Under the former "Dictatorship."
I will let you in on a secret that other Iraqi bloggers consumed with false pride and desperately attempting to save face will not dare admit to you publicly...
Namely, that they all secretly long for the Iraq under the former “Dictatorship”...
Five years on, and you can read it in between their lines...a slip of the tongue here, an allusion there, a sigh stiffled and quickly hid somewhere...
But as you have grown accustomed to by now, I shall not make you read between the lines, I will give it to you out loud, and you need not go searching for hidden meanings with me...
But before I do so, I need to tell you something else but still very related.
For the past 24 hours, I have been doing nothing but perusing websites, news articles, videos, blogs...reading on the “5th Anniversary” of the Invasion and Occupation of my country.
I have to admit that almost all of the pieces I read, ranged from very bad to despicably grotesque...
The Independent with its Cockburn’s gross failures, with its reminiscing Fisk, nostalgic for the days of Churchill, to Pepe Escobar who has embraced Iranian Shi’ism, to the nauseating piece by Jim Lobe from antiwar.com, to Al Jazeerah English website with its lukewarm to frankly disgusting analysis and commentary...
I perused them all...
They were all singing the same refrain that I have gotten so used to by now -- under the former “Dictatorship” and the adjectives would follow – repressive, tyrannical, oppressive...etcetera....
Of course the intelligent reader, and as always, am assuming that you are, will understand that when a writer juxtaposes verbal images of the before and after in one and the same paragraph, what he/she is telling you is -- it was bad then and it is bad now...maybe a little worse but still, it was bad then...
The reader is left with an unconscious message -- maybe, if the occupation was not so botched up, it would have turned to be a good thing after all--It did get rid of the former “Dictatorship.”
But the enlightened reader will understand that the violence that Iraq has experienced starting with the American occupation, and degenerating into a “civil war” was nothing but a spit of fire in your collective faces...
It is really telling you, over and over -- Your democracy has failed and the former "Dictatorship” has won. Think about it deeply before you blurt out more of your nonsense and lies...
A friend whose opinions I greatly respect, told me “There are good dictatorships and bad democracies...” And Iraq was a good dictatorship and yours is a very bad democracy.
For starters, under the former dictatorship, we were alive, now we are all dead corpses...
Under the former dictatorship and during and in spite of 13 years of the most inhumane sanctions ;
We had no ghettoes, we did not know each other’s sect, we intermarried, we had mixed neighborhoods, we could go out without being riddled with bullets from an Iranian militia or from one of your army patrols, we had no checkpoints, we had no car bombs, we had no Al-Qaeda psychopaths, we had no sectarian Shia sadists in turbans and black uniforms, we did not have to dress like a ninja, we were not raped, we did not have acid thrown into our faces, we were free to worship in a church or a mosque, we had jobs, we had homes, our children were fed, our hospitals functioned despite your tyrannical sanctions (today 90% of Iraqi hospitals are in dire need of qualified staff) our roads were not destroyed, our bridges assured safe passages, we did not have women and children begging and sleeping in the streets, we did not have refugees (4.5 million) stranded at borders or rotting away in tents, we had electricity and water and we did not find worms floating in it either...
Our rivers were not dumping grounds for cadavers and our parks were not turned into cemeteries. Our children were not sold or trafficked. Our academics, (over 450 killed) doctors (500 murdered) and professionals (in the hundreds) did not flee or get killed. Our universities still managed to produce graduates and our schools were not attacked by mortar bombs. Our women could drive, work, marry and divorce as they pleased...
Under the former dictatorship our trees were still producing fruits and not razed to the ground. Under the former dictatorship music was still allowed, so were films. Under the former dictatorship we had no drugs,no poppy fields, no drug addicts and no drugs peddlers and traffickers. Under the former dictatorship we had no pedophile rings, no professional killers, no professional drillers and no professional rapists...
Under the former dictatorship, we had no over 100’000 detainees with no trial, no children sodomized in prisons and no women gang raped in exchange for freeing their loved ones...
Under the former dictatorship, our artists, poets, writers, singers, journalists (233 killed since 2003) were not abducted, kidnapped or assassinated...
Under the former dictatorship, we were not rejects. We still earned the respect of others. Under the former dictatorship we had no mass corruption, no public thieves, no fraud...
Under the former dictatorship we had no Israelis, no Iranians and no Americans...And sell out, treacherous Iraqis with foreign political agendas, were silenced, for the greater good.
Under the former dictatorship we had no 2 million widows, 5 million orphans, 4 million wounded, an X number of disappeared, we had no mass graves of a million plus murdered by Democracy.
Under the former dictatorship we were not considered the second most corrupt country in the world and the FIRST most dangerous country on earth...
Under the former dictatorship, we had a country called Iraq. Under the former dictatorship we had a Life. Under the former dictatorship, we were Free.
Painting: Iraqi female artist, Sundus Abdel Hadi - The Battle for Sumer, 2004.
Comments
I am a female French journalist coming to Baghdad on sunday. I was reading some of your posts and would be really interested in meeting you to get information on women daily life in Iraq.
Should you agree, I will give you my email so you can give me a phone number to organize a meeting.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Stay safe,
Manon.
You are a disaster.
How about taking up knitting ?
Now Layla, if you want to argue that women had it better under Saddam, you are right, sadly. If you want to argue that a good dictatorship is better than a messy democracy, you might be somewhat correct, but this theocratic junta ruling Iraq these days is hardly a democracy with its reliance on militias and Sharia law.
