Mirror, Mirror on the Wall...


Let me ask you something.
Are you as bothered as I am by not knowing the whole Truth?

If anything, the Iraqi "experience" has managed to raise so many questions not only about politics per se but also about perceptions, resilience, sense of belonging, emotions, impulses...in short about humans.

I do not wish to engage you in some phenomenological exercise. I am simply at a point where I need to corner that reflection in the mirror, I need to corner that Truth.

Moving from the political to the personal, from the outside to the inside...
Something about losing one's country is very hard to express in words.
I find myself constantly rummaging through concepts, phrases, trying to find accurate nouns, precise verbs and it keeps slipping through my fingers, evading me, eluding me...

The only sentence I found that is probably as close to what I need to express, came from a mail I received from a fellow Iraqi and this is what he had to say:
"Since March 19, 2003 I am a shadow of my former self. The past four years have changed me forever."
Another mail tells me the same thing using slightly different wordings:
"I no longer recognize myself, I am beside myself..."

Simple powerful sentences that reveal something deep and true...
It sounds as if that former Self that one knows or has gotten used to has also been invaded and occupied...changed forever.
It sounds as if this is no longer my country, this is no longer my home, this is no longer my self...
I am no longer myself. I am shadow of me as if someone else or something else took over and I am standing by the sides watching it all and I no longer recognize anything...

It goes beyond bewilderment, amazement, stupefaction, or shock...It is worse.
It is estrangement from one's self.

We have become strangers to ourselves, strangers to one another, strangers to society, strangers to the group and strangers within...beside ourselves.

And am still trying to find the words...the right words...that inner truth that will convey to you the exactness...So I will give myself the freedom to use whatever images come to mind.

Whenever I take the time to ponder on this tragic "loss" of country and self, I am assailed by several visions that keep intruding.

One of them is a forced brutal violent delivery by forceps of a premature infant, unwilling to be born yet, an unnatural forced labor resulting in an unnatural birth.
A premature infant being placed in some incubator. A tight cocoon, spending the rest of your days grappling in total aloneness, struggling with your vital functions to feed yourself, breath...survive.
Unassisted by any life saving machine and the cocoon gets tighter and tighter and you are grappling even more...
You try to grip onto anything and that anything becomes like a totem, a talisman which you infuse with some life impulse, hoping against hope, it will keep you intact...

It can be a memory that you rehearse in your head in its minutest details, a song that you listen to over and over again, a piece of art that you keep admiring even though you know it by heart, a sentence that has provided you with warmth and that you repeat endlessly...anything that keeps the umbilical cord from irretrievably snapping...
Anything to keep a seeming sense of belonging in the face of loss...
Anything to stay alive and not go insane...

Another image that comes to mind is being in a boat with no sails, no oars, no anchor, no rudder, no compass and no life jacket and you are just floating and you do not know if you will end up anywhere or you may just drown any minute...totally at the mercy of the waves and the direction the winds blow.

The feeling that accompanies these images is akin to someone suddenly pulling the rug from under your feet and you come crashing down on your face and everytime you try to stand up...the rug is pulled again and again and again...

You see, it is not only about losing some "territorial" grounds. It is not only about the occupation of a land or the destruction of some house or some building... These are only the tip of the iceberg.
It goes beyond all of that...
It is about losing your own grounds, your signposts, your anchors, your references...
It is about losing your inner edifice, your own inner structure...

And it goes beyond losing too, because losing implies you can find "it" again...

Here, I would like to use the Palestinian example for comparisons.
The Palestinians lost their land through a brutal illegal occupation by the Jews.
I call it a colonization.
Iraqis did not lose land as such...even though they are illegally occupied and colonized too.

Yes, I found the word now...It is not only about losing your country...It is about disintegration...
DIS-INTEGRATION
Something was integrated, made whole and now disintegrates, fragments...
The Palestinians have one "advantage" over us Iraqis. They still have that point of reference. The land out there. They can see it in their imagination, dream of it, long for it...
It is still there somehow and still whole even though violently occupied by someone else. It is there solid...immutable...
For Iraqis, the land is still here...but we ourselves have disintegrated into a chaos...we have fragmented inside out...
The fabric is torn into a thousand shreds...It is not even a jigsaw puzzle you can try reassembling. It is more like a porcelain cup shattered into a thousand pieces...

