IRAQ - Again, A View From Baghdad

"End of Another Year..." from Baghdad Burning, Girl Blog from Iraq

I've refereed to this blog before to give Americans a view from "the other side." The following are excerpts from the full article.

1. The UN has to open a special branch just to keep track of the chaos and bloodshed, UNAMI.


2. Above-mentioned branch cannot be run from your country.


3. The politicians who worked to put your country in this sorry state can no longer be found inside of, or anywhere near, its borders.


4. The only thing the US and Iran can agree about is the deteriorating state of your nation.


5. An 8-year war and 13-year blockade are looking like the country's 'Golden Years'.


6. Your country is purportedly 'selling' 2 million barrels of oil a day, but you are standing in line for 4 hours for black market gasoline for the generator.


7. For every 5 hours of no electricity, you get one hour of public electricity and then the government announces it's going to cut back on providing that hour.


8. Politicians who supported the war spend TV time debating whether it is 'sectarian bloodshed' or 'civil war'.


9. People consider themselves lucky if they can actually identify the corpse of the relative that's been missing for two weeks.

That is Iraq right now. The Americans have done a fine job of working to break it apart. This last year has nearly everyone convinced that that was the plan right from the start. There were too many blunders for them to actually have been, simply, blunders. The 'mistakes' were too catastrophic. The people the Bush administration chose to support and promote were openly and publicly terrible- from the conman and embezzler Chalabi, to the terrorist Jaffari, to the militia man Maliki. The decisions, like disbanding the Iraqi army, abolishing the original constitution, and allowing militias to take over Iraqi security were too damaging to be anything but intentional.

Al Qaeda? That's laughable. Bush has effectively created more terrorists in Iraq these last 4 years than Osama could have created in 10 different terrorist camps in the distant hills of Afghanistan. Our children now play games of 'sniper' and 'jihadi', pretending that one hit an American soldier between the eyes and this one overturned a Humvee.

This last year especially has been a turning point. Nearly every Iraqi has lost so much. So much. There's no way to describe the loss we've experienced with this war and occupation. There are no words to relay the feelings that come with the knowledge that daily almost 40 corpses are found in different states of decay and mutilation. There is no compensation for the dense, black cloud of fear that hangs over the head of every Iraqi. Fear of things so out of ones hands, it borders on the ridiculous- like whether your name is 'too Sunni' or 'too Shia'. Fear of the larger things- like the Americans in the tank, the police patrolling your area in black bandannas and green banners, and the Iraqi soldiers wearing black masks at the checkpoint.

What has me most puzzled right now is: why add fuel to the fire? Sunnis and moderate Shia are being chased out of the larger cities in the south and the capital. Baghdad is being torn apart with Shia leaving Sunni areas and Sunnis leaving Shia areas- some under threat and some in fear of attacks. People are being openly shot at check points or in drive by killings… Many colleges have stopped classes. Thousands of Iraqis no longer send their children to school- it's just not safe.

...and she ends with....

Is the American soldier that died today in Anbar more important than a cousin I have who was shot last month on the night of his engagement to a woman he's wanted to marry for the last six years? I don't think so.

The only thing I can say as of this moment, the American people seem to be waking up to the same revelations as this "Girl from Baghdad."