But please don't snow us about no cadavers in the rivers with Saddam - they were all buried in mass graves. LOL.
And there were thousands/hundreds of thousands of political prisoners under Saddam.
Jails were brutal houses of torture, far worse than anything the Americans unleashed on Iraq.
Other than being a Saddam groupie
and the typically zenophobic Iraqi, you are likeable at times, and a very fine writer.
What realistic and achievable goals do you want now?
What are the impediments? What are the causes? What are the solutions?
Thank you very much for the unadulterated Truth. Your friend's quote about there being good dictatorships and bad democracries is very fitting: we are witnessing this with our own eyes today. In any case, 'democracy' is being toted by thugs (mainly USan) to OTHER countries which they wish to destroy in order to steal. Hand-wringing by USans, who say that they cannot do anything about the occupation of Iraq is yet more proof of the total failure within what is claimed to be a 'democracy' - the USA. They cannot fool the world any more - while they themselves slept, the world continued to enquire and the ugliness of the US stands naked to the world.
With reference to all the articles written yesterday about the 5th anniversary of the occupation of Iraq, the only one which lifted the spirit, in my view, was the message from the Baath party to all the people of Iraq. May Iraqi Resistance grow from strength to strength.
May the soul of President Saddam Hussein rest in peace, and may his murderers face Justice. For five long years, Iraq has been a grotesque nightmare which many of us would like awaken from.
In solidarity, Layla. Although I've said this every year, and been deeply disappointed, I pray it comes true this year: May we witness a free Iraq by 19th March 2009.
P.S. To the 'French' 'journalist', Manon above: there's lots of resources on Internet with (sad) information about the daily lives of women in Iraq - you should be able to get it through Google! I doubt very much you'd be able to step into Baghdad - don't know if you've read about the French journalist who was attacked in Northern Iraq, which has been claimed to be far kinder to foreigners!
In some respects, the thing is a very transparent dialectic: war for peace; killing to protect life; destruction of freedoms to safeguard freedom; glorying in killing as a means to prevent killing; turning those who are killed into the enemy; naming the enemy as apt for killing; naming an innominate enemy as a threat while threatening and killing to create more enemies to manifest the sense of threat. And so it goes
No facts, no figures,omissions, represent serious lies. You know those criminals who smile at your while they steal your purse?. That's Mr. Yankee Ghost. Take a good look at this excuse for humanity folks.
Because he comes in here as the face of the USA. The USA illegal foreign invaders and occupiers of Iraq. This is the face that attempts to hide the USA's mass murdering of near 2 million Iraqi men women and children. Not to mention the 750,OOO children under 5 years of age, along with the other 1.5 million Iraqi men women and children the USA murdered in the years of the US-led economic sanctions.
We should ask ourselves, what sort of person, would dare come into this site and attempt to cover up the mass murder of at least 4 MILLION Iraqi people which was carried out by his country, the USA.
The sort who is a pathological liar, and who goes under the name here of Mr. Ghost. Study him well, and remember him, because he is the face of the depraved and murderous enemy.
There are many people from many races, who know the truth of this matter Mr. Yankee Ghost.
And I,just one westerner, are not fooled by your deceit, I say to you,I have sought out the truth for myself, about President Saddam Hussein, and I know that the Iraqi people were in a golden era under his reign.
I know under President Hussein the rivers ran pure and clear. Now under the USA they run red with the blood of dead Iraqis.
Layla, it looks as if Emily has come out of her trench now disguised as a French journalist called Manon. Emily will have a problem with this one, because she can't write. Oh Dear! Wonder what she looks like with her French Beret and her sticky beak? aaah! ha! ha! ha! har!
Thanks for cheering me, Bluegum!
To producer - Newsnight BBC
Dear Peter,
I was fortunate in not catching more than a small part of Newsnight coverage of the 5th anniversary of the murderous and completely illegal assault on a disarmed country. I did see the warmonger and ardent Zionist Richard Perle, so aptly named the Prince of Darkness. Of course, you gave him and his ilk wall to wall coverage in those months of propaganda leading to the long planned 'war'. People like myself had to put up with much less than 10% of a share in broadcasting time in the war drum phase.
And I saw Mr Pohwell (a pretentious pronunciation). I was pleased to hear him say that the object was to remove Saddam Hussein. You know that is illegal so I was very pleased that Pohwell was putting his neck in the war crime noose so bravely. I was phoned when Kennedy was speaking but I am sure I missed little.
The BBC's contribution to truth, objectivity and justice over this 'war' has been disgraceful. Layla Anwar has something to say to you all, including Jeremy Paxman. (Below) She deserves to be listened to given that she is one of the many millions of victims in a war that the BBC has promoted in all possible ways.
If you wish I could brief you on the medical services in Iraq or rather their absence. HMG has abrogated its responsibility to rebuild and maintain those services. Another war crime. I have given evidence to the Committee on International Development - Chairman Malcolm Bruce, at my instigation, but the members are a dead eyed lot who have little knowledge of Iraq and even less interest in repairing the terrible wreckage of their making.
