Saturday, July 31, 2004
Monday, July 26th. 2004
Good morning...
It is now about 6 p.m. in Baghdad, the electricity is off, and the generator is buzzing outside. The national electricity is due soon, as the cut-off program has been altered, becoming two hours on, then four hours off. Which means most of the noon time without electricity... I feel the pain that people live in, in this killing heat, with children or ill people in the family. The temperature is now 45 degrees C outside, which means it was about 50 degrees C at noon, when I got back from work.
******************
Since I got back to Baghdad, I felt tired; having severe pains in my abdomen, and my whole body…I skipped work for two days to rest, then called my sister, a Doctor, who told me to come to the clinic, so she would perform a Sonar check…So I went with her yesterday, to her clinic in Al-Dora, a crowded, popular area at the south of Baghdad, where Al-Dora electrical station is located, which is the main electricity-feeding station of Baghdad. The streets were crowded in a nerve-breaking way, lorries, pick-ups, small civilian cars, and American military vehicles…the traffic- lights weren't working, the police were putting up super efforts to ease the traffic…the heat was intense…it was about 11 a.m., the main street was usually a two-way street, but now, one of the directions is cancelled, and cement blocks were put in the entrance to the electricity station, for fear of explosions against it, so, the traffic jam was created, because the one-direction street is too narrow to compass the usual traffic flow of the area, which is crowded with wholesale markets ( fruit and vegetables markets), along with many medical centers, giving services to people of the towns and provinces located on the southern boarders of Baghdad…when farmers come to deliver their products in Al-Dora or Al-Saidiia markets, they bring along their wives and children for treatment in these medical centers.
In the after noon, for years now, my sister works in a state-owned, popular clinic…I asked her on our way to her morning clinic: how are the conditions of the patients and medicine?
She said: the medicines are very rare, before the war, a patient used to pay 750 Dinars (about 50 cents) for the medical examination and three items of medicine. Now he pays the same amount just for the examination and one item of medicine only. The permanent diseases medicines, like diabetics and hypertension, are not available, so do not ask about them. And the medicines we dispense now come from the lots we have stored before the war….
And what is the Ministry of Health doing? I asked in amazement, because I always thought that medicine is a priority, like water and electricity…
She said: don't ask. Perhaps the reason is that they do not have a budget or financing for the importation, perhaps the administrative corruption that has become well deserving of censorship…a gang of thieves went away, and instead, tens of new gangs settled in.
What about the New Government? I asked, don't they have any authority to perform positive steps for serving the people???
It is a temporary government, she said, and every one in it is either an honest person who hides in his house, in fear on his life, of an assassination, or a thieve who wants to seize the opportunity to steel as much as possible before the end of his authorization period….and that is one of the reasons for assassinations of government members, for some hate them because they see them as beneficiaries, while the others are unemployed, and hungry. So, how could you stop these feelings of hate, and the desire to revenge?
My heart was heavy, and we kept the silence until we got to the clinic.
***************************************
The waiting area was crowded with women, wrapped in the traditional Iraqi Abba; the secretary greeted us with a smile. Then we entered quickly, where my sister examined me by Sonar, and said: There is nothing wrong…you are only tired after traveling…I felt very happy, for I was devoured by worries, and couldn't sleep of panic, by the possibility of having some disease…life here had enough mishaps…and I certainly didn't need a disease to add to my misery.
***************************************
I went home through the same street, it was around 12 noon, the air was very hot, the car I hired didn't have air conditioning…I almost died of heat and headache. The street was crowded…there were cement blocks blocking the traffic…dust in the streets, along side the heat multiplied the feelings of fatigue. There were cement and sand walls in front of the electricity station entrance, there was a bullet ripped car standing by the road side, I asked the driver about it, and he said: An assassination attempt…and another car whose parts were kneaded together, standing on another side, what was this? He said: The remains of a trapped car…
Armed Iraqi policemen … and men wearing the new Iraqi army uniform… check points, broken and chipped curbstones, dirty alleys filled with garbage, and barbed wires, where flying papers and torn nylon sacks have flown and stuck, adding more gloom to the scene… I kept staring from behind the car's window glass…who would have believed that this would happen to us one day? That this would be Baghdad? Did all this happen by chance, or was there someone who planned, drew schemes, and carried out all this, and made us live in this hell??
**************************************
I went back home with my shirt completely socked in sweat…in the back and the chest…I washed my face with cold water, drank a little water, then sat on the floor, panting from heat and fatigue. How could a human live here? With the intense heat, the electricity cut-off, the traffic jams, and all the tragic daily scenes… listening to the depressing news about gangs, kidnapping, bombings, and assassinations…and I remembered all those who immigrated or fled from Iraq…well, they were right, I told my self, who would endure all this daily torture? …it is something that looks like slow death…the death of feelings… principles… and every human, beautiful thing.
Yes...slow death.
****************************************
I sat by myself in the afternoon and thought, and laughed, when I had the notion of slow death. Once more…it’s a lethal weapon, used by a cunning, malicious mind.