It is so hard to explain in words. Being beside oneself...a shadow of your former self...so hard to find the right words...

I will try again...searching for the correct sentences.

For many years, Iraq was forgotten by the rest of the Arab world and by the so called international community. At least this is the impression one had.
We were conveniently forgotten by the rest of the world during an 8 year war with Iran that bled us to near death...
Then we came back to the limelight, to the forefront of your TV screens.
Demonized as a ruthless lot, bombed senseless then deliberately forgotten again during 13 years of vicious sanctions...forgotten till we became non beings.
Maybe numbers but nothing beyond.
Then back onto your TV screens. Demonized some more and bombed some more...

Since this process of vilification, demonization and dehumanization has been going on for several years, it was easy to invade and occupy us.
Not only physically but in your minds too...
In other words you made sure it does not pose you a deep ethical problem ...since over the years we came to be viewed as a nuisance, a number, or maybe something else, but in any case, no longer human...

Hence it came as no surprise when one of your so called anti-war heroes came up with this sentence "Iraqis are people too"
It is as if you need to pinch yourselves every now and then to remind yourselves that we do belong to the human race after all...or maybe not fully or maybe not at all...
The ugly violence and brutality with which your government, your voters, your soldiers, your media has dealt with us only point to one thing. In your mind's eyes we are a non-people.

This is not even racism. This goes beyond racism...It is not even extermination. It goes beyond extermination...
It is as if we did not exist to start with. In your minds we were non existent. A land inhabited by something but not a people.
Only that can explain the total disintegration you have subjected us to.
Consequently, it must be so easy for you to write us off with numbers and ratios, and ultimately with death.

I bet you would not even treat a stray dog that way for a dog exists in your mind but Iraqis don't.
Except of course, those you have chosen and picked and delineated into "ethnic" subdivisions, drawing up mental and physical borders and checkpoints ...
But still, I am absolutely certain that even these temporarily favored clans of your invention, you do not see as a people.
They are just your pawns for the time being and they too will become non-existent the minute they decide to stop selling their souls to you.

Do you now understand what am talking about? Are my words precise enough?
I am on the other side of the Mirror and am telling you of your perceptions of us and reflecting it all back to you.

I, in fact believe, only a very small fraction of you are really capable of any form of self awareness...
I see you as robots, mental robots for whom independent thought is a terrible struggle.
You are beyond brainwashed...
What separates me from you other than oceans, distances and a hideous occupation that has made me detest you, is a multi layered veil with which you have covered not only your minds but your eyes and your hearts as well...
In fact behind that thick iron wall of yours, you are nothing but a dead people. Your souls are dead, your minds are dead and your hearts are dead...

Yes we have disintegrated.
Yes we have been uprooted, snatched from our beings, alienated and estranged...
Beside ourselves, a shadow of someone we used to be...
Yes we have been slaughtered by the thousands and killed and yes you have destroyed us beyond repair...
Yes you have fragmented us, fractioned us, minced us, shattered us, scattered us into tiny pieces inside out...
Yes you liquified us and have withdrawn life from us... asphyxiating us, blocking oxygen from entering our sytem, sucking all our ressources including the air that we needed to breath...like a premature baby in some incubator...
Yes we have nothing left but a hollow look on yellowed, bruised faces. Yellowed by your apathy, indifference, carelessness and bruised by your viciousness.
Yellowed like some pages from an old forgotten history book.
The sadness, the loss, the grief, the pain are so vast, so immeasurable...we have no words left.
Most of the time we keep silent. We still manage to look into each other's eyes and we blink in recognition...
We glance at one another and we nod in acknoweldgement
No words uttered...It is so hard to find the right words when one becomes a shadow of your selves...
We nod and we know.

Yet by some strange paradox whose wordings again elude me, I cannot seem to shake off that perception that continously occupies my mind.

The perception that you have disintegrated quite some time ago...way before we did...into fragments...irretrievably lost.
The image of you being that premature infant with parasitic vital functions, living off like some amoeba...growing into a monster perfected by your killing sprees...
In fact you have ceased to exist for quite some time now...being beside yourselves, a shadow of something you used to be... or thought you were...
In fact you are already dead and mummified and you know it not.
What you are doing to us, you have already done to yourselves and continue doing to yourselves...
We have become your own reflection in that Mirror...
Does it not bother you not realizing that whole, simple Truth ?