For truth, reason and justice
Dawoud
ps You will see her inclusion of 'Israeli' as an occupier. Now we know that, and we are fairly certain that some of the dirty tricks like false flag operations are being steered by these past masters at mayhem. But I do not think I have heard a BBC reference to their presence. They are very useful because some will be fluent in Arabic and they have long yearned to see Iraq broken into pieces.
http://dhalpin.infoaction.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18&Itemid=2
PS: look for several significant victories by the resistance in the next three weeks :)))))
Or else,
From the wondow I shall throw YOU off. From the window...
So, Iraq was Disneyland under Saddam?
SUMMARY EXECUTIONS:
* 4,000 prisoners at ABU GHRAIB prison in 1984
* 3,000 prisoners at the Mahjar prison from 1993-1998
* 2,500 prisoners were executed between 1997-1999 in a "prison cleansing campaign;"
* 122 political prisoners were executed at Abu Ghraib prison in February/March 2000;
* 23 political prisoners were executed at Abu Ghraib prison in October 2001; and
* At least 130 Iraqi women were beheaded between June 2000 and April 2001.
ATROCITIES:
* 40 of his own relatives murdered.
* Allegations of prostitution are used to intimidate opponents of the regime and have been used by the regime to justify the barbaric beheading of women.
* There have been documented chemical attacks by the regime, from 1983 to 1988, resulting in some 30,000 Iraqi and Iranian deaths.
* 1980-88: Iran-Iraq war left 150,000 to 340,000 Iraqis and 450,000 to 730,000 Iranians dead.
* 1983-1988: Documented chemical attacks by Iraqi regime caused some 30,000 Iraqi and Iranian deaths.
* 1988: Chemical attack on Kurdish village of Halabja killed approximately 5,000 people.
* 1987-1988: Iraqi regime used chemical agents in attacks against at least 40 Kurdish villages.
* 1990-91: 1,000 Kuwaitis were killed in Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
* 1991: Bloody suppression of Kurdish and Shi'a uprisings in northern and southern Iraq killed at least 30,000 to 60,000. At least 2,000 Kurdish villages were destroyed during the campaign of terror.
* 2001: Amnesty International report: "Victims of torture in Iraq are subjected to a wide range of forms of torture, including the gouging out of eyes, severe beatings and electric shocks... some victims have died as a result and many have been left with permanent physical and psychological damage."
* Human Rights Watch: Saddam's 1987-1988 campaign of terror against the Kurds killed at least 50,000 and possibly as many as 100,000 Kurds.
* Refugees International: "Oppressive government policies have led to the internal displacement of 900,000 Iraqis."
* Iraq's 13 million Shiite Muslims, the majority of Iraq's population of approximately 22 million, faced severe restrictions on their religious practice.
If you told us that the USA botched the first 3 years in Iraq, which bred the insurgency and led to tens of thousands of Iraqi deaths it would be hard for me to deny.
On the surface, you are making it way too easy for me. However you are asking me to prove the Devil is evil - everyone "knows" he is, but without video may be hard.
Greg from USA
Thanks for standing up to these monsters. I can't believe some of them have children and still talk this way.
Layla,
Chew on this - check out the Abu Ghraib nitric acid chamber Saddam used, and Uday's finger vice: http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/092559.php
and this (Graphic)
http://fdd.typepad.com/fdd/files/2.wmv
A lot of the Saddam torture and execution videos have been buried in the depths of the net, just like the 911 videos, because they might "make us angry"
Greg from USA
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=dc5_1205776799
GF USA
Remember the video of when he first came to power. He sat there smoking a cigar reading off the names of all the "traders" who they dragged out and shot.
Then there was the one minister who suggested he step down. Saddam took him to the next room and shot him dead.
Great Guy!!
REALITY
REALITY
Come join us, so far its just me and American Woman
Begin excerpt:
Safia Al Souhail, an Iraqi citizen and advocacy director of the International Alliance for Justice, described daily REALITY during Saddam's reign this way:
"Iraq under Saddam's regime has become a land of hopelessness, sadness and fear. A country where people are ethnically cleansed; prisoners are tortured in more than 300 prisons in Iraq. RAPE IS SYSTEMATIC ... the killing and torturing of husbands IN FRONT OF THEIR WIVES and children ... Iraq under Saddam has become a HELL and a museum of crimes."
Why didn't more Iraqis complain? Possibly because of Saddam's decree in 2000 authorizing the government to amputate the tongues of citizens who criticize him or his government. The AEI video depicts one such tongue amputation, using a razor blade while the tongue is held with tweezers.
The following, according to the State Department report, were routine in Iraq during Saddam Hussein's rule:
* Medical experimentation
* Beatings
* Crucifixion
* Hammering nails into the fingers and hands
* Amputating sex organs or breasts with an electric carving knife
* Spraying insecticides into a victim's eyes
* Branding with a hot iron
* Committing rape while the victim's spouse is forced to watch
* Pouring boiling water into the victim's rectum
* Nailing the tongue to a wooden board
* Extracting teeth with pliers
* Using bees and scorpions to sting naked children in front of their parents
Saddam also routinely tortured and murdered women. The daily newspaper "Babel," owned by Uday, Hussein's eldest son, contained a public admission on Feb. 13, 2001 of beheading women who were suspected of prostitution.
The Iraqi Women's League in Damascus, Syria, described this practice as follows: "Under the pretext of fighting prostitution, units of 'Feda'iyee Saddam,' the paramilitary organization led by Uday, have beheaded in public more than 200 women all over the country, dumping their severed heads at their families' doorsteps. Many of the victims were innocent professional women, including some who were suspected of being dissidents."
