Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Right Path
I didn’t imagine that when I am going to take time before writing the next article it would be so useful for me, because now I can use many subjects to analyze and many things to say and more news to tell.
Many people in the world including some Americans think that there are many mistakes are taking place here in Iraq by the CPA…. Well….. we cant say that’s not true there is mistakes, there is people who being killed, Iraqis and Americans, but after all any one with a simple mind and some reason and live here can see and touch much difference between Iraq before March 2003 and now. And for the better of course.
Any one who doesn’t see and feel that difference, then its because he doesn’t want to, or he was so comfortable and satisfied with the ext regime…….May be many Iraqis are not satisfied with the security situation here in Baghdad, and when I am saying Baghdad, that’s because there is much difference between security situation in Baghdad and the other cities of Iraq. And it’s much better in the rest of Iraq. That’s what our friends and relatives in those cities are telling us.
And I am sure that the security situation in Iraq in general is better that many European and American cities,…… its just the people in Iraq are not familiar with such situation, and with time many arrangements would be taken by government and the people so they can be more safe and secured.
When I read the speech of Mr. Bremer on the 23rd of April 2004, I can’t find in it but true intentions to make thing better for us and with logical methods, easy to be substituted in Iraqi society. And I think that’s the main reason that the governing council members are accepting the American policy in Iraq, I mean they are close to decision making authority and know more about the bright future of the country than the rest of Iraqis……….But when I hear about the new contracts, some of them about rebuilding Faluja and when I see every day in my way to work many Iraqis on their way to work, schools, and many construction sites, and markets full of imported goods with many ordinary people doing shopping, and imported cars in car markets more than the customers who are trying to buy cars, and when I feel the people of Faluja happy to get red of the terrorists in their city and many others are forgetting about the rebels in Najaf and thinking of them just a bunch of twisted minds, then I know that we are on the right path.
I am sure that these days many Iraqis know that the coalition is in war situation, but not with Iraqis but with terrorism on the land of Iraq. So all we have to do is to help the good guys to win this war fast, at least by staying safe and away of the hot areas. May be many of us are trying to say it’s not our war why should we bear so much….. Well the war against the terrorism is responsibility of the entire world, and now we are playing our part in it.
I didn’t imagine that when I am going to take time before writing the next article it would be so useful for me, because now I can use many subjects to analyze and many things to say and more news to tell.
Many people in the world including some Americans think that there are many mistakes are taking place here in Iraq by the CPA…. Well….. we cant say that’s not true there is mistakes, there is people who being killed, Iraqis and Americans, but after all any one with a simple mind and some reason and live here can see and touch much difference between Iraq before March 2003 and now. And for the better of course.
Any one who doesn’t see and feel that difference, then its because he doesn’t want to, or he was so comfortable and satisfied with the ext regime…….May be many Iraqis are not satisfied with the security situation here in Baghdad, and when I am saying Baghdad, that’s because there is much difference between security situation in Baghdad and the other cities of Iraq. And it’s much better in the rest of Iraq. That’s what our friends and relatives in those cities are telling us.
And I am sure that the security situation in Iraq in general is better that many European and American cities,…… its just the people in Iraq are not familiar with such situation, and with time many arrangements would be taken by government and the people so they can be more safe and secured.
When I read the speech of Mr. Bremer on the 23rd of April 2004, I can’t find in it but true intentions to make thing better for us and with logical methods, easy to be substituted in Iraqi society. And I think that’s the main reason that the governing council members are accepting the American policy in Iraq, I mean they are close to decision making authority and know more about the bright future of the country than the rest of Iraqis……….But when I hear about the new contracts, some of them about rebuilding Faluja and when I see every day in my way to work many Iraqis on their way to work, schools, and many construction sites, and markets full of imported goods with many ordinary people doing shopping, and imported cars in car markets more than the customers who are trying to buy cars, and when I feel the people of Faluja happy to get red of the terrorists in their city and many others are forgetting about the rebels in Najaf and thinking of them just a bunch of twisted minds, then I know that we are on the right path.
I am sure that these days many Iraqis know that the coalition is in war situation, but not with Iraqis but with terrorism on the land of Iraq. So all we have to do is to help the good guys to win this war fast, at least by staying safe and away of the hot areas. May be many of us are trying to say it’s not our war why should we bear so much….. Well the war against the terrorism is responsibility of the entire world, and now we are playing our part in it.
Saturday, April 24, 2004
Basra
Last Wednesday 21st of April 2004 about five bombs were exploded in Basra, more than seventy innocent people were killed and about 100 more were injured, many of those were children……. For me as someone who was born, raised and studied in Basra, and know about the people there and I still go there from time to time even after April 2003, and I saw how the people there are managing to live very peaceful, very easy going. So I can’t find any reason for what happened but the same term we all know about TERRORISM.
You see…. in Basra if you were a stranger passing by and asked anyone there about a place or an address, he would answer you if he knows about it, or he would help you to find it if he doesn’t know it, and if you both didn’t find the place he would invite you home to stay the night and start looking for it tomorrow. You may think that I am exaggerating. Well……..I’m not. We used to go for a picnic, all the neighborhood about 50 families. My father used to say “I can’t find anything good about this city, not the weather, not the services, only the people”, so I lived there till 1987 when the Iranians was about to enter Basra by force after occupying Fao city.
Few days ago I was thinking about a definition for terrorism. Now I now terrorism is “targeting innocent people for a reason they don’t have any connection with”. And that’s what we have here.
That’s one problem. But the other problem was that the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan who said:
“We have all been anxious to see the attempts to reduce violence succeed, [and] not for it to spread,” Mr. Annan said. “And of course the security situation on the ground has a very important impact on our decisions and our activities.”
I don’t have an idea why would anyone doesn’t know about details would give such a comment. We usually say “If words were made of silver, then silence was made of gold”. May be you would say that I am going too far with what I am thinking of the man. Actually no, because the same day some terrorist exploded himself in Saudi Arabia and killed many people but our man didn’t talk about it. We have pure terrorism act in Riyadh which needs to be cleared he didn’t talk about, but we have activities which may be carried out by terrorists (and some of us are sure of that) he describes them as violence.