Painting: Iraqi artist, Farooq Hassan.

Comments

Anonymous said…
A world-endangering foreign policy is the symptom, JEW IS THE DISEASE.
Anonymous said…
Mirror, Mirror, on the wall,
who is the most truthful of them all?
Why it's my dear Layla!!!

My dear sweet sister I've been thinking about you a lot but been catching up with my dear sister Little Deer , she is such an angel.

As always you put it all on the line and do such a good job at it. The rest of us would be head deep in lies and shit if not for you. I love you and your good works, keep em coming.

Savage
old hack said…
Can you translate this for me?

its in a song "elroy akbar"

www.myspace.com/oldhack
Anonymous said…
Salam sis,

Isn't making you lose your identity one of the objectives of this occupation? I mean, stealing the measuems, murdering the scientists and thinkers, murdrering the legitimate government, blowing up the statue of Abu Jaffar Al-Mansour (the founder of Baghdad), emphasizing on the division along sunni shia or kurd lines, etc..

All these things are designed by the occupation to make us lose track of who we are and get to the point that you are now writing about.

We are Iraqis. We are the decsendents of Abraham. We are the descendants of Salah Al-Deen. We are the descendnats of Saddam Hussein.

Do not forget who you are nor be disssuaded by the plots and schemes of the evildoers...For although they plot and scheme, there is the Most High who will retunr their scheming onto them and the destroy them by our hands.

Layth
LostHere said…
“The fabric is torn into a thousand shreds...It is not even a jigsaw puzzle you can try reassembling. It is more like a porcelain cup shattered into a thousand pieces...”

You are a master word-smith, Layla.
You do not see with the eyes of a mere human, an Iraqi, a woman… you see with the eyes of a poet. Poets seem to posses a sight that is more complex, more profound, as if able to see deeper …into the soul of the matter.

I don’t know who you are, or what your history is. You not only are perfectly fluid with the English language and its nuances, including American slang and mannerisms, but you seem to have a very keen vision of the society itself… Is it because of your poet eyes that you can observe so keenly? I do not know, nor that it is important why, what is important is that you are able to assimilate it, digest it, and regurgitate it back to us, already put into words. And I don’t just mean words, empty words, as we can see in all the media etc. …dehumanized words, more akin to numbers than to feelings. Those are not your words, yours come full of sentiment, of feeling; they are ancient words if you will. They have a visceral meaning. They are not the kind of words that are read and flush through. No, your words incite thought.

I may not agree with what you say or your politics, I don’t know, but what I know is that reading you awakens in me some of my lethargic humanity.

“You are beyond brainwashed...” you said.
Absolutely right! No body is brainwashed here, just conditioned witch is even worst. I don’t know if as you say “…your souls are dead, your minds are dead and your hearts are dead...”, but if not dead, certainly in a lethargic stupor where dead is the inevitable course.
Anonymous said…
Dear Ms Anwar,
This is no comment and may seem irrelevant, but... would you by any chance know what's happened to Gabriele Zamparini (The Cat's Dream) ? I hope nothing wrong. However his blog has been mute for more than two months now and - without a word's notice - it seems strange.
I have been reading you for some time and will certainly go on.
Sorry for intruding.
Thanks for everything.
Caherine Lieutenant, in Belgium
catherine.lieutenant@scarlet.be
LJansen said…
Layla,
I'd say dear Layla, but I am North American and I don't think I can be endeared to you.

You have captured the essence of us in this entry.

Which explains why it is so difficult for people who do have some idea of what is happening cannot rouse the others to action to stop our government. We are dead. And dragging you down with us.

Not much I can say.
Anonymous said…
"Something about losing one's country is very hard to express in words."

Yes. I agree.
Although my loss is pale in comparison to that of Iraq.
But believe it or not, I feel the pain. And I have cried real tears...for a country I knew little of until my government introduced me to it in 2003.
As I have said before, I am a hyper-sensitive person. And it is quite cumbersome at most times...

