A Family in Baghdad

Saturday, September 30th, 2006
Peace be upon you…
I have stopped writing on my website for a while now…
And the reason is perhaps; because I was occupied working with the Iraqis who fled the hell of life inside Iraq, or perhaps that I was bored from the same talk about the painful reality that is going on for more than three years, until I no longer like to talk, as if repeating the same words, uselessly.
Iraqis are still dying everyday; killed by trapped cars, sectarian militia, and death squads who carry out random assassinations on the streets. Or they die by assassinations organized against every nationalist or cultured Iraqi, against every scientist, doctor, or university professor…
There is someone out there who decided to assassinate everything in Iraq, everything that moves on the land of Iraq, and bears the Iraqi identity…
A Sunniey or a Shia'at, rich or poor, a Muslim or not a Muslim, cultured or not, with or against the occupation; all these are targets, and dead bodies are filling the streets, eaten by dogs…
And Bush is still living in his delusions, giving speeches about imaginary victories in Iraq. Is he fooling himself, or his people?
Perhaps both. This is what tyrants do, all over the world.
If Saddam Hussein was a tyrant, this Bush is no less a tyrant…
Currently he is imposing his viewpoint upon the American people, depleting the tax payer's budget to finance an unjust war, a war that destroyed Iraq, dislodged its people, and deprived the country of its national unity, peace, and security. All for what?
For the delusions of the war - on – terrorism?
For the sake of the profits of the American companies, those who ally with Bush in his war on Iraq, and the alleged terrorism?
Oil-investment and weapons companies, in the first place...
Those are the first beneficiaries out of this war, followed by other companies who want to find markets for their unsold products they want to sell to the Iraqis in future; car companies, industrial, foods, electrical, electronic, and other products. All who want to get profits.
The Iraqi's blood flows, and those capitalist villains are investing our blood in their own way.
At the beginning, the war was marketed as a sacrifice from the American people so that the Iraqis would be liberated and be happy.
There are a lot of fools in America, and out of America, who believed this story…
Afterwards, when it was evident that the Iraqis didn't get freedom or happiness, Bush's speech changed; he now tells the Americans: we must stay in Iraq until we eliminate terrorism- meaning; if we get out of Iraq, terrorism will come to America…
Ha,ha,ha, what a story…
And the poor Americans have no answer to this, so they just shake their shoulders, and be quiet.
As for those who walk in demonstrations, organize meetings and press conferences to criticize Bush and his policy in Iraq, they are treated according to plans:
Plan A: Ignore and marginalize them, so that people wouldn't hear them.
Plan B: Put them under siege, observation, and spoil their lives.
Plan C: Accuse them of being un-patriotic, and that they are destroying the American solidarity , so that people would hate them and scatter away from them.
I always say that this war, in spite of its ugliness, has some bright points; the most important of which is that it exposed the fakeness of the western democracy story, the one with which they gave us headaches, and for which they destroyed Iraq…
It turned out to be a black lie…
And the second positive point is: that it tells the Iraqis; your country will not be liberated from occupation unless you work together, hand in hand, to kick out the occupier. The key to Iraq's dilemma lies in the hands of the Iraqis. In the hands of the Iraqis, not anyone else's…
The good people of America are doing all they can to get the occupier out of Iraq.
But the main bulk of the task lies in the responsibility of the Iraqis themselves, no doubt…
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During the last two months, I saw many things…
I met Iraqi parliament members, men and women, and I found that most of them are lost in the middle of the way, do not know head from tail, and have no vision as to political business, and what the future of Iraq is?
I saw a minority of them who are loyal nationalists, and full of awareness, but are deprived of all authorities to serve the Iraqis. They would say frankly that – we came to the parliament to help people, we risked our lives, we entered in the elections, and we discovered it was just a lie, for decision lies in the hands of the occupier, and we can do nothing in reality…
And I met people who are against the political process as a whole, but they were negative, frustrated people who have no alternative vision to reality…
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I met former detainees and prisoners in the Interior Ministry prisons, or the occupation prisons.
We went to the United Nations to present testimonies.
We went to Amnesty International to present testimonies.
We met Non-Governmental Organizations to present testimonies.
We went to the Red Cross to inquire about detainees in the American prisons in Iraq.
Before that, I went to the Unifeme (United Nations for Women), and asked them what programs they have for women in Iraq?
They said; we want to organize workshops about freedom and democracy.
I laughed about their stupidity.
Iraqi women's husbands and sons are dying, who needs a workshop?
I realized fully that these organizations became expired. For they are either incapable and negative in performing their responsibilities towards what is happening in Iraq, or they submit to Bush's dictatorship, which deprived them of all their legitimacy and the justifications of their existence, so that they became structures with an exterior only, but void inside………
I always wondered: who bears the responsibility for the catastrophes that are happening in Iraq?
The occupation?
The Iraqi government?
The United Nations?
The Red Cross?
The Refugees Aid Agency?
The answer is: No one…
All the world abandoned the Iraqis, fearful from Bush.
But I personally will not abandon them… so I decided.
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I started working with Iraqi non-governmental organizations who work in Human Rights affairs. We receive here dislodged people from Iraq, who were threatened with death for sectarian reasons, by the death squads and the new death militia which the occupation policy spawned, to rip apart the Iraqi's unity.
We collect donations from here and there, so we can provide for them some lodgings, cloths, and the least minimum level of a good life.
((Welfare shall remain in my nation until the Day of Judgment)) says the Holy Prophet, (may the blessings of God be upon him).
And from Baghdad, I have a short, sad story, but one which I consider to be a model for the stories of sadness from Iraq.
Some six months ago, one of our neighbors was assassinated. He used to work as an officer in the Iraqi Army. I wrote about him at the time.
He had a wife and two sons, (five and four years), Ahmad and Muhammad.
The wife, I don't know why, lost her mind, and killed herself one month ago, in her sadness for her husband.
The children remained with their mother's mother; a lonely, poor old woman. Their father's kin are in Samara, where two of their uncles were killed, their grandfather was arrested, and the rest of their uncles are detained by the occupation forces.
My friends and I made an agreement to send them cloths and presents from time to time…
If I was living in Baghdad, I would have brought them to my home, to live with my family.
The Holy Prophet says: ((I, and whoever supports the orphan, are in heaven)), (may the blessings of God be upon him).
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The sad stories of Iraq are endless.
The world abandoned us.
But God will not abandon us.
And also, all the people who still have a conscience will not stop helping the Iraqis, publicly, and secretly.
Amen….
I am sorry, as all my news are sad.
But I do have one good item to tell,
I started learning French.
Comment allez- vous?
Bien, merci. Et vous?
And may peace be upon you.
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