- In Dante's Inferno, Limbo is the first circle of hell,
a place where souls persist in desire without hope, living upon the brink
of grief's abysmal valley. Iraq, a year after the war, is in limbo. When
Saddam Hussein, hated by most Iraqis, was seen having his teeth examined
like a wild creature, many Iraqis I know did not react with howls of sweet
revenge. They felt strangely sorry for him. He was humiliated. From far-off
Vancouver, I was baffled, but I suspect that Saddam's humiliation symbolized
the same of Iraq. Even if it was a dictatorship, corrupt and poor, it was
still in Iraqi control. By the time of Saddam's capture, Iraqis were not
in control; the Americans were.
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- When my 50-year-old cousin, a civil engineer, searched
for work behind the concrete ramparts of the Green Zone (where the Coalition
Provisional Authority is entrenched in Saddam Hussein's lavish palace,
a symbolic fact not lost on Iraqis), he was shocked to see Americans driving
around, eating happily in cafÈs. Huge American and British flags
flanked a tiny Iraqi flag in the courtyard. My cousin has not worked since
the invasion. He has desperately tried to get contracts, he says, but without
the right contacts with the CPA, he has little chance. It is rumoured,
he goes on, that many western companies have signed U.S. military contracts
that promise not to hire Iraqis.
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- Disillusioned Iraqis can't understand how the most powerful
country in the world still cannot provide electricity, phone service, oil,
and, most of all, security. How do Iraqis live with disorder and turmoil
day in, day out for a year? How can they plan or hope for the future? Reconstruction
is a joke, with the odd paint job the only work people see being done.
Freedom has meant that Iraqis can express their opinions and contact loved
ones in exile. But the average Iraqi has not tasted daily freedom.
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- After 25 years of war and sanctions, Iraqis are exhausted.
While the rest of the world is concerned with weapons of mass destruction
and whether or not George Bush will be reelected, Iraqis are consumed by
the anxiety of their daily lives. Unemployment is at 60 percent. Before
the war, women hardly went out because they were too busy surviving. Now
they don't leave the house for days for fear of rape or murder. If they
do go out, it is never after dark, as they did before. After the war, my
70-year-old great-aunt had a back operation. She is immobile, living alone
in Baghdad, with no telephone. I haven't spoken to her since the "shock
and awe" campaign of the war.
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- Everyone in Baghdad worries about terrorism, assassinations,
and the spectre of civil war. The main complaint is that the Coalition
has not restored security. Freedom means nothing without security. My cousin's
dark sense of humour masks his deep disappointment. After hearing occupation
administrator L. Paul Bremer's optimistic radio address that schools and
hospitals were open and that life was improving, my cousin laughed and
said: "Mr. Bremer thinks that we are living in the best country in
the entire world."
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- Talk to my cousin or any other Iraqi and they will tell
stories of daily bombings and death. Iraq Body Count confirms that these
are not isolated incidents: up to 10,000 civilians have been killed since
the beginning of the war, and there are many more unreported deaths. Its
Web site (iraqbodycount.com/) gives the chilling facts about the way Iraqi
civilians die, from roadside bombs, gunfire, mortars, hand grenades, land
mines, rocket-propelled grenades, car bombs, collision with U.S. armoured
personnel carriers, automatic and large-calibre weapons, to name a few.
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- On March 8, Iraq's Governing Council (or, as Iraqis joke,
"the Puppet Council") signed the Transitional Administrative
Law that will govern Iraq after the occupation ends on June 30 until national
elections in 2005. There should be tremendous optimism that democracy is
under way, but the U.S. appointed the signatories and most were exiles.
Most Iraqis distrust them and their actions.
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- No one knows for sure who is carrying out the terrorist
attacks that haunt Iraq, or why. Will they start a civil war? Who would
benefit from instability? Certainly not Iraqis, most of whom are baffled
by constant western references to the Sunni, Shia, Christian, and Kurdish
divides. Many families are a mixture, and there has never yet been a civil
war. Is it a deliberate policy of divide and conquer?
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- Iraqis need an elected government they believe in, because
until then no one can do anything truly constructive. Will the U.S.led
Coalition let democracy flourish in Iraq? Direct elections are the true
test of the intentions behind the invasion. I hope that the world's attention
isn't deflected away by then.
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- ©2004 Vancouver Free Press http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=1478
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