Iraq & Iraqi`s

Gloomy
A journalist called Nir Rosen has wrote a long story about the situation in Iraq at, and he says he is living in Iraq since April 2003 , the story is so gloomy that any one would ask “why he is still there?”……For me as an Iraqi person who is living in Iraq since 1967 which is the birth year of mine, I would say that he is exaggerating and telling one side of the truth and ignoring all similar situations in many other countries nowadays including countries like Egypt, England, Spain, USA, ………etc.

What I want to say to give both side of the truth is to put some questions….. if the picture is so gloomy? then:

1-Why there still many foreigner reporters in Iraq.
2-Why there are so many foreigner companies and NGOs working in Iraq.
3-Why there is no Iraqis tries to leave Iraq as it was before April 2003.
4-Why there are so many Iraqis are trying to come back and settle in Iraq again.
5-Why is the buildings renting is so high in Iraq.
6-Why the construction business is so expensive in Iraq.
7-Why the real estate is exploding in prices.
8-Why the streets are so crowded even at night.
9-Why there are many Iraqi apply to IP every day.
10-Why I see IPs fighting crime and terrorism daily.
11-Why the international bank is ready to invest in Iraq.
12-Why I can see women and girls alone in streets.
13-Why I can see protests with out any more mass graves.
14-Why I can see Suni and Sheeaa work together every day with out any problems.
15-Why I can see Falooja people works with foreigner companies to rebuild and guard the country.
16-Why I go to Abo Ghreeb twice a week and can’t see any problems.
17-Why I hear stories from my relatives and friends about a good situation in Basrah, Karkuk, Sulaymaniya, Samawa, Arbil, Dehook,………..etc.
18-Why I can see the light that this man can’t see.
19-Why I meet people who can see this light every day.
20-Why there are people who can’t stand to tell the truth.
21-Why there are people who don’t know that by telling the gloomy stories they make the situation gloomier.

I wish I hade the time to put the story of that journalist and insert my comments of what he says in between the lines supported by pictures, at that time we would have a full story and the whole truth…….But I have more important thing to do building Iraq & Iraqis.

Difficult
Its getting more difficult for me to write daily because I don’t like saying the same words every time but I am sure I would find always something to share with you because its getting to be a habit, actually a lovely one for me, not only something I should do. Besides….. taking an Iraqi voice to reach the world is just like a mission to me now, and I will try always to clear the picture of Iraq and Iraqis to you.

We always talk about what happened or what’s going on. Today I would like to talk about things are not happening any more or happens much much less than before.

Electric power is not cutting off much these days and we are getting long hours of continuance power, which I hope it will stay this way all the coming burning summer of us.

I don’t hear many people complaining about jobs or unemployment; actually they are trying to look for better opportunities to get higher salaries.

I don’t hear any one complains about the high prices of fruits, vegetables, bread, or transportations which is very expensive but seems the people are capable to purchase it, and I can see more modern cars every day in the streets of Baghdad, even I got one which was bought to me by the company I work to.

No more people stays home because of the safety or security situation of the city, and you can see women who drive modern cars alone in the streets. Actually for the second Friday (which is our week end) we went to “Hunting” social club for lunch and hundreds of Baghdad families were there with kids and young boys and girls playing around.

I don’t think there is someone will not send his children to school this year as it happened last year for some of us because of the security situation. And the schools received good budgets to be rehabilitated for the best of Iraqi students.

For me and the rest of our employees, we can feel normal life and trying to establish good future to our families. But we should all remember that if we need to see prosperity and democracy, then we should start with rebuilding the Iraqi personality according to a well planned plan, and that would be the mission of Iraqi political parties.

Green Zone
“You've been in the Green Zone. I wonder what you make of this article. Are you "well-heeled", ie, rich, so that you get in, and not of the "working class". I think you're in the working class. You work. I think I'm in the working class as well, as I work too. Anyways, I think the articles biased as Iraqis are represented as having one point of view. I was curious about your opinion, whatever it may be.”

This was a part of an e-mail I received from one of the best visitors of this website, and I took a look and had read the article mentioned (which I published below and recommend to read). Although I don’t like long articles but I red it twice because most of it described all I saw in my first visit to the Green Zone, and it was a very lovely coincidence when my boss took me with him to the contracting office inside the GZ the same day I red the article.(a Million dollar coincidence).

