If you’re not reading Riverbend, do yourself a favor and start. Anyhow, today she talks about life in Baghdad on the first anniversary of the start of Gulf W. War (as we’ve taken to calling it around our house):
And where are we now? Well, our governmental facilities have been burned to the ground by a combination of ‘liberators’ and ‘Free Iraqi Fighters’; 50% of the working population is jobless and hungry; summer is looming close and our electrical situation is a joke; the streets are dirty and overflowing with sewage; our jails are fuller than ever with thousands of innocent people; we’ve seen more explosions, tanks, fighter planes and troops in the last year than almost a decade of war with Iran brought; our homes are being raided and our cars are stopped in the streets for inspectionsÂ… journalists are being killed ‘accidentally’ and the seeds of a civil war are being sown by those who find it most useful; the hospitals overflow with patients but are short on just about everything else- medical supplies, medicine and doctors; and all the while, the oil is flowing.
But we’ve learned a lot. We’ve learned that terrorism isn’t actually the act of creating terror. It isn’t the act of killing innocent people and frightening othersÂ… no, you see, that’s called a ‘liberation’. It doesn’t matter what you burn or who you kill- if you wear khaki, ride a tank or Apache or fighter plane and drop missiles and bombs, then you’re not a terrorist- you’re a liberator.
The war on terror is a jokeÂ… Madrid was proof of that last weekÂ… Iraq is proof of that everyday.
I hope someone feels safer, because we certainly don’t.
Riverbend is whiney. I have to wonder what position she held pre-liberation that would make her so grumpy today, make her forget how shoddy the electrical grid was pre-war, etc, etc.
I prefer practically everyone else blogging from over there.
Mohammed: “Yes, it was not a war. Let everyone and especially the pacifists and all who opposed the coalition that what happened was an operation to free the Iraqi people and eliminate a criminal gang that does not represent any body but itself and its narrow interests and that pauses a serious danger on our country and the others.
That was not a confrontation between two nations nor it was a conflict between different convictions, it was an operation to excise a malignant tumor that was about to destroy everything.
Yes, that was not a war, otherwise we (Iraqis) wouldnÂ’t have waited it impatiently or at least the vast majority of our people who were the victims of a horrible injustice in front of the eyes of all who claim to love humanity and peace. Let me remind you ladies and gentlemen that Saddam ordered his army to take precautions to face the people not the United States and the coalition.
Then there’s Zeyad, and Ays, who almost seems like the Riverbend antidote today:
ItÂ’s very cozy and comfortable to drink the tea in the morning, getting out of your first-class houses, driving your fancy cars, speaking loudly against your governments, criticizing your prime ministers and presidents, saying “ I want this thingÂâ€, “ I donÂ’t agree on this decisionÂâ€, “ I hate Blair and BushÂâ€Ã‚…..etc.
Look you coddled pampered peopleÂ… why donÂ’t you want us to do what youÂ’re doing now ? why donÂ’t you want us to live like you ? Are you idiots? Selfish? Or what ?
You ‘protestors’ I’m sure you didn’t use your mind when you got out of your houses.. just let me tell you something: when you want to refuse something or say that’s wrong, first of all you should study the whole case and discuss it thoroughly before saying it’s wrong, and when you say it’s wrong, GIVE A PROPOSAL to solve the case, now when you said “ No war….†What is the right thing to do to get rid of Saddam and build democratic countries in the region?
Tell me Â…
Otherwise, when you donÂ’t know ANYTHING about Iraq and Iraqis do you know what to do? JUST SHUT UP and stay at home
Now letÂ’s speak about Iraqis, when you ask an ordinary Iraqi : “ Did you want the war to get rid of Saddam and get your freedom?Ââ€
If he was honest man IÂ’m sure heÂ’d reply “ yesÂâ€..
But, now many Iraqis are getting disturbed due to the explosions and bombs which make them angry, in spite of the fact that they are always angry! , so they donÂ’t know where is their interest or benefit, and they donÂ’t know whether they prefer the Americans to stay or leave or what? IÂ’m sure they donÂ’t know what they wantÂ…OK.. Iraqis want a government, but the US said that Iraq will turn over sovereignty at the end of June, so what makes some of them angry?
As I said they are disturbed and confused…
Back to you ‘ protestorsÂ’, last year my salary was 1.5$, last year my parents were about to go mad cause we were almost broke, last year I had to obey the mean and disgusting orders of SaddamÂ’s officers cause I had to join the conscription, last year I couldnÂ’t watch whatÂ’s happening now on the TV cause I used to watch SH laughing at us, last year I couldnÂ’t write what IÂ’m writing now, last year thousands were being executed, last year hundreds of doctors, engineers and educated people were being arrested and tortured cause they dared to try to travel ! last year………..
Now, what do you think? Just give me a way to get all the above without a war.
Hmm… I don’t think I’d be too eager to cite Zayed as refuting Riverbend. He doesn’t share her anger at America, but he certainly wouldn’t agree that ousting Hussein has solved Iraq’s problems…
I have to admit that until now I have never longed for the days of Saddam, but now I’m not so sure. If we need a person like Saddam to keep those rabid dogs at bay then be it. Put Saddam back in power and after he fills a couple hundred more mass graves with those criminals they can start wailing and crying again for liberation. What a laugh we will have then. Then they can shove their filthy Hawza and marji’iya up somewhere else. I am so dissapointed in Iraqis and I hate myself for thinking this way. We are not worth your trouble, take back your billions of dollars and give us Saddam again. We truly ‘deserve’ leaders like Saddam.