'Too awful to show'
Why, asks Orin, does the world see "photos of U.S. interrogators using dogs to scare prisoners at Abu Ghraib, but not the footage of Saddam's prisoners getting FED ALIVE – to Doberman pinschers on Saddam's watch"?
Besides the obvious role of partisan politics in an election year, Orin points to another factor: the fact that Saddam's tortures, like al-Qaida's, are so horrible that they're unbearable to watch, almost TOO ATROCIOUS TO DESCRIBE in words.
But the result of this, notes Orin, is that the media's UNBALANCED COVERAGE is "worse than creating moral equivalence between Saddam's tortures and prisoner abuse by U.S. troops. It's that we do far more to highlight our own wrongdoings precisely because they are less appalling. ...
(From WND Atricle http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=25173)
Craig fom da U S of A
Benjamin Franklin said it best. "Those who wish to trade their freedom for security deserve neither".
Perhaps this writer failed to see back in Saddam's day what is to obvious now. The security she had was courtesy of Saddam's terror. Perhaps she should ask others who were on the receiving end of that terror how great it was. Oh wait, Saddam had them and their families murdered.
So what is her plan? The usual. Blame America. Blame Israel. Blame anyone but yourself. Sit there and do nothing but complain. God forbid that you should demand better from your fellow citizens and government.
God forbid that you should get out and run for office. Or get on the governing board of your local mosque or church to demand better accountability and service. To get on your school board to make sure they are doing their job.
Oh no. It is much better to sit and complain, blame, and wish for another dictator to take away your freedoms and dreams for the sake of security.
Sad..
enough said....
-s
Never heard of Sadr City?
we did not know each other’s sect
Because it was not legal to worship as a Shi'a.
we intermarried
Not in Anbar you didn't. Iraqis did in Baghdad. They still do.
we had mixed neighborhoods
All chained together.
we could go out without being riddled with bullets from an Iranian militia or from one of your army patrols
There are no "Iranian militias. Those are IRAQIS.
we had no checkpoints
No checkpoints in the entire country? Really??
we had no car bombs
Because the carbombers were busy running the government.
we had no Al-Qaeda psychopaths
Because, then they were called Saddam Fedayeen.
we had no sectarian Shia sadists in turbans and black uniforms
We had saddists working in Abu Ghraib and Kurdistan's Red Building.
we did not have to dress like a ninja
Nor do you know in the cities in Kurdistan.
we were not raped, we did not have acid thrown into our faces
Amna Surake
we were free to worship in a church or a mosque,
But Shi'a were not allowed to worship as they pleased and Christians had been leaving the country for over a decade as Saddam sought to be seen as a great Muslim hero.
we had jobs
You probably did.
we had homes, our children were fed, our hospitals functioned...our roads were not destroyed, our bridges assured safe passages,
Thank you, Resistance.
we did not have women and children begging and sleeping in the streets,
Yeah, you could get arrested for that.
we did not have refugees stranded at borders or rotting away in tents
In fact, no one was even allowed to LEAVE Iraq.
we had electricity and water and we did not find worms floating in it either...
Much of Iraq had ZERO electricity and water and others had them turned off for little or no reason. That's how Saddam kept YOUR utilities running.
Our rivers were not dumping grounds for cadavers and our parks were not turned into cemeteries.
No. All those things were kept properly in mass graves.
Our children were not sold or trafficked.
Sure they were.
Our academics, doctors and professionals did not flee or get killed.
If they fled, they got killed or jailed or their families were.
Our universities still managed to produce graduates
Especially graduates from other Arab countries while Iraqis did without.
our schools were not attacked by mortar bombs.
Thanks again to the blessed Resistance.
Our women could drive, work, marry and divorce as they pleased...
They still can in Kurdistan.
our trees were still producing fruits
The TREES HAVE STOPPED PRODUCING FRUIT?? Are they on strike? Have they joined the Resistance?
Under the former dictatorship music was still allowed, so were films.
They still are.
we had no drugs,no poppy fields, no drug addicts and no drugs peddlers and traffickers.
Iraq had drugs and drug addicts. IF Iraq has poppy fields now, it had them then.
Under the former dictatorship we had no pedophile rings
Yes Iraq did. And Iraq had a dictator's son who treated all Iraq women as his whores and sometimes killed them afterwards.
no professional killers, no professional drillers and no professional rapists...
None that didn't work for Saddam anyway.
we had no over 100’000 detainees with no trial, no children sodomized in prisons and no women gang raped in exchange for freeing their loved ones...
Yes, yes, yes, Iraq did.
our artists, poets, writers, singers, journalists were not abducted, kidnapped or assassinated...
They were arrested and executed or (if they were lucky) exiled.
we were not rejects. We still earned the respect of others.
Who?
we had no mass corruption, no public thieves, no fraud...
All of this was efficiently handled from a single office....Saddam's
we had no Israelis, no Iranians and no Americans...And sell out, treacherous Iraqis with foreign political agendas, were silenced, for the greater good.
99.9999% of humanity takes this as compliment from you.
we had no 2 million widows, 5 million orphans, 4 million wounded, an X number of disappeared, we had no mass graves of a million plus murdered by Democracy.
Never heard of the war with Iran and Kuwait that Saddam started. "No mass graves"?? Are you kidding.
we were not considered the second most corrupt country in the world and the FIRST most dangerous country on earth...
