At Home in Iraq Since the Invasion of 2003
The majority of people in our small world, as I see it, don’t know what’s going on in countries which are living in conflict or war zones.
People need extraordinary efforts to search for reality of those events, like in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, etc..
The problem nowadays is not only about corrupted governments and leadership but it is the main stream media, playing the role of the partner of those political leaders, who they use to mislead the masses, through local newspapers or TV channels or even through the news on the Internet.
When Bush Administration started the propaganda against Saddam Hussian, and claimed that Saddam was the most dangerous evil leader in the world, and that he should be get rid of in order to liberate Iraq and its people, many European leaders followed Bush and agreed to join him as partners in this war.
It was clear to the world that millions of citizens from numerous countries, refused the stirring call of war, organizing mass demonstrations in the streets saying: NO for War.
But greedy and hypocrite leaders covered their faces with tears, crying for human rights of oppressed poor Iraqis, playing the roles of heroes rescuing Iraqis and to freeing them from the dictatorship, shutting all the mouths of their opponents, by spreading rosy promises about Iraq future.
Now, after more than six years of war on Iraq, we can ask ourselves: what have we gained from this war?
We, as Iraqis, have seen only the destruction of our life, our cities, our people, and the theft of our resources, our hope, and our future as well. Today, we have the most divided and corrupted government in the region, you can read that even from American newspapers, they admitted that, from time to time.
More than five millions Iraqis have fled the country to be refugees in the nearby countries like Jordan and Syria or internally displaced inside Iraq because of violence and the bad security conditions.
Despite the fact that there are more than 130 000 US soldiers in Iraq, they did nothing to improve the life of Iraqis, no services like water and electricity, no jobs, no security or stability, no reconciliation, no healthy political process or election. It’s all mess.
The American occupation established a new State in Iraq, with new constitution written by the American governor who came to Iraq after invasion. The new constitution is based on sectarian and ethnic theories. We, as Iraqis, believe that this constitution is not written by our hands, it’s not the real representative of what the Iraqi nation needs.
The occupation divided Iraqi citizens under sub- identities, like Sunni and Shiaa, Kurd and Arab. It is such backward sectarian and ethnic titles we use to hear all the time from the media which is controlled by the American Administration, its shame on them to put us under this ugly image.
Iraqis used to live as brothers and sisters during their modern history era, the beauty of our culture is this mixture of all colors, we used to have mixed marriage, we use to live in mixed neighborhoods, but this occupation created the culture of hatred and division between Iraqis to keep the fire burning in the country, and make justification for their staying in Iraq.
We want the troops to be out of Iraq, this will be the first right step in the right direction to build our country in a healthy way, and citizens are equal and have equal rights and privileges, regardless of their ethnicity or sectarian origins.
Let Iraq be back to its people, without any foreign interference.
No culture in this world has the right to force other nations to be a part of it.
Building peace, understanding, and respecting others, should be the new language between nations, instead of wars and violence.
SikniH
September 9, 2009 at 11:35 pm
I agree with you Faiza that
I agree with you Faiza that the justification for the war was unfounded – to say the least. It is disgusting how the citizens of Iraq had to suffer under the Saddam regime and then be subjected to the horrors of war under the banner of ‘we want to help the Iraqi people’. Since when did Americans want to help people in the Middle East? Why not help the Palestinians?
I don’t think that the media is to blame for the tensions between Islamic factions such as Sunni and Shiaa. I think that tension, unfortunately has been around since their inception. But I do think that this is a weak spot which was framed in the media to make the Iraqi people look barbaric – fighting amongst themselves. This intensified the tensions even further – when they should have stood united. It distracted many from the real enemy and from the atrocities that were occurring.
I don’t think I could fathom the level of emotions felt by the people affected by the war. Their loss. Or their Lives.