Evolution
Based on our theory that Iraqis tend to lose interest in everything good or bad so fast, my friend and I were baffled by the fact that the cycle of violence has been on for unbearably long stretches of time.
Based on the same theory, I could not help noticing how people’s reactions have evolved. I have a friend who is always online to brief me on the latest incidents in Iraq, so that I don’t have to watch TV. Following what television reports described as “The Second Black Wednesday” i.e. the bombing of the shrines, my friend, honouring his role to keep me in the know, said some mosques have been torched in retaliation so far and a handful of nameless bodies were found and only recently our national Taekwondo team had their necks cold-bloodedly slit. Trying to snatch some bright sides off the jaws of calamity by comparing today with the first Black Wednesday, apart from the bodies, of course, and the poor players who might have thought that representing a bleeding country in international events could ease some of the pain was not good enough a reason to spare their lives, I said good news you know; no lynching, no mass killings, no severed heads by the hundreds, no storming into civilian homes and executing entire families, what more do we need. Mosques could be rebuilt and repainted, couldn’t they?
My friend was worried that hatred would prevail and it would be too late to forgive and forget. I told him not to worry, it is prevalent already and time heals all wounds.
To spice things up we chose to diss one of the turbans, who seems to have colluded with Al-Qaeda or whoever is lurking in the dark to slaughter as many of his followers as possible and who sounds like he cannot tell real life from that of video games. We both wondered is it possible for his followers to wake up and realize that he’s such loony and decide to act as responsible human beings who are controlled by nothing other than their own reason.
On second thought, I think they might, I might not live long enough to see that day, but I have seen everything , why can’t I see that!
For further news and views from the mouths of Iraqi people log on to http://olivebranchoptimism.net
posted by chikitita @ 8:18 PM
30 Comments:
Chiki,
is it possible that iraq misses a dictator??
whatever ppl say, we have proven without doubt that we are not up for the democracy game..
Anonymous,
Unfortunately, I agree.
Chikitita,
Mohammed (Last of Iraqis), in this comments thread over at his blog, refers to the "turban" you allude to as "Moktada play-station" or "Moktada Atari." Have you heard those expressions?
I know he seems like a bad joke, but unfortunately he's also a very lethal bad joke.
*
Jeffery,
Moktada paly-station is one of the worst jokes ever, because he cannot realize that those he's risking their lives are human beings not some video game characters.
Chikitita,
In my opinion, Muqtada Al-Sadr should have been arrested four years ago when a warrant was issued for his involvement in the murder of al-Khoie. He was not, and in August of 2004 he would use his militia members to attack not only Coalition forces but also Iraqi army and police, killing many of them. He was surrounded in Najaf and, again, should have been arrested for inciting violence against the state. From what I understand, Sistani intervened and the Iraqi government and the Coalition forces were told to let he and the Madhi militia to walk out of Najaf unharmed.
Is this your understanding also?
I think those who call him "Moktada Play-Station" are pointed out that he's like a teenager with a new video game, one in which he shoots many virtual enemies. But, as you say, Muqtada unfortunately has the control of thousands of young men, many of them criminals, for whom the death of others is not virtual at all -- it's very real.
*
Jeffrey,
I guess this is exactly what happened, can't see why!
It's been rumoured this guy was actually a video games addict.
Correction:
Muqtada would not attack Iraqi police or Iraqi Army for a simple reason; they are part of his gang called Mahdi Militia.
They say the army is a lesser evil compared to the commandos, but as far as I have heard JAM have launched attacks on IA checkpoints near their stronghold.
Chikitita,
It's been rumoured this guy was actually a video games addict.
Huh? Are you serious?
*
Here's a video of Muqtada talking to his advisors.
It either makes one laugh or cry, depending upon your mood.
*
That's what I've heard, no idea if it's true or not and no thanks for the video don't feel like boiling my blood.
Chikitita,
and no thanks for the video don't feel like boiling my blood.
Understood. I watched it once, and once was more than enough.
By the way, are you still sleeping on the roof?
*
Of course and if I ever get shot and lose my life, I'd die satisfied :D
Chikitita,
I was thinking of you when I read this blog entry by Zappy called Cruel Summer.
*
It is a damn worry when someone like Muqtada is gathering power, and seems to continue to do so.
Iraq needs another "strong man", preferably a non sectarian, progressive one, to start making his move now.
I don't think we'd ever have non-sectarian politicians, Iraqi statesmen seem to thrive in divisions. And once that someone realizes he's strong, we'd be doomed with another period of disctatorship, as if we don't have one already.
Some of us Iraqis hoped that Ayad Alawi may just be the man Iraq needs, powerful, decisive, and most importantly non-sectarian, he was the one who rivaled "Muqtada Playstation" in Najaf, and at the same time rivaled insurgents in Fallujah, but non of the parties wanted him and most of them hated him along with his party (which is logical), the strange thing is that it seemed to a point that the americans themselves did not want him either..
I wish he could be a prime minister right now, maybe he is the solution to this complex equation which so far yielded nothing other than death and suffering... lots of both.
Salwan,
Allawi is not sectarian I agree, but in his combats on Najaf and Falluja many innocent lives were claimed, so that does not make him a saint, does it! It seems that we will live with the likes of Hajjaj and Saddam Hussein as long as we live.
Chikitita,
Allawi is not sectarian I agree, but in his combats on Najaf and Falluja many innocent lives were claimed
I'm going to disagree with you here. Muqtada Al-Sadr was completely responsible for the deaths of Iraqi citizens in those two weeks leading up to he and his militia being surrounded in Najaf. That was a crime against the state and he should have been arrested then, but Sistani intervened and more or less forced Allawi and the Coalition forces to let him walk out of Najaf with their guns.
