A Family in Baghdad

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007

May peace be upon you…
When I was in Baghdad during the war and after that, writing from that position was an important item in my daily rituals… I used to go to work every day, come back to tend to my home and family, but writing was to me an important matter I should accomplish every day or two, as if it is a part of my responsibility to tell the world what is happening to us, and how do we live our days…
But, and praise God, people get tired of the same talk, and the same speech becomes repeated and boring… and I do not like playing this boring role; everyday saying and repeating the same words like the newspapers, TV and broadcasting channels do. Sometimes; people stop listening and watching, for everything frustrates and exasperates…
Now; writing on my website became something forgotten in the daily schedule of my life… because I am busy with working for Iraq, trying to knock on every door, abandoning my personal pride, because I am asking for help to the Iraqis, and not for a personal help to me or to my family- thank God we have everything, but Iraq lost everything… it has lost its security and stability, its future still stumbles in darkness and blood… Iraq has lost the best of its honest intellectual men and women; who either fled the country for fear of their lives, or were assassinated, or some of them are still living there, waking and sleeping with death…
What kind of a life is this?
But we always say: thank God for everything, this is the will of God, the Lord of all beings, not the will of Bush, the calamities that befell Iraq were ordained by the Lord of all beings, and this is a hard test for us all… and during this test; some chose to steal, plunder, kill, and betray, while others remained faithful, holding on to their convictions, strong hearted, brave, loving Iraq and its people, doing the impossible to help them in their ordeal.
Some cowered, saying- Iraq shall never BE again, so they ran, seeking humanitarian asylum or immigration, abandoning the Iraqi Nationality; not wanting to be chased by the curse of being an Iraqi…
Others went victims of the daily violence, without a decision or a will of their own….
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The past weeks were distinguished for me… I spent some in meetings with Iraqis living here in Amman, to learn of their conditions, and write a report about them for a certain organization…
I spent some other time meeting with doctors arriving from Baghdad, who knew my telephone number here through my work sending water purifying equipments to hospitals, so, when they get to Amman in a short visit, I meet them and listen to them talk about their conditions there, then bid them goodbye with my heart full of sorrow for all of Iraq, and not just a certain person…
I met my relative, whose husband died because of the injustice of the Saddam Hussein regime, and heard her full story…
I called Baghdad to listen to the story of a family friend who was kidnapped by a gang of policemen, and whom he escaped by a miracle. I spoke with him by phone, saying- thank god for your safety…
All stories are entangled, sometimes contradicting, but they tell about the conditions in the sad Iraq today, the conditions of the sad Iraqi people, as if they are tossing in fire, escaping one fire to another… from the fire of daily killings, kidnapping and panic, to the fire of expatriation in neighboring countries; indescribable suffering and humiliation, without a legal residency permit, without the right of acquiring a job, without the right to educate their children, while free medical treatment is provided to an extent by some organizations, but very limited…
The reality conditions of the Iraqis say that the entire world abandoned them, and even those who want to help them are helpless, tied handed, and scared…
That is what I have seen from the reality of the organizations working to help Iraq; it is not a matter of administrational corruption or bad programs, but the organizations, even the big ones, are helpless and tied handed, afraid of Bush and his administration, because then he would accuse them of supporting terrorism, if they helped the miserable, sad Iraqi people…
The world is living a dangerous phase of its history, as evil people control the decision-making in the major countries, frightening all who try to do good, accusing them of serious charges to destroy their reputations and future…
But there are still some brave men and women who do not care or fear… they extend the humanitarian-aid hand to Iraq and the Iraqis, individually or through non-governmental organizations. We pray to God to bless them, support them, stabilize them, and give them the strength to do good, amen.
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At the beginning, I met some Iraqi families living through difficult conditions here, without a legal residency permit; because getting a legal residency permit means you have to be either an investor, or having signed a contract with the state, or a private company, or be a university student, or else deposit a $100,000 in the bank for a year, then apply for a residency permit from the Interior Ministry. The request might be accepted or rejected, but mostly it is accepted.
Well then, the families here usually get a free residency for six months, but then their renewal would be rejected, and there would be a daily penalty of $2 a person. And if a person is caught, especially the young men, on the street by a check point, and it was discovered that he is without a legal residency permit, then he is detained then shipped to the Jordanian-Iraqi borders.
Then people discovered that the High Commission of Refugees started interviewing the Iraqi families and giving them a document forbidding forced deportation; each family member carries a document bearing his name and photograph, but it doesn't give its owner the right to work…
From my meetings with them, I discovered that such families are the majority here, as for the type of families who have legal residency permits; they are almost limited, compared with this big number of illegal residents…
Those illegal residents have no right to send their children to the free public schools, and they cannot afford to pay the fees of private schools, as the cheapest of these schools cost about $500 a year…
Some families have children with chronic diseases, in need of long, costly treatments. They complain, and nobody answers… some families get free treatment here, because they arrived early after the war, or received the support of some Jordanians who helped them get that free medical treatment, but Jordan remains to be a small, poor country, limited in resources, which cannot carry alone the weight of what happened to Iraq.
Where is the responsibility of the Iraqi government?
Where is the responsibility of the American government?
Where is the responsibility of the United Nations?
These three should bear the responsibility of what happened to Iraq, excluding others…
These three laid down the legitimacy of this war, and are still evading the responsibility of what human catastrophes befell Iraq… they are still hiding what is truly happening in Iraq, their declarations always lying, saying that all things in Iraq are moving in the healthy direction, that issues are moving towards the better…