It’s true you can find another world inside (yes a green one), but this time and for the first in my life I FELT how the people governed this country before April 2003 were FOOOOOOOLS. I saw lakes between a house and another, and when I say a house not a palace I mean the houses of the servants and guards (the special ones). I saw Baghdad from a spot I didn’t stand on before.
I saw magnificent buildings destroyed by the war and being rebuild by Iraqi workers, and they are ordinary people and not heeled and working for the CPA….. A market managed by Iraqis from neighborhood selling goods to the CPA staff….. Young boys with motorcycles playing in the streets and squares inside the GZ…. CPA staff jogging (running with shorts), and when the working day ends, hundreds of Iraqis would leave to be there next day, but I am sure they are qualified people who didn’t west time by talking about un safe streets and should they work for the CPA or not.
There are people who can’t stand to see others in good positions and getting good salaries and can’t get the chance themselves. Happened to me before April 2003, because I submitted my C.V. to all UN organization in Baghdad according to the adds in papers (one of them was fitting me so much that I thought they might forgot to put my name in the add), but I didn’t get any chance, because (and that’s what I think) UN used to employ people who are Iraqi intelligence and others who are not intelligence, may be threatened (by the old Iraqi secrete police) to leave or else. So I waited to get a chance which I am happy with now. All they (the people who are not getting a good chance now) have to do is to keep on looking for the chance and not to blame any one else if they don’t have qualifications and try to be more qualified. For example the UNDP in Baghdad is giving courses in computer and English language for Iraqis nearly free and sometimes free.

I would like to tell you about what happened to me in the CPA BX which is the super market for CPA staff. I entered there with my friends and boss I took some pictures there a while later a woman solder who seemed to be responsible for the place came to me and asked “was it you who took pictures?” . I can’t say I wasn’t terrified, so I handled my digital camera to her and said “its OK if its not allowed, you can delete it”, so she said “ no its all right, but pleas don’t do it again because we hade problem with pictures of Iraqi staff shown to terrorists and the Iraqis was killed or bothered, so pleas don’t take pictures”, so I said “ I understand thank you”.

When we left a friend of mine said “they don’t have the right to prevent any one from taking photos”. That’s when I said “do you know if those pictures were taken before April 2003, what would happened to me now?............I would be vaporized now”