In 1991, when the Kuwait war was over, and a large percentage of the Iraqi army was destroyed, along with its military equipments, why didn't America finish off Saddam Hussein then, and end the misery of the Iraqi people? And why did America collaborate with him to repress the revolution in the south against him?
America allowed him to use all types of weapons to exterminate the Iraqi people who were revolting in the south…and I will not say the Shia'ats, for I am a Shi'ie, but I would like to be clear minded, and this story about the Sunni and the Shi'ie is a made-up story, used to divide the Iraqis into factions against each other, and to get them cornered, each faction alone. So I repeat it was the Iraqis revolution against the Saddam regime in 1991, when it was crushed, and thus started the mass cemeteries from then on, cemeteries which America helped establish with Saddam, but America went back to shed some tears for us, after their last war upon us…and only fools believed that Saddam was the only criminal…. Why didn't they depose him then?
Because they knew he still held a small amount of popularity with the Iraqis and Arabs…so they deployed the policy of embargo against the Iraqis, which is a policy of slow death…for more than ten years. At that time, tens of thousands of Iraqis run away, and perhaps by the end of the embargo years the number rose to millions. And in those who remained, the most cherished, beautiful feelings in a human being died, little by little…feelings to the homeland, feelings of belonging…The love of the homeland was interpreted as love to Saddam, and people hated the homeland.
By the passage of the bitter years, the government official lost his nationality feelings, his sincerity, and became addicted to bribes. The soldier hated his being a soldier, finding no reason for his being in the army, and so did the policeman and the security officer…instead of feeling that he is here to serve the people, they became enemies of the people, hurting them, blackmailing them, in order to find a useful reason to remain in their jobs.
Little by little…corruption and bribes spread even among the education staff, the educational system, and the health and hospitals sector…The majority became infected by the bribe and corruption virus, the insincerity, and dishonesty. Thus such a virus spreads quickly, in these harsh conditions of hunger and need, of loss of conscience and principle…what values a human retains when you deprive him of his principles and conscience?? What differentiates him then from an animal?
I don't suppose there would be a difference worth mentioning…. Those were the astonishing results of the slow death program…..used cunningly against the Iraqis, coming up with excellent consequences, exactly just as the program designer wanted…
*********************************************
Then the war took place, the crumbling regime fell down, for it no longer had strong foundations in the ground of reality…people became very tired, their hearts died, no longer having something to move them, the homeland became Saddam Hussein, the dictator…well, down with Saddam Hussein…and down with the homeland, there was no longer a difference…
But with time, people are awakening from their slumber, looking around them; they see occupation forces, harsh practices, prisons, torture, and scandals, stories about new bribes, and new administrative corruption…so, the awakening starts again…Now the homeland is not equal to Saddam Hussein…the picture is more clear….the homeland is this patch of earth, these people, these streets, trees, palms, these rivers and lakes, these public gardens, the beautiful, sad memories here and there, the cemeteries of our ancestors and loved ones, our schools and universities, our hospitals and National libraries, the Museum, the Iraqi Art Halls, filled with singing, folk dancing, and halls containing beautiful, artistic paintings of Iraqi artists, dead or still a live, and many Monuments, many relatives, neighbors, and friends, and a long, long history of our fathers and forbearers…
How can we easily give all that up???
This is where the clashing with the new comers happens….here comes the moments of awakening among people…the beginning of the dialogue, then the objection, then the verbal or armed clashing…
They are occupying us, they want to steel our fortunes, and our future…didn't we have enough, enduring Saddam Hussein??
This is the speech of the street…
But whoever planned for this war was no fool… (He) calculated for each stage its own account…He expected people to wake-up from the slumber and defend their country, just liberated from the tyranny and dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, so he arranged the suitable answer for them…violence, chaos, bombings, assassinations, and a total mix-up of cards…then the defiling of the National Resistance reputation, in order to breed hatred and loathing against them in the street, instead of support.
When a spontaneous demonstration moves any where in the world, demanding the rights of a class of workers or employees, for example…some rioters mix themselves among them, sent by vicious gangs, who do not want this demonstration to succeed, so, fires would be lit, bullets would be fired against innocents, and the demonstration would be diverted from its original goal, achieving total failure and bad reputation.
How many times such stories happened in the history of nations? In Europe, America, and else where?
This is how the National Resistance against the occupation is being defiled, by planting corrupt elements, and criminal, terrorist organizations, financed by the enemies of the people and resistance. Isn't that what is happening in Palestine, for example, for tens of years, until the story got mixed-up, and we no longer know who is with the people, and who is against them?
This is the modern, innovative way, instead of throwing nuclear bombs, or Napalm, we kill these nations slowly…so they would lose their way, and no longer know the right from wrong, nor a friend from foe.
Here, for example, when you object to the practices of the occupation and the idea of their existence, you will find some new hero who shouts in your face: (Ah… Ha…so you are a supporter of Saddam? ). And you swear to him that he knows you, knows your past, and that you are an independent nationalist, who loves his country and wants independence… (But then he insists upon intimidating you, threatening): (you are one of Saddam's people… of course… don't tell me…I understand you..).
It is then that you start laughing in amazement, on that worthless, sick man, who insists upon his attitude against you, isn't this terrorizing??? To intimidate you, to label you a traitor, explaining your words in a different meaning…what is this called??