The last thing we need here in Iraq is to name terrorism as violence, or terrorists as resistance, or some twisted mind man as popular leader………or ……..to put UN instead of the Coalition. We need to stop at this incident and clear it in detail……..because once… a visitor to this website told me that “you don’t need the UN in Iraq with all its bureaucracy….see what they did in Kosovo”. I didn’t understand what that visitor meant till know. And I think we the Iraqis should fight against putting new coordinator in Iraq (the UN) with new period to learn and to have know how all from the beginning and what ever…..What really we need is the coalition to stay till July and after that we must accept our new government and keep enhancing this government by elections after that. We must take this chance and responsibility because it’s ours to take, and many of our new friends and allies (Americans, British, and the rest of the coalition countries) will help us to do so.
Last Wednesday 21st of April 2004 about five bombs were exploded in Basra, more than seventy innocent people were killed and about 100 more were injured, many of those were children……. For me as someone who was born, raised and studied in Basra, and know about the people there and I still go there from time to time even after April 2003, and I saw how the people there are managing to live very peaceful, very easy going. So I can’t find any reason for what happened but the same term we all know about TERRORISM.
You see…. in Basra if you were a stranger passing by and asked anyone there about a place or an address, he would answer you if he knows about it, or he would help you to find it if he doesn’t know it, and if you both didn’t find the place he would invite you home to stay the night and start looking for it tomorrow. You may think that I am exaggerating. Well……..I’m not. We used to go for a picnic, all the neighborhood about 50 families. My father used to say “I can’t find anything good about this city, not the weather, not the services, only the people”, so I lived there till 1987 when the Iranians was about to enter Basra by force after occupying Fao city.
Few days ago I was thinking about a definition for terrorism. Now I now terrorism is “targeting innocent people for a reason they don’t have any connection with”. And that’s what we have here.
That’s one problem. But the other problem was that the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan who said:
“We have all been anxious to see the attempts to reduce violence succeed, [and] not for it to spread,” Mr. Annan said. “And of course the security situation on the ground has a very important impact on our decisions and our activities.”
I don’t have an idea why would anyone doesn’t know about details would give such a comment. We usually say “If words were made of silver, then silence was made of gold”. May be you would say that I am going too far with what I am thinking of the man. Actually no, because the same day some terrorist exploded himself in Saudi Arabia and killed many people but our man didn’t talk about it. We have pure terrorism act in Riyadh which needs to be cleared he didn’t talk about, but we have activities which may be carried out by terrorists (and some of us are sure of that) he describes them as violence.
The last thing we need here in Iraq is to name terrorism as violence, or terrorists as resistance, or some twisted mind man as popular leader………or ……..to put UN instead of the Coalition. We need to stop at this incident and clear it in detail……..because once… a visitor to this website told me that “you don’t need the UN in Iraq with all its bureaucracy….see what they did in Kosovo”. I didn’t understand what that visitor meant till know. And I think we the Iraqis should fight against putting new coordinator in Iraq (the UN) with new period to learn and to have know how all from the beginning and what ever…..What really we need is the coalition to stay till July and after that we must accept our new government and keep enhancing this government by elections after that. We must take this chance and responsibility because it’s ours to take, and many of our new friends and allies (Americans, British, and the rest of the coalition countries) will help us to do so.
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
I Needed that Time
When I started university study, my life was really changed because of a new friend. He was a year older than me but he was 100 years older than me with his mind and attitude, we are still friends and I really enjoy being with him from time to time, talking and exchanging thoughts. Simply he was my inspiration. Now he works for Save the Children organization in Basra city……..Since that time I started to think: I am a good book reader actually I am a professional one, I even know how to read not how much I read, and I like having the books for my own not only reading it and I come to read it again or a part of it from time to time. So one time I thought “When am I going to start writing?, am I going to keep only reading? “. And here I am started to write and I am enjoying it more than any one can imagine, and I am thinking for the second time that my life is changing (for the better of course), and I am enjoying writing the articles, analyzing situations, reading the comments and e-mails and even uploading the files.
But few of the comment and discussions through comments on the last few articles were very annoying …….So I thought to calm down for a while and not to answer or to write by reaction, especially when the clashes were about to end ……….. Because the main goal of this website is to let the world not the Iraqis to know about the Iraqis other wise I would be writing it in Arabic, and I can assure you that I can do that better than English….You see I believe that any problem or disagreement or misunderstanding between any two wise people in the world always based upon difference in point of views or opinions, so all we have to do is to come to a midpoint to close our point of views,…… there is no need to kill each other to convince each other. But there is always the black ugly duck which doesn’t go by reason, and those shouldn’t affect others and followed by others, because the result would be very….....bad.
I am sorry to stop posting for a while but I can tell you I really was very uncomfortable not to write these few days, but I needed that time to find how things here is going to come to. And as I expected it wasn’t that bad, and all the Iraqis came to the same conclusion which is the coalition is going to give the authority to an Iraqi government by the end of June and there was no need for the losses people had either in Faluja or in any other place, and now we have more Iraqi convinced that terrorists from outside Iraq are playing a very bade role to delay democracy and prosperity to be our life fact.
Iraqis these days are more concerned with their jobs and business than with politics and what the enemy TV station may say or by the falls leaders who may depend on what those TV station may pump them with…….I even noticed that the IPs are more dedicate to there jobs, and there is more building or reconstruction sites in Baghdad than before, and we have better electricity power although the only smoking stack in Dora electric power plant has stopped smoking.
All problems we have these days are the heavy armed gangs who tries to terrorize people for political reasons or just for money, and the good thing that the majority of Iraqis knows that fact and trying to reduce it by all means. And the speeches of our new internal affairs minister are very encouraging.
I do like Iraq of these days and I am sure that we are going to be a peaceful advanced civilized nation again. And that wouldn’t be true without the help of the coalition and all the patriotic Iraqis who are cooperating to make our wishes and hopes to come true. I hope the prosperity we are going to gain is enough to make us and the coalition to forget about all the dark days we have been through and make us all remember those who gave their lives for that with pride and make us feel that their souls wasn’t for nothing. Being ungrateful is not a habit in Iraqi personality and time will prove that.