THE ARTICLE

By J. Michael Kennedy Times Staff Writer

Here in the Green Zone, off-duty soldiers laze away their afternoons sunbathing at the luxurious palace swimming pool.
Residents use telephones with an upstate New York area code, even to call someone across the hall.
The parking lot is so clogged with identical new sport utility vehicles that drivers have to punch the alarm buttons on their key chains to draw a bead on where theirs are located. And there's American chow, lots of it, shipped in from the United States. Think chipped beef on toast.
Welcome to the Bubble. Behind the massive concrete blocks, razor wire, sandbags and maze of checkpoints where visitors are searched and searched again is the heart of U.S. military and civilian operations in Iraq).
Save for the routine mortar attacks that have yet to do much damage to this sprawling 4-square-mile zone, there is a surreal sense of calm about the compound, especially when juxtaposed with the snarled, noisy streets of Baghdad — which many people inside the zone seldom, if ever, see.
It is a place where soldiers and civilians work long hours, party hard when they can and look for the little things that make life bearable in this hostile land.
But for Iraqis, the Green Zone represents a foreign power hunkering down for a long stay — in Saddam Hussein's old digs, no less — while shutting itself off from the country it conquered. Rubbing salt in the wound, speculation has it that the zone, which encompasses some of Baghdad's prime real estate, will eventually become the site of the mammoth U.S. Embassy.
"Americans should behave in a normal, civilized way, like they do elsewhere in the world," said Dauvaod Mohammed, owner of the Kitchen Furniture store in Baghdad. "They hide away behind big walls."
On a more mundane note, Iraqis complain bitterly that Baghdad's streets wouldn't be clogged if the Americans pulled up stakes and moved somewhere else. And the restricted access is a source of irritation for Iraqis who will never get in.
Saad Abbas, deputy editor of the politically moderate Az Zamman newspaper, said seeing well-heeled Iraqis and foreigners with their suits and cellphones entering the zone only reminds the working class of opportunities unavailable to them.
"It is natural when a poor person sees someone coming out of the Green Zone with all these things, he will not like that," Abbas said. "He will feel angry at the sight of him."
There are reasons for the compound, of course, security chief among them. The 15-foot blast-resistant concrete walls that surround the compound protect it from attacks such as the car bomb that killed seven people Wednesday at a Baghdad hotel. The military is not about to make the same mistake it did in Beirut in 1983, when a suicide bomber plowed through a lightly reinforced security gate and killed 241 American service members as they slept in their barracks.
At the beginning of the Baghdad occupation, the construction of the Green Zone was a source of friction between the United States and the United Nations, which felt that the foreigners should mingle with the population. But after two devastating attacks on its headquarters, the U.N. has relocated to neighboring countries. Some foreign companies doing contract work, meanwhile, tried to operate in Baghdad neighborhoods only to take refuge in the Green Zone after hearing persistent rumors that they were in imminent danger.
Just getting into the compound is a challenge to one's patience as well as a source of jitters, given that a car bomb detonated at one of its gates in January. At least 20 people were killed and 120 wounded.
On any given day, the lines to enter the Green Zone can stretch so long that soldiers spend much of their time trying to stop impatient visitors from jumping the queue. Of these, hundreds are men who hope to become police trainees and receive the $120-a-month salary that goes with it. Even when the line is short, getting in involves two full-body searches and two identity checks.
Inside, the scene changes dramatically. The Green Zone includes the cavernous convention center, Hussein's ornate Republican Palace and the Rashid Hotel, once the city's premier hostelry. It was once wired by Hussein's minions for eavesdropping on visiting VIPs, but under coalition control, it has been abandoned as living quarters because of rocket attacks. Still, it remains the mess hall of choice for 5,000 Americans living inside the zone plus a prime source of pirated DVDs and tacky paintings in the first-floor gift shops.
The palace is the nerve center of the zone, where soldiers and civilians work around the clock. Eighteen-hour days are common and 12-hour shifts are routine.
"I'm finding that sometimes I forget what day it is," said Pepper Bryars, a civilian communications specialist from Alabama.
Four huge, helmeted busts of Hussein have been removed from atop the palace, and his throne has been put in storage. The foyer of the palace's main entrance has been turned into a dining room, where food is dished out cafeteria-style. Rooms inside the palace have been chopped up by dividers, and offices are identified by paper taped to doors. On the walls are Valentine's Day cards from grade-school children, including one depicting an assault rifle in the middle of a heart.
"Cupid's New Arrow," reads the inscription.
Marble floors are lined with red carpet, and one large ballroom is used as a dormitory. On one wall is a Hussein-era fresco of Scud missiles rocketing skyward, as they did during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, when they hit targets in Saudi Arabia and Jerusalem. On the other is a fresco of Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock, one of Islam's holiest sites. In between, the floor is scattered with bunk beds and cots, with gear strewn about.
But mostly, the palace has the look of slightly disheveled office building where workers go about their business.
"The days are long but the weeks are short," said Col. Emmett DuBose of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a Texan who is responsible for restoring Iraq's oilfields. "When you're busy working day in and day out, you don't even realize you're in a bubble."
A souk, or market, has sprung up inside the compound near the palace, where merchants sell souvenirs that include Saddam Hussein wristwatches and other knickknacks.
The Green Zone Cafe, a converted gas station, is a favorite eating spot and welcome diversion from the regular fare. The Iraqi proprietor serves hamburgers and chicken kebabs along with sodas and beer. He's been so successful that construction workers are expanding the eatery, which is particularly busy in the evenings. Among other things, the cafe has a large cache of what the label describes as "The Love of God Wine," widely believed to be of the Communion variety. Two Chinese restaurants vie for the Asian palate, their major difference being that one serves beer and the other doesn't.
Around the compound, trailer park communities have sprung up to accommodate the thousands of American workers who have made the Green Zone their home. The guidelines are two people to a room, two rooms to a trailer.
The neighborhoods have such names as Embassy Estates, Poolside, Riverside and the Palms (not the best place to live when mushy dates are falling from the trees).
There is a laundry and a post exchange roughly the size of a convenience store.
When Bryars arrived in the Green Zone, he was billeted in a large tent with dozens of other people, many of them serious snorers. "I thought I'd never get to sleep," he said.
In another part of the compound is the parade route where Hussein would review his troops as they marched under four massive crossed swords. The hands holding the blades are exact replicas of the ex-dictator's. Along the path are metal bumps — Iranian army helmets, cemented in during the Iran-Iraq war so Hussein's troops could crush the enemy underfoot.
Finally, there is the Baghdad Convention Center, which houses media facilities as well as dozens of civilian operations ranging from Royal Jordanian Airways (flying to Amman only) to the giant Bechtel construction company, whose offices are in the sub-subbasement. The Iraqi National Symphony rehearses in the center; on a recent afternoon, the conductor grew impatient with the horn section, which was having trouble hitting its notes.
And yes, there is green in the Green Zone — grassy, flower-filled areas around the convention center that are tended by Iraqi gardeners.
But the green ends at a guard shack manned by American soldiers, replaced by more sandbags and concertina wire marking the way back to dusty Baghdad.