I think that the first step to solve the problems of the sad, wounded Iraq is to admit, by those three that the situation is catastrophic, and to present humanitarian aid to the Iraqis inside who were displaced from their homes and still are, to those who were wounded or crippled because of the violence and bombings, to those who lost the head of their family and their daily bread source. Those three should take responsibility for all that is happening to the Iraqis, to compensate the devastated families with medical and nutriment aid, to solve the problems of the displaced by getting them back to their homes, by providing protection to their residential areas by a national, clean Iraqi Army, one distinguished with high professionalism, not infiltrated by sectarian gangs and militias who would kill their citizens….
But the painful reality is that the Iraqi government lives isolated from the sufferings of its people, its men broadcast speeches that do not belong to reality, but whoever hears them believes that Iraq is sinking into happiness and welfare; there are just a few terrorists from Al-Qai'ida, whom we will eliminate, then live happily ever after…
It is a catastrophe when a lying, thieving administrator becomes the head responsible in a small-scale company… then what is the size of the catastrophe in a country like Iraq, which became under the mercy of officials most of whom are liars and thieves?
Oh, poor Iraq…
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Then I met a doctor who arrived from Baghdad, from Al-Adamiyah hospital; he is a Sunnie and his wife a Shia'at, as is the usual story among Iraqis…
Al-Adamiyah district has a Sunnie majority, but that doesn't mean there is an animosity against Shia'ats, there are still some Shia'at families living harmoniously with their neighbors since long decades.
The occupation brought on many poisoned items of vocabulary onto the Iraqi people, dividing them into Sunnies and Shia'ats, Arabs and Kurds. We used to hear about the theory of "Divide and Conquer" when we were young, and here we have seen it applied on the ground of reality in Iraq…

Now , Iraqis are divided into supporters of the occupation, and rejecters of it…
According to my assessments and observations since the beginning of the war until now, the supporters are a minority of beneficiaries who work with the present government or with the occupation; companies and contractors, and those are completely isolated, fearing to mingle with the Iraqis in fear for their lives inside Iraq, but those of them who are here in Amman declare their opinions openly without fear, and of course they drive the latest models of cars, they and their sons and daughters, they own the most luxurious palaces in Amman, and frequent the fanciest restaurants and nightclubs…
Those do not suffer; no problems of residency, children education, medical treatment, or any financial crisis. Those say that Iraq is well and going in the right direction, they love Bush and Blair, seeing them as their model in life…
I met a number of those people, finding them like parrots who repeat the same talk, and there isn't an atom of pity or mercy in their hearts towards the poor Iraqis, because for them, life is just a chance, and their chance is now, while the rest are weak fools who do not know how to manage their lives, and so deserve what befalls them…
It seems that the multitude of money blinds the hearts and the eyes…
I don't know, but I feel disgust and aversion towards them, I feel they are like insects that suck the blood of humans, living for themselves without thinking of others…
Those people think of nothing but money; how to earn it, how to enlarge their bank balance, not caring whether it was in the right way or the wrong, legitimately or illegitimately, for them; these are chances not be missed, and the people who live by the principals, according to them, are just naïve people, living in a non-realistic world…

