A Family in Baghdad

Wednesday, August 24th , 2005

Good evening….
Today, I received a package by Express mail, containing books to study through the internet, (online study), from the institute in Vermont, where I took a summer course in " Building Peace". I had an agreement with them to continue studying through the internet for one year.
Today, my feelings mingle; between feeling happy to start realizing my dream, to study about the role of the Civil Society Organizations in solving the problems of the societies who suffer from wars or conflicts, and feeling sad and depressed, while the conditions of Iraq deteriorate day after day, so our family had to leave Iraq, like so many other families, because of the bad security conditions, especially after our son "Khalid" was abducted.
And I wonder every day: Shall we ever get back to Iraq?
And what sort of a country shall we find??
Would it be the country for all of us, as we wish it to be?
Or a country divided into segments.....
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Where is Iraq heading to? A question that nags in the minds of each Iraqi, and non-Iraqi…
It makes the Iraqis sad, and puzzles them, along with everyone who loves Iraq and its people…
And there is still a faction who says: Iraq is heading towards the right direction, and we all ask: How? And what is the proof?
But they insist that all is very well…
There is a plan in their minds, going on as they want, the end of which are wealth, investments, and open markets in Iraq….and these are worth the sacrifices, in their estimation.
I met samples of these people inside Iraq, or outside, and they are all combined by one common factor; they worship money, finding it the "Number one" in life.
Everything could be petty and valueless according to them, everything like: Noble Principals, Human Dignity, the Independence of Homelands, the Ugliness of Occupation, the Loss of Justice, the Fall of Victims,….,etc. all these are insignificant compared to gaining money, and from it comes power, authority, and influence.
They live by the thought that: the Aim justifies the Means.
And there is another faction, who is either opportunist, or naïve, that supports what is happening in Iraq, believing it is for the welfare of the Iraqis….for the democracy, and human rights, and other lying, empty words.
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These days, I am reading different books about Economics, Political Sciences, and International Relations. I want to find out the answers to many questions moving around in my mind….
I find that these are important and hot subjects in the world now.
And I wondered: Why would the intelligent people in most our countries head towards studying Medicine or Engineering, and such sciences, leaving the study of these other sciences to those with low grades? These sciences are in contact with human's lives, more than Medicine and Engineering, for they decide the fate of humanity as a whole, and where it is heading…
Unfortunately, Medicine and Engineering produce a group of specialized, smart people, who are far from the position of decision making, in the policies of their countries, or governments….
I can now see that Humanitarian sciences should be tutored to the outstanding, so they would attain a special, intelligent vision to solve the problems of humans, hoping it wouldn't be a greedy, selfish, coveting vision, that would destroy the world, as is the case now around the world…
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In the books of Political Sciences, I found that they spoke about the meaning of State, and the meaning of government, and the difference between them… I realized that the war in Iraq didn't only tear apart the government alone, but ripped an entity called "The Iraqi State", and it still does……
I found the books talking of the constitution, and its meaning to the citizens of the state; for it is a representative of them, and no foreign hands should interfere in formulating it….
Look at the comedy of the formation of the new Iraqi constitution… the whole world can see and hear the interference of the American government in each article; omitting, or adding, serious articles that touch up the destiny of Iraq and its people; like Federalism, Islam, the Distribution of fortunes…,…
These are decided by the government of a foreign country, publicly….
And Iraq is on the verge of a civil war…between those who agree, and those who reject these articles.
And there are millions of Iraqis who live outside Iraq, who have no right to vote about the new constitution, under many pretexts presented by the Iraqi government…
Who would have thought this could happen in the twenty-first century?
Publicly, insolently, a country is being destroyed, its constitution annulled, leaders and leaderships, who came from out of Iraq with the occupation, are being inaugurated, having forced themselves as sole forces in the national and governmental field, while there are many leaderships who were assassinated or pushed to the margin, because they wouldn't play their same tune or support the legal existence of the occupation…
So, the occupational state puts down the bases of the new constitution…and the law of the new Iraqi state. Iraq is redrawn all over again, so quickly, and the people are amazed: it is redrawn geographically; (the forced federal portioning), demographically; (this is a Kurdish area, forcibly evacuated of Arabs, this is a totally Shia'at area, and that is a totally Sunnies area,…), the attempt to make this fact a reality on the ground, then, the distribution of fortunes, trying to make that another reality on the ground as well, and, the fragmentation of Iraq, which is the aim, firstly, and lastly…
All those who love Iraq and the Iraqis feel sad about what is happening there today….
