A Family in Baghdad

Sunday, July 3rd, 2005
Good morning…
I am in Amman, daily meeting some Iraqis, my friends, or former neighbors…
Amman is crowded with Iraqis, who rented furnished flats to spend the summer holidays, or bought flats then furnished them, the Jordanian Universities are full of Iraqi students who presented applications to transfer their studies to Jordan… studying in the Iraqi Universities is free, but here, they shall pay thousands and thousands of dollars to finish their studies in the Jordanian Universities, for the university studies here aren't free, even for Jordanians…….
And in the "Happy Iraq" over there; there is no water in the tabs, the electricity is bad as usual, the heat is getting worst, while the security condition is "excellent" as usual; for the trapped cars are being planted by faceless enemies in the markets and residential areas, to kill the innocent Iraqi civilians, and people are wondering:
Are those the enemies of the Iraqis, or of the occupation army?
That is the traditional question…of which there is still no official answer…
But President Bush invested their presence positively, saying in his last speech last week, in meaning; that Iraq has become the confrontation field between America, and the international terrorism in Iraq…
Hummm…
Thanks to you, oh government of America, for what you have brought to the Iraqis; happiness, welfare, and security…. I mean, to the Americans…
As for the Iraqis, my dear, they are always the omitted item from all the calculations…
When I was a student at the Collage of Engineering, our teacher at the structural design class said: when some of the calculated forces are too small compared to the others, the designer is permitted to cancel them from the equation, and the final calculations, meaning; we can call them "negligible". I used that principal all my life as a structural designer. And I can see there are some who deal with the Iraqi people by that same principal now, for it does not exist in the equations and calculations of the American government, the priority being the security of America, and those in it…
And let the negligible elements go to hell…
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Many stories I hear from the Iraqis coming from Baghdad to Jordan, I hear them, and remain silent, my eyes wide open…staring at the speaker's faces…
The Iraqi national guards would arrest men from their homes, and some two days later, the body of the arrested person would be found on a heap of garbage somewhere, with his eyes torn away, and his body burned, or punched with a wall punching machine…
People became accustomed to saying: we wish the American army would enter the houses to search, because the Iraqi national guards do not respect us, behaving more aggressively than the American soldiers used to act when they would search a house, steeling what they find in the people's closets, (some of the American soldiers also stole what the people had in their closets, money, or gold jewelry, and I have seen many people in Baghdad telling this story as eye witnesses). They say that they do not knock on the doors to ask the permission to enter and search, but kick the door away, so they can get in….only to intimidate people and scare them…
If they should pass the street, people would panic and run away, because they usually aim their Kalashnikov machineguns at the people's faces in the streets…
Is this the Iraqi army we want?
Is this the army that is supposed to handle the security of the Iraqi street after the American army withdraws from the cities?
Hummm…
Who trained these people, or gave them the instructions?
What is the difference between them and the security troops of Saddam Hussein?
By GOD, I returned to Iraq since 1991, and I haven't heard such stories… perhaps because I lived at that time while the Saddam Hussein regime was weak, and falling apart, but at the beginning of his rule I heard the same stories… after his fall we heard that the C.I A used to back him up, so perhaps they taught him these barbaric methods so he could control the miserable Iraqis, and destroy their lives.
And these new daily stories are either true, and that would be a miserable, regrettable situation; what the conditions in Iraq has gotten into… or it might be that the people hate them, so they exaggerate, and that means they have failed in gaining the confidence of the Iraqi citizen….
Today, I saw a news conference on the Iraqi space channel. And the government speaker said: we regret some of the wrong behaviors from the National Guards, and some of the government employees; we are now studying how to compensate the harmed people, like the case in Turkey, or we are studying some solutions to protect the human rights in Iraq…
That means that the talk and the accusations are correct!
They asked him about the Iraqi resistance, and why does the government refuse to negotiate with them?