The other faction of the Iraqis are the poor majority, those who suffered all the disasters of Iraq; they suffered the past wars, they suffered from the blockade, and from this last war. They lost the taste of settlement and comfort, and are still waiting for conditions to improve in Iraq. These people love Iraq, and find no meaning to life without it, or away from it…
These people's lives are threatened every day in a random way since the beginning of the war till now, they either lost a family member, or were exposed to kidnapping, threats, displacement, or were forced to travel and leave their houses…
These are the victims whose voices no one hears, and whose complains no one heeds…
And they are the majority of the Iraqi people…
These people reject the idea of Sunnie-Shia'at, because they are a mixture of this and that…
But those who approved of the war, who walked in the procession of Bush and his administration, agree to the marketing of the Sunnie-Shia'at story, for political purposes and financial gains, and these can be achieved if the sectarian federalism was applied, a federalism that will fulfill their interests, they work in the government, they have their parties, and their parties have sectarian militias that ravage corruption in Iraq, whose victims are the poor Sunnie - Shia'at Iraqi people; they kill, kidnap, and bomb, to force the Iraqi people to accept the idea of dividing Iraq, and thus they drive Bush's project in the new Iraq…
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The doctor from Al-Adamiyah hospital said the area sees many clashes between armed groups targeting the convoys of the American army when they pass, and other groups targeting the convoys of the Iraqi Police and Army when they pass… and of course, there are the sectarian armed groups who kill the Shia'at and the Sunnie…
How did the government react?
They sent a police and army force to enter the hospital and besiege it, to interrogate every patient or wounded person to find out if he worked for the armed groups, then arrested the suspects… then the armed groups came along, attacked the hospital, and clashed with the police and the army. The ambulance cars parked at the gates of the hospital were destroyed, along with the big generator that provides electricity to the hospital. The bullets and broken glass splinters were spread across the hospital rooms.
Can you imagine in what condition the patients and doctors were then?
Of course the patients ran away, and the hospital became empty… the men fear going to the hospital, lest they would be interrogated and arrested… and women too refuse to go there, for they are terrified from the atmosphere of violence and shootings… most of the staff; doctors, nurses, and administratives, stopped coming too….
Well then; are these the acts of a government who wants to carry out a security plan to protect the citizens?
The hospital turned into a battlefield, after the armed groups in the district were provoked…
If the armed people were terrorists and stupid, well then, who shall protect the souls of the innocent Iraqis? Why this recklessness in dealing with people's souls?
Violence feeds more violence…
Iraq needs diplomacy in dealing with events, the national reconciliation needs diplomacy, hearing the other party's opinion, while stubbornness and stupidity are reasons to destroy Iraq and rip it apart…
And the leader of this stubbornness and stupidity is the American administration and its stupid policy in Iraq, since 2003 until now…
The Iraqis need someone to unify them and collect their hearts, to bring them near each other to discuss common points… the Iraqis need someone to spread the culture of forgiveness among them, to forget the past…
But this evil American administration divided the Iraqis and provoked them against each other, utilizing the mistakes of the past in the worst possible way…
And what did it reap but ruin and destruction upon it, and upon these poor Iraqi people…
This is the reality of the situation, but Bush eludes, denies, and tricks himself and his people…

Iraq now is moving in the wrong direction, And this daily violence is the biggest evidence….
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The other doctor I met was from the Central Pediatric Hospital (Children's Hospital) in Baghdad…
He told horror stories about the sectarian militia's chasing him and a colleague of his from Al-Karamma Hospital in Baghdad, there was an assassination attempt from which he escaped miraculously, while his colleague went a victim. He remained at home for four months, running his work at the hospital by phone; he closed his private clinic, and patients used to call him and beg him, while he tried to treat them through the phone. He is specialized in kidney diseases, and he says: imagine how can a doctor treat his patients by phone?
Then, a group from the Iraqi Police came on and kidnapped his brother, hitting him with the rifle butts, causing him head wounds, they put him in the car trunk, but because of the heavy traffic the police car stopped, and he managed to open the trunk and flee to the street, running with a torn shirt and blood running down his head…
He went to a check point of the Iraqi army, who saved him, gave him medical first aid, then dropped him home…
This man, the kidney doctor's brother is a dentist. Well then; is this a life to be lived by a doctor and a dentist?
He concluded his talk by saying: but I tell all my doctor colleagues- do not leave Iraq, for to whom shall we leave the country? Into the hands of the thieves and killers?
I kept staring at his face….
Oh, how much I respected him!
I saw him more honest than all those who sit upon the ruling seats and deal recklessly with the souls of the poor Iraqis. And I thanked God that in Iraq there are still some honest and devoted people like this man…