Actually South Africa is considered more dangerous.
Under the former dictatorship, we were Free.
Where exactly did you work under Saddam. Was it *literally* under Saddam?
1.3 Million reasons Saddam had to go:
WMD The Murderous Reign of Saddam
Already witnessed by thousands, this highly, critically acclaimed film takes you where others were afraid to tread.
This incredible ... all » documentary is the secret weapon to unfolding the truth about those who suffered under a dictator's merciless rule. More than mere facts and figures, the work brings to life faces, names, and stories that encompass the unimaginable 1.3 million lives exterminated by Saddam's reign of terror. This is a film that will shock and stun you.
This is a movie every American must see. If the United States had not removed Saddam Hussein from power, we would owe Hitler an apology. This is a true story about the Iraq war and its human and economic toll.
Warning – this film may not be suitable for sensitive individuals
Greg from USA
The last time the Sunnis boycotted, and look at the subsequent destruction of Anbar.
The time before that everyone gave up their vote by choosing who they were "told" to vote for.
Some would say the Iraqis are helpless - they are not. They proved this by taking up arms and defending their own neighborhoods during the awakening. In October, they get another chance, possibly their last chance.
Ron Larson,
"The usual. Blame America. Blame Israel. Blame anyone but yourself. Sit there and do nothing but complain. God forbid that you should demand better from your fellow citizens and government."
Dead on.
Greg from USA
Great post with lots of counterpoints!
However, many of Layla's points have merit - the thing she ignores is that the "Blessed Resistance" / Al Qaeda is directly responsible, and the USA is trying to stop them and protect Iraqis. We overlook that a lot of Iraqis think the USA committed the atrocities Layla mentions.
Many have difficulty believing that fellow Muslims blew up the Golden Dome, or abduct and murder busloads full of people. It does not fit their world view. From the time they were kids, they were spoon fed a soup of conspiracy to explain any and all ills. Now they hunger for the same food.
Greg from USA
AND THAT DOES NOT INCLUDE GREG THE PARROT FROM THE STATE DEPT NOR DOES IT INCLUDE CHMAR, CHMAR IS A CIA AGENT FROM THE IRAQI BLOG SOMETHING OR THE OTHER, THEIR DUTY IS TO MONITOR IRAQI BLOGS AND REPORT TO THE CIA AND THE PENTAGON.
AS FOR AMERICAN WOMAN, SHE IS JUST ANOTHER ARMY WHORE.
THESE PEOPLE ARE A BUNCH OF 10, THEIR NAMES ARE
RHUS LANCIA
JEFFREY SHUSTER
CHMAR
MISTER GHOST
LYNETTE IN MINNESOTA
BRIDGET
MAURY
IRAQI MOJO
AND A FEW OTHER WANKERS.
THEY WILL JUST REGURGITATE THE SAME OLD AMERICAN PROPAGANDA, TRYING TO JUSTIFY THE OCCUPATION AND THE GENOCIDE OF IRAQ.
PAY THEM NO ATTENTION.
In solidarity.
We are a cooperative and social species of mammals and we are tearing each other and our planet apart with, apparently, no understanding of the social system we have created. At least, that is what these posts tell me.
When we crawled out of the caves and faced a fearful world we did not understand, we created a god to explain the unknown. From a hunter-gathered society we learned to tend crops and exploit animals, thus settling down into permanent communites, and the long history of the division of cooperative labour commenced.
Briefly, we passed through slavery, feudalism and, eventually, to capitalism. Each society had its own characteristics and ideas, which emerged from the way we organised to feed, clothe and shelter ourselves. The wars and pillaging were in essence the struggle among us because of scarcity, but our species in peace has created much wondrous work as well.
We have allowed people to exploit us with false ideas. We have been taught by the rabbis, priests and imans that we are a sinful species, which must follow others and abase ourselves for redemption. We have created a hierarchical social structure, based upon the natural evolution of social animals with its pecking order. Now we must eliminate that unnecessary feature of our social organisation and become an egalitarian society. Those who would enslave us call it democracy; as a political system it steals from us the true egalitarianism and self-responsibility to create a just and peaceful world. There cannot be a general leading an army if the dominent idea, conviction of society accepts the maxim that thou shall not kill.
A very wise man, and scientist, Petr Kropotkin, a Russian prince who freed his serfs and became a modern man, showed that the survival of a species requires cooperation if it is to survive and be successful. We are a cooperative species, for even in war we cooperate to kill each other. The golden rule, "do unto others as you would be done by" is the universal ethic, (far predating but stolen by the religions of the world)and we must put it into practice again.
What I see in the postings here is no understanding of the social system we have created: capitalism. This world-wide economic system has certain features required for it to function. The nation state -- the nationalites you believe are different from one another -- are its creation, for we created it so that the emerging bourgoisie, the capitalist class had a captive market and a controlled labour force. The wars you are talking about are wars of conquest, squabbles over markets, raw materials and markets. To believe in nationalities makes you a victim, often willing to kill for the ruling class.
Karl Marx described the characteristics of capitalism and how it evolved. Wage labour -- to have a job -- makes one a slave to money and those who control the means of production. To produce abundance is within our capability and money, a means of exchanging goods, just produces not wealth but scarcity and control by others. We must abolish it to save our planet for our children.