When I started university study, my life was really changed because of a new friend. He was a year older than me but he was 100 years older than me with his mind and attitude, we are still friends and I really enjoy being with him from time to time, talking and exchanging thoughts. Simply he was my inspiration. Now he works for Save the Children organization in Basra city……..Since that time I started to think: I am a good book reader actually I am a professional one, I even know how to read not how much I read, and I like having the books for my own not only reading it and I come to read it again or a part of it from time to time. So one time I thought “When am I going to start writing?, am I going to keep only reading? “. And here I am started to write and I am enjoying it more than any one can imagine, and I am thinking for the second time that my life is changing (for the better of course), and I am enjoying writing the articles, analyzing situations, reading the comments and e-mails and even uploading the files.
But few of the comment and discussions through comments on the last few articles were very annoying …….So I thought to calm down for a while and not to answer or to write by reaction, especially when the clashes were about to end ……….. Because the main goal of this website is to let the world not the Iraqis to know about the Iraqis other wise I would be writing it in Arabic, and I can assure you that I can do that better than English….You see I believe that any problem or disagreement or misunderstanding between any two wise people in the world always based upon difference in point of views or opinions, so all we have to do is to come to a midpoint to close our point of views,…… there is no need to kill each other to convince each other. But there is always the black ugly duck which doesn’t go by reason, and those shouldn’t affect others and followed by others, because the result would be very….....bad.
I am sorry to stop posting for a while but I can tell you I really was very uncomfortable not to write these few days, but I needed that time to find how things here is going to come to. And as I expected it wasn’t that bad, and all the Iraqis came to the same conclusion which is the coalition is going to give the authority to an Iraqi government by the end of June and there was no need for the losses people had either in Faluja or in any other place, and now we have more Iraqi convinced that terrorists from outside Iraq are playing a very bade role to delay democracy and prosperity to be our life fact.
Iraqis these days are more concerned with their jobs and business than with politics and what the enemy TV station may say or by the falls leaders who may depend on what those TV station may pump them with…….I even noticed that the IPs are more dedicate to there jobs, and there is more building or reconstruction sites in Baghdad than before, and we have better electricity power although the only smoking stack in Dora electric power plant has stopped smoking.
All problems we have these days are the heavy armed gangs who tries to terrorize people for political reasons or just for money, and the good thing that the majority of Iraqis knows that fact and trying to reduce it by all means. And the speeches of our new internal affairs minister are very encouraging.
I do like Iraq of these days and I am sure that we are going to be a peaceful advanced civilized nation again. And that wouldn’t be true without the help of the coalition and all the patriotic Iraqis who are cooperating to make our wishes and hopes to come true. I hope the prosperity we are going to gain is enough to make us and the coalition to forget about all the dark days we have been through and make us all remember those who gave their lives for that with pride and make us feel that their souls wasn’t for nothing. Being ungrateful is not a habit in Iraqi personality and time will prove that.
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Thank you Iraqis
I didn’t think that I will need to publish any thing today after the normal day we had in Baghdad yesterday. But when I took a drive in Baghdad today I had to tell you what I saw, and I think it’s important to tell you that Baghdad today was more normal, more crowded, more traffic jammed than ever……. Just like the people were imprisoned home for few days ago and they were trying to make it up for them selves. Schools were opened also universities and ministries offices, proud IPs every where to secure people. And if I have to tell you about the electricity devices market in Karada, then we won’t finish till tomorrow. I haven’t seen it so crowded all my life.
I am really proud with Iraqi people, because they can’t hate each other for the few days passed then they go to work as usual, it was a real harmony, it really proves they didn’t accept the actions of the terrorists took place in Iraq all the passed week. And it proves that we won’t need much time to rebuild the beloved country of ours. We are ready to start again and again till we find a real prosperity to live in.
I am sorry for our losses and casualties all over the country, and really hope it will be the last to happen and our people to live in peace from now on. And I really give many thanks to the Governing Council members and the parties and tribes they represents and to all other Iraqi parties and people who courageously took the initiative to calm down the fight between the coalition forces and the other involved fighting groups. I hope at last they all came to reason.
We can still hear and see some blown ups as the one I saw in Jadiriyah targeting Saeed Abdulazeez Alhakeem ( GC member) and another in Ameriyah targeting an American convoy. But I assure you those are only the tail of trouble makers and they will stop soon.
I can’t even find the right words to explain my hope to see Iraq calm and Iraqis safe. But I know what to do to see that and I am doing it as many Iraqis I saw and met today, WE MUST LIVE OUR LIFE, AND KEEP WORKING, BECAUSE EVEN IF I WAS SWEEPING THE STREETS THEN ITS BETTER THAN STANDING STILL. And Iraqis are not standing still, not those whom I saw today. We are proving our selves every day as an active nation, and that’s why we can find hate, covetousness and fear in the eyes and minds of many people and governments outside Iraq. Maybe that’s why they put more oil on the fire using their bad reputation TV stations to do so daily.
I didn’t think that I will need to publish any thing today after the normal day we had in Baghdad yesterday. But when I took a drive in Baghdad today I had to tell you what I saw, and I think it’s important to tell you that Baghdad today was more normal, more crowded, more traffic jammed than ever……. Just like the people were imprisoned home for few days ago and they were trying to make it up for them selves. Schools were opened also universities and ministries offices, proud IPs every where to secure people. And if I have to tell you about the electricity devices market in Karada, then we won’t finish till tomorrow. I haven’t seen it so crowded all my life.
I am really proud with Iraqi people, because they can’t hate each other for the few days passed then they go to work as usual, it was a real harmony, it really proves they didn’t accept the actions of the terrorists took place in Iraq all the passed week. And it proves that we won’t need much time to rebuild the beloved country of ours. We are ready to start again and again till we find a real prosperity to live in.
I am sorry for our losses and casualties all over the country, and really hope it will be the last to happen and our people to live in peace from now on. And I really give many thanks to the Governing Council members and the parties and tribes they represents and to all other Iraqi parties and people who courageously took the initiative to calm down the fight between the coalition forces and the other involved fighting groups. I hope at last they all came to reason.
We can still hear and see some blown ups as the one I saw in Jadiriyah targeting Saeed Abdulazeez Alhakeem ( GC member) and another in Ameriyah targeting an American convoy. But I assure you those are only the tail of trouble makers and they will stop soon.