I remembered that when I called a pharmacist in Baghdad two weeks ago to help me send the water purifying systems to hospitals in the western area of Iraq, she helped me with all sincerity, then she called back to inform me that she sent out the systems, and that an e-mail will reach me from every hospital to confirm the delivery of the items to them. I thanked her a lot, she apologized that she was busy because her husband, a doctor, was kidnapped by armed groups, and was detained now at the Interior Ministry, that she was waiting for his release so they could leave Iraq together…
I was astonished when I heard the story; the woman seemed, from the sound of her voice, strong and holding on. I asked her- when was he kidnapped? She said: about six months ago…… I wished her to be happy with his release and coming home safely, I put down the phone , astonished….
Oh, poor Iraq… what has the fools and the criminals done to you?
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There is this Iraqi driver, a friend of the family, whom we've known for years… he is a poor peaceful man, living by the day, as they say, supporting a big family; his father and mother, wife and children, they all live in one house in Baghdad…
He works as a driver between Amman-Baghdad…
Two days ago, he started to Amman, and on his way to pick up the passengers, he was stopped by a roadblock of the Iraqi police between Al-Adamiyah and Al-Mansoor, asking for his identity and the registration of the car. He gave them these, and they found that his name was "very Sunnie", and that he is a resident of Al-Adamiyah, so, an armed policeman sat beside him on the front seat, and another armed policeman on the back seat, and asked him to drive on to a certain direction. He kept driving on and on… until he found himself at Al-Shu'ila District; a poor, crowded Shia'at neighborhood. There, they asked him to turn off the car and get out of it. They got him into a small house where the rest of the gang were; they beat him, searched him, and stole his wallet with whatever little money there was in it… then the head of the gang arrived; a young man with a beard whom they called: Al-Sayed; (meaning- he is the head of the gang, but he uses his religious position), he then asked them to tie the driver's hands and bring him out to the car. They threw him on to the back seat, and he thought that his end was on, no doubt; his hands were bound with thin telephone wires, they had blindfolded his eyes, and certainly the next step would be to shoot him in the head then throw his body in the street with the marks of shooting on it, then it would be called- a ravaged body…
But he thought for a while and asked God for help, so he untied his bonds with ease, drew the duplicate car keys from his pocket; God blinded them when they searched him so they didn't find it. He took off the blindfold from his eyes, turned on the car, and drove like crazy…
They chased him, shot bullets at the windshield and the tiers, the glass shattered, one tire was damaged, but he kept driving like a demented, until he reached the area at Um Al-Qura Mosque, where he found a search point of the Iraqi army. He stopped by them and asked for help; they helped him down, washed his face, brought him a pair of shoes because he was barefoot, took his car to repair the damaged tire, and then took him safely home. They wanted detailed information about the police force that kidnapped him; he gave them the number of their car, the address of the den-house they use to kidnap innocent civilians, then kill them and throw them onto streets…
I called him to say- thank God you are safe…
He laughed and said- that he cannot believe he's still alive, he was still in shock…
I told him- perhaps God wanted you to be a means to uncover the place of those criminals, to save the souls of many more innocent Iraqis…
Well then; when the Iraqi police is suspected and comprises gangs of killers and murderers, how can a new Iraqi state be built upon these fragile foundations?
When the evil "Bremer" decided to disband the Iraqi army and police force, did he think of this outcome?
Sad Iraq is reaping the fruits planted by the evils and the fools?

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Then I met the wife of one of our relatives, whom Saddam deported from Iraq, because he was a Shia'at of Iranian origins, during the war between Iraq and Iran,...
She said- the Intelligence took over the house, my children and I were subjected to hardships, my husbands suffered expatriation as he went to Syria. He was a rich merchant in Iraq, then lived poorly in poverty and died in Syria… she said the Iraqi Intelligence kept chasing her and demanding that she cooperates with them, she lived through tough and frightful days…
Of course her story made me sad, and I asked her: but are you satisfied with what is happening in Iraq now?
She said: of course not; when the American tanks entered into southern Iraq where I used to live, I told the people- do not be happy, for Iraq will be destroyed…
I felt how big is her suffering and sorrow; her husband died away from her, while she was a beautiful young lady, her children deprived of their father, because of Saddam's regime's injustice…
But what can the solution be?
Shall we amend Saddam's injustice by shedding the blood of more Iraqis?
Is throwing off the regime by the intervention of a foreign country the solution?
Of course the regime in Iraq should have been changed, but not by this dumb foolish way…
The Iraqis should have been left alone until the appropriate time comes along, to change the leadership they didn't want; changing from the inside, by the people's will would have been a mature, balanced and intelligent step, without outside intervention, bloodshed, or ignorant dumb policies that do not comprehend the nature of the Iraqi society and its history, and do not know how to solve its problems in a just way without instigation, spite, and revenge….
The mistakes of the American policy in Iraq are deadly and cannot be justified… hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died for four years, there is an on-going violence, and not much hope on the horizon…
Hope is diminishing day after day…
If Bush does not change his policy in Iraq, withdraw his armies, and leave the occasion to the sincere Iraqi nationalists to take over the decision-making in Iraq, then the daily series of catastrophes and bleeding will keep on… And these sins will continue to be committed everyday in Iraq against a poor nation. Bush is responsible for these crimes in the first place, then every villain, thieve or criminal who encourages him to remain there….
And at the end, as the Iraqis always say: Nothing goes right but what is right…
Meaning- Iraq will be liberated, and build its future…
But when?
Who can guess for how many years we shall wait?
Five? Ten? Twenty?
May God help Iraq, and the Iraqis.
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