And all those who love money, investments, interests, the free market, and the capital mobilization feel happy, because that would be the required boost….
This is the true fruit of the war on Iraq…..
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And now I have an innocent question: if launching a missile against an American war ship somewhere is a cowardice terrorist act, then what is the brave nationalist act?
How do people express their rejection against the war on Iraq, or the occupation? From inside Iraq, or outside of it?
How would the American government understand it is not wanted in Iraq, and the area around it?
Someone said to me: People could walk in demonstrations to express their anger, for this is a non-terrorist method!
I laughed and said: But people are tired of these dumb negative methods that get no results. Look at the demonstrations that took place all over the world against the war in Iraq, what changed? Did it influence the political decision of the governments involved in the war?
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Capitalism is a tricky, vicious system, came to be to dedicate greed and selfishness in humans, the love of gain and accumulate fortunes, without thinking of the social justice, or the right of others in a good life.
As if its motto is: I, myself…
And of course, the capitalists join together to secure their interests, agreeing to reduce the privileges of the workers, steel their money and gains in whatever way; like putting them in front of the alternatives of either dismissal, or agreeing to lower wages…and more work hours. And of course, the miserable will agree to all the unjust conditions, even though the profits of the companies are still high…
This in general is their policy…since the twenties and thirties of the last century…till now. Many strikes and workers' revolutions took place to demand the rights of workers and employees, to improve the wages and work conditions. During the fifties and sixties the socialist experience was glowing, talking of the rights of workers, improving their lives, earnings, and creating labor unions for them…
And the frightening, enthusiiastic call: Oh workers of the world, Unite!
And an international song that talks of noble aims; like Land, Peace, and bread for the hungry…
At that time, socialism formed a fearful threat to capitalism, because it caused her to appear as an ugly, exploitative system that has no respect to human rights in it, nor giving humans a chance of a good life…
And perhaps that is what pushed the capitalism into the attempt at beautifying its ugly face, calling for freedom, democracy, and human rights…..
And during that time, capitalism tried to solve the problems of society; like apartheid, women's rights, formulating the social security system of workers and employees. Almost all foreign policies were quiet, without announcing its aggressiveness and greed….except the Vietnam War, for it was embarrassing to the American government, and due to the pressure of the peace- loving American people, who wouldn't be convinced of the whole idea of the war, and who lost more than 50,000 solders in that war, it was stopped, and the army was withdrawn.
Meaning; the public pressures were effective….
There were also some international organizations, like the Human Rights, and the United Nations, who had a big influence and power on the governments and countries… like the Cuban rockets crises in the sixties, and the role of the Soviet Union in the United Nations in solving that problem, and calming the situation, the tri-lateral war on Egypt in 1956, and the role of the Soviet Union in stopping it, after the nationalization of the Sues channel….
There were some influential nationalist parties in the world, and revolutionary movements who had their influence in their own societies, or outside of them…in the Arab world, Asia, Africa, and Latin America…… these revolutions had heroes or leaders, like Jamal Abdul Nasser, Tshi Givara, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, whom the people loved and supported, wanting to keep them as symbols from which to derive the power against the tyrants, and the unjust.
But today, and after the fall of the Soviet Union as an influential and pressuring superpower, after the weakness and marginalization of the Parties, the disappearance of the revolutionary movements, the weakness of the international organizations, like human rights and the security Council, the capitalism in America stood alone in the field, and removed the beautifying cover from her ugly face, since 1990 and so on….and started making preparations to take over the world, under the banners of Globalization, and the New World Order….even the social welfare that she used to boast about presenting to her citizens has started to shrink…the privileges started pulling back….as we look at the social insurance system, the health insurance, the senior citizens care, and educational system…
The wars around the world took over most of the budget…
Why these wars?
Are they really to spread justice and freedom, and to remove the injustice from the poor and the weak in the world's countries?
Or to open new markets, investments, to supplement the budget deficit, and raise the economic growth levels, and others of ambiguous terms which most people do not understand, but the influential people in the American government understand them perfectly, as if they are members in the directing board of an investment company, or employees in a stock market, who read the changing numbers in the market everyday… and have a language of their own….
That's why I say; every one should start reading Economics so as to understand that language… the language of the Dollar, its relation to the Japanese Yen, and the European Euro, and what's the meaning of the rise and fall of the oil prices?
