Paradise lost ...
Some months ago, I wrote a piece called "Stuck at a Red light".
This piece was referring to the Green Zone/Red Zone divide in Baghdad. I urge you to read it because it is most accurate.
Today, a friend forwarded me an article that appeared in the Guardian on exactly the same subject. Life inside the Green Zone : "Mission Imperial" (read full article here and it is a must).
The author, a fairly astute writer describes perfectly well, life inside the Green Zone.
The import and juxtaposition of the rotten American way of life into the city of Baghdad.
Reading it, I felt polluted...
I felt polluted by those three meals a day swine eaters. I could smell the barbqued pork ribs,bacon and sausages.
I could see the wobbly fat personnel diving their shiny sweaty bodies into Saddam Hussein's pool and I could see a trail ring of grease forming behind them...
I could hear their obnoxious nasal accent laughing hard over cocktails and bourbons.
I could see the dining hall with the imposing chandelier and the Americans offering their prayers before each meal, thanking Jesus for his blessings whilst the Muezzin in the Red Zone is calling for the evening prayers intermitted with the Allah Akbars as a code of distress for an imminent attack on a particular neighborhood.
Whilst the Iraqis are begging for food and whilst Iraqi kids are dying of water borne diseases because there is no potable water and cholera is looming, these scums import their water from Kuwait even to rinse their veggies.
Whilst we long to listen to a song or watch a film, these scums are learning how to dance salsa taught by one of the CPA reps.
Remember the Salsa teacher I told you about? Well he is not only in charge of reconstruction projects, he also does what he does best, wiggles his ass to salsa tunes.
I also mentioned secret love affairs in the Green Zone in my article.The author confirms it too. On Thursday nights at the hotel al Rashid disco, the "operationally single" engage in some "mercy" fucking, a question of easing PTSD tensions.
And of course, the few Chinese who are eager to make quick bucks are there to follow up with a scented massage. Thai style perhaps? But now I remember, it is the year of the Pig in the new year Chinese calendar.
Not only the Chinese, you also have a few Iraqis and I have met a few of them...
The Green Zone hookers parading as vendors of kitsch souvenirs and paintings and occasionally other things...eager to please their new masters and ready to oblige in the name of the new Democracy.
But don't be too hard on them. These Iraqis are not the only ones.
There is also the official "government" called puppets but I like to call them the Iraqi pimps from Iran, the USA, GB and the Israeli representatives, the Kurds, headed by our new Ariel Sharon, Jalal Talabani.
But there is also another worse category because they hide behind slogans that are ever so appealing.
Do you know who they are? They are the so called "Iraqi democrats" that populate the blogs and the "alternative groups".
They are the "new Iraq" personified. They are the men and women of the so called "middle way."
The ones who would die to get the approval of the white man (symbolically speaking) yet engage in anti-war demos and cry, oh so much, over poor Baghdad.
And there are many of them around. They are settled just about everywhere...
They are the ones who cried "oh dictatorship" and hold the oh so politically correct language of their masters and parade behind some pseudo intellectual jargon. They of course have their equivalents amongst their "Arab brethren".
You know something, the thing about hitting one's forties is that nothing becomes a secret anymore. One's sense of smell becomes acute and one can whiff the bullshit however old and hardened it may be.
Why am I mentioning them? Because they are as instrumental as the Iraqi hookers and pimps that have politically constructed the Green Zone and have led thousands of Iraqis into the hellish predicament they find themselves in today.
This latter category of "reconciliation" and "managed pocket accounts" are the worst of the lot. They are the hidden corrupted ones who find their echoes in the anti war, left movements in the West. And the list of names is too long...way too long.
The Green Zone would have not been possible without the three above categories. The hookers, the pimps and the politically corrupt sell out... Iraqis.
Truth is harsh, as harsh as the Green Zone fortress that protects the biggest murderers and bandits history has known.
But nothing comes out nothing. Iraqis are also to blame for letting them in and for riding with them by intentions, words, deeds and acts...and supported by those arabs and non arabs dancing to the same beat.
If there is anything that is more hurtful than the Occupation of Iraq, it is these Iraqis.
One can spot one's enemy but the enemy from within is the bitter poison that Iraqis have to swallow daily, whilst the American priest in the Green Zone's mass hall is singing God bless America and Jesus loves you and will forgive your Thursday night mercy fucks for he died for your Iraqi sins on the Iraqi wooden cross...
Good God, the irony is just too much. Someone ought to make a film and I am willing to starr as the one who is "stuck at the red light".
The Iraqi story is a long story...a very long story.