The percentage in of this new-model hero in the Iraqi field is less than 10%, but he is rude and brutal, and he wants to scare people and terrorize them…He is a model that belongs to a faction who are the beneficiaries of the occupation, this faction contains contractors, merchants, and entrepreneurs, most of them used to perform the same role at the time of Saddam Hussein, but they only changed the target now, and instead of the blandishment to Saddam, now it is directed at the occupation …As for the notion of the homeland and its love, well, in their point of view it is a naive principle that became extinct along time ago…their country to them is the cow that yields the milk…if there was any benefit from this cow, we shall stay, and have the priority, if not, we shall emigrate and invest at other places in the world…
Some members of the new parties also belong to this faction, those greedy ones, who want to sweep away every thing on their way to the seat of power.
Yes, these are new, sick types, created by the presence of the occupation, and were encouraged because they form foundations for the occupation, on which to stand, and to be used as assistance to control the people…
I receive letters from American friends, saying they are facing the same pressures if they renounce the Bush war on Iraq, the dialogue being as such: (Ah… Ha…so you are a supporter of Bin Laden group then? ).
No, I am not with Bin Laden… I am an American, I love my country, and I do not agree with injustice. And the answer comes: (Ah...Ha…and what keeps you here??? Why don't you leave America if you don't like what is going on???).
And that is another kind of terrorism…and intimidation, and a compulsion to keep quiet.
***************************************
Yes…there is only one notion circling around, dominating, controlling people's minds, and this notion is directed by an organized group, spread all over the world, its strong tool is the Media.
You start on the Internet; you read the news, where most large nets use the same terms…and the same explanations towards events.
You read the local newspapers…the same tune. You listen to radio channels, … the same tune. And so with the T.V. channels, satellite or local channels…all play the same tune…
And they all make you think and adopt a single view point…
There might be some different view points in European countries, but in America and the Arab world, there are only two clear lines: the War on Terrorism Line, and the War on Iraq Line…
In America there is a strong tide against Bush and his administration, and the line he is moving along…
While in the Arab world, especially here in Iraq, there is a violent, vicious, intensity, aiming to validate one notion, and one line, and to destroy and break the opposing line, by every possible way…by killing, assassination, violence, intimidating, and misleading….in order to brace one view point, and crush the other, opposing view point.
*************************************
What is happening in Iraq now??
It happens that the people got tired, they need rest, security, water, electricity, and medicine…they need jobs, and good living. And when you look at our daily lives since the entry of the occupation, you see and make sure that all these demands are postponed, that they have been connected to the halting of the resistance against the occupation… as if they are telling the people: Denounce the resistance, help us to destroy them completely…and we will open the doors of rich living for you …..
This is what is happening every day, with a simple accumulation of a few months…the picture looks much clearer to whoever watches, thinks, and analyses…
Then there is another item…the assassination of smart, educated members, who could raise the flag of fighting the occupation by speech and not weapons…
The first step would be: Eliminating the armed resistance. The second step would be merged with the first: Eliminating the pacifist resistance…terrorizing the people by bombings, killing and kidnappings, so that whoever couldn't endure the situation would run away, and only the weak would remain, those who hide in their houses, and wouldn't want to contribute to the making of Iraq's future, seeking safety for themselves and their children, contributing the country to the new comers, to be eaten and monopolized, just as Saddam Hussein and his clan monopolized it before, terrorizing people, and preventing them from contributing in the making of their lives and future.
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And when the stage of clearing and street cleaning from the annoying opposition would be over …the stage of rebuilding and democracy will begin.
Will this happen? Yes…When?
Perhaps within six months, or a year, or two…I don't know…but the program moves ahead…no one is in a rush, maybe Bush is concerned about time, as he is facing the elections, and this is a matter of life or death…he will push to achieve as much as possible in the program…so he could attribute the victory to himself.
But what if Kerry won the elections…then what? Dose he have any clear, alternative program??
I do not think so, but he already announced the (Pass Word) that enables him to enter the elections, with a possibility of winning, he said he supports the state of Israel, and its right to exist, and defend it self.
Well done…
As for the rest of the details…they aren't important, for there is someone to put them down and convince the President about them later…about his Foreign and internal policies.
What is the difference between a Democrat and a Republican?
There is no clear, substantial difference…and that is why the points are close, and the fight over the Presidency chair is very strong, and vicious.
***************************
Now the opposition can be eliminated, , but in the modern tactics ….
For every opposition newspaper, tens of newspapers will be issued that would support and encourage the other's viewpoint, so that opposition would become a minority representative…its influence would be controlled in volume…exactly just like our work here on the Internet…for each Iraqi writer, opposing to the occupation, ten sites would open, supporting the occupation, thus the opposition becomes a minority to the web sites visitors, while all the time he represents the voice of the majority in the Iraqi street…
Democracy is a dangerous game…there are some specialists in forgery who sometimes lead the march, so that the picture would appear in the opposite way… but it's only a matter of time … and lies do not last very long…soon the truth would be clear to all, near or far, smart or fool.