"I find myself constantly rummaging through concepts".
As do I Layla.
And there is nothing remotely sensible about any of it. At least not by MY definitions.
If anything, the OBVIOUSNESS of all pertaining situations is disheartening in the fact that it continues to unfold without end in sight.
And I am gussing the powers that be who have orchestrated it all are pleased with their works.
Considering all things pertaining to be simply "a game". Since they are well fed, well protected. Safe and secure in their own realities...

"We have become strangers to ourselves, strangers to one another, strangers to society, strangers to the group and strangers within..."
I feel the power of your words in relation to my own countrymen. For the majority sit idle and do nothing as the entire system as we knew it collapses, giving the blood and oil thirsty mongerals all the more power to control the masses.
Giving us the name across the globe as "sheeple".
A brand across my back that I despise. Painted with a very broad red hot branding iron...

"Anything to keep a seeming sense of belonging-Anything to stay alive and not go insane..."
Again I feel the power of your words. My children being the only thing which keeps me anchored in any way, and even still, I pace the floors and wring my hands in worry as to what kind of future...if any....they will have.

"just floating and you do not know if you will end up anywhere-totally at the mercy of the waves and the direction the winds blow."
Life, if it can be called that. I tend to view it as being alive with no life. Is this the living dead?
I try to be thankful, and to get some sense of joy from a sunny day. But in my heart I know what the realities are and it dampens any shred of a smile I my attempt or any happyness I may try to feel.
My "feelings" have been glued to a cycle of anger, depression, sadness, anxiety, and apathy..
Would rather feel pain than nothing at all?
No. I don't think I like it this way.

"You see, it is not only about losing some "territorial" grounds. It is not only about the occupation of a land or the destruction of some house or some building... These are only the tip of the iceberg.
It goes beyond all of that..."
Again you are correct and I am glad that you see it.
I only wish it were not true.

"The ugly violence and brutality with which your government, your voters, your soldiers, your media has dealt with us only point to one thing. In your mind's eyes we are a non-people."
Again I am branded by a situation that I have no control over. And I do not feel that way. I have cried for Iraq and I continue to cry, knowing the larger picture of the best of the worst still yet to come.
And with no elaboration to detail I want to say that I too feel as a "non-person". I have wrote here before that USA is a devided country of the rich and the poor. The poor are "non-people". People who, in the mind set of our leaders, were "doomed from birth".
Poverty being the crime and oppression being the hand that holds you down.

"to write us off with numbers and ratios, and ultimately with death."
Again I will not detail it, but it is happening here as well. Just in a more covert way. Not with bombs or phosphorus, and in all honesty the day when the streets will be patrolled by armed soldiers IS coming. I can provide proof. The writing is on the wall.
How else can they control the dissidents and patriots in order to continue their foolish charade in the middle east. And across the globe.

"I see you as robots, mental robots for whom independent thought is a terrible struggle."
75%, or more of the American public.
Even the novice chyster can lead them by the nose to their own gallows. And convince them it is for their own good.
And yes.....they will believe it.

"Your souls are dead, your minds are dead and your hearts are dead..."
Again, 75% or more.
And totally oblivious to the fact.
Consumed with what is fed them by the puppet masters.

Your writings are again a bounty of emotional and spiritual testiment.
I respect you Layla and will always know what I know of you.
And the same respect is within me for your people, your cultue, and the history of Iraq.
You have brought me as close to the other side as I suppose I will ever be.
And I will never forget your writings...


Before I go I want to mention something.
Do you recall people posting here complaining of hacking attempts on their computers?
I do.
And I myself was bombarded by repeated hack attempts for the last two weeks. They could not break my security but my curiosity led me to trace the incoming ISP address's.
And not much to my surprise, guess where the attempts were coming from.

Halliburton, U.S.Department of Defense, and Lockheed Martin.

Again, I invite them to come closer if it is what they want.
I have nothing to hide, like the many innocent Iraqis you have wrote of.
I have nothing to hide and if you want me then I say to you come closer.
It is all only a matter of time anyway....


"We still manage to look into each other's eyes and we blink in recognition..."

I hope you can see, if only a shred, the reletivity in my message.

Peace and love to you dear Layla.
God (where ever he is) bless you.
Ike
Anonymous said…
Speaking of the poetry of your words, I remember when Saddam said, "A nation without poets is a nation without leaders."

That's really a very profound statement, and it is words like these, coming from a man reviled as a tyrant and a monstor that convinced me he is neither of those things. Quite the contrary, he was a Poet Warrior, a mystic leader, as you are.