There are so many angles to it and so many corners and so many players.
It is no ordinary occupation story. It is unique, very unique just like Iraq herself.
"Hey my occupation belongs to me" kind of thing...
What a desperate attempt to regain control of at least something...my occupation belongs to me and to no one else...it is mine.
Sheer madness brought on about losing everything else...
Why can't they find something for our PTSD ?
A swimming pool maybe, a couple of chinese masseurs, or a Thursday night disco?
Or can someone call the priest so I can confess my sins and maybe he can exorcise me from him and his lot's presence in my life?
Those who beefed up (or porked up) the Green Zone were not only the Halliburtons and Co.
There were other caterers as well. Do you want to know whom?
The Arabs of course. You have the Egpytian, Saudi, Kuwaiti, Lebanese, Syrian...middle man.
And do you know who else? I know it will shock you, but hey, the whole Iraqi saga is shocking, you might as well hear the whole thing. The Palestinian middle man. Yes him.
When the CPA was comfortably settling in the Green Zone and putting out tenders, the biggest bidders for catering, food, laundry....contracts were the "prominent" Palestinian families settled in Jordan.
These families would sign contracts with the American army during the day and organize charity dinners and anti-zionist talks in the evenings in solidarity with Jerusalem and the West Bank.
There is an old persian saying that goes: "Don't stir the shit, it might smell worse".
Well I just did...
A new "leaked" oil report from the "Iraqi Government", points to the partition of Iraq into three states. Something I have been repeating over and over and arguing that it is for that sole purpose that the demographic changes through ethnic cleansing are taking place.(with the generous help of Iran through its sectarian militias).
Iraq is finished and lost for ever...at least for a long, long time.
Iraqis and Arabs you should be so fucking proud of yourselves now.
Take your millions to the grave with you but I doubt you will find a paradise beyond...
There was one here and yes it was not perfect but you sold it for a very cheap price as cheap as you.
Today's Iraq is your own mirror.
Painting: Iraqi painter, one of the pionners, the late Khaled Al-Qassab.
Comments
By: Paolo Bassi
2006/04/27
Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution the West has presented, with depressing consistency, a distorted image of Iran portraying it as a seething mass of Islamic fanaticism. Those unaware of Iran 's rich history could be forgiven for believing that Iran knows nothing but Islam. The reality is far more complex and hopeful. Publicly most Iranians accept their Islamic identity, however, most are also aware of their pre-Islamic Iranian identity. The tension between these competing identities has existed since the Arab-Islamic takeover of Iran in the seventh century AD.
In 632 A.D., the founder of Islam, Mohammad, died but left his new Islamic state in Arabia with a clear message to conquer, convert and subdue all other faiths. The Muslim Arabs, armed with their new Islamic faith, and hungry for land and wealth, unleashed a devastating war of conquest and within 30 years they had conquered a huge empire stretching from North Africa to N.W. India. The Arab conquerors imposed Islam so successfully that the pre-Islamic history of the conquered peoples was virtually erased from historic consciousness. The Arabs did not seek mere military conquest but also sought to conquer the culture and identity of the defeated nations. Islam was to have no rivals. The political nature of Islam demanded that a conquered people, such as the Iranians, not only convert to Islam but also to regard their past history as a time of darkness before the light of Islam came. In attacking Iranian identity, one of the most infamous acts of the Arab invaders was to burn Iranian libraries full of centuries of collected knowledge. The Islamic logic to justify this vandalism was that if this Iranian knowledge agreed with the Koran, then it was superfluous and if it contradicted the Koran, then such books should be destroyed. An unbeatable argument!
Islam adamantly required conquered people to scorn their own past and love their Islamic Arab conquerors by striving to imitate them. More importantly, the Koran is written in Arabic and Islam's sacred places, Mecca and Medina, are in Arabia. It was clear that the conquered and newly converted had to accept the primacy of the Arabic language, Arabic values and above all Arabia itself. After all, Mohammad was an Arab and since Islam regards him as the best example of a human, Arab values cannot be rejected, without implicitly rejecting Islam and Mohammad. Islam as an imperial culture brought deeper and more profound psychological changes to the cultures it conquered than European colonialism ever could. Islam struck at human identity itself. Along with Islam's cultural demands, its political ambition was to include all Muslims in an Islamic world without borders, in which the only permissible political allegiance was to the world-wide Muslim community, Allah and Mohammad. There was no place in such a world for a conquered people's pre-Islamic history or national identity.