I can’t even find the right words to explain my hope to see Iraq calm and Iraqis safe. But I know what to do to see that and I am doing it as many Iraqis I saw and met today, WE MUST LIVE OUR LIFE, AND KEEP WORKING, BECAUSE EVEN IF I WAS SWEEPING THE STREETS THEN ITS BETTER THAN STANDING STILL. And Iraqis are not standing still, not those whom I saw today. We are proving our selves every day as an active nation, and that’s why we can find hate, covetousness and fear in the eyes and minds of many people and governments outside Iraq. Maybe that’s why they put more oil on the fire using their bad reputation TV stations to do so daily.
Monday, April 12, 2004
Back to Normal
Today I can say that Baghdad is back to its normal situation, and to usual crowded streets. I was sure of what will happen and I thank God for that.
I just met with one of our employees in a site in Abo Ghreeb, which is a small town in between Baghdad and Faluja and he told me that the situation there is calm too and told me many stories about the terrorists and thieves there, straightly reminded me with the stories that our fathers and grandfathers used to tell us about the 1920 revolution happened in Iraq against the British occupation and how the revolution men fought British at that time for nothing but to steal and rob the British camps. It certainly didn’t fit with what was told to us by school history books and I remember that I used to say to my father “you’re either wrong or exaggerating “and he used to answer “you will know the truth by time”. What happened and what we saw fits exactly what we used to hear from that generation. Because many coalition equipments and vehicles and many civil vehicles and tankers and trucks which may not belong to the coalition forces and where hit or blown by the people who call themselves resistance, does not exist any more and they were not removed by there legal owners. Actually they were stolen by the same people who blown them (after dancing around the burning equipments a little).
I hope we all learned our lesson and the fighting for the few days passed delayed rebuilding the country, and made it suitable to be the battle field for the battle against terrorism, and that’s something no one with a mind should accept. Terrorists from all over the world are coming to Iraq to fight Americans, and they are using the simple Iraqi people as battle fuel.
We are sure that with the end of June an Iraqi government will take over, with the Governing Council members or with out them…… Now if something similar to what happened in Faluja and Najaf happened after June, how is it going to be solved, with problems like :
IPs doesn’t stand against rebels.
ICDCs refuse to carry on orders.
Police cars in Baghdad with Sadir pictures on there glass.
Police stations with green and red flags, not Iraq flag on top.
All that and more are facts any one can see in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities. So what are we going to do? Are we going to ask coalition forces to leave? Are we ready to face consequences? Are we going to lie to ourselves and say we are ready?.....It will really needs a lot of courage to step the right step and bond ourselves with the coalition countries with the right bonds and treaties, because after that many people will call whoever will sign such treaties as unfaithful. But as my father used to say “time will prove how faithful and patriot such a man is”.
Today I can say that Baghdad is back to its normal situation, and to usual crowded streets. I was sure of what will happen and I thank God for that.
I just met with one of our employees in a site in Abo Ghreeb, which is a small town in between Baghdad and Faluja and he told me that the situation there is calm too and told me many stories about the terrorists and thieves there, straightly reminded me with the stories that our fathers and grandfathers used to tell us about the 1920 revolution happened in Iraq against the British occupation and how the revolution men fought British at that time for nothing but to steal and rob the British camps. It certainly didn’t fit with what was told to us by school history books and I remember that I used to say to my father “you’re either wrong or exaggerating “and he used to answer “you will know the truth by time”. What happened and what we saw fits exactly what we used to hear from that generation. Because many coalition equipments and vehicles and many civil vehicles and tankers and trucks which may not belong to the coalition forces and where hit or blown by the people who call themselves resistance, does not exist any more and they were not removed by there legal owners. Actually they were stolen by the same people who blown them (after dancing around the burning equipments a little).
I hope we all learned our lesson and the fighting for the few days passed delayed rebuilding the country, and made it suitable to be the battle field for the battle against terrorism, and that’s something no one with a mind should accept. Terrorists from all over the world are coming to Iraq to fight Americans, and they are using the simple Iraqi people as battle fuel.
We are sure that with the end of June an Iraqi government will take over, with the Governing Council members or with out them…… Now if something similar to what happened in Faluja and Najaf happened after June, how is it going to be solved, with problems like :
IPs doesn’t stand against rebels.
ICDCs refuse to carry on orders.
Police cars in Baghdad with Sadir pictures on there glass.
Police stations with green and red flags, not Iraq flag on top.
All that and more are facts any one can see in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities. So what are we going to do? Are we going to ask coalition forces to leave? Are we ready to face consequences? Are we going to lie to ourselves and say we are ready?.....It will really needs a lot of courage to step the right step and bond ourselves with the coalition countries with the right bonds and treaties, because after that many people will call whoever will sign such treaties as unfaithful. But as my father used to say “time will prove how faithful and patriot such a man is”.
Sunday, April 11, 2004
Very Calm Day
All the reports on TV stations yesterday prove what General Kimmit said on his daily press conference, that what we are all fighting here in Iraq is terrorism and terrorists. Taking hostages, threatening to kill foreigner civilians and now threatening to kill and kidnap Iraqi Christians and destroying churches, may be later to blow any Iraqi civilian buildings or schools or killing children as a threat to get out of the problem they put them selves in in the first place.
I still see Iraqis are trying to live their normal life and to avoid getting hurt for nothing so the city today is very calm and with empty streets especially it is a holyday and the memory of Imam Husain is being held in Karbala. I hope no harm will happen there as it happened the last time.
We didn’t hear any thing about clashes in Baghdad today but there were many attacks on vehicles on the way to Baghdad AirPort no matter Iraqi or an American. But it always fails to accomplish anything.
It was a calm day I hope it will continue to calm down and all the hostages to be released. God bless this country and all the people who try to help us.
All the reports on TV stations yesterday prove what General Kimmit said on his daily press conference, that what we are all fighting here in Iraq is terrorism and terrorists. Taking hostages, threatening to kill foreigner civilians and now threatening to kill and kidnap Iraqi Christians and destroying churches, may be later to blow any Iraqi civilian buildings or schools or killing children as a threat to get out of the problem they put them selves in in the first place.
I still see Iraqis are trying to live their normal life and to avoid getting hurt for nothing so the city today is very calm and with empty streets especially it is a holyday and the memory of Imam Husain is being held in Karbala. I hope no harm will happen there as it happened the last time.
We didn’t hear any thing about clashes in Baghdad today but there were many attacks on vehicles on the way to Baghdad AirPort no matter Iraqi or an American. But it always fails to accomplish anything.