Capitalism is based upon growth, the accumulation of wealth in fewer and fewer hands as, for instance, nine companies controlling the world's basic food supply. Just think for a minute. If a company, any company, does not grow, the economic rule is that it does not produce a profit and goes bankrupt. Constant and rapid growth is a feature of capitalism and, logically, our planet has a finite amount of things to exploit. Why wait until we have exploited and destroyed everything before the planet, and our children, are bankrupt?
To change the world is as simple as changing our ideas, and thus our actions. We can rid ourselves of our generals by refusing to kill and destroy our governments by removing them from office. Ideas are a bloodless coup and we have the power to enact whatever kind of society we choose. Just as quickly as in much of the world we decided in the sixties and seventies it was no longer acceptable to beat or kill one's wife, we can create our new reality. That is how history works, how the world changes. We can change the world as quickly as an idea travels. Let us become true Citizens of the World.
Our credo is as follows:
On 1 May l990 Citizens of the World spontaneously materialized as a non-profit non-membership entity with the sole purpose of creating in the immediate future a new coöperative world society of citizens of ecological consciousness dedicated to replacing money with abundance, wage-work with civic contribution, competition with collaboration, violence with friendship and nationalism with ethnic fraternity. As a world coöperative, iWi invites the sisterhood and brotherhood of humanity to incite world insight to protect our planet and all its species by documentation of the destructiveness of present-day capitalism in order to transform it into a moneyless stateless world economy where all produce in order that all consume. All Citizens of the World believe, in principle and in practice, ideas are stronger than force and there is a kinder, gentler way to change the world than killing other human beings. As responsible citizens we coöperatively reproduce ideas - and invite others who agree to reproduce and distribute them - to create such a society.
iWi Coöpérative, Trottier Mills, Québec, Canada, North America, Planet Earth, G0P 1H0 or iwi@ivic.qc.ca
The following comment also applies to greg usa the professsional pathelogical liar of all time. He still uses this same propaganda that the USA used to get into Iraq in order to kill Iraqis:-
Again yet another two pathological liars appears on this site in the form of Rhuslancia and Steen. Again no facts, again omissions. They hide their hate for us, behind their pretending self-righteous protests that WE SHOULD NOT HATE THEM and their criminal USA.
But lets look under their stunningly deceitful hypocrisy and expose their COWARDLY LIES.
'...our commanders stood on a podium and shouted into microphone “Kill! Kill!! Kill! the sand niggers. We, too were made to shout out 'Kill the sand niggers!” as we stabbed the heads, then the hearts, and then slashed the throats of our imaginary victims....It seemed the full effect of the lesson would be lost on us, unless we shouted out the WORDS OF HATE (my emphasis) as we mutilated our imaginary enemies.
..Iraqis in the mouths of the officers and soldiers of the United States Army, were never Iraqis. And Muslins were never 'civilians' in the same breath as Iraq, when I trained to become a soldier, IRAQIS I WAS TAUGHT TO BELIEVE THEY WERE NOT CIVILIANS AND THEY WERE NOT PEOPLE.(emphasis). We had our own terms for them. Our commanders called them rag heads, so we did the same. We called them Habibs. We called them sand niggers. ....The hajjis, Habibs, rag heads and sand niggers were the enemy, and they were not to be though of with a shred of humanity.
How would I react if foreigners invaded the United States and did a tenth of the things that we had done to the Iraqi people? I would be right up there with the rebels and insurgents, using every bit of my cleverness to blow up the occupiers. I would dig a hole in my hometown in Oklahoma and rig mines in the trees and set them to blow up when the enemy passed below. I would lob all the mortars and rocket-propelled grenades I could buy.' US Private Joshua Keys. “The Deserters Tale”
Why I walked away from the war in Iraq . 2007.
This truth shows the hate the USA has for all Iraqis. Hidden under its filthy cloak of democracy, the USA went into Iraq with hate for all the Iraqi people, and they continue to carry out their hate against innocent Iraqi men, women and children. to this day.
So, now you two pieces of lying scum, Rhuslancia and Steen, you are seen for what you are. So slime off out of here. We do not respect you, we do not like you, and actually we hate you both, because we hate what you both stand for - inhumanity!
You do see how Bush policy has made us less safe? We have created a generation maybe two of middle eastern peoples who hate us for going into THEIR lands.
With all the intenseness I thought we could do with a litte light relief. It is good for the soul.
You know Emily is as much Iraqi as I am. It seems they even resent us having a bit of a joke. They want us to be like them – humourless. I like people with a sense of humour that can have a laugh at themselves as well. I was listening to the radio the other day, and an Aust. comedian was talking about American humour. Evidently they do not understand irony at all. And most of their jokes are smutty and dirty. I happened to see some American talk show at a friends place, and the host is some very popular journalist who covers politics. And do you know what he said for a joke? - I'd better send Hillary Clinton a new mobile phone with a vibrator. And the audience all laughed. Yuk!
Also it seems they resent us having imagination as well, they want to take that away from us too.. When I posted that small piece to you, it started because of my imagination. I kept seeing this women struggling out of a dirt trench, dressed like a French journalist wearing a big fur coat, stileto heel shoes, a beret on her head dark glasses, and I'd better not say it, because it will cause a counter - revolution if I do, but I am sure you will know what I mean.
