As the debate rages in this country about staying the course or leaving Iraq, the people who no one seems to listen to are the people most affected. The people of Iraq who know their country the best, who understand the tribe mentality and have lived with the ethnic differences, should have a strong voice. Politicians are the last people who should be making these decisions. Politicians who have returned to Iraq after 20 years of living in the West, should have the least voice of all. Since the war started, I've tried to read as many Iraqi blogs as I could find. I wanted to know how the people who don't have body guards and militias to protect them lived their lives among this chaos. I've found that the people seem to know more of what is happening in their country than any of the people who are in charge.
I have been a reader of Riverbend for a long time. She and her family had such high hopes in the beginning, as did many Iraqi people. The rose colored glasses have come off. The secret torture prison seemed to have killed any hope for her that Iraq will ever become what Bush said it would be.
For over a year corpses have been turning up all over Baghdad. Corpses of people who are taken from their homes in the middle of the night (lately they've been more brazen- they just do everything in the light of day), and turn up dead somewhere. That isn't as disturbing as the reports about the bodies- the one I can't get out of my head is that many of the corpses are found with holes in the skull left by an electric drill.
I guess the lucky ones go to Abu Ghraib...
And it's not only 'suspected insurgents' who disappear- Iraqi security forces have been known to raid complete areas and detain any males from the ages of 12 to 60- especially in Sunni areas. Those 'suspected terrorists' that are rounded up and taken away- you know where they disappear to now.
Interior Minister Bayan Jabr (SCIRI Thug-Made-Government-Official-In-Italian-Suits) is mollifying Iraqis with this little gem,
...the group included Shiites as well as Sunnis...
I'm sure we can all sleep better at night with the knowledge that SCIRI/Da'awa torturers don't discriminate according to religious sect- under the new constitution, American military guidance, and the blessings of the Pentagon- all Iraqis will be tortured equally.
Her next post talks about conventional terror and the use of white phosphorous. Iraqi's had been talking about the use of chemical weapons for awhile, but no one was listening to them. The following basically sums up what Iraq has become and there seems to be little that will undo all the harm that has been done in that country.
Few Iraqis ever doubted the American use of chemical weapons in Falloojeh. We've been hearing the terrifying stories of people burnt to the bone for well over a year now. I just didn't want it confirmed.
I didn't want it confirmed because confirming the atrocities that occurred in Falloojeh means verifying how really lost we are as Iraqis under American occupation and how incredibly useless the world is in general- the UN, Kofi Annan, humanitarian organizations, clerics, the Pope, journalists... you name it- we've lost faith in it.
Last year I blogged about Falloojeh and said:
"There is talk of the use of cluster bombs and other forbidden weaponry."
I was immediately attacked with a barrage of emails from Americans telling me I was a liar and that there was no proof and that there was no way Americans would ever do something so appalling! I wonder how those same people justify this now. Are they shocked? Or do they tell themselves that Iraqis aren't people? Or are they simply in denial?
The Pentagon spokesman recently said:
"It's part of our conventional-weapons inventory and we use it like we use any other conventional weapon,"
This war has redefined `conventional'. It has taken atrocity to another level. Everything we learned before has become obsolete. `Conventional' has become synonymous with horrifying. Conventional weapons are those that eat away the skin in a white blaze; conventional interrogation methods are like those practiced in Abu Ghraib and other occupation prisons...
Quite simply... conventional terror.
You can read the full post at Riverbend's Blog
When GWB started his talk on the War on Terror, I had a feeling of doom. OBL is not the leader of a country. His followers are spread far and wide. Boots on the ground will never be the answer. There were many voices out there in the beginning trying to make this plain, but Bush wanted his war. There was no stopping him. I don't know whether to laugh or cry when I hear people say that GWB has caused more terror than OBL every thought of doing.
I've been a reader of Arab News since 9-11 and the people in Saudi are becoming more vocal in how to stop terror. I read a recent LTE that put it all in context. The letter was written after a school teacher was jailed and sentenced to lashes after he tried to correct a student who spouted off some fundamental religious garbage.
Battle of Tomorrow
While there is a clear realization among Muslims of the danger that extremism poses to them and Islam, there seems to be an equally clear reluctance to look for them where it will be found. The ones that must be hunted down are not the brainwashed or drugged zombies who explode themselves for the pleasure of killing a few others. They are just instruments.
The ones that must be caught and deactivated are the heads that send them on these killer missions. They are, as the authorities have made clear on so many occasions, in our educational institutions, syllabus committees, mosques and other institutions.
If terrorism is to be defeated, the ideology these people advocate must be defeated. That was what Muhammad Al-Harbi tried to do in his school. He knew where the battle of tomorrow was to be fought today: In students' minds. When he is punished for that, terrorists win the war. If this society just stands by, doing nothing, while he is jailed and lashed, terrorists will get the message: Go ahead
Arab News link
Whether we leave Iraq or stay forever, nothing we do there will stop terror from happening. Wasn't that the original goal of going to war? Like the letter writer, I believe that we need to work to educate future generations and make sure they learn the lessons of the past. If everyone learned the truth, the good the bad and the ugly, we would all be better off. We all need to find a way to muffle the extreme religious voices among us. Those who preach hate or intolerance, are the same the world over. Millions of people are saying that the US needs to leave Iraq. The people of Iraq want us gone. What is it going to take to get us out of there?