He said that he met an Iraqi man at the Airport some time ago, who advanced and presented himself as a member of the Iraqi resistance, and that the resistance is innocent of the operations of killing the Iraqi civilians…
Then, the official government speaker said: but we do not know with whom to negotiate, and who says those do represent the resistance?
I thought he was stalling, eluding the direct, clear answer….
Then I saw a subtitle on the same channel saying: Mr. ….., the head of the ….. Party says we shall not negotiate with the Saddamists, whose hands are stained with the blood of the Iraqis… and another subtitle saying:…the Prime Minister pledges to the Iraqis to eliminate the terrorists, whose hands are stained with the blood of the Iraqis…
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Who are those terrorists, whose hands are stained with the blood of the Iraqis?
I always used to say, while I was in Baghdad, then in Amman, then in America, that the first step to calm the situation down is to sit on the negotiation table, face to face, and listen…..
The terrorists, with the blood stained hands will not attend these meetings, in my opinion, because they are not a national resistance with clear objectives, like: we want to push out the occupier, and participate in a fair, national government with a fare distribution of the people's representation…
How would a party leader from the government, or other, dare to describe them as Saddamists and criminals before meeting them? Does he know them, and seen their identities?
Why do you deceive people, and lie? Why do you justify your inability to comprehend the existence of others on the political field?
What is your difference from the tyrant, Saddam Hussein?
The same foolish, selfish, spiteful behaviors that wouldn't respect the other, nor admit his existence, describing him with ugly qualities, like: The criminals, the dirty people, whose hands are blood stained…
Well then, who of you didn't stain his hands with the blood of Iraqis till now?
Come on, be my guests, speak up, bring your witnesses as to your innocence, say that you didn't kill, or assassinate your opponents, or even the strong independents, whose power you were afraid of?
Shame on your deeds…..your end shall not be better than that of Saddam Hussein….
The justice of heaven will get to you one day, we shall all see it, and how shall it be….
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As for the story of the arrested people, and how they are tortured then thrown on a garbage heap, I swear by GOD that I have seen the same scenes in a film I watched in the Vermont Institute of Peace Building, telling the story of a christen clergy man, by the name of Romario, I think, in El-Salvador, in Latin America, who stands up against the government, and its injustice to people. The events of the film were real, in the beginning of the 1980's, the country was under a military, dictatorship rule, the National Guard used to arrest people and torture them, men and women, then throw them on the garbage pile, with the marks of torture on their bodies, the government had strong ties with the American government, and the C.I.A.. Poverty, hunger, and injustice enveloped the country, while the corrupt government was well sated, used to having parties, and its members' wives wear fur, and diamonds…..
In that film I saw the ugly face of America….
And I said to my colleagues there: I see that this would become the future of Iraq, if the occupation forces would remain in it…. What with the C.I.A., and their collaborators, and agents…..whoever implements their infernal schemes.
And I came back to Amman to see the miserable Iraqis who run away from hell…with endless stories of panic, fear, and a threatened future…..
I said to one of my friends, whom I met yesterday by chance: we must work together to get them out of Iraq, then arrange our lives all over again…
She looked at me with tearful eyes, and a sad, broken look, and whispered in a tired voice: what are you saying? Saddam Hussein destroyed a part of us, then those came along to destroy what was left….
I looked at her in amazement; this woman works in the Conference Palace, she still receives her salary from there, she works with them… she is supposed to approve of the existence of the occupation, according to the assessment of the Iraqis, because she works with them….. But her speech says something else…..
Her speech as an Iraqi says something else…..
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I see people in Iraq now, like me when I was there six months ago; psychologically shattered, they do not comprehend what is going on around them, who is in control of things, and where is the country heading for….
Torturing questions, without answers……
And there in America, I saw people living in peace, a very normal life, even for that who runs from morning till evening, crushed by the pressures of life, and whose blood is sucked by the capitalist greed companies, who can never have enough… nevertheless, he goes to his job securely, his kids go to school securely, and his wife goes shopping securely… he has water, electricity, a clean, safe public park in which he spends the week-ends with his family…
And he pays the taxes, to send an occupation army to us….and what do you know of the occupation army?