Falljah was filled with members of Al Qaeda in Iraq and thugs and torturers. In Falljah II, when the American forces with some help from the Iraqi Army finally cleared the entire city, they found bomb-making factories (that blew up more Iraqi citizens than American forces, by the way), torture chambers, rooms filled with bodies of Iraqi citizens with missing limbs, and a video room where they filmed their head-slicing executions, one of them being the American Nicholas Berg. You may recall how the black-clad jihadis held Nicholas Berg down and sawed through his neck while screaming "Allahu Akbar!"
Allawi and the American forces did the right thing to clean Fallujah of the rotten scum who were terrorizing the local population.
By the way, there were only a few hundred local residents left in Fallujah by the time of Fallujah II. The Americans had spent several weeks warning everyone of the upcoming assault. And those few hundred had to be protected by the Americans when they were escorted out of the city when the fighting began. Al Qaeda was trying to kill even those couple hundred who were being removed by the Americans.
*
Jeffrey,
Civilian casualties did suffer when those offensives were waged, if the footage we've seen at the time on TV was staged, families cannot fake the death of their loved ones.
Chikitita,
I agree that there must have been some civilian casualties (certainly if we count the ones who were targeted and killed by the jihadists inside Fallujah and some unfortunate collatoral damage).
But Are you talking about the April or November operation in Fallujah? There were casualties in the April operation and Al Jazeera, in my opinion, was working for the terrorists inside Fallujah. The November opreation was the one that finally cleared Fallujah of terrorist jihadis and former Baathist regime elements. There were very few civilians still inside Fallujah when the fighting began, as I said above. Remember, in the November operation, the American military had learned its lesson from the April operation and we warned ALL CIVILIANS to vacate Fallujah precisely because they wanted to minimize collatoral damage as much as possible and kill as many jihadis and insurgents as much as possible.
But my main point is that you can't blame Allawi for the civilians casualties in Najaf (one can only blame Muqtada Al-Sadr there) and one can't blame Allawi for deaths in either the April or November Fallujah operations.
But I also don't think Allawi is the answer. If Iraqis want to return to "strong men," then you and children and your grandchildren will probably be living in tyrannies. Is that what Iraqis want? Maybe they do. But I have met a lot of Iraqis who seem to really like freedom of speech and not worrying if the secret police are listening to their conversation on the street. But you might be right. Maybe Iraqis would rather live under a dictator and have him make all the decisions for them, as long as they can raise their families within a iron-grip security provided by a lethal internal security. I don't know the answer, of course. It could go either way.
And are you saying you don't think that Fallujah was being terrorized by Al Qaeda in Iraq?
*
Jeffery,
I think it was the one on April.
So if I can't blame Allawi for the civilian casualties, I cannot blame Saddam for the 1991 uprising no?
And freedom of speech is a myth in Iraq. Lots out media outlets have been closed down of forced to leave just because of believing in constitutional rights, which turned out to be lies.
I've never wanted dictatorship, and I will never ask for it, I grew up under the rule of a despot, and I hated every minute, but I thought that era has become history, now we're reliving the same crap.
Chikitita,
Here are Wikipedia links to both operations:
Operation Vigilant Resolve (April, 2004).
Operation Phantom Fury (November, 2004).
The American military learned from the mistakes made in April, 2004. Fallujah is today a better place without Al Qaeda in Iraq there.
*
Thanks Jeff, but honest the people of Falluja were hurt both by Al-Qaeda and the Americans. Civilian casualties are inseparable part of any offensive.
Chikitita,
Thanks Jeff, but honest the people of Falluja were hurt both by Al-Qaeda and the Americans. Civilian casualties are inseparable part of any offensive.
I agree. But the Americans learned in Fallujah II to clear everyone out first and that's why the vast majority of those who were killed were jihadis and former-regime elements.
Saddam Hussein himself led Iraqis into two wars -- Iran and Kuwait -- in which hundreds of thousands were probably killed. Your army was shelling Iranian cities too. Let's be honest with ourselves about these matters. Kuwaitis also hate Iraqis for destroying and raping many of their women. It was brutal. Iraqis, I've noticed, tend to forget the brutality that has been part of Saddam Hussein's regime for close to three decades, and not just against his own people.
*
I will never forget Saddam's brutality, and I don't think I could look any Kuwaiti or Iranian in the eye, because I'm ashamed of what the Iraqi army did to them at them time. Similarly, I cannot forget my fears under the US air strikes in 1991, 1998, 2003. War is dumb, the only losers are civilians, there is not any clean bloodless war.
Iraqis have been emotionally and physically bruised by the Baathists, Iranian government, Iraqi turnans, Al-Qaeda, the two Bush and Clinton Administrations, militias, the Iraqi government, and maybe by their own selves too.
Hi Chiki! Your posts always makes sence. Even more optimistic then what I've gotten used to :) Could have been worst. We were all freaking out waiting for the Militias at Fadhil, but they never came. Thank God for small blessing right? As for the Dictator, Ya'll don't need that. What is needed is a Government that does its JOB! Leaders in a democracy are chosen by the people to serve the people. Not serve its own damned interests.
Hi Jhondie,
Thank goodness there wasn't anything in Fadhil, but other areas were too scary.
Yes, we do not need dictators, but unfortunately, we don't mind creating them.
This post has been removed by the author.
GiHu3g Please write anything else!
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home