible for the formation of our present and future, as if you are the bearers of civilization, and we are the savages, cave men…
Who wants us to obey and accept him, by force?
Who is the one who omits our past, then wants to teach us the Alpha-Bets of speech, action, and life?
We are not the ones committing all these misdeeds…… who commits them is the one who wants to occupy and monopolize….putting beautiful, colorful covers… to give a justification for his ugly actions.
***************************
And the angry American says he would not read my articles any more, if I keep on writing like this…
I thought broad-mindedness was a characteristic in the westerns, and narrow- mindedness was a characteristic in us… but I discover new things every day…
And why wouldn't you write about the history of other colonization countries? He asks…?
And I say I have written about our history with the British colonization … and now that America is occupying my country, why should I care about the history of France, or Germany, for example…
I want to read the history of America to understand how they think, and why do they look upon us this way?
So I would discover great accomplishments in their lives, along with terrible mistakes, and remember the old saying: If your house is made of glass, do not throw stones upon the others….
*******************************
When I read the history of some country, I read it from its citizens who love their land and live upon it…not by a bunch of double-faced dissidents, who turn truths around, telling the history of their country in a way that pleases their enemies…
I wonder, what does the American citizen know about Iran, for example, except from books written by dissidents who flew the country? Are they really the only source of truths, about that country and its people?
Of course, the dissident who lives in America would write what satisfies the government of America, because they gave him asylum rights…so where would the credibility come from?
The American market is full of books speaking against Arabs and Islam, and before that it was filled with books speaking against communism, and of course, each era had a new enemy… with drums tolling, evoking hatred against that enemy, so that war and invasion against him would be justified…
But here, we seem to be more objective, more just than the west…our markets are full of books that speaks with or against the west… and the reader can choose, read, understand, and explain…no one forces him on a single- sided, incomplete view. But in the west, especially in America, I think the books and media are gathered, almost totally, to drive the citizen to adopt a single view point against us…a negative, ugly view point mostly…
Where is the freedom and democracy?
******************************
Would that angry American want me to write about an American solider saving an Iraqi child from death, or drowning?  Yes, they love these kinds of news there, to ease their guilt-ridden consciences, from the mishaps they are committing every day against the Iraqis.
They want us to invent stories saying: This is a humanitarian, noble war, aimed to save the Iraqis.
And I apologize; I cannot join in the formation of such a comic fiasco…
That American says that even the Vietnam War may have been justified, because he knows a Vietnamese who says the communist government used to steel the monies of the people…
O.K., I'll believe that, but what would you tell your conscience when (he) asks you what has your government and army done there, when they bombarded the towns and villages, burning them upon the heads of the residents, men, women, and children…. Or when they threw Napalm bombs on them, bombs that burn their skins as soon as it touches the air…what evil, distorted mind invented such lethal weapons?
Have you done this to rid them from a corrupt government that steels the money of the people?
What a wise, smart way to solve the problems of the oppressed.
Her we see it by our own eyes in Iraq…people who refuse the occupation, and an occupying army who wants to impose itself by force, by planes and tanks, perhaps the same that were used in former, unjust wars, perhaps still stained by the blood of innocents from other nations…..from countless, former wars…
And he wants us to believe that he came for our freedom…..and in truth, we lost that freedom since their troops entered our boarders….we went out of the hole, only to fall into the deep well.
We went out of the injustice of Saddam Hussein, and fell into the injustice of a colonizing, cruel empire, so, where is the happiness in all this???  Where is the feeling of comfort, security, and peace? 
Was there ever, in all the ages of history, an occupied country, whose people were happy and in comfort?
Some Americans want to fool themselves, to ease their consciences, that every thing is O.K…. and, just be patient, you Iraqis, and you'll see our good intentions, and well-done deeds.
We wait…smiling bitterly, wishing we could believe what you say…wishing you would discover that you are fooling your selves, by this impossible dream….
Wishing you would believe that the occupier couldn't be a friend …couldn't.
The early immigrants to America were from Britain, by with time, they revolted against it, saying it was a colonizing country that was greedy for the wealth of their lands, wanting to control it, depriving them from the feelings of freedom and independence…
Were they ungrateful? Britain was their father and mother…but freedom is more precious than anything…