After the arrival of Islam, Iran faced the most critical test in its history. Would its ancient, tolerant Zoroastrian culture survive or would Islam and Arab culture replace the unique Iranian identity. Alternatively, could Iran somehow transform Islam into a palatable Iranian form? These questions have characterized Iran since the Islamic takeover. It is true, Islam has become the dominant cultural force, yet Iranian identity, rooted in its Zoroastrian past, has never quite conceded defeat. The tension remains to this day. For example "no ruz" or the Iranian new year (based on a Zoroastrian practice) is condemned by the Islamic clerics as a pagan practice, yet is widely celebrated. In addition, the achievements of the ancient Achaemenian period (whose empire was conquered by Alexander the Great in the 4th Century B.C.) and its classical civilization, have never left the Iranian collective psyche. The ruins of Persepolis are a constant reminder that there was great Iranian past a thousand years before Islam was even born. Not even the mullahs can deny evidence that is carved in rock.
During the Abbassid period, Ferdowsi (b.935), perhaps Iran 's greatest amongst many great poets, wrote the epic "Shahnameh" (story of kings) and reclaimed the Iranian past and language from Arabic influence. Ferdowsi's poetry openly proclaims the superiority of Iran's culture and laments the Arab invasion. He accepts Islam itself as a fact of life without directly criticizing its teachings. However, Ferdowsi has nothing but contempt for the Arabs themselves and cannot forgive them. At times Ferdowsi's poetry even condemns the imposition of Islam itself. It is revealing that Ferdowsi's tomb is still revered by Iranians despite the ruling Islamic theocracy.
Islam's relegation of the pre-Islamic past of the conquered non-Arab peoples, to an era of "darkness" was one of the major themes of the Indian author, V.S. Naipaul's Nobel Prize winning books, "Among the Believers' and "Beyond Belief". Naipaul proposes that conquered peoples, such as the Iranians and Indonesians, had been separated by Islam from their complete and true historical past, and removed again by European colonialism and this disconnect has resulted in an inner anxiety and crisis of identity. Take for example Islamist movements in Indonesia and Philippines, in which young Asian Muslims imitate Arabic appearance and call for Israel's destruction, yet they have no ethnic, cultural or historic connection with Palestinians. Both Islamic and subsequent western colonialism, according to Naipaul, have robbed the "conquered peoples" from their true selves, such that there is an inner loss of identity and a yearning to belong to some cause.
There have been times when Iran has dared to remember its past. In 1926, Reza Khan was crowned the first Pahlavi King of Iran and as part of his reforms he made it clear that he regarded Islam as a foreign imposed faith that should not determine Iran 's identity. As part of his attack on Islam, Reza Khan connected his new Iran with the ancient Zoroastrian past. The Farsi language was purged of Arabic words, architecture began to take inspiration from ancient Achaemenian styles and schoolbooks were re-written to enhance an Iranian identity. Cities were renamed with Iranian names, parents were encouraged to give Iranian, and not Arabic, names to their children. In 1935 Persia itself was replaced with Iran, as it was known in the days of Cyrus the Great. These reforms were of course reversed after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
It conclusion, it seems that Iranian history has swung back and forth between its Arab imposed Islamic identity and its older Zoroastrian culture. The latter simply refuses to die. Just as an individual struggles with conflicting loyalties and identities until they are reconciled, so do entire nations and cultures. As long as Iran 's ancient identity is denied and denigrated, Iranian public life will be dishonest and contradictory. According to Islam, all history before Islam was an era of "darkness" and should be discarded. This is a frightening Orwellian belief, that the world witnessed first hand with the Taliban's destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha statues. If the Iranian past is to regain its rightful place, it must be prepared to attack this identity-destroying aspect of Islam and re-claim its own past.
A terrible shame on those Iraqis who have betrayed their land for material rewards. When we leave this earth eventually, an honourable name lives on for eternity - everything else remains behind.
Read it first then come again with your idiocy.
Thank you.
They are utterly disgusting !
I`m russian and we have lost more than 30million of our people during Great patriotic war,my granddad was an officer,he was one of those who defended Stalingrad.He told me it was hell on earth but even in most difficult moments they never thought to betray motherland.I always think about those iraqis who bertayed their beautiful Iraq what kind of people they are,how could they collaborate with american filth in destroying their homeland ?they are worse than animals.Unfortunately there are so many traitors among arabs,this is why the situation is like it is now in Palestine and Iraq.Sorry for bad english.
You come here slinging shit and call "these" people traitors?
That is definately the teapot calling the kettle black!
And as for the "fat, obnoxious Americans" you mother fucking Brit chicken shits would have been laid waste by Adolf Hitler BUT the USA came and FOUGHT FOR you.