Thank you Paul
Someone asked me by e-mail:
“Can you please explain to me why you don't watch Al Iraqiya
to get Iraqi news, or Al Hurra to get international news.

Is there something wrong with either station? If so, can
you please spell out what is wrong, so that perhaps those
stations can fix their broadcast to be more attractive.”

I really thank Mr. Paul Edwards for that question because I always talk about how Al Arabiya & Jazirah stations are trying to spray fuel on fire, and it’s important to clear things out.

Actually I don’t watch Arabiya station I always watch Al Hurra, LBC, Iraqia and CNBC, and listen to Sawa radio. But every where I go I see people watches Arabiya & Jazirah, and I see them cursing those stations while they are watching and I say to them “why you watch it then?” and I don’t get an answer. Till yesterday I saw my mother in law watching Arabiya reports about the two reporters who were killed in Baghdad (Ali alkhateeb & Ali Abdulazeez, who used to upset me when I listen to them) and I heard her saying “Oh my God, what are we going to do today, all the program will be about the two men who were killed”, so I laughed -and was about to make the cake of my birthday which was yesterday fall from my hand- when I remembered the days when Oday used to put hours of programs about Sadams visits and speeches on Shabab TV and we couldn’t find anything else to watch so we turn off the TV, and said to her “You can just switch the station to another, its not the old days”.

I can’t tell the magic of those stations, but I know a trick. Oday used to put hours of his own speeches just in the middle of the most popular program on Shabab TV, and the most popular programs in Baghdad these days are Mexican serials with Arabic voices (what ever the right term for that) and reality TV programs, so they can put those with some good real news in the middle.

But watching the report about the killing of the two Arabiya reporters notified me about something very important. The names of those two reporters and other Arabiya reporters seemed very common to me till they said it by them selves (i.e. the station host) they all used to work for the old Batheiest media stations owned by the government before April 2003 and administrated by Al Sahaf & Oday, now we are getting somewhere, shouldn’t we?. God bless their souls .

Life Lovers
I have just met an American friend who was in the place of the explosion happened last night in “Jabal Lubnan Hotel - Andalus Sq. – Baghdad”, and helped rescuing injured people and showed me some pictures, and he was so furious and said “you know… all what was said in the media about angry Iraqis were pushing Americans aside not to help is bull…..., Americans and Iraqis helped each other and helped injured people together”. And “no way was it a missile”.
For me, I was in south Baghdad (Dora) 8.45 at the evening when I heard the news about the explosion and I was with my wife and her parents at their house, and Al Arabiya TV started their report. What drove me crazy besides seeing innocent people being killed, what the Arabiya host asked their reporter in Baghdad “are the residential area was hit is sunny or sheea?”, so I said to my father in law “they started to put some gas on the fire. We should look for the people standing behind this channel and what they do with their money”.
Any way, few months past when an explosion used to happen in Baghdad my father in law used to blame the Bathiest for it and would say the Americans is loosing control. Well I have heard him yesterday saying that terrorists are still trying to hold the government from rebuilding the country and democracy and what could the Americans do if those murderers are targeting less important and less secured places. Now we can see that the Iraqi point of view is totally changed, and they understand that the future is so bright which create many enemies for us and they are putting all they got to hold us from getting better life. At 9.00 the same night I took my family back home in the streets of Baghdad and it was very normal and full of cars and people.
I know the place targeted yesterday and I have an office less than a mile away from it and the area is full of shops, hospitals, banks and houses. So they are targeting people who try to help Iraqis to rebuild their country. That’s what I told Mr. Gord Westmacott from CBC radio when he phoned me last night home to ask about the matter. I was so furious that I told him “Gord.. We are loosing innocent people here and I wish I was in the GC so I would put all people involved in terrorism in Iraq to execution penalty and show the world what Iraqis do with the bodies at then nobody would do it again. Any way I was so furious when I said so but after I calmed down I feel sorry to say so, but I am sure it was the same feeling for any one in America at 11th of Sep. 2001, so I’m not shame .
This morning I took my family out again and saw others do the same I mean being them selves and lives their life normally, I met my contractor who brought his worker to continue building my house and my wife just phoned to tell me that she bought the ceramics for the bathrooms and my boss just came in from an important meeting in one of the ministries. And we are here and will always be here to fight back terrorism by being always life lovers. GOD BLESS THE SOULS OF THE VIVTIMS.