Is it merely a tank, a Humvee, a helicopter, and a soldier?
Wish it was only that…..
The occupation army is an indescribable catastrophe…..
Evil, unseen hands tampering with all the country…
A total, unequaled chaos….
Thefts by millions from the state and ministries accounts, and no body prosecutes…
Assassinations and murders, and nobody investigates; people take their dead, bury them, and keep their mouths shut….
Party leaders backed by the occupation forces exhale poison among people and disperse them, possessing trained and dangerous militia…. Whom GOD only knows what they do…
Security and safety are none existing, and nobody protects the poor citizen…
No defense layers, and no human rights for the detainees…
Empty words and grudges fill the media, with promises to make revenge upon the enemies of the people…
Hummm…
Who are the enemies of the people?
That is an important question…
I think that " the enemies of the people" is an expression they play with however they wanted, explaining it however they wanted….
Just like Saddam Hussein used to do…
He used to arrest or kill whoever opposes him or stands in his face, then he would say: this is one of the people's enemies…and we couldn't declare that he was lying….his guards and watch dogs were surrounding us, staring in our faces…
And now, they play the same tune, and the same Saddamies' actions….
And the question is: shall we keep silent, as we used to do in the days of Saddam, or do we talk?
Shall we say that those who assumed the power after the war, thanks to the occupation forces, are no better than he was?
Shall we say that they treat the Iraqis by the same mentality? The mentality of presuming people to be stupid, donkeys, and do not understand? We kill whoever opposes us then say; he is the enemy of the people, and for that who shuts up, perhaps there will be a chance to remain alive, or perhaps he shall also be the victim of a stray bullet from an American soldier, an Iraqi policeman, a thieve, or a kidnapper in the street?
Who cares?
The street is full of all causes of death…
Who cares?
He's an Iraqi, let him go to hell, he is always the negligible number in the calculations….
Because of the injustice of Saddam Hussein, they used to die, or be tortured, or be thrown into prisons…and without Saddam Hussein they also die, or be tortured, or be imprisoned…
All is the same.......
Those who went away….and those who came along….
All is the same.......
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As to the trapped cars, and the faceless, lurking enemies, they are presenting a great service to the occupation army…
First of all: they give a reason to eliminate any Iraqi resistance, because he will be accused of being a terrorist with a connection to the trapped cars, and of course, the miserable citizen shall believe…
Secondly: they give a reason for the occupation forces to remain, in order to fight the international terrorism… for they have frozen all their hate against the world, then unleashed it upon the miserable Iraqis….
Ha,ha,ha….
Thank you, o terrorist brothers…
You have brought all the elements of happiness, and the bright future with you to Iraq.
There is just a simple question that keeps on nagging always in all our minds: Who let you in into Iraq?
We never knew you before….
Perhaps whoever let you in, is the same who doesn't want to leave Iraq….
And your existence is connected to his?
….. How wonderful!!
The violence and killing shall continue, to reap the green and the dry in Iraq…
Until the hands that are tampering with Iraq, decide it is time to make peace in Iraq??
And the question is: when, and how will it be peace in Iraq?
It is obvious that the decision isn’t in the hands of the Iraqis .............. Because they are the negligible number, and they will remain so, until they decide to wake up from the slumber, or fear, face the reality and understand what's going on in it, then move on to change…
Change can not be made by an individual, or a group of individuals…
Change is in the hands of the masses .........
In the hands of all the people who suffered, endured anguish, and the long night…
My heart is full of hope….
In spite of the dark picture in Iraq now, with all its darkness, fear, panic, devastation, destruction, and blood…
But change will come, no doubt….
My heart is full of hope……
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Translated by May/Baghdad.