- Baghdad Burning
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- ... I'll meet you 'round the bend my friend, where hearts
can heal and souls can mend...
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- End of Another Year...
- You know your country is in trouble when:
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- 1. The UN has to open a special branch just to keep track
of the chaos and bloodshed, UNAMI.
- 2. Abovementioned branch cannot be run from your country.
- 3. The politicians who worked to put your country in
this sorry state can no longer be found inside of, or anywhere near, its
borders.
- 4. The only thing the US and Iran can agree about is
the deteriorating state of your nation.
- 5. An 8-year war and 13-year blockade are looking like
the country's 'Golden Years'.
- 6. Your country is purportedly 'selling' 2 million barrels
of oil a day, but you are standing in line for 4 hours for black market
gasoline for the generator.
- 7. For every 5 hours of no electricity, you get one hour
of public electricity and then the government announces it's going to cut
back on providing that hour.
- 8. Politicians who supported the war spend tv time debating
whether it is 'sectarian bloodshed' or 'civil war'.
- 9. People consider themselves lucky if they can actually
identify the corpse of the relative that's been missing for two weeks.
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- A day in the life of the average Iraqi has been reduced
to identifying corpses, avoiding car bombs and attempting to keep track
of which family members have been detained, which ones have been exiled
and which ones have been abducted.
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- 2006 has been, decidedly, the worst year yet. No- really.
The magnitude of this war and occupation is only now hitting the country
full force. It's like having a big piece of hard, dry earth you are determined
to break apart. You drive in the first stake in the form of an infrastructure
damaged with missiles and the newest in arms technology, the first cracks
begin to form. Several smaller stakes come in the form of politicians like
Chalabi, Al Hakim, Talbani, Pachachi, Allawi and Maliki. The cracks slowly
begin to multiply and stretch across the once solid piece of earth, reaching
out towards its edges like so many skeletal hands. And you apply pressure.
You surround it from all sides and push and pull. Slowly, but surely, it
begins coming apart- a chip here, a chunk there.
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- That is Iraq right now. The Americans have done a fine
job of working to break it apart. This last year has nearly everyone convinced
that that was the plan right from the start. There were too many blunders
for them to actually have been, simply, blunders. The 'mistakes' were too
catastrophic. The people the Bush administration chose to support and promote
were openly and publicly terrible- from the conman and embezzler Chalabi,
to the terrorist Jaffari, to the militia man Maliki. The decisions, like
disbanding the Iraqi army, abolishing the original constitution, and allowing
militias to take over Iraqi security were too damaging to be anything but
intentional.
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- The question now is, but why? I really have been asking
myself that these last few days. What does America possibly gain by damaging
Iraq to this extent? I'm certain only raving idiots still believe this
war and occupation were about WMD or an actual fear of Saddam.
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- Al Qaeda? That's laughable. Bush has effectively created
more terrorists in Iraq these last 4 years than Osama could have created
in 10 different terrorist camps in the distant hills of Afghanistan. Our
children now play games of 'sniper' and 'jihadi', pretending that one hit
an American soldier between the eyes and this one overturned a Humvee.
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- This last year especially has been a turning point. Nearly
every Iraqi has lost so much. So much. There's no way to describe the loss
we've experienced with this war and occupation. There are no words to relay
the feelings that come with the knowledge that daily almost 40 corpses
are found in different states of decay and mutilation. There is no compensation
for the dense, black cloud of fear that hangs over the head of every Iraqi.
Fear of things so out of ones hands, it borders on the ridiculous- like
whether your name is 'too Sunni' or 'too Shia'. Fear of the larger things-
like the Americans in the tank, the police patrolling your area in black
bandanas and green banners, and the Iraqi soldiers wearing black masks
at the checkpoint.
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- Again, I can't help but ask myself why this was all done?
What was the point of breaking Iraq so that it was beyond repair? Iran
seems to be the only gainer. Their presence in Iraq is so well-established,
publicly criticizing a cleric or ayatollah verges on suicide. Has the situation
gone so beyond America that it is now irretrievable? Or was this a part
of the plan all along? My head aches just posing the questions.
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- What has me most puzzled right now is: why add fuel to
the fire? Sunnis and moderate Shia are being chased out of the larger cities
in the south and the capital. Baghdad is being torn apart with Shia leaving
Sunni areas and Sunnis leaving Shia areas- some under threat and some in
fear of attacks. People are being openly shot at check points or in drive
by killings Many colleges have stopped classes. Thousands of Iraqis no
longer send their children to school- it's just not safe.
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- Why make things worse by insisting on Saddam's execution
now? Who gains if they hang Saddam? Iran, naturally, but who else? There
is a real fear that this execution will be the final blow that will shatter
Iraq. Some Sunni and Shia tribes have threatened to arm their members against
the Americans if Saddam is executed. Iraqis in general are watching closely
to see what happens next, and quietly preparing for the worst.
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- This is because now, Saddam no longer represents himself
or his regime. Through the constant insistence of American war propaganda,
Saddam is now representative of all Sunni Arabs (never mind most of his
government were Shia). The Americans, through their speeches and news articles
and Iraqi Puppets, have made it very clear that they consider him to personify
Sunni Arab resistance to the occupation. Basically, with this execution,
what the Americans are saying is "Look- Sunni Arabs- this is your
man, we all know this. We're hanging him- he symbolizes you." And
make no mistake about it, this trial and verdict and execution are 100%
American. Some of the actors were Iraqi enough, but the production, direction
and montage was pure Hollywood (though low-budget, if you ask me).
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- That is, of course, why Talbani doesn't want to sign
his death penalty- not because the mob man suddenly grew a conscience,
but because he doesn't want to be the one who does the hanging- he won't
be able to travel far away enough if he does that.
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- Maliki's government couldn't contain their glee. They
announced the ratification of the execution order before the actual court
did. A few nights ago, some American news program interviewed Maliki's
bureau chief, Basim Al-Hassani who was speaking in accented American English
about the upcoming execution like it was a carnival he'd be attending.
He sat, looking sleazy and not a little bit ridiculous, his dialogue interspersed
with 'gonna', 'gotta' and 'wanna'... Which happens, I suppose, when the
only people you mix with are American soldiers.
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- My only conclusion is that the Americans want to withdraw
from Iraq, but would like to leave behind a full-fledged civil war because
it wouldn't look good if they withdraw and things actually begin to improve,
would it?
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- Here we come to the end of 2006 and I am sad. Not simply
sad for the state of the country, but for the state of our humanity, as
Iraqis. We've all lost some of the compassion and civility that I felt
made us special four years ago. I take myself as an example. Nearly four
years ago, I cringed every time I heard about the death of an American
soldier. They were occupiers, but they were humans also and the knowledge
that they were being killed in my country gave me sleepless nights. Never
mind they crossed oceans to attack the country, I actually felt for them.
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- Had I not chronicled those feelings of agitation in this
very blog, I wouldn't believe them now. Today, they simply represent numbers.
3000 Americans dead over nearly four years? Really? That's the number of
dead Iraqis in less than a month. The Americans had families? Too bad.
So do we. So do the corpses in the streets and the ones waiting for identification
in the morgue.
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- Is the American soldier that died today in Anbar more
important than a cousin I have who was shot last month on the night of
his engagement to a woman he's wanted to marry for the last six years?
I don't think so.
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- Just because Americans die in smaller numbers, it doesn't
make them more significant, does it?
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- http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/
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