America is a nation without poets, without leaders. It has no real capacity for genuine love. It only has self-loathing, which it projects onto others, and which is now being reflected back on itself.

No amount of political analysis will uncover this truth like your poetry can.
Anonymous said…
dis is of the finest pieces of writings ive ever read!!! n let me tell u, i am a very well read person .....ive read shakespeare, chaucer, miller, smith, orwell, orwells dad, dickenson ,in fact, anyone of note......and so as sum1 of good standing i can confirm this piece is great....good stuff "layla"
Anonymous said…
Now i'm starting to get strange email from the world's top propaganda machine: Isreal

The first part is my reply and the bottom part the original email.
Wish i had been smart and thought to ask about how the brutal murder of Rachel Corrie by an Israeli bulldozer fits into her idea of being peaceful???


You mean i could go to Israel and see for myself what is going on in the occupied territories, and not be denied entrance, like Bishop Desmond Tutu was when he requested to see the concentration camps that Israel uses to hold the Palestinians?
Maybe i'll wait until after the USA and Israel bomb Iran back to the stone age.

Greg Bacon


On Mar 30, 2007, at 6:56 PM, Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi wrote:

You are so wrong in what you think Israel is like. It is a country whose people and leaders want peace. You should go there – see for yourself!



Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi

Founder & President

The Israel Project

2020 K Street, N.W.

Washington, DC 20006

202-857-6644 phone

202-857-6674 fax
Anonymous said…
On the subject of people.

Last night I cried...
My eye's filled with tears as MSNBC announced the winner of the Arab television show SUPERSTAR.
The winner of the singing competition being Shada Hassoon from Iraq.

The tears came when a family from Baghdad was shown as they displayed their pride in this young lady.
Their home was beautiful.

My sadness came from knowing the truth.
The truth of the situation in Baghdad and throughout Iraq.
One single moment of happiness and smiles from a family who must live in constant fear.
And a beautiful family they were.

Yes. They are people.
I know because I have a family of my own and we too.....are people.

My emotions tore through my entire being as happiness, sadness, and anger spewed from my heart and soul, all at the same time.

I am happy for the BEAUTIFUL young lady who won the compition.
I am sad for the family who lives in fear.
I am angry for many reasons.

The tears are coming back again now as I write this.
Scalding my eye's as they fill, and burning my heart as they flow.

As always, I am just one man.

But I am a person.
A human being.

And I cry for you Iraq.

The confusion is overwhelming and I am overcome.

I am American.
And NO PERSON can ever know my shame for what my government has done.
It is a pain only I can know.
And to live with, for the rest of my life.

Congratulations Shada Hassoon.

And my deepest, honest, and most sincere sympathy to you...the people of Iraq.
Anonymous said…
"My emotions tore through my entire being as happiness, sadness, and anger spewed from my heart and soul, all at the same time."

lol wot a muppet....plz leave the poetry to layla
Anonymous said…
i say greg old chap, dat was a jolly good response.....bravo!!!
Anonymous said…
Anonymous,

don't worry. Gabriele Zamparini is alive and well. He is terribly busy at work and I fear he is a bit depressed because of the iraqi situation. But I promise you that soon Gabriele will write another great piece. I have already ticked him off ;-) We all miss his wonderful articles.
Anonymous said…
JR.

With every ounce of AMERICAN bone in my body I have two words for you.

FUCK YOU.
Anonymous said…
Jr.

Now young man I am ashamed of you!
I can see that you have lapsed back into your old ways.
I was so proud to see your prior posts where you conducted yourself in a gentlemanly manner. But by attacking "Ike" it shows clearly that your mental condition is still not stablized.
So we have no choice but to continue your therapy, as well as to intensify it.

I see that you refer to "Ike" as a muppet.
Is this because of your denial of the fact that your master Tony Blair is, upon the stage of life, a real live puppet?
Is it because he rants and raves about how horrible it is that Iran has captured your 15 navy personnel while the facts are that Tony Blair ALLOWED this to happen?
It is common knowledge among the educated, that false flag operations are covert operations conducted by governments, corporations, or other organizations, which are designed to appear as if they are being carried out by other entities.
Meaning the british did it on purpose, entering into iranian waters as U.S. forces build up on the Iranian border. Setting the pretext for an Iranian invasion.
I can see that Blairs betrayal of his own military personnel has thrown you back into your pugnatious ways.