So, why would you blame the people who reject you, describing them as ungrateful, and deniers of goodness?
It is only natural in the humans, as God created them lovers of freedom, every where, always…and not just the Americans who love freedom.
We might be able to bear the injustice of national governments, because they were not foreigners….But who could force us to bear the injustice of an occupying foreigner???
*****************************
My son, Majid said yesterday: Down with the governments, long live the people…I smiled, then laughed….it is an amazing logo, very expressive for the chaos that is happening around the world…
There is a mean, greedy faction, supported by governments, that is controlling the fate of the world…making wars, feinting grudges, causing segregation, and there are some peace- loving nations… I do not think there are people on earth, that wouldn't love peace.
But…speak about the governments….. When the people open their eyes from their unwariness, when their ears refuse to believe the lies transmitted by the evil governments, then, the will of the people will unite, and succeed in making peace….
I found nothing more beautiful than this poem, written by an American writer, thus making it a popular, folk song, at the time of World War 1…but I see it a poem that fits all wars….
Alfred Brian (1915), by the title:
 I Didn't Raise My Son To Become A Soldier…
Ten million soldiers went to war,
They might never come back.
Ten million mothers' hearts are sure to break
For sons who died in vain…
I heard a mother, her head bowed in sadness,
In her years of loneliness,
Muttering through her tears:
I didn't raise my son to be a soldier,
I raised him to be my pride and joy,
Who would dare put a gun on his shoulder,
To kill another mothers' beloved son?
*******************************************
After reading the history books…I felt distressed, felt that my vacation is ruined, and became a source of sorrow, not happiness.
The old saying says: Ignorance is Happiness…I said to my boys, while I didn't know that shameful, painful history…my information was some 10% of what I read lately, but now, the picture is more clear, full of details.
 How would I believe a man, who spent his life oppressing others, despising them, forging truths, putting untrue reasons for all his evil actions, how could I believe he came to rescue us, and to establish justice and freedom? His history is full of injustice, and way-off the justice…his history is full of oppressing the weak, way-off liberty…
That man is the governments of America, past and present, and their behavior to the people of earth…
As for America's people, they have spent most of their lives in the eddies of personal freedom, the freedom of monopolization, piling fortunes into the hands of a minority that controls the fate of the majority…while the majority runs for its daily bread, struggling against high taxes, against unemployment, against the greed of major companies that control the markets, the workers, and the pay checks.
It is as if I see that the major beneficiaries from personal freedom in the capitalist systems are those who have the right of investment and monopolization, so the money would accumulate with him, this is the only real freedom there, and the owner of that freedom controls the people. And as the economy is the pressure tool over any government, so the person who owns the money and the government, has the power over every thing…the elections, the candidates, are all cards in the hands of the owners of  money and wealth…
As for the other freedoms, they are petty…and does not mean much…The freedom of illegal personal relations, the freedom to be religious or non, the freedom of having children, legal or illegal, the freedom of abortion, the freedom of the homosexual…all these are tricks to keep people busy and distracted from looking to what is happening around them daily…
**********************************
But there is a percentage of the American people, who could, perhaps, keep their eyes open, and their minds clean, who wouldn't submit to the daily brain wash…those people are the ones who will put pressure upon their government to change its policy, to pull its troops out of Iraq, leaving him to form an independent, nationalist government, that works for the welfare of its people….
As long as the occupation troops are present in Iraq, the people's freedom of choice is threatened by forgery, through pressures put by the invaders…
India presented thousands of victims from its people, until they got their independence from Britain, helped by the pressure applied by the British people upon its government..
And Vietnam gave thousands of victims, until the American army got out of their land, by the help of the pressure of the American people upon its government…
And Iraq will keep on presenting casualties, for long years to come, until the occupying forces would get out of its land, perhaps also by the help of the pressure of the American people upon their government...
*******************************
Freedom is a holy right, for all the people on earth…
Long live Iraq, free, and independent….
Long live Iraq, free, and independent…
Long live Iraq, free, and independent…
***********************
Translated by May. Baghdad.
 
 
References:
A history of United States since 1945
by : Daniel F. Davis
and Norman Lunger
 
 A short history of United States
by :  Allen Nevins
and Henry Steele Commager
 
The American reader
Words that moved a nation
by : Dian Ravitch
*******************************************