I was thinking about us two little cha wa wa's . When the Iraqi resistance takes back their country. On the day they celebrate we could be their mascots with the real Iraqi flags covering us, you know like those little coats they wear. Imagine the pats and the scrumptious Iraqi food we would get. I can be called bubblegum. What name would you like Little Deer.?
We've had some real skunks desecrating this site, haven't we? In the hope that we might waver, possibly. Nice try!!!
Just like you, I possess a sense of humour (sometimes, too much!!). Bluegum, I couldn't give a toss what they think on this website - so long as I am not insulting my hostess or her nation, both of which I would never do, in any case. As for their (USan) sense of humour, it is only peppered with four letter words (not to mention everyday language, too) or something to do with sex - as you've indicated about that sick joke made by the 'popular' journalist (smutty and dirty, as you aptly call them!). AND they find it funny!
Calling that Emily a 'sticky beak' had me in stitches! I was also trying to imagine her in a trench, and your description now has now completed the picture!!
Bluegum, the day Iraq Resistance takes back their country, you can be assured I will be among the first on that flight to Iraq to join in with the celebrations - I only hope that Iraqi people will be able to tell who their friends (foreign) are, by then! I hope you will be coming, too, and not just celebrating from the outside? I already have the Iraqi flag (the real one), but nothing wrong with getting some more when we're there. Guess we'll eventually get to meet Layla then, too! I can just imagine it... And we can look back and have a good laugh at some of the morons we've got to meet here! Particularly the windbags, if you know who I mean!
Talking about Iraqi food - have you tried it? I have, and it is delicious!
Well, if you want to be called 'bubblegum', maybe I'll settle for Bambi! Nice way to get all those incredibly beautiful Iraqi children near to me!!
Did you read the bit where Layla referred to her ex as the next disaster after Chernobyl??!!! That had me in stitches, too!
In solidarity
Hi Layla, please excuse our using this space for lighthearted chat!
looooooool, your posts were very witty, I enjoy reading you both.
Love
Thank you for your comment and for visiting.
I do understand for someone living across the continent and not experiencing the other reality, it can be difficult for that person to read in between the lines - in between the lines of mainstream media. A note of consolation though, I prefer Fisk to awful Cockburn...
And that is why I strongly recommend to people who have a keen interest in following up news from occupied Iraq and Palestine to really peruse daily URUKNET.INFO. For me it is a VERY IMPORTANT news site.
By the way, I really liked your painting re " arab woman blues" Do you know who the author is?
Regards
Hello, I suppose you got my blog address from le monde.fr?
If so, you can find my mail, under
"view complete profile".
By the way, I don't do interviews, but you may interview me online...if you wish. I can even post your work on Iraqi women here on this blog.
Bubblegum and Bambie, arh ha ha ha! W'ere probably nothing like Bubblegum and Bambie ar ha ha ha! I still keep seeing that 'sticky beak', and every time I think of it I keep laughing.. It's ridiculous!
And the way Emily reacts makes it worse. Lalya's ex must have been a huge disaster ar ha ha ha ha!
You will have to go for a small cracker next time Layla maybe either a bunger or a sparkler ar ha ha ha! ha!
It would be my dream come true to visit beautiful Iraq again and see it free of the scum. I agree with you, as long as the long as the Iraqi's wanted us there, because I could not blame them if they did not want to see a western face ever again. I fell in love with Iraq, say no more for now.. It would be so wonderful to meet you both we would have so much to talk about.
Little Deer You asked whether I have eaten Iraqi food. Well I eat Middle Eastern food most of the time. We have some great ME shops not too far away from here. Because there is a big Muslim community very close to me. ME food is the most delicious and healthyfood one can eat in my opinion.
Anyway, when we go to Iraq, maybe Layla can meet us at the Iraqi airport, and she will know who we are because we will have our big Bubblegum and Bambie hats on. ar ha ha ha! Hope there is no chance of Emily being on the same plane. ar ha ha ha! Oh well, we can easily turn around and bite her on the ankle I suppose ar ha ha ha!
PS, have answered you on “The weaker sex” Layla
A big hug to both of you.
In solidarity
This lighthearted exchange, even if it's not related to Layla's article makes a wonderful break from the 'ankle snapping'!!! But for those who think that this mood will stop us from our usual comments, if necessary, please don't be fooled.
I've been breaking out with spurts of laughter - directed to the 'sticky beak', mainly!
Bluegum, it's very nice to know you've been to Iraq - which means that you know what it's like on the ground, and, more important, you know how very precious Iraqi people are. It's not difficult to fall in love with Iraq and Iraqis, Bluegum, if only the rest of the world would take the trouble to know this.
You're lucky you have access to ME food - I don't, so, once in a while, I try some dishes on my own - not bad for a beginner, I should add. :) I agree with you about it being delicious and healthy, too. Have you tried Iraqi Mazgoof? It's delicious!
Layla, will you meet us at the airport when we arrive? I don't think we'd be too difficult to spot - big chihuahua eyes trying to take in our first sight of FREE Iraq! Bluegum, your comment on Emily (aka 'French journalist' aka 'American woman' aka 'sticky beak')being on the same flight had me in gales of laughter! Considering how inquisitive she is and on the look-out for gossip (like who REALLY is Layla?!!), she'd most likely be stuck in the seat right behind us, but she'd have to watch out for 'ankle biting' chihuahuas!! A lot worse than pit bull terriers, I would think! She'd best ask her USan buddies to provide her with suitable armour, particularly around the ankles.:) :) :)
A big hug right back to you both!