I hope I can say this CLEAR
I have never thought that an article about elections in Spain would get so much attention and so much comments, so I was surprised today before I started to think about it, and got the idea that people in all over the world (if we thought that our website visitors are a sample for that) thinking that they have lost a battle by loosing Spain being with the coalition forces against the terrorism. We can’t say it’s not true, and for me as an Iraqi I have my own fears that a day might come and we would find our selves with the Americans alone fighting terrorism because of the democracy in the coalition countries.
Can anyone imagine that terrorists are using the media and democracy to win the war, we should be aware of that, actually its not easy to correct mistakes, but its easy for any one with reason and logic to learn from mistakes, and here we should have our lesson and when I say we I mean (we the people all over the world). And it’s “not to run from the battle what ever the losses are, when we feel that we are on the right side”.
I have something to say and I am trying to hold my self from saying it, but to hell let me say it and if any one would say to me “it’s not your business” then OK I apologize in advance but it would be said. And its “After what happened in Spain ( in elections I mean) the Americans must have the lesson, actually they are the number one people to have the lesson and they have to hold together against what happened at 11th of Sep and what might happen later”, and don’t try to find someone to blame but terrorists themselves…… And if any one used criticism of the American leadership to fight against terrorism as his winning card for White House……..would be a fool trying to make fool of the people. Maybe I am not an American citizen to talk like this, and maybe Americans feeling that they were bearing so much for other people. But let me bring to your memory the long long list of people from all over the world who tries to get American citizenship or tries to find there way to American land,…..are they all wrong ?.
American people who think they should not be involved in the war against terrorism must reconsider and encourage their patriotic administration (what ever it is from) to continue their fair war against terrorists or they will find them selves one day under sanctions from Afghani government.

Whose Next
Its Spain now…………. I would like to talk about the terrorist action took place in Iraq few months ago. At the beginning it was against American basis and important placed such as CPA, UN, ICRC, Rasheed hotel, Palastine hotel, Baghdad hotel and many other places, after that when the coalition forces and the IP started to secure the important places the terrorists started to attack ordinary houses, schools, civilians in Karbala and other civil unexpected points taking the advantage that nobody would think about those places.
The same is happening now, because its getting more difficult to attack American targets or targets in Brittan for example so they looked for places no body will think about to secure and start terrorism there. Maybe next time its Veggie or Nepal because I can see solders of those two countries in Baghdad.
Well we can say nobody is safe from terrorism not even France because they stand against the war in Iraq, the whole world should start the war against terrorism at once, because its getting the same pattern as aids, if you wont fight it your not safe from it. But what should we do……….For me I can’t find but three things to do first we must have the will to fight against terrorism as the new aids spreading, second we must keep our normal life as it is and have faith, third we must all share our information about terrorists, so they cant hide………That’s how I think its going to work, not by waiting for the governments to fight the war for us.
God bless the souls of the people died in Madrid and to give their relatives the patience for missing them. And for the governments in all the world we can say”KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN IT MIGHT BE YOU NEXT”.