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Media facilities, like Al-Jazzera station, apparently looks like it is on the side of the Arabs and Muslims, but actually it is an enemy to Arabs and Muslims…
It has helped in a major way in deforming their image in the west, making them appear as terrorist gangs, showing reports and documentaries, exclusively on the Al-Jazzera…films about Bin Laden and his assistants, documentaries about the kidnapping and terrorist operations gangs, I wonder, do they call Al-Jazzera office and make an appointment with wanted criminals?
And the speeches of Saddam Hussein before he was arrested? And the meetings of Al-Qaida men in Afghanistan and the Saudi Arabia Kingdom?
And all the time, the station is the neighbor of Al-Aideed Military base in Qatar…meaning- in the heart of the American Military Power in the Middle East??
Ha..Ha..Ha…?
And whom are they laughing on? They are laughing upon the frustrated, miserable Arab citizen, acting the part of sympathizing, while they are his enemies, distorting his image, creating thousands of barriers between the truth they want to show, and the actual truth on the ground…
Here in Baghdad we call it The Channel of Inquietudes…as it is specialized in transmitting hatreds and troubles among the Arabs and Muslims themselves, and between them and the western society.
The on-coming years will reveal who is the sponsor and financer for it…and the on-coming years will let us know who financed the gangs of killings, kidnapping, and crime in Iraq…and who financed the terrorist bombings against innocent civilians…
The on-coming years will tell us, and tell others, every thing….Who had the advantage in bringing the United Nations out of Iraq, along with Non-Governmental, Humanitarian Organizations, and kidnapping the employees of companies working in Iraq, from various nationalities, showing them on Al-Jazzera …gangs of veiled scum, destroying all hope of building a new country….
There is someone who wants to stop the building process until further notice …. and there is someone who has an elimination program he wants to finish, then turn around to look at the conditions of the people…as if it is a Mass Punishment Policy … exactly like the embargo that lasted more than ten years… here it is …continuing by the same rhythm….. Hunger, administrative corruption, and injustice….and a minority living in luxury, laughing, and reaping benefits…
What has changed for the Iraqis???
Oh, yes, one thing has changed…. they are under occupation today….
Is there a more beautiful life, and daily vocabulary, than this???
******************************
The Iraqi people are usually formed in classes…
I think I am trying today to define these classes of Iraqis. A Majority class, officials and retired people, minor merchants, career and handicraft people…those are the beaten majority, looking on, and feeling distressed…rejecting the occupation because they simply and clearly see it as an insult to their dignity.
A Minority class of politicians who are party leaders, journalists, major merchants, contractors and entrepreneurs, and officials in high governmental posts, like Ministers and General Managers…some of those reject the occupation, and refuse to collaborate with it, considering that a treason…
But a percentage of them are beneficiaries, wanting the occupation to continue, because without it, they will be discharged...their role to become marginal.
There is also a third class, which swings between classes, its percentage also minor, but it has a strong influence, if the chance permits… This is the most pressure and harm facing class today, the Cultured Independent Nationalist class…
They have the choice of either keeping silent and hiding, for fear of confrontation, or being conscious, truthful, and brave, speaking as this Nation's conscience… this is the class that is threatened by killing, assassination, and being crushed…because it forms a real danger to the occupation, and those men who support it.
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The word (Future), what has it come to mean to Iraqis now?
It became to mean fear, of the continuance of destruction and devastation… the continuance of immigration of Iraqis, of killing them, detaining them, destroying all bravery and nationality in their hearts… Fear of the field being filled with climbing, hypocrite types, thinking only of their benefits, their slogan being: Let all go to hell after Me.…I will put my hand into the hand of the devil, as long as I can get more wealth and power.
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Yesterday, I watched an interview on an Iraqi satellite channel; with the heads of some new Iraqi parties…the subject of discussion was about the coming stage after the temporary government, the preparations for the elections, teaching the people how to make use of their election rights to make a better future, by choosing honest men who do not run after the power seat for their personal benefits, but for serving the people, and giving them more rights, more chances for a better life….
The elections won't be legal unless half of the Iraqi people at least, take part in it…and the election call paper must reach the furthest Iraqi house, in the furthest Iraqi town…so there would be justice, clarity, and association.
And they said that whoever loves the Iraqis now, wouldn't be looking for the seat and post, the Honest Nationalist now, is that who helps people, stands by them to open their eyes on their rights, in the contribution in making a better future….
They said there were attempts that will be mean, to devise some cultic laws that aim to disrupt the people's unity, and weaken the patriotic voices, They said the road to democracy will be the only option for Iraqis…but it is a road surrounded by danger…
There are some men who are professionals in politics, they know how to trick the will of the people, but our ambition is that they wouldn't succeed, that we will walk together, hand in hand, to build a beautiful country, full of goodness to all…
*************************************
I believe in God the great, that every thing happened by His will and design… and I believe that He Supports the right, and Hates injustice….
I wish God will be with the Iraqis…. Giving them victory, and Supporting them in making good for their country, and their coming generations….
I hope Iraqis would never, ever lose hope…in a shiny, beautiful, tomorrow…
How tight life would be, without the expanse of hope…….