It was a calm day I hope it will continue to calm down and all the hostages to be released. God bless this country and all the people who try to help us.
Saturday, April 10, 2004
Before Easter
Sorry for not bloging yesterday it was Friday (my week end), and I didn’t come to office where I usually publish my articles.
But it was a good day yesterday I managed to accomplish many matters. I took my family for shopping before Easter and took my wife to the hair dresser, and took my mother to church for the service of the Great Friday and spent some time with a friend who works for a Korean NGO. And for sure I wasn’t the only Iraqi who did so, because I so streets full of cars and people, I cant say it was as normal as it was ten days ago, but people are trying to act normal.
Today I attended my building site and met with my Sadir city workers who still come to work and they are being more convinced every day that the coalition is trying to eliminate only trouble makers.
From my meetings with Iraqi people I can feel more people are convinced to stay away from clashes and troubles by staying home and not to get out only for urgent matters and leave the coalition and IPs to do their job.
I came to office today after a car drive in Baghdad (Karada, Dora, Jadriya, Mansor, Bayaa) and all those places were normal but not crowded as they were. But I heard about clashes in Adhamiya.
I don’t like being only a reporter, but it’s important to give a true picture about the situation just to equalize the bad reports on TV stations. I saw some yesterday (and guess what TV station) as usual Arabiya, Who were putting a report about Faluja with pictures full of armed men with black clothes and Mullahs and Sadir pictures, Which means the pictures were from Sadir city not from Faluja, besides more unfinished speeches form Iraqi people. Changing facts is an art for them. I know some would say why you watch these stations?, actually I don’t, I watch Hurra TV, but we must know about the enemy too.
I will try to keep you informed with details and true news. Happy Easter every one. Pry with me for the good people of Iraq. In such situation I always remember the movie “First Knight” which was about King Arthur and his round table Knights, when he says “May God give us the wisdom to see the truth, the will to choose it and the strength to make it endure”.
Sorry for not bloging yesterday it was Friday (my week end), and I didn’t come to office where I usually publish my articles.
But it was a good day yesterday I managed to accomplish many matters. I took my family for shopping before Easter and took my wife to the hair dresser, and took my mother to church for the service of the Great Friday and spent some time with a friend who works for a Korean NGO. And for sure I wasn’t the only Iraqi who did so, because I so streets full of cars and people, I cant say it was as normal as it was ten days ago, but people are trying to act normal.
Today I attended my building site and met with my Sadir city workers who still come to work and they are being more convinced every day that the coalition is trying to eliminate only trouble makers.
From my meetings with Iraqi people I can feel more people are convinced to stay away from clashes and troubles by staying home and not to get out only for urgent matters and leave the coalition and IPs to do their job.
I came to office today after a car drive in Baghdad (Karada, Dora, Jadriya, Mansor, Bayaa) and all those places were normal but not crowded as they were. But I heard about clashes in Adhamiya.
I don’t like being only a reporter, but it’s important to give a true picture about the situation just to equalize the bad reports on TV stations. I saw some yesterday (and guess what TV station) as usual Arabiya, Who were putting a report about Faluja with pictures full of armed men with black clothes and Mullahs and Sadir pictures, Which means the pictures were from Sadir city not from Faluja, besides more unfinished speeches form Iraqi people. Changing facts is an art for them. I know some would say why you watch these stations?, actually I don’t, I watch Hurra TV, but we must know about the enemy too.
I will try to keep you informed with details and true news. Happy Easter every one. Pry with me for the good people of Iraq. In such situation I always remember the movie “First Knight” which was about King Arthur and his round table Knights, when he says “May God give us the wisdom to see the truth, the will to choose it and the strength to make it endure”.
Thursday, April 08, 2004
Attention……. GC and Iraqi Parties
I can’t say it’s more normal than yesterday and it’s not worse too, but are we staying home? No……Are we seeing any fights in streets? No……... Also we meet people from Sadir city and Adhamiya city every day and they are attending their jobs, and not standing against coalition forces……. Also I hade a phone call from a relative in Basrah and he said its calm and the damn media is lying as usual. We even sent an employee to Basrah to take care of a container coming to Om Qasir by sea………….And I would like to tell you about the maid we have in office and she is from Sadir city. Her brother was arrested the day before yesterday morning for wearing a black shirt and was suspected to be Mahdy army member. He was released yesterday and said that the coalition forces treated them well and been told to stay home and not to resist the coalition and to tell their neighbors and relatives to do so. So it was kind of an announcement for the people how to act. And she still comes to work every day.
I can feel the people of Sadir city uncomfortable with what Muqtada saying or doing, but they cant announce it for religion matters, (he is SAEED you know, and that’s mean he is a grand sun of prophet Mohamed so any one talk bad on him get cursed).
Any way what’s bothering me that the Governing Council members are taking a negative position of what’s going on. They all have their own armed militia and guards and those militias should be used to enforce order in streets not to guard the GC members only. Are we going to leave every thing for the coalition forces? And then start to criticize. What would happen if that trouble and rebel happened after June?. Then we would call for American army from its bases to help. Why turning authority to an Iraqi government then?.
I am not criticizing here and it’s not late to take real action against what’s going on and I still trust each and every man and woman in our GC and I will elect them all for a national assembly later. But a united militia with the same uniform should be created grouping all the guards and armed people from the parties’ members and the followers of the GC members to enforce order in streets. It’s their duty and our duty would be to defend our democracy and freedom against terrorists and trouble makers and kayos lovers.
The time of negativity is gone, and no more place for one man to tell all Iraqis what to do, we should deserve our freedom by acting as civilized people or the world will let us kill each other, as it happened in Rwanda, Lebanon, Somalia, and many other countries.
We don’t want to be the land of clearing debts between any two forces in the world, and that’s also the duty of the real patriotic parties of Iraq to educate the people how to behave. It happened before in Kurdistan, and the Kurdish people deserved the prosperity they live in today, because their leaders and parties educated the people how to behave to deserve to be a state.
I beg each and every man and woman in our GC and Iraqi parties to gather as many people as they can to be members of those parties and educate them against any destructive thoughts may be spread from all those who want to delay prosperity for Iraq and Iraqis for reasons any one with a clear mind can see.