CBC
My wife just came to me and told me that she just closed the Iraq&Iraqis web site and there is nothing new since the 9th of March, So I said “actually there is nothing new to tell the people” that’s true, thing are calm and the people have more important thing to take care of than to listen to the news of a bomb here or a shooting there. At least for the people I meet every day, we have different problems, problems like (the ……. Co. is paying higher than what we get - the electric power is better but it still goes off - why is the streets is so crowded – there is a new mobile hand sets – with so many car models, how can any one choose - the internet through phone line is not clear……….etc). As you see Iraqis have problems but they are being less…………annoying problems.
But let me tell you something I have been hiding for a while. Gord Westmacott from CBC Radio (that’s Canada’s national public Broadcaster), gave me the chance to be their guest through phone, that’s few days ago, and it happened two hours a go with the host Bill Camron. Few questions about Iraq, the security and the economic situations and the stock market. I really appreciate their efforts and interests in what is really happening in Iraq, and trying to get a true picture from an ordinary citizen.
I don’t now what was the reactions or what was the subject discussed, because we cant reach the casting of CBC, it would be nice to listen to the program, but I hope I was successful to tell the world that the simple Iraqis who had the chance and the effort to have a six thousands years of history are proving that history is not enough its trying to learn from history what’s important. Yes so its not shame to be a six thousands years nation and get help from a 200 years nation.
Any way it was a real happy event for me and my family to have an interview with CBC and I thank them again and wish them all the luck. THANK YOU GORD.

Go Iraqis
As we said in the last article, the Iraqi constitution were signed yesterday the 8th of MAR 2004. The media already started to spread doubts about the commitment of Iraqi parties with it or not, after they were spreading doubts about if it would be signed or not. There is an old Arabic say “the camels caravan goes ahead while the dogs barks”, I couldn’t find more suitable thing to say about those people who put them selves as enemies to Iraqis and tries to delay whatever its good for humanity. Well its time to stop that because GAME IS OVER and a new game is just started and nothing is going to stop Iraqis to be the winners of the new game, we had overcome our wounds, and all setups is obvious now and we have many brave patriot men and women who risked their lives to put us all in a safer world, starting with our honorable governing council members, ending with the daily workers trying to clean our streets. And of course we would never forget the help of our friends and allies from now on “the coalition forces” who made things easy for us.
I am sure many people would not accept my words easily but that won’t stop me or other reasonable Iraqis of telling the truth.
A new country has born with a new law which was approved be GC members. I think those brave people would be our next parliament, and if they nominated them selves to the next elections I will elect them all, so any Iraqi would protest or stand against the law “our new constitute” would be held as an outlaw, so its better to use democracy and what ever it supplies us to make our voices reaches the people responsible, to make our lives better, and for those who tries to use democracy as a weapon to destroy Iraq, I say don’t depend on that and leave us, because we will stand against you and protect our efforts to rebuild Iraq & Iraqis what ever it will cost us.

ICDC
I am very anxious to talk about what happened with the delay of signing the Iraqi constitutes yesterday. But it wont be clear till Monday so I will hold my breath till then and think “that’s democracy, my opinion your opinion and the others”. After Monday there will be much to talk about.
But let me tell you about what happened to me Thursday night when I was going back home from the office. Inside our residential compound, I was prevented from entering my house street and told by an Iraqi ICDC ( a new Iraqi security force) to drive ahead to be checked with the check point in front of me and come back, so I did and there I found another Iraqi ICDCs stopping a line of cars and checking the IDs and the cars with a very high class behavior and politely asking the people to get out of there cars to be checked. When it was my turn the responsible came to me and told me “would you pleas get out of the car and open all the doors”, after they finished they thanked me and told me “sorry to trouble you sir”, I couldn’t but to thank them and said “its ok that’s your duty don’t hesitate to accomplish it”, …….Back home I told my wife about it and started to try to remember someone Iraqi in uniform to thank me or apologize to me before April 2003, and I couldn’t remember one not even in an Iraqi airways plane. May be you say, “so what! What are you talking about?”, well nobody can understand the difference I felt but an Iraqi who lived in Iraq the last forty yeas. May be for that reason It wasn’t so bad for me that the constitutes hasn’t been signed yesterday because I can feel the difference. And its not long time till Monday to know it. BUT I KNOW….. IT WILL BE SIGNED.