AND....As for british "involvement" in the occupation of Iraq, again, you sissy no bollock cunts were sent to the back of the line!
Your no bollock master Blair cut the deal with Bush to "stay in the fight" but he negotiated keeping the brit's out of the line of fire!
All because when the brit society began to raise hell Blair did what was needed to keep them at ease so they wouldn't throw him out of his seat.
How many Brits died last month there?
One or two?
How many total you no bollocks punk rat bastard?
NOT EVEN 200!
You need to take your monarchial fascist two faced child like behavior to another site and let these people carry on their own business.
But I don't expect you will, just like your cunt loving Elizebeth and rat nosed Charles you simply must beg for attention with your "quiet desparation" typical english.
History has ALWAYS shown you brits to be a disrespectful, untrustworthy, lying lot of trash.
But this time your stinking scum country will go up in flames right beside of America.
I hope Harry gets it right in the fucking head as soon as he's deployed.
Oh....yeah....I forgot, you pussy's don't even get shot at.
Eat shit baby Brit.
a) i dont really care
b) ure a knobhead
c) i very much doubt britain (or america) will be going up in flames anytime soon.....sorry
cheerio tubby!!!!
a very powerful and evocative piece.....these traitors shud hang their heads in shame
YOU did not come here to discuss the politics of Layla.
You came here to slander people and demean them.
So fuck you.
As I stated previously, you are another example of the brit trade mark of "look at me".
YOU turned this discussion toward yourself .
YOU drew first blood.
You drew the attention toward yourself.
You called people names and voiced your opinion in a rude, argumetative and extremely brash manner.
YOU should do the same as your master Blair is now suggesting about his poor endangered troops, and withdraw from this board.
Your smart mouth and rude behavior are not wanted.
So either understand that, as the fact it is.
Or come here and get slapped like the bitch you are.
Be civil and you can get respect here.
I see a bit of civility in you...
Build on it and just be polite.
Ba an adult and be treated as one.
Be a child and be treated as one.
It's YOUR choice
Before expounding on your other information, you say "a) i dont really care"-Then why do you come here?
Because you are board and want to irritate people.
You need a reason to come here and I believe that is your reason.
And like others, if you don't positivly contribute then you should go somewhere where you do.
If thats possible.
I would like to tell all my friends here a little story of why Jr Coyote got his name. He reminds me of this short four legged.
By White River Sioux
- My Balls For Your Dinner? -
Iktome, the wicked Spider Man, and Skunk-Manitou,Coyote, are two no- good loafers. they lie, they steal, they are greedy, they are always after women. Maybe because they are so very much alike, they are friends, except when they try to trick each other.
One day Iktome invited Coyote for dinner at his lodge. Ikto told his wife;
"Old woman, here are two fine, big buffalo livers for my friend Coyote and myself. Fry them up nicely, the way I like them. And get some timpsila, some wild turnips, on the side, and afterwards serve us up some wajapi, some berry soup. Use choakcheeries for that. Coyote always likes something sweet after his meal."
"Is that all?" said Iktome's wife
"I guess so, I can't think of anything else."
"There's no third liver for me?" the wife inquired.
"You can have what's left after my friend Coyote and I have eaten," said Iktome. "Well, I'll go out for a while; maybe I can shoot a few fine, plump duck too. Coyote always stuffs himself, so one liver might not be enough for him. But watch this good friend of mine; don't let him stick his hands under your robe. He likes to do that. Well, I go now. Have everything ready for us; Coyote never likes to wait."
Iktome left and his old woman got busy cooking.
"I know who's always stuffing himself," she thought, "I know whose hands are always busy feeling under some girls robe. I know who can't wait - it's that no-good husband of mine."
The fried livers smelled so wonderful that the wife said to herself; "Those greedy, stringy, overbearing men! I know them; they'll feast on these fine livers, and a few turnips will be what they leave me. They have no consideration for a poor woman."
"Oh, that liver here looks good, smells so good; I know it tastes good. Maybe I'll try a little piece, just a tiny one. They won't notice."
So the wife tasted a bit of the liver, and then another bit, and then another, and in no time at all that liver was gone.
"I might as well eat the other one too," the wife said to herself and she did. "What will I do now?" she thought. "when Iktome finds out, he'll surely beat me. But it was worth it!"
Just then Coyote arrived. He had dressed himself up in a fine beaded outfit with fringed sleaves.
"Where is my good friend Iktome?" he asked. "Whats he up to? Probably nothing good."