Jr. you must lead YOUR OWN life and not let the immoral and unjust ways of your government stray you from your own path to happiness.
But I can see and understand how hard it is for you to be happy when your laws and ways of life are dictated to you by an old woman whom should have been in the grave long ago, her son who's primary concern is keeping Camillas true identity as a man out of the public eye, and their lap dog Blair who bows to the most pathetic "man" on this planet...none other than little king George.

Jr. try to find comfort in the fact that when Britan does take action against Iran, there will be MANY, MANY little British soldiers who will die.
This will make Charles, Blair, and Camilla all feel like men.
Perhaps it will make you feel manly as well.

Again I instruct you to find employment and not be a burdon on your society, nor to your poor mother whom you still live with.
I have decide that rather than a ditch digger or garbage man, perhaps you should run for public office!
With your slanderous and uneducated ways of speaking you would certainly fit right in with the whole lot that runs your country.

And for now we will simply not discuss your erectile dysfunction.
Obviously the medication did not work. So for now you must remain impotent and focus on more important aspects of your mental diseases.

I will be watching you.
Anonymous said…
My oh my.
YOU are becoming ever so poular!

http://www.heyokamagazine.com/HEYOKA.7.PANO.JimKirwan.conversation.htm
Anonymous said…
theres no need to be so nasty ike!!
Anonymous said…
anon u knobjockey where is yo proof i am english u dipstick...

and i don't wish to become embroiled in pointless arguements but just to answer a few points:

the royal family is irrelevent

i wud cap the no of british deaths to 100, 120 max, which on the scale of things....isnt really that big

i make more money than u so button it
Anonymous said…
who da hell is jim kirwan????!
Anonymous said…
Ike,

Your heart is in the right place and the attacks from jr. coyote is only because it has lost his/her mind. So let him/her blow their shit.

Anon is trying to help him/her as much as they can, so don't feed the wild brit, jr coyote. I don't care how much he/she barks at your door don't let it in.

Anon, you may want to progress with jr. coyote's treatment in the direction of him/her being a drug addict because he/she is having a lot of recurrences.

Oh yes, Anon I also think jr coyote is feeling guilty for if not for his/her country the americans would of not have been able to attack Iraq. So I think he/she is blaming him/herself.

What ever it is a cure would be nice.

Savage A W
Anonymous said…
JR.
To address your first question, I need no proof in the fact that you are English.
It is the fact that you remain in denial that we must address if we are to get you well...

And there is no argument here, only my compassion for your sickness and pity for your immaturity.

The "Royal" family is very relavent. They are a major contributor to you sickness, and possibly your impotence as well. We all know that "Elizibeth" is simply the code name for Lizzy which is slang for Lesbian, as well as the fact that Camilla has a penis and not a vagina. ALL of these are factors that must be exposed and dealt with in order for you to get well.

As for your disrespect for "Ike", there again we can see the typical British pattern of attacking someone and then retreating into denial when they defend themselves against your attack.
This is much like your comment on the loss of British life when the Iranian confrontation begins. I must admit you are possibly correct on this on as the Americans will rush to your aid once the British initiate the conflict, thus leading to more loss of American life than that of British. Just like in the current occupation where the pretty pink litte Brittish soldiers are confined to the southern most regions and hardly, if ever face a fire fight or the remote possibility of danger. Oh won't we be proud of Harry when he get's there! He is such a brave little man! And you do know why they named him "hairy" don't you?

Now, on the subject of your employment, I am beginning to think that perhaps you should rekindle Monty Pythons Flying Circus because your mental retardation seems as though it may be to severe to reverse, thus leaving you as nothing more than something to be laughed at.