We are Here
If none of the terrorism activities happened in Karbala & Baghdad at the 2nd of March 2004, we would be celebrating our Transitional Administration Law now, our first step towards democracy. What happened was the main cause to delay the law, but it couldn’t stop it, that’s where the terrorists are exactly wrong, all they can do is to delay the results, they never had the strategy or mentality to change things (thank God), even at the 11th SEP it came with results that they couldn’t face (thank God again). What can we expect from someone want to die achieving his goals, what’s after that, especially when innocent people die because of what he did.
Any way, we pray to those who lost their lives because of terrorism and to those who lost someone dear to them, we always say in such events “may God give us the patience to stand against such situations”.
The streets of Baghdad is still crowded with people going to their works, nothing is changed, and will not, from what I see….. Iraqis started to feel changes and they are racing them selves to their goals.
I am in my work office and received two investors today one from Turkey and the other from England to start investing in Iraq, and they are very willing to start.
Our stock market is very close to start, and we are preparing ourselves to that.
Another chance to invest Iraqis money is opened these days in one of our best private sector banks, and few more is about to open at the few days coming.
You can see… if people would not feel the changes, they would not heal from their wounds so fast and start looking for chances to increase their wealth, but those are the Iraqis I always new,….. once in Basra during the eighties when I was in the high school, ten of my friends went to swim in Shat El Arab river while Iran was shelling Basra with heavy artillery, nine of them ended in hospital when a shell fall on their boat, thank God nobody died and they all alive now. We can not give up life easily not because of anything, that’s why we are six thousands years old.

Karbala
Few weeks after April 2003, we had another memory day for our brothers the sheea and millions of people went to Karbala for the ceremonies, with coalition troops every where to secure the people and nothing went wrong. At that time we heard some people saying that the Iraqis can secure their selves and they don’t need foreigners to help with that, more than that some went so far to create an army to secure Karbala and Najaf and they took the matter so challenging. And as an Iraqi I can tell if the coalition forces did the same this year and tried to secure the ceremonies every one would look at them as invaders and occupation force. But when the coalition tried to leave the matter to Iraqis as the Iraqis wanted, we saw what happened today and the same people who wanted the coalition to leave the matter to Iraqis, taking the coalition responsible for the security of the Iraqi cities. Easily that’s what we can call foolish. I am sorry to be so aggressive and furious, but those were real simple innocent human beings we lost today who were trying to do something they were not allowed to do for decades, people would be sitting in their houses this night instead of ……….. It’s really not the time of taking the matter so naïve, its time of reality and saving lives. Its time for each and every Iraqi with reason to educate others, and for those who can’t see thing right to keep silent and wait.
It was a real coincidence that I found the letter of that terrorist called (Abo Musab ElZurgany) published on the CPA website and I red it yesterday and said to my self “my god he’s doing something tomorrow”. I hope every one could read what that man could say. The words he spoke can’t be but pure poison, for an example he said “let the blood burst so if good people died then we are rushing their end to heaven and if bad people died then we are getting red of them”, can you imagine.
What happened in Karbala and Kadhim today should not happen again, and that’s not impossible, taking the mater with an open mind and cooperation between IPs and coalition forces would be enough to stop it.
But after darkness there is always dawn, and what was comforting today that all Iraqis who spoke to the media today didn’t talk about conspiracy theory but they talked about national unity and an enemy who is trying to start a civil war and that’s what never would happen to Iraq & Iraqis.

Future!
I have realized that many of our problems in Baghdad are becoming financial problems. And because I am really not finding something interesting to tell you about today, so I thought I may share with you a little uncomfortable thought, beside it’s the end of February and here in Iraq we get paid monthly. And its my duty to put the pay roll, and I try always to apply it to the company chairman for any changes in a good timing ( i.e. when he is in a good mood). Well this month he didn’t change anything, so I am getting the same salary. I have to be honest to tell you that my salary is enough for any family in Baghdad to stay in a good life style, but I am seeing people with less qualifications now getting plenty more than I get, with less working hours, so as I said its uncomfortable thought, but really I don’t want to leave my employer, because I like him and his ideas very much…………… But as usual let’s look at the filled part of the glass; people are getting more chances to get jobs with good salaries, and I had a promotion with out a raise, but I am sure I am getting one soon, I hade employed four new guys of my friends for this month only, beside our company which is a part of Iraq is getting more contracts and hiring more people (at least fifty this month) and the company expanding rapidly. Put on all that, I am smelling spring after winter with all its colors and fresh morning dew, and I am not worry about the future of my small family, or my big family………. IRAQ.