I can’t say it’s more normal than yesterday and it’s not worse too, but are we staying home? No……Are we seeing any fights in streets? No……... Also we meet people from Sadir city and Adhamiya city every day and they are attending their jobs, and not standing against coalition forces……. Also I hade a phone call from a relative in Basrah and he said its calm and the damn media is lying as usual. We even sent an employee to Basrah to take care of a container coming to Om Qasir by sea………….And I would like to tell you about the maid we have in office and she is from Sadir city. Her brother was arrested the day before yesterday morning for wearing a black shirt and was suspected to be Mahdy army member. He was released yesterday and said that the coalition forces treated them well and been told to stay home and not to resist the coalition and to tell their neighbors and relatives to do so. So it was kind of an announcement for the people how to act. And she still comes to work every day.
I can feel the people of Sadir city uncomfortable with what Muqtada saying or doing, but they cant announce it for religion matters, (he is SAEED you know, and that’s mean he is a grand sun of prophet Mohamed so any one talk bad on him get cursed).
Any way what’s bothering me that the Governing Council members are taking a negative position of what’s going on. They all have their own armed militia and guards and those militias should be used to enforce order in streets not to guard the GC members only. Are we going to leave every thing for the coalition forces? And then start to criticize. What would happen if that trouble and rebel happened after June?. Then we would call for American army from its bases to help. Why turning authority to an Iraqi government then?.
I am not criticizing here and it’s not late to take real action against what’s going on and I still trust each and every man and woman in our GC and I will elect them all for a national assembly later. But a united militia with the same uniform should be created grouping all the guards and armed people from the parties’ members and the followers of the GC members to enforce order in streets. It’s their duty and our duty would be to defend our democracy and freedom against terrorists and trouble makers and kayos lovers.
The time of negativity is gone, and no more place for one man to tell all Iraqis what to do, we should deserve our freedom by acting as civilized people or the world will let us kill each other, as it happened in Rwanda, Lebanon, Somalia, and many other countries.
We don’t want to be the land of clearing debts between any two forces in the world, and that’s also the duty of the real patriotic parties of Iraq to educate the people how to behave. It happened before in Kurdistan, and the Kurdish people deserved the prosperity they live in today, because their leaders and parties educated the people how to behave to deserve to be a state.
I beg each and every man and woman in our GC and Iraqi parties to gather as many people as they can to be members of those parties and educate them against any destructive thoughts may be spread from all those who want to delay prosperity for Iraq and Iraqis for reasons any one with a clear mind can see.
Wednesday, April 07, 2004
Lunch Invitation
Living the same natural life in Baghdad today, all I could find different is its less crowded and less traffic jam. Maybe because it’s about the end of the week or because the people of the Sadir city are staying home because of the coalition and IPs groups are inspecting and searching for weapons house by house there and in Adhamiya city.
But in the rest of Baghdad we didn’t hear any fighting noise, and the tiles worker who works in my house and lives in Sadir city and was absent for two days showed today and he said that he stayed home for two days to avoid being suspected as Sadir follower and being arrested for that, and when it was more normal he came to work.
For me I was invited today for lunch by an American unit (FOB Thunder) who is about to leave Iraq bake to its base and transferring authority to another unit (1st cavilary)….. I wish that the media was there to cover the event and I am sure they all (the media I mean) were busy covering some exaggerated bad news in another place in Iraq. Any way I can tell you some details about it:
The invitation included the staff and solders of the two units, some contractors who are involved in rebuilding the area under the authority of that unit, the local council members of the area, and many ICDC officers, IP officers and many other Iraqi people. The leaders of the old and new units gave speeches and they were very intimate, also speeches were given by the local council members. One of them was the head of the Iraqi tribes association and the other was the mosque Imam of the area, and they talked about the solid friendship between them and the staff and solders of the old unit and wished it will be the same with the new one, and appreciated the help given to the area people and by the coalition forces. It was a very important event to be put on TV to the entire world to let know that good relationship is really established between Iraqis and coalition forces and the bright side of the situation in Iraq is not covered by the media for reasons of their on.
I am really sorry I cant put real names and places its to early for that but I am telling what I saw with my own eyes and part of what I saw today was tears of many people who made friends and were afraid they may not see each other again.
God bless all people who are doing their job and duties to rebuild Iraq and helping Iraqis.
Living the same natural life in Baghdad today, all I could find different is its less crowded and less traffic jam. Maybe because it’s about the end of the week or because the people of the Sadir city are staying home because of the coalition and IPs groups are inspecting and searching for weapons house by house there and in Adhamiya city.
But in the rest of Baghdad we didn’t hear any fighting noise, and the tiles worker who works in my house and lives in Sadir city and was absent for two days showed today and he said that he stayed home for two days to avoid being suspected as Sadir follower and being arrested for that, and when it was more normal he came to work.
For me I was invited today for lunch by an American unit (FOB Thunder) who is about to leave Iraq bake to its base and transferring authority to another unit (1st cavilary)….. I wish that the media was there to cover the event and I am sure they all (the media I mean) were busy covering some exaggerated bad news in another place in Iraq. Any way I can tell you some details about it:
The invitation included the staff and solders of the two units, some contractors who are involved in rebuilding the area under the authority of that unit, the local council members of the area, and many ICDC officers, IP officers and many other Iraqi people. The leaders of the old and new units gave speeches and they were very intimate, also speeches were given by the local council members. One of them was the head of the Iraqi tribes association and the other was the mosque Imam of the area, and they talked about the solid friendship between them and the staff and solders of the old unit and wished it will be the same with the new one, and appreciated the help given to the area people and by the coalition forces. It was a very important event to be put on TV to the entire world to let know that good relationship is really established between Iraqis and coalition forces and the bright side of the situation in Iraq is not covered by the media for reasons of their on.
I am really sorry I cant put real names and places its to early for that but I am telling what I saw with my own eyes and part of what I saw today was tears of many people who made friends and were afraid they may not see each other again.
God bless all people who are doing their job and duties to rebuild Iraq and helping Iraqis.
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
Still Normal
It is seven o’clock Baghdad time now and its more normal than yesterday, I didn’t see any clashes, but many of my friends heard shooting and helicopters yesterday night near Sadir city and Adhamiya city….. The Sadir city people says it was calm and the coalition forces started to search the houses for weapons and arresting those who are stocking some at home.
Many Iraqi people started criticizing Muqtada today for the nonsense actions he’s taking…….I still think that the main problem was in Faloja and its being taking care of……..Back to you tomorrow.