You might as well get paid for it.
Layla Anwar said…
SAW, Hello and good to see you back. Thanks as usual for the support.
Layla Anwar said…
Salam Layth,

As always, your words have a grounding effect on me...Bringing me back to basics. You are right, this is the plot to make you lose your identity and your roots...
Thanks for reminding me.
Layla Anwar said…
losthere, Thank you...Are you gazing in a mirror yourself? :-)
Layla Anwar said…
Hello Catherine,

I miss Gabriele's writings too :-(
If he is reading this by any chance, I really hope he will soon entice us with his wonderful posts again.
Layla Anwar said…
Ike, hello and good to read you again.
Thanks for your wonderful comments.
I too watched Shadha Hassoon. I usually don't watch this star academy thing...But I also voted for her with a text message. God knows how much I will be charged.
I cried when she won...I felt maybe, just maybe a woman's voice will unite us again...
It is amazing that you felt the same way Ike, even though you are miles away...Just shows that there are things and perceptions way above race and nationalities...
And am sure you understand in your heart of hearts...that when I go on the attack...and I lump it all...You know that I am aware that this is not the case.
Layla Anwar said…
Diana, thank you. Are you the same diana that I think you are ?
Layla Anwar said…
ljansen,

I have no personal hate against you as an individual...I hate the numbness inside and yes you said it beautifully well...dragging us down with you.
Layla Anwar said…
anonymous,

I do not know who Jim Kerwan is.
He might be famous in the US but just because he is famous there does not mean he is famous all over the world.
All I know is that Jim Kerwan took the uncensored anger manifesto part 4 and replied to it. He seemed to be offended by it...It seems that I am incapable of discriminating between kind americans and bad ones.
Did the american carpet bombs discriminate between Kind iraqis and bad ones? Or is the depleted uranium selective when it penetrates iraqi bodies?
or were the sanctions under the democrat Bill Clinton selective too?
Why is it incumbent on me to wear the lenses of impartial objectivity when I see nothing but a treatment en masse?
Maybe the popular Jim Kerwan has a reply to this one.
Layla Anwar said…
jr- what has gotten into you again and again and again?
Layla Anwar said…
old hack...
what is elroy akbar ? is that arabic?
I will check the link if I have the time and I usually like to hear please before a request.
Anonymous said…
"Diana, thank you. Are you the same diana that I think you are ?"

Is there another?

I've commented before if that identifies me as the Diana you think I am.

Cheers Layla :)
Anonymous said…
wot u talking abt layla???????
Anonymous said…
jim kerwan is a poor mans bill oreily -i think he can be safely ignored
Anonymous said…
good stuff anon........but im moving on to da next post.........c u there
Anonymous said…
Ms.Anwar,

My point here is unbiased and not a critique of your writings.
I simply wanted to show you, by exposing the Jim Kerwan link, that you are gaining attention.
Your blog is obviously growing in regard to the number of people who view it.
And to me, that is a good thing.

You are an artist during the trials of war.
Someone for Iraq to be proud of.
Anonymous said…
well sed anon
Anonymous said…
Layla, while I think you write beautifully, and I agree with quite a bit of what you write, I question your objectiveness and your judgment when you appear to be covering up for and referring to Saddam as some kind of hero, and point to a U.S./Israel/Iranian conspiracy rather than a U.S./Israel conspiracy to overthrow and put Iraq under its wings. Saddam used to be closely aligned with the U.S. and was trained by the CIA as well.

I have certainly not or never have been in support of the pre-emptive attack, invasion and occupation of Iraq. I have been opposed to it from before it even started, I was living in Hail, Saudi at the time it started and I used to hear the sound of jets flying over Saudi on their way to Iraq.
By the way, I am a Shia Muslim(couldn't say that in Saudi) convert of American decent with connections through my husband to South Lebanon, therefore I am ideologically against foreign occupation and ideologically support resistance to occupation. I am a Palestinian right supporter. And I am not anti-Iranian, anti-Arab, anti-Sunni, anti-Christian, or against any other groups, except for those who may be causing trouble for me or trying to kill me. While I am pro-Democracy and do not like dictatorships(living in Saudi was my first experience), I don't support forcing Democracy down anyones throat and I believe our U.S. foreign policy is un-Democratic and not in the American people's interests whatsoever or the people of the Middle East region's interests either. I am also not a supporter of any of the Shia groups in Iraq, I think they were wrong to welcome this invasion and occupation, and I see Maliki as an American puppet. Sayed Seestani happens to be my Marja even though he is much to quiet. And I think the war on the Shia of South Lebanon in 2006 was a U.S./Israel orchestrated war that was trying to put an end to the resistance of U.S./Israel hegemony in the region, which Iran and Syria have supported even if it may be for their own selfish reasons.

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