"He counts the number of the stars. He calls them all by their names."
From Pajamas Media.
"Ten cars filled with armed men came to our street shooting their guns in the air and announcing through a loudspeaker that all Sunni people must leave within 24 hours, then they went to the mosque and murdered the preacher’s son.” (Iraq the Model)
It's all very well to leave people to their fates when they don't have a name. This Iraqi has a name. He's called Mohammed. Let's continue his account:
Shia and Sunni we sit together wondering if there would be a day when we too fight each other. Of course not, some would rather run away and leave Iraq for a while many will try to continue their lives here accepting the risk and praying for things to calm down. Not everyone can run away, most people are connected to work, kids, schools and homes; people are people everywhere, they all want to live a decent life and live it in a place they call home.
Criminals are always fewer than ordinary people but those criminals are willing and capable of doing harm and they would not hesitate to do anything to get what they want. In fact they did terrify us in the most vicious ways and this terror reached Sunni and Shia alike. No one among this majority wants this madness to continue but how long can we take this, when will we feel safe? That's the question on everyone's mind.
As usual during times of crisis, people's morale takes a steep slide down and my friends who used to say they expected Iraq to stabilize within a maximum of 5 years are now talking about 10-15 years and some have reached total frustration and are comparing Iraq's future with Somalia's present. Rough times blur the vision and disrupt reason, I understand that. When you hear stories about people burned alive or mass public executions it makes you imagine that the streets are full of monsters coming to predate everything and makes you shout calling for merciless punishment upon even those who are only suspects.
Being stuck at home for four days with all the violence going outside and the fear that it might reach you at home was a horrible experience. When the news came that the curfew was over and people began walking on the streets again there was a strange feeling that was particularly very strong this morning in Baghdad; despite all the rumors and fear from more wide-scale revenge attacks there was a feeling among the people that they must go out on the streets and live in all possible means. The most beautiful scene was that of students going to their schools and colleges despite all what happened in the days before.
Not everyone will absorb the lesson but I'm sure that this last dose of terror has changed the feelings of so many people here, a change in favor of denouncing and rejecting violence, I hope.
Two words: Iran and Syria, our new friends.
posted by wretchardthecat at 11/27/2006 07:55:00 PM
9 Comments:
> No one among this majority wants this madness to continue but how long can we take this, when will we feel safe?
"Eternal vigilence is the price of liberty"
You Iraqis will feel safe when you rebel aganist the madness, when you have the strength to fight back or to give US forces the information they need to do the fighting.
From the Old Grey Lady:
Hezbollah Said to Help Shiite Army in Iraq
By MICHAEL R. GORDON and DEXTER FILKINS
WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 — A senior American intelligence official said Monday that the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah had been training members of the Mahdi Army, the Iraqi Shiite militia led by Moktada al-Sadr.
The official said that 1,000 to 2,000 fighters from the Mahdi Army and other Shiite militias had been trained by Hezbollah in Lebanon. A small number of Hezbollah operatives have also visited Iraq to help with training, the official said.
Iran has facilitated the link between Hezbollah and the Shiite militias in Iraq, the official said. Syrian officials have also cooperated, though there is debate about whether it has the blessing of the senior leaders in Syria, the official said.
I know that the Islamic pride of the Arabian peninsula has taken a beating for the last half-century. After all, the leaders always talk a big talk and then get their butts kicked. I know that the US stomping Sadaam in a week was a major shock to the nations around Iraq.
But, at some point, peace-loving Sunni and Shiia have got to start working for peace. Too many neighbors keep silent about what they know, because they've been straddling the fence, playing both sides. How long will they suffer trying not to get involved?
Thanks, reocon, for bringing facts to bear where most posts divert attention from our administration's EXTREME incompetence in addressing problems that could have, and should have been addressed long ago.
But they were not,
and there will be hell to pay.
Some will conveniently place the blame on the Iraqis, who have now been screwed by the Family Bush in a Major way 2 times and counting.
Two Iraqi militant groups claimed to have downed a US F16 plane in retaliation for what they said was the US army's killing of tens of Iraqis, Al Jazeera television said today.
The US military said earlier an F16 fighter on a combat mission near Baghdad crashed yesterday, but said it had no information on the fate of the pilot or the cause of the crash.
US F16
Too little has been said about Saddam's release of 100K prisoners before his capitulation. For Iraq to get her arms around that problem along with the shooting war betwenn coalition forces and terrorists & insurgents is too much to ask.
Psalm 147...nice touch Richard.
Iran is not our new friend. We won't be negotiating with them or Syria.
Mr. Bush said Iraq is a sovereign nation, free to meet with its neighbors. "If that's what they think they ought to do, that's fine."
But he added that the U.S. will only deal with Iran when they suspend their program of enriching uranium, which could be used in a nuclear weapon arsenal.
Actually I'm hopeful that we can avoid a replay of the situation after the Vietnam war where the U.S. ended up with hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese immigrants and Hmong immigrants, or after Somalia where we ended up with a bunch of Somalis. The difference here is that the strife seems to be mainly Sunni vs Shiite, and not Iraqi vs. American. And neither the Sunnis nor the Shiites have the power to wipe the other out. So Sunnis are fleeing to Syria (a Sunni nation) and Shiites are fleeing to the south of Iraq, a Shiite area. Good! None of them need come here, then. They have places to go in the Arab world. They will be happier there, we will be happier with them there rather than here.
The country should have been partitioned from the beginning, or soon after the sectarian strife began. The Kurdish area is safe and peaceful because it is exclusively Kurdish with clear borders. The conflicts in Baghdad are because the Sunnis and Shiites are mixed together in the same neighborhoods and same city.
Good fences make good neighbors!
Also see Is 40:26 quoted by President Bush in his speech about the crash of the space shuttle Columbia.
Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one,
and calls them each by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.
Post a Comment
<< Home