It is seven o’clock Baghdad time now and its more normal than yesterday, I didn’t see any clashes, but many of my friends heard shooting and helicopters yesterday night near Sadir city and Adhamiya city….. The Sadir city people says it was calm and the coalition forces started to search the houses for weapons and arresting those who are stocking some at home.
Many Iraqi people started criticizing Muqtada today for the nonsense actions he’s taking…….I still think that the main problem was in Faloja and its being taking care of……..Back to you tomorrow.
Monday, April 05, 2004
Here is What I saw
As an Iraqi in Baghdad in such day I should say something about what’s going on. But I’m not going to analyze anything…..I’m going to give facts I saw and heard today and things I know about.
I started my day by attending my house building site and I talked to the ceramic worker who lives in Sader city, asked him about his friend the tiles worker who couldn’t come to work today because he lives in the same place, may be because the streets were closed.
And when I asked the man about what happened yesterday he said:
“It was bad yesterday, The Sader city people occupied all the police stations and burned one or two hummers, and they are all armed and on the houses roofs waiting to fight. But this morning the Americans entered the city without any fight with tanks as big as my house. They are ignorant people want to fight America. Master our problem is ignorance”
That was the words of a simple man from Sader city, after that we shouldn’t say they are all bad. Because if they were at work yesterday they wouldn’t be in the protest and clashes happened and this man and his friend is my evidence for that. That’s a fact we should admit, if they got a job and paid to be in it they will forget all about…….………whatever you want them to forget about, and I Am saying this because I’m familiar with it.
I left the man working to attend the bank for some business and in my way I saw:
Communication workers trying to fix phone cable….Two buses full of university students about to go to a picnic…..Traffic Police trying to enforce more order in the streets…….Teen girls walking to school……….Gardeners taking care of public squares……….Many building workers working in Mamon communication tower….People shopping.
And many other normal people and normal daily life actions. And it wasn’t in one place; it was in Bayaa area, Mansor area, Dora area, Karada area, and these about 25 % of Baghdad….. And in office there were nobody is absent they all came to work and they are from all over Baghdad. And we made many joke about what happened and we were sorry it happened.
All what we heard about the clashes was from TV (Arabiya & Jazira). I am not saying it didn’t happen, but it was exaggerated. As I said I don’t want to analyze anything yet but I wanted to tell you about what I saw.
As an Iraqi in Baghdad in such day I should say something about what’s going on. But I’m not going to analyze anything…..I’m going to give facts I saw and heard today and things I know about.
I started my day by attending my house building site and I talked to the ceramic worker who lives in Sader city, asked him about his friend the tiles worker who couldn’t come to work today because he lives in the same place, may be because the streets were closed.
And when I asked the man about what happened yesterday he said:
“It was bad yesterday, The Sader city people occupied all the police stations and burned one or two hummers, and they are all armed and on the houses roofs waiting to fight. But this morning the Americans entered the city without any fight with tanks as big as my house. They are ignorant people want to fight America. Master our problem is ignorance”
That was the words of a simple man from Sader city, after that we shouldn’t say they are all bad. Because if they were at work yesterday they wouldn’t be in the protest and clashes happened and this man and his friend is my evidence for that. That’s a fact we should admit, if they got a job and paid to be in it they will forget all about…….………whatever you want them to forget about, and I Am saying this because I’m familiar with it.
I left the man working to attend the bank for some business and in my way I saw:
Communication workers trying to fix phone cable….Two buses full of university students about to go to a picnic…..Traffic Police trying to enforce more order in the streets…….Teen girls walking to school……….Gardeners taking care of public squares……….Many building workers working in Mamon communication tower….People shopping.
And many other normal people and normal daily life actions. And it wasn’t in one place; it was in Bayaa area, Mansor area, Dora area, Karada area, and these about 25 % of Baghdad….. And in office there were nobody is absent they all came to work and they are from all over Baghdad. And we made many joke about what happened and we were sorry it happened.
All what we heard about the clashes was from TV (Arabiya & Jazira). I am not saying it didn’t happen, but it was exaggerated. As I said I don’t want to analyze anything yet but I wanted to tell you about what I saw.
Sunday, April 04, 2004
Jessica
The article I was about to publish before I knew about Faluja.
A while ago I received an e-mail from Mr. Paul Edwards which was very inspiring for me to find many things to talk about, and I still have that e-mail printed with me to see if I am covering all the matters mentioned in it or not…….One of the most important things in it was
“Maybe you could explain the lies that Saddam used to tell
Iraqis about America, and how many people believed them,
and what the truth is? Maybe we can go through one lie at
a time, one lie per day?”
Simply I can say that the policy of hating America started 1968 when the Baath Party was in power in Iraq. Of course there were long periods of good relations between USA and Baath government, but America hating policy is in all our news papers, radio, TV, school books, stories, every where, America the leader of Capitalism, the imperialism, the drug dealers country, the Zionism supporting, the development countries blood sucker, the oil greedy,……………etc. That’s mean any guy like me who was born 1967 should hate America.
So at 1991 when I was serving my compulsory military period in Koot city south of Baghdad with thousands of boys like me, I was a part of a story I really like to tell you about.
It was night and about fifty of us came back from training center to get a night sleep in a hotel in the city center which was something any one financially capable can do to avoid sleeping in bad conditions with out lights, food, beds, water, bathrooms, and many other thing I can see any American solder have and available to him in his base in Baghdad. Any way when we gather and all of us are boys who had just finished their college study and should be filled with hating Americans of course ( and believe me we where all hoping to be born there), and we were just out of Kuwait liberation war, then we don’t have any thing to do but to watch TV, and exactly an American movie which was played every night on the only TV station we had in Iraq, and at that night it was “Saving Jessica” or “Where is Jessica”, I cant really remember the title but it was based on a real story of a couple of young parents who had their live daughter fall in an old well in their garden and slides down few meters and stops down there. So emergency, fire department, medical unit, police dep. And many voluntaries came to the place to save little Jessica and she was finally saved after more than 48 hours by digging another well besides the old one and sending a man down to dig a horizontal hole between the two wells to pull her out, and they succeed saving her out. At the end of the movie the fire dep. Chief told the police dep. Chief while pointing to some water on the street “I bet you I can walk on that water”.