-------------------------------------
Translated by May, Baghdad.
Good morning...
It is now about 6 p.m. in Baghdad, the electricity is off, and the generator is buzzing outside. The national electricity is due soon, as the cut-off program has been altered, becoming two hours on, then four hours off. Which means most of the noon time without electricity... I feel the pain that people live in, in this killing heat, with children or ill people in the family. The temperature is now 45 degrees C outside, which means it was about 50 degrees C at noon, when I got back from work.
******************
Since I got back to Baghdad, I felt tired; having severe pains in my abdomen, and my whole body…I skipped work for two days to rest, then called my sister, a Doctor, who told me to come to the clinic, so she would perform a Sonar check…So I went with her yesterday, to her clinic in Al-Dora, a crowded, popular area at the south of Baghdad, where Al-Dora electrical station is located, which is the main electricity-feeding station of Baghdad. The streets were crowded in a nerve-breaking way, lorries, pick-ups, small civilian cars, and American military vehicles…the traffic- lights weren't working, the police were putting up super efforts to ease the traffic…the heat was intense…it was about 11 a.m., the main street was usually a two-way street, but now, one of the directions is cancelled, and cement blocks were put in the entrance to the electricity station, for fear of explosions against it, so, the traffic jam was created, because the one-direction street is too narrow to compass the usual traffic flow of the area, which is crowded with wholesale markets ( fruit and vegetables markets), along with many medical centers, giving services to people of the towns and provinces located on the southern boarders of Baghdad…when farmers come to deliver their products in Al-Dora or Al-Saidiia markets, they bring along their wives and children for treatment in these medical centers.
In the after noon, for years now, my sister works in a state-owned, popular clinic…I asked her on our way to her morning clinic: how are the conditions of the patients and medicine?
She said: the medicines are very rare, before the war, a patient used to pay 750 Dinars (about 50 cents) for the medical examination and three items of medicine. Now he pays the same amount just for the examination and one item of medicine only. The permanent diseases medicines, like diabetics and hypertension, are not available, so do not ask about them. And the medicines we dispense now come from the lots we have stored before the war….
And what is the Ministry of Health doing? I asked in amazement, because I always thought that medicine is a priority, like water and electricity…
She said: don't ask. Perhaps the reason is that they do not have a budget or financing for the importation, perhaps the administrative corruption that has become well deserving of censorship…a gang of thieves went away, and instead, tens of new gangs settled in.
What about the New Government? I asked, don't they have any authority to perform positive steps for serving the people???
It is a temporary government, she said, and every one in it is either an honest person who hides in his house, in fear on his life, of an assassination, or a thieve who wants to seize the opportunity to steel as much as possible before the end of his authorization period….and that is one of the reasons for assassinations of government members, for some hate them because they see them as beneficiaries, while the others are unemployed, and hungry. So, how could you stop these feelings of hate, and the desire to revenge?
My heart was heavy, and we kept the silence until we got to the clinic.
***************************************
The waiting area was crowded with women, wrapped in the traditional Iraqi Abba; the secretary greeted us with a smile. Then we entered quickly, where my sister examined me by Sonar, and said: There is nothing wrong…you are only tired after traveling…I felt very happy, for I was devoured by worries, and couldn't sleep of panic, by the possibility of having some disease…life here had enough mishaps…and I certainly didn't need a disease to add to my misery.
***************************************
I went home through the same street, it was around 12 noon, the air was very hot, the car I hired didn't have air conditioning…I almost died of heat and headache. The street was crowded…there were cement blocks blocking the traffic…dust in the streets, along side the heat multiplied the feelings of fatigue. There were cement and sand walls in front of the electricity station entrance, there was a bullet ripped car standing by the road side, I asked the driver about it, and he said: An assassination attempt…and another car whose parts were kneaded together, standing on another side, what was this? He said: The remains of a trapped car…
Armed Iraqi policemen … and men wearing the new Iraqi army uniform… check points, broken and chipped curbstones, dirty alleys filled with garbage, and barbed wires, where flying papers and torn nylon sacks have flown and stuck, adding more gloom to the scene… I kept staring from behind the car's window glass…who would have believed that this would happen to us one day? That this would be Baghdad? Did all this happen by chance, or was there someone who planned, drew schemes, and carried out all this, and made us live in this hell??
**************************************
I went back home with my shirt completely socked in sweat…in the back and the chest…I washed my face with cold water, drank a little water, then sat on the floor, panting from heat and fatigue. How could a human live here? With the intense heat, the electricity cut-off, the traffic jams, and all the tragic daily scenes… listening to the depressing news about gangs, kidnapping, bombings, and assassinations…and I remembered all those who immigrated or fled from Iraq…well, they were right, I told my self, who would endure all this daily torture? …it is something that looks like slow death…the death of feelings… principles… and every human, beautiful thing.
Yes...slow death.
****************************************
I sat by myself in the afternoon and thought, and laughed, when I had the notion of slow death. Once more…it’s a lethal weapon, used by a cunning, malicious mind.
In 1991, when the Kuwait war was over, and a large percentage of the Iraqi army was destroyed, along with its military equipments, why didn't America finish off Saddam Hussein then, and end the misery of the Iraqi people? And why did America collaborate with him to repress the revolution in the south against him?