And what's the meaning of the rise and fall of the dollar?
And what's the connection of all those with politics?
And what's the connection of all that with the war on Iraq, or the war on terrorism??
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After the lapse of the influence of the local nationalist political parties in many countries, and the weakness of their power to gather people around them, to demand or object against a war or a political decision that people didn't like, and when the popular protestations were restricted within the limits of the Parliament and its representatives, the situation became cold and petty, having no more effect upon any government… as if the reality of the matter says: This is the permissible democracy, you can protest, march, shout, and carry banners with all the sentences that express your anger and protests…. You can meet your representatives in the Parliament or the Congress, and you can tell them what you like…..
But the decision is in our hands alone….
This is Democracy; the beginning and the end, the floor and the ceiling, within the allowances of the capitalist mentality….
It has become empty molds, devoid of real contents….
And the anger of the wronged people accumulates….
And after the weakening of the international organizations, and their inability to aid the unjustly treated, or accomplish justice, after the emergence of America as a super power, (and not the free, democratic America ), it started to behave with arrogance and shamelessness, using the terms of "democracy" and "freedom" as an old, agreed upon, heritage… in fact, she uses these words in a vulgar way, which has no honesty, as a cover only… the people outside America suffered from it, and the picture became clear and exposed, and inside America itself, there is a percentage of people who started to open their eyes, and see the truth….
Some in the civil society organizations there started raising slogans against the war saying: This war is not in our name….
Meaning; they declare their innocence of the responsibility about the war, because it doesn't represent the noble manners of America that they know of, or that which they used to be proud to belong to….
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The question is: why did terrorism emerge in the world?
Is it an expression of the anger of some people who are desperate about the possibility of matters changing towards the better?
Did the revolutionaries become extinct in this world? I mean, the bearers of theories and the revolutionary intellect that could lead the masses of people??
It looks like this is what happened during the lapsing decades…
So, what is the solution?
Shall we become lost among angry terrorists who want to solve the world problems their own way, which doesn't convince most of us?
I want to clarify an important point; the biased capitalist media describe the occupation resistance movements as terrorists, and that is a lie, and untruth…for the resistance of the foreign occupation is a legitimate right to all nations….
Shall we put our hands with capitalism to destroy them?
There are hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, or perhaps hundreds of thousands of people around the world who oppose capitalism just like they oppose terrorism, but they support justice, and noble principals… very well, let us say that I, my husband, my sons, and a lot of our friends, relatives, neighbors, and readers of our site are among them…
The question is: how could this group of society work to stop the tide of terrorism, and capitalism?
Both are ugly, fighting, and are dragging the world into a chasm….
We want a movement of civic societies that is more active, and more clear, with a louder voice, and a stronger influence, led by moderate, rational people, who realize the importance of peace and dialogue in our lives, rejecting the idea of the strong dominating every thing…..
This dominance raises the anger of people, and their hatred, it accumulates to turn to violence, and terrorism that would burn everything, as if declaring: Be it upon my head, and enemy's….
Whoever pushed that person into desperation so he would become a terrorist, bears the responsibility of the crime with him…..
We are not asking humans to be angels… for there are limited abilities of patience and endurance in a human… and the accumulation of pressure and injustice generates explosions… and that is what is happening in the world today, especially in conflict areas like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine…
There is a common factor to the three stories; there is tyranny, injustice, and a one-sided enforced domination, a side that doesn't want to listen to the opinion of the other, despising him, and denying him the right to express himself….
So, they were pushed into the blocked road…..
And what would one who tried all the peaceful methods do, when nobody listens to him??
Should he go home to hide, and savor his pains and tortures?
Or should he feel angry, flare up, and destroy everything?
Should I blame him?
I can imagine myself in his shoes….
Where is the rational solution, after the loss of the international organization's dignity, and their ability to help the weak and the unjustly treated? After the deterioration of the political parties, and the sizing of their roles in societies? After the people got involved in the worries of their daily lives, panting to improve the family's condition?
Who shall help those oppressed, or even listen to them??
Who pushed them towards despair, and terrorism?
We are all responsible about what is happening in the world… our negligence, negativeness, or by not caring, is a participation with the strong and unjust in being unjust to the weak….
We are all responsible about what is happening to the world…
And no angels shall come down from the sky to fix the damage…
We, with our minds and hands shall fix the damage on our planet, earth…….
I do not think I know all the solutions.
But we must think and try to find them.
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Translated by May/Baghdad.