"How are you, friend?" said the woman, "My husband, Iktome, is out taking care of business - he'll be back soon. Sit down; be comfortable."
"Out on business - you don't say!" remarked Coyote, quickly sticking his hand under the woman's robe and between her legs.
"Iktome told me you'd try to do that."
"Oh, Iktome and I are such good friends," said Coyote, "we share everything."
He joked, he chucked the woman under the chin, he tickled her under her arms, and pretty soon he was all the way in her; way, way up inside her.
"It feels so good," said the woman, "but be quick about it. Iktome could be back any time now."
"You think he'd mind, seeing were such good friends?"
"I'm sure he would. You better stop now."
"Well, all right, it smells very good here, but I see no meat cooking, just some timpsila. Meat is what I like."
"And meat is what you'll get. One sees this is the first time that you've come here for dinner; otherwise you'd know what you'll get. We always serve a guest the same thing. Everybody likes it."
"Is it really good?"
"It's more then good. It's lila washtay, very good."
Coyote smacked his lips, his mouth watering. "I can't wait. What is it? Tell me!"
"Why, your itka, your susu, your eggs, your balls, you big harry balls! We always have the balls of our guests for dinner."
"Oh my! This must be a joke, a very bad joke."
"It's no joke at all. And I'd better cut them off right now with my big skinning knife, because it's getting late. Ikto gets mad when I don't have his food ready---he'll beat me. And there I was fooling around with you instead of doing my cooking. I'll do it right now; Drop your breechcloth. You won't feel a thing, I do it fast. I have a lot of practice."
The woman came after Coyote with the knife in her hand.
"Wait a bit," said Coyote. "Before you do this, let me go out and make some water. I'll be right back." and saying this, he ran out of the lodge.
But he didn't come back. He ran and ran as fast as his feet would carry him.
Just then Iktome came back without any ducks; he had cought nothing. He saw Coyote running away and asked, "Old woman, what's the matter with that crary friend of mine? Why is he running off like that?"
"Your good friend is greedy. He doesn't have the sharing spirit." his wife told Iktome.
"Never invite him again. He has no manners. He Doesn't know how to behave. He saw those two fine buffalo livers, which I cooked just as you like them , and didn't want to share them with you. He grabbed them and made off with them. Some friend!"
Iktome rushed out of the lodge in a frenzy, running after Coyote as fast as he could shouting;
"Coyote! Kola! Friend! Leave me at least one! Leave one for me! For your old friend Iktome!'
Coyote didn't stop. He ran even faster then Ikto.
Running, running, he looked back over his shoulder and shouted;
"Cousin, if you can catch me, you can have both of them!"
This is how jr became jr coyote. Very fitting for the coyote he is.
Bless all my Good Friends!
Love and Peace to all,
Savage American Warrior
anon u cretin plz stop dragging dis board down to your level.....there are other places on the internet whree u can go n which i think u will find r more suited to your level.....so plz kindly piss off
If you don't like hearing a story about your own life go to another campfire this was to my friends. To bad if you do not like it or the ways of my peoples.
Are you brave enough to tell me what country you come from or rock you may have climbed out from under.
And another thing did your dad beat your mother in front of you cause you sure have no respect for women for what ever reason.
You can beat on me all you want but be a man if you're even a man I don't even know that, but then again maybe you don't know either.
But by some strange fact you are stop beating on women and get a life.
I will be praying for your mental condition and you can leave God out of it my little man. Hope your headache is better brother!
P/S God loves you!!!
Savage "American" Warrior
YOU are my level....
one provocation to another.
And I don't need to piss right now.
And maybe.
Just maybe.
This IS the place to post as we like.
I know that society has lain you to waste, done you wrong, cheated you, lied to you, beat you down like a dog.
Iv'e seen one common ground here
And I am LITTERALLY LAUGHING HARD AT THIS.
"........bless all my gd friends!!......may god have mercy on u all"
(I PROMISE YOU I AM LAUGHING AS I READ IT!)
You say this and DON'T include yourself.
You idiot----LOL------LOL
You are seriously not well in some way, did you know that?
I recomend that you seek professional help if you have the means to do so.
Warrior has recognized it.
I know it is hard, but you should try before you deteoriate to the point of total madness....
You poor soul.
(Oh goodness, I DID SO ENJOY THE LAUGH!)
P.S.
And Elizebeth's sexual habits are none of my concern. But I can see where all of this might affect you.
Oh............and I don't WANT no mercy.
Certainly am not expecting it.
Not here on this web site, not in this life, or the next.
I will defend any of my own actions.
If I am to be rewarded or punished it is not up to me.
Ta