America allowed him to use all types of weapons to exterminate the Iraqi people who were revolting in the south…and I will not say the Shia'ats, for I am a Shi'ie, but I would like to be clear minded, and this story about the Sunni and the Shi'ie is a made-up story, used to divide the Iraqis into factions against each other, and to get them cornered, each faction alone. So I repeat it was the Iraqis revolution against the Saddam regime in 1991, when it was crushed, and thus started the mass cemeteries from then on, cemeteries which America helped establish with Saddam, but America went back to shed some tears for us, after their last war upon us…and only fools believed that Saddam was the only criminal…. Why didn't they depose him then?
Because they knew he still held a small amount of popularity with the Iraqis and Arabs…so they deployed the policy of embargo against the Iraqis, which is a policy of slow death…for more than ten years. At that time, tens of thousands of Iraqis run away, and perhaps by the end of the embargo years the number rose to millions. And in those who remained, the most cherished, beautiful feelings in a human being died, little by little…feelings to the homeland, feelings of belonging…The love of the homeland was interpreted as love to Saddam, and people hated the homeland.
By the passage of the bitter years, the government official lost his nationality feelings, his sincerity, and became addicted to bribes. The soldier hated his being a soldier, finding no reason for his being in the army, and so did the policeman and the security officer…instead of feeling that he is here to serve the people, they became enemies of the people, hurting them, blackmailing them, in order to find a useful reason to remain in their jobs.
Little by little…corruption and bribes spread even among the education staff, the educational system, and the health and hospitals sector…The majority became infected by the bribe and corruption virus, the insincerity, and dishonesty. Thus such a virus spreads quickly, in these harsh conditions of hunger and need, of loss of conscience and principle…what values a human retains when you deprive him of his principles and conscience?? What differentiates him then from an animal?
I don't suppose there would be a difference worth mentioning…. Those were the astonishing results of the slow death program…..used cunningly against the Iraqis, coming up with excellent consequences, exactly just as the program designer wanted…
*********************************************
Then the war took place, the crumbling regime fell down, for it no longer had strong foundations in the ground of reality…people became very tired, their hearts died, no longer having something to move them, the homeland became Saddam Hussein, the dictator…well, down with Saddam Hussein…and down with the homeland, there was no longer a difference…
But with time, people are awakening from their slumber, looking around them; they see occupation forces, harsh practices, prisons, torture, and scandals, stories about new bribes, and new administrative corruption…so, the awakening starts again…Now the homeland is not equal to Saddam Hussein…the picture is more clear….the homeland is this patch of earth, these people, these streets, trees, palms, these rivers and lakes, these public gardens, the beautiful, sad memories here and there, the cemeteries of our ancestors and loved ones, our schools and universities, our hospitals and National libraries, the Museum, the Iraqi Art Halls, filled with singing, folk dancing, and halls containing beautiful, artistic paintings of Iraqi artists, dead or still a live, and many Monuments, many relatives, neighbors, and friends, and a long, long history of our fathers and forbearers…
How can we easily give all that up???
This is where the clashing with the new comers happens….here comes the moments of awakening among people…the beginning of the dialogue, then the objection, then the verbal or armed clashing…
They are occupying us, they want to steel our fortunes, and our future…didn't we have enough, enduring Saddam Hussein??
This is the speech of the street…
But whoever planned for this war was no fool… (He) calculated for each stage its own account…He expected people to wake-up from the slumber and defend their country, just liberated from the tyranny and dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, so he arranged the suitable answer for them…violence, chaos, bombings, assassinations, and a total mix-up of cards…then the defiling of the National Resistance reputation, in order to breed hatred and loathing against them in the street, instead of support.
When a spontaneous demonstration moves any where in the world, demanding the rights of a class of workers or employees, for example…some rioters mix themselves among them, sent by vicious gangs, who do not want this demonstration to succeed, so, fires would be lit, bullets would be fired against innocents, and the demonstration would be diverted from its original goal, achieving total failure and bad reputation.
How many times such stories happened in the history of nations? In Europe, America, and else where?
This is how the National Resistance against the occupation is being defiled, by planting corrupt elements, and criminal, terrorist organizations, financed by the enemies of the people and resistance. Isn't that what is happening in Palestine, for example, for tens of years, until the story got mixed-up, and we no longer know who is with the people, and who is against them?
This is the modern, innovative way, instead of throwing nuclear bombs, or Napalm, we kill these nations slowly…so they would lose their way, and no longer know the right from wrong, nor a friend from foe.
Here, for example, when you object to the practices of the occupation and the idea of their existence, you will find some new hero who shouts in your face: (Ah… Ha…so you are a supporter of Saddam? ). And you swear to him that he knows you, knows your past, and that you are an independent nationalist, who loves his country and wants independence… (But then he insists upon intimidating you, threatening): (you are one of Saddam's people… of course… don't tell me…I understand you..).
It is then that you start laughing in amazement, on that worthless, sick man, who insists upon his attitude against you, isn't this terrorizing??? To intimidate you, to label you a traitor, explaining your words in a different meaning…what is this called??
