McClatchy Baghdad bureau’s Correspondent Jenan has blogged what may be the most heart-rending short essay by any Iraqi anywhere on the fifth anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq.
In four short paragraphs she sums up the strength of the desire she had, on March 18, 2003, for what she actually calls “salvation” from Saddam, and the depth of her disappointment now, five years later:
- Really I can say I was flying with my great expectation of what will happen tomorrow. I wasn’t wait war. I was waiting for new life that fills with justice, fair, happy, hopes and love. I was waiting for the war of change. Even I vowed to God sacrifice sheep if we get rid of Saddam occupation of Iraq that what we believe at that time we were living under Saddam’s occupation. I was happy, exciting, and optimist. Yes I was optimist at that time. I believed all the pretexts of war because I was look like the drowned who is cling to a straw thinking that it will save him.
Unfortunately now I feel that I’m drowning more and more. I discovered that I was deceived and now I believe the old saying “the devil that you know is better than the devil that you don’t know”
Jenan, I wish I could tell you that better days are coming. More peaceful days. Your dignity restored. A time when you and your family can live in security and in harmony with your compatriots and neighbors. A day free of occupation by any military force, whether homegrown or imposed by foreigners.
Well, honestly, I do believe we can bring such days to Iraqis. But only if all of us, Iraqis and non-Iraqis but most especially Americans, focus on the true goal: Days of dignity, calm, and hope. Days marked by friendly cooperation among all nations rather than the attempt by any one or more nations to exercise brute force and tight control over others.
George II’s Iraq war a costly blunder?
“[T]his war has succeeded in the U.S. imperial objective of eliminating Iraq, once a powerful force in the Middle East, as a nation to be reckoned with.
Much of its population is dead, displaced, and divided. Its infrastructure is in tatters. The country is occupied on a seemingly permanent basis by U.S. military forces, allowing Washington to project its power more fully in the region, and making it easier to threaten Iraq’s neighbor Iran.
Iraqi oil, designated as a vital strategic asset by Washington, is now largely in the grip of the U.S. empire.”
Monthly Review, March 2008, http://www.monthlyreview.org/nfte080301.php
There could be similar appraisals from Afghanistan, Palestine and Somalia, the common element being — guess what — armed US and US-supported aggression.
. . .brute force and tight control over others.
Perhaps as Americans increasingly understand that they too are are subjects of US governmental force and control (albeit without the shock and awe) they will better understand how wicked it is. Watch lists, communication intercepts, arbitrary arrests, highway checkpoints, subverted elections, a domestic military command (Northcom), calling the president our “Commander in Chief” — it’s a downhill slope for democracy. In other words friendly cooperation must be both intra-national and international.
The justification of these horrors is the “global war on terror” which must be discredited and disowned before there can be any real progress, either domestic or international. If “war is not the answer” then perhaps we haven’t posed the right questions: Why can’t we all just get along? Why can’t the US have a state department that is actually functional in achieving word-wide peace and brotherhood? Why can’t we have a congress that actually represents the people?
في الذكرة الخامسه من التحرير انكم تحرقون مدينتي يابترايوس
كانت الكوت من افضل المناطق امنيا واهدأها فهذه المحافظه التي لم تعرف القلق وكانت تنعم بهدوء نسبي بسبب طيبة اهلها اولا واخيرا فليس هناك اي دور لاي مؤسسه شعبيه او حكوميه في هذا الهدوء فنحن اناس على قدرنا ننام عند الساعه التاسعه ليلا في ظل اي حكم وتحت اي مسمى عكس اغلب محافظات العراق.
ويرجع الفضل في ذلك ايضا الى شخصيه جميله اعتقد ان ابناء الكوت يتذكروها جيدا وهو العقيد( كوفيلان) اول حاكم عسكري امريكي للمدينه في زمن جي كَارنر. فالرجل كنا نحسه بانه احد ابناء الكوت خاصة وان ملامحه الشرقيه والكاريزما التي يمتلكها اهلته لذلك..
فالرجل كان متفهما وكان(كونزيرفتف)كلش ويدفع بالتي هي احسن واغلب المشاريع البسيطه كانت بفضل جهوده وتفانيه في خدمة ابناء المحافظه.
بعد ذلك حصل ماحصل ولانريد ان نخوض في تفاصيل ممله المهم يا سيد باتريوس نحن نعرف انك شخص تملك من العقليه الفذه ومن التفاني في عملك مايجعلني اقف عند عتبتك متسائلا ومعاتبا عن الذي يجري في مدينتي الكوت الحبيبه الامنه فليلنا طويل مرعب والمدافع المنطلقه تسقط فوق رؤوسنا نحن المكاميع بحجة ان جيش المهدي يقصف قواعدكم قرب منازلنا الاطفال مرعوبون والمدافع تحصد الارواح وقطعا فانها لا تحصد ارواح غير المكاميع فنحن لانملك الحول ولا القوه لنقول لاي شخص لاتقصف او لا تهدد الامن لاننا ببساطه غير مخولين اولا فهناك جهات امنيه عديده مسؤوله عن ذلك فاين الامن الوطني وشيروان الوائلي الذي نسمع به وبانجازاته من تعيين ربعه من المجلس والدعوه واين موفق الربيعي مستشار الامن الوطني واين وزارة الدفاع واين وزارة الداخليه واين واين…. ببساطه ياسيد بترايوس انتم تستهدفونا وتعاقبونا لاننا موجودون هناك ونحن ندفع ثمن هذا من دمائنا ودماء اطفالنا فبالامس حصدت ارواح ثلاثين بريء كلهم ممن لايملكون ناقة ولاجملا في هذه الاحداث بينهم اربع اطفال لم يتجاوزوا العشر سنين قتلوا بقذيفة مدفعيه اطلقتموها من معسكركم.
فماذا تريدون بالظبط؟اتريدون القضاء على العصابات التي تطلق الصواريخ؟ام تقضون علينا ..
Helena:
I thought this might interest you: A Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq. Comments?
D. Mathews, as far as I can tell, this “Responsible Plan” is based on the Baker Commission report, and just like that report, it assumes the United States will be in charge of everything, will make all the decisions, take all the actions, reap all the benefits, and the Iraqis will have, as usual, nothing whatsoever to say.
This looks like a plan for a lovely colonialist/imperialist nation building project for the United States. To Iraqis, it can never be acceptable.