That was the movie which we watched with out any blink, holding our breath for an hour, after a while of silence after the movie end, one of the boys said loudly “they really deserve to live”, and he meant Americans, so every one else said with one voice “eeei wallah”, which means (that’s right with using God name as confirmation).
What I mean of this story is, with all the brain wash Baath used against the Americans, the Iraqis was so close to American life, if not by watching the movies on TV, cinemas, videos, CDs, then by having a relative or a friend lives there telling them all about it…………. After all……………… American behavior stile is so similar to the Iraqis; at least that’s my opinion.
The article I was about to publish before I knew about Faluja.
A while ago I received an e-mail from Mr. Paul Edwards which was very inspiring for me to find many things to talk about, and I still have that e-mail printed with me to see if I am covering all the matters mentioned in it or not…….One of the most important things in it was
“Maybe you could explain the lies that Saddam used to tell
Iraqis about America, and how many people believed them,
and what the truth is? Maybe we can go through one lie at
a time, one lie per day?”
Simply I can say that the policy of hating America started 1968 when the Baath Party was in power in Iraq. Of course there were long periods of good relations between USA and Baath government, but America hating policy is in all our news papers, radio, TV, school books, stories, every where, America the leader of Capitalism, the imperialism, the drug dealers country, the Zionism supporting, the development countries blood sucker, the oil greedy,……………etc. That’s mean any guy like me who was born 1967 should hate America.
So at 1991 when I was serving my compulsory military period in Koot city south of Baghdad with thousands of boys like me, I was a part of a story I really like to tell you about.
It was night and about fifty of us came back from training center to get a night sleep in a hotel in the city center which was something any one financially capable can do to avoid sleeping in bad conditions with out lights, food, beds, water, bathrooms, and many other thing I can see any American solder have and available to him in his base in Baghdad. Any way when we gather and all of us are boys who had just finished their college study and should be filled with hating Americans of course ( and believe me we where all hoping to be born there), and we were just out of Kuwait liberation war, then we don’t have any thing to do but to watch TV, and exactly an American movie which was played every night on the only TV station we had in Iraq, and at that night it was “Saving Jessica” or “Where is Jessica”, I cant really remember the title but it was based on a real story of a couple of young parents who had their live daughter fall in an old well in their garden and slides down few meters and stops down there. So emergency, fire department, medical unit, police dep. And many voluntaries came to the place to save little Jessica and she was finally saved after more than 48 hours by digging another well besides the old one and sending a man down to dig a horizontal hole between the two wells to pull her out, and they succeed saving her out. At the end of the movie the fire dep. Chief told the police dep. Chief while pointing to some water on the street “I bet you I can walk on that water”.
That was the movie which we watched with out any blink, holding our breath for an hour, after a while of silence after the movie end, one of the boys said loudly “they really deserve to live”, and he meant Americans, so every one else said with one voice “eeei wallah”, which means (that’s right with using God name as confirmation).
What I mean of this story is, with all the brain wash Baath used against the Americans, the Iraqis was so close to American life, if not by watching the movies on TV, cinemas, videos, CDs, then by having a relative or a friend lives there telling them all about it…………. After all……………… American behavior stile is so similar to the Iraqis; at least that’s my opinion.
Thursday, April 01, 2004
……………
I was about to publish a new article to the website when I noticed about the attack in Faloja. So I stopped and couldn’t do any thing till this morning, honestly because I was so shamed and didn’t know what to say, I even didn’t want to open my website today so I wont read any comments about it, I was afraid that people would think that all Iraqis are savages. But let me tell you this, the people who stood there even to watch what’s going on are not human. It’s really difficult to describe what I felt, but I will try. I felt anger, disgust, terror, depressed, pain in stomach, and even guilt, I am sure I wasn’t thinking clear so I waited a while before I left back home.
But Now I know that I want to tell the world that me and the Iraqi people I know and those whom I saw since yesterday all shamed of what happened and refuse it and want to do something to stop things like that. Of course we need the help of the coalition to do so but we will do our best.
I used to think that when the coalition forces ends their duties in Iraq, then the Iraqis are ready to take over, but now I am sure that we will need the coalition forces with us for a long time, because I am sure if I or any other Iraqi was in that car, then we would face the same ……..end……. Those who did what happened in Faloja yesterday will not spare any life Iraqi or American, man or woman, a grownup or a child. I wish the IPs with help of coalition forces and the photos of what happened which shows the faces of many people involved would take fast steps to arrest all the people involved to face justice.
At the end, I would like to ask God to bless the souls of the victims, and to say that this accident makes us believe that good and evil is every where and we cant blame any person for being a Christian or Muslim, Suni or Sheeaa, Arabic or Kurdish, Catholic or Anglican because in each and every party of those we can find someone like Ghandi and someone like Bin Ladin.
I was about to publish a new article to the website when I noticed about the attack in Faloja. So I stopped and couldn’t do any thing till this morning, honestly because I was so shamed and didn’t know what to say, I even didn’t want to open my website today so I wont read any comments about it, I was afraid that people would think that all Iraqis are savages. But let me tell you this, the people who stood there even to watch what’s going on are not human. It’s really difficult to describe what I felt, but I will try. I felt anger, disgust, terror, depressed, pain in stomach, and even guilt, I am sure I wasn’t thinking clear so I waited a while before I left back home.
But Now I know that I want to tell the world that me and the Iraqi people I know and those whom I saw since yesterday all shamed of what happened and refuse it and want to do something to stop things like that. Of course we need the help of the coalition to do so but we will do our best.
I used to think that when the coalition forces ends their duties in Iraq, then the Iraqis are ready to take over, but now I am sure that we will need the coalition forces with us for a long time, because I am sure if I or any other Iraqi was in that car, then we would face the same ……..end……. Those who did what happened in Faloja yesterday will not spare any life Iraqi or American, man or woman, a grownup or a child. I wish the IPs with help of coalition forces and the photos of what happened which shows the faces of many people involved would take fast steps to arrest all the people involved to face justice.
At the end, I would like to ask God to bless the souls of the victims, and to say that this accident makes us believe that good and evil is every where and we cant blame any person for being a Christian or Muslim, Suni or Sheeaa, Arabic or Kurdish, Catholic or Anglican because in each and every party of those we can find someone like Ghandi and someone like Bin Ladin.