The percentage in of this new-model hero in the Iraqi field is less than 10%, but he is rude and brutal, and he wants to scare people and terrorize them…He is a model that belongs to a faction who are the beneficiaries of the occupation, this faction contains contractors, merchants, and entrepreneurs, most of them used to perform the same role at the time of Saddam Hussein, but they only changed the target now, and instead of the blandishment to Saddam, now it is directed at the occupation …As for the notion of the homeland and its love, well, in their point of view it is a naive principle that became extinct along time ago…their country to them is the cow that yields the milk…if there was any benefit from this cow, we shall stay, and have the priority, if not, we shall emigrate and invest at other places in the world…
Some members of the new parties also belong to this faction, those greedy ones, who want to sweep away every thing on their way to the seat of power.
Yes, these are new, sick types, created by the presence of the occupation, and were encouraged because they form foundations for the occupation, on which to stand, and to be used as assistance to control the people…
I receive letters from American friends, saying they are facing the same pressures if they renounce the Bush war on Iraq, the dialogue being as such: (Ah… Ha…so you are a supporter of Bin Laden group then? ).
No, I am not with Bin Laden… I am an American, I love my country, and I do not agree with injustice. And the answer comes: (Ah...Ha…and what keeps you here??? Why don't you leave America if you don't like what is going on???).
And that is another kind of terrorism…and intimidation, and a compulsion to keep quiet.
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Yes…there is only one notion circling around, dominating, controlling people's minds, and this notion is directed by an organized group, spread all over the world, its strong tool is the Media.
You start on the Internet; you read the news, where most large nets use the same terms…and the same explanations towards events.
You read the local newspapers…the same tune. You listen to radio channels, … the same tune. And so with the T.V. channels, satellite or local channels…all play the same tune…
And they all make you think and adopt a single view point…
There might be some different view points in European countries, but in America and the Arab world, there are only two clear lines: the War on Terrorism Line, and the War on Iraq Line…
In America there is a strong tide against Bush and his administration, and the line he is moving along…
While in the Arab world, especially here in Iraq, there is a violent, vicious, intensity, aiming to validate one notion, and one line, and to destroy and break the opposing line, by every possible way…by killing, assassination, violence, intimidating, and misleading….in order to brace one view point, and crush the other, opposing view point.
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What is happening in Iraq now??
It happens that the people got tired, they need rest, security, water, electricity, and medicine…they need jobs, and good living. And when you look at our daily lives since the entry of the occupation, you see and make sure that all these demands are postponed, that they have been connected to the halting of the resistance against the occupation… as if they are telling the people: Denounce the resistance, help us to destroy them completely…and we will open the doors of rich living for you …..
This is what is happening every day, with a simple accumulation of a few months…the picture looks much clearer to whoever watches, thinks, and analyses…
Then there is another item…the assassination of smart, educated members, who could raise the flag of fighting the occupation by speech and not weapons…
The first step would be: Eliminating the armed resistance. The second step would be merged with the first: Eliminating the pacifist resistance…terrorizing the people by bombings, killing and kidnappings, so that whoever couldn't endure the situation would run away, and only the weak would remain, those who hide in their houses, and wouldn't want to contribute to the making of Iraq's future, seeking safety for themselves and their children, contributing the country to the new comers, to be eaten and monopolized, just as Saddam Hussein and his clan monopolized it before, terrorizing people, and preventing them from contributing in the making of their lives and future.
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And when the stage of clearing and street cleaning from the annoying opposition would be over …the stage of rebuilding and democracy will begin.
Will this happen? Yes…When?
Perhaps within six months, or a year, or two…I don't know…but the program moves ahead…no one is in a rush, maybe Bush is concerned about time, as he is facing the elections, and this is a matter of life or death…he will push to achieve as much as possible in the program…so he could attribute the victory to himself.
But what if Kerry won the elections…then what? Dose he have any clear, alternative program??
I do not think so, but he already announced the (Pass Word) that enables him to enter the elections, with a possibility of winning, he said he supports the state of Israel, and its right to exist, and defend it self.
Well done…
As for the rest of the details…they aren't important, for there is someone to put them down and convince the President about them later…about his Foreign and internal policies.
What is the difference between a Democrat and a Republican?
There is no clear, substantial difference…and that is why the points are close, and the fight over the Presidency chair is very strong, and vicious.
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Now the opposition can be eliminated, , but in the modern tactics ….
For every opposition newspaper, tens of newspapers will be issued that would support and encourage the other's viewpoint, so that opposition would become a minority representative…its influence would be controlled in volume…exactly just like our work here on the Internet…for each Iraqi writer, opposing to the occupation, ten sites would open, supporting the occupation, thus the opposition becomes a minority to the web sites visitors, while all the time he represents the voice of the majority in the Iraqi street…
Democracy is a dangerous game…there are some specialists in forgery who sometimes lead the march, so that the picture would appear in the opposite way… but it's only a matter of time … and lies do not last very long…soon the truth would be clear to all, near or far, smart or fool.
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Media facilities, like Al-Jazzera station, apparently looks like it is on the side of the Arabs and Muslims, but actually it is an enemy to Arabs and Muslims…
It has helped in a major way in deforming their image in the west, making them appear as terrorist gangs, showing reports and documentaries, exclusively on the Al-Jazzera…films about Bin Laden and his assistants, documentaries about the kidnapping and terrorist operations gangs, I wonder, do they call Al-Jazzera office and make an appointment with wanted criminals?
And the speeches of Saddam Hussein before he was arrested? And the meetings of Al-Qaida men in Afghanistan and the Saudi Arabia Kingdom?
And all the time, the station is the neighbor of Al-Aideed Military base in Qatar…meaning- in the heart of the American Military Power in the Middle East??
Ha..Ha..Ha…?
And whom are they laughing on? They are laughing upon the frustrated, miserable Arab citizen, acting the part of sympathizing, while they are his enemies, distorting his image, creating thousands of barriers between the truth they want to show, and the actual truth on the ground…
Here in Baghdad we call it The Channel of Inquietudes…as it is specialized in transmitting hatreds and troubles among the Arabs and Muslims themselves, and between them and the western society.
The on-coming years will reveal who is the sponsor and financer for it…and the on-coming years will let us know who financed the gangs of killings, kidnapping, and crime in Iraq…and who financed the terrorist bombings against innocent civilians…
The on-coming years will tell us, and tell others, every thing….Who had the advantage in bringing the United Nations out of Iraq, along with Non-Governmental, Humanitarian Organizations, and kidnapping the employees of companies working in Iraq, from various nationalities, showing them on Al-Jazzera …gangs of veiled scum, destroying all hope of building a new country….
There is someone who wants to stop the building process until further notice …. and there is someone who has an elimination program he wants to finish, then turn around to look at the conditions of the people…as if it is a Mass Punishment Policy … exactly like the embargo that lasted more than ten years… here it is …continuing by the same rhythm….. Hunger, administrative corruption, and injustice….and a minority living in luxury, laughing, and reaping benefits…
What has changed for the Iraqis???
Oh, yes, one thing has changed…. they are under occupation today….
Is there a more beautiful life, and daily vocabulary, than this???
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The Iraqi people are usually formed in classes…
I think I am trying today to define these classes of Iraqis. A Majority class, officials and retired people, minor merchants, career and handicraft people…those are the beaten majority, looking on, and feeling distressed…rejecting the occupation because they simply and clearly see it as an insult to their dignity.
A Minority class of politicians who are party leaders, journalists, major merchants, contractors and entrepreneurs, and officials in high governmental posts, like Ministers and General Managers…some of those reject the occupation, and refuse to collaborate with it, considering that a treason…
But a percentage of them are beneficiaries, wanting the occupation to continue, because without it, they will be discharged...their role to become marginal.
There is also a third class, which swings between classes, its percentage also minor, but it has a strong influence, if the chance permits… This is the most pressure and harm facing class today, the Cultured Independent Nationalist class…
They have the choice of either keeping silent and hiding, for fear of confrontation, or being conscious, truthful, and brave, speaking as this Nation's conscience… this is the class that is threatened by killing, assassination, and being crushed…because it forms a real danger to the occupation, and those men who support it.
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The word (Future), what has it come to mean to Iraqis now?
It became to mean fear, of the continuance of destruction and devastation… the continuance of immigration of Iraqis, of killing them, detaining them, destroying all bravery and nationality in their hearts… Fear of the field being filled with climbing, hypocrite types, thinking only of their benefits, their slogan being: Let all go to hell after Me.…I will put my hand into the hand of the devil, as long as I can get more wealth and power.
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Yesterday, I watched an interview on an Iraqi satellite channel; with the heads of some new Iraqi parties…the subject of discussion was about the coming stage after the temporary government, the preparations for the elections, teaching the people how to make use of their election rights to make a better future, by choosing honest men who do not run after the power seat for their personal benefits, but for serving the people, and giving them more rights, more chances for a better life….
The elections won't be legal unless half of the Iraqi people at least, take part in it…and the election call paper must reach the furthest Iraqi house, in the furthest Iraqi town…so there would be justice, clarity, and association.
And they said that whoever loves the Iraqis now, wouldn't be looking for the seat and post, the Honest Nationalist now, is that who helps people, stands by them to open their eyes on their rights, in the contribution in making a better future….
They said there were attempts that will be mean, to devise some cultic laws that aim to disrupt the people's unity, and weaken the patriotic voices, They said the road to democracy will be the only option for Iraqis…but it is a road surrounded by danger…
There are some men who are professionals in politics, they know how to trick the will of the people, but our ambition is that they wouldn't succeed, that we will walk together, hand in hand, to build a beautiful country, full of goodness to all…
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I believe in God the great, that every thing happened by His will and design… and I believe that He Supports the right, and Hates injustice….
I wish God will be with the Iraqis…. Giving them victory, and Supporting them in making good for their country, and their coming generations….
I hope Iraqis would never, ever lose hope…in a shiny, beautiful, tomorrow…
How tight life would be, without the expanse of hope…….
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Translated by May, Baghdad.
# posted by Faiza Al-Araji @ 7:01 pm 