In solidarity
re CIA boys/girls on these posts.
Have just cracked up reading your comments about Layla and Emily and the US'ans! Oh Dear!!! After your remarks, I was thinking in case Emily was wearing her bloomers, maybe I could bring my Daisy Air-rifle along with me. Her CIA mates would have a bit of trouble protecting her then! eh!
Now wonder the USA/CIA boys have infiltrated Layla's blogs in the last few days. One could assume this tactical manoeuvre was probably called "Arabwomanblues Storm".
Being the 5th anniversary of the USA's illegal invasion of Iraq, it seems the USA/CIA thought that perhaps after 5 years, many more people may have seen through their lies. So they ran for cover in the form of a propaganda campaign of attempted brain-deadening and memory loss.
Obviously it has been a global campaign. Even down under in this part of the world, our daily media pulled a photo of President Saddam Hussein from their long-used dusty files,and cleaned off the cobwebs,in order to feature the President as front page news.
It must have cost the USA taxpayers a fortune, because Hills & Knowles, the PR corporation that creates all the anti-Saddam Hussein propaganda charges Bush and his cronies-in-crime, millions and zillions of dollars for creating these lies.
One wonders what this lot of USA/CIA 'hill-billies' appearing on these posts in the last few days are being paid?
On viewing their performance, one could be positive in saying the US taxpayers are being grossly ripped off as usual. .
But,from all this we can be happy. As a bright side shines through. These USA/CIA acts of desperation, will but hasten the USA's economic and moral decline!
In solidarity, and
Long live the Memory of President Saddam Hussein!
I absolutely agree with you. In all of this, 5 years later, Bluegum, if one looks across the entire spectrum of 'players' (or, more accurately, LIARS), there's just one thing which stands out: the one who told the TRUTH all along, much loved by many, although demonised by the majority, particularly occupiers of Iraq: His Excellency, President Saddam Hussein. It doesn't require too much intelligence to dig out the Truth. I try not to think of him too much, Bluegum, because it just hurts: all this sectarian talk about the Shias being totally marginalised by him, which is untrue when you look at just one issue in Iraq prior to the illegal invasion and occupation. I refer to education, where one meets highly qualified professionals from both sects. I also wish to categorically add that, in any society, and not necessarily Iraqi, there's always segments of a nation which support a leader and others who don't, so this is not unique to Iraq. In all nations, dissent is taken very seriously because it is a threat to the nation - so what did President Saddam do different from the rest? Right now, the USans hsve NO freedom at all, on the pretext that they are being protected from outside enemies.
In addition, talking about sects is very impolite within Iraqi society. This was only highlighted by the barbarians who now occupy Iraq. On the ground, as we speak, the sects are very close, and look at each other as Iraqis. The walls (real ones) between them will come down someday very soon. As for what happened in Halabja, one really needs to look at the Iranian role in all this. There are many very credible articles written on this matter, but they get overshadowed by the ugly propaganda machine.
With reference to your opinion about all the money being spent to promote this ugly propaganda: yes, you are right. I believe you have also seen how a disaster like this attracts all the 'humanitarian' aid vultures from the very lands that have occupied Iraq? Many of them with, perhaps, their own agendas, wanting to now 'help' Iraqis? So, the principle appears to be: break it, and then we'll come and fix it, albeit with fat salaries and commissions attached to what we do. Among them, you find all the questionable 'consultants' who have never been into Iraq, who have no clue about Iraqi culture, society, yet they want to draw huge paychecks for their 'consultancies', similar to those armchair experts we saw on TV prior to the invasion. Am I right?
It's alright about USan taxpayers being ripped off: they deserve it for their complicity in this greatest war crime in living memory. From posts I've read elsewhere, many want to now leave the US, heading for other lands: but where will they be welcome? The entire world has seen how thoroughly incapable this loud-mouthed race is.
All in all, as human beings, who supposedly are above the lesser animals, it is vital for each one of us to seek the Truth, and then to stand by it. Even in the jungle, animals only attack and consume each other out of necessity - the food chain. What we are witnessing today is that man has reached far below the real animal kingdom.
Long live Iraq and Iraqis and may the soul of President Hussein rest in peace.
In solidarity.
P.S. Emily, her bloomers and your Daisy Rifle simply cracked me up!!!! Doesn't help to have a vivid imagination!
I watched as my stupid country followed the scare tactics of Bush et al to invade Iraq and was actually totally surprised when it happened. I've been against the war from the beginning and had assumed that ANYTHING had to be better in Iraq than what it is like now... But I still wonder about the Iraq people I meet here in the states who tell stories of literally having to walk out of Iraq and families that had to flee for their lives and sanity.
We shouldnt be there, Bush should be tried for war crimes and imprisoned. Your hatred is cute.
I hope you are ok.
I am Brazilian.
I know you have told here is TRUE.
Before the invasion in 2003 everything was nice and Iraq was a nice place to live.
I hope Iraq will be free again and the Iraqi Resistance will win and the traitors and enemies of the Nation will put outside.
IRAQ WILL BE FREE AGAIN.
Please,read my blogs: A BUSCA DA VERDADE
http://soldodeserto.blogspot.com e
http://bbaronti.blogspot.com
Kisses for you from
your friend from Brazil
Long live Iraq and Iraqis and may the soul of President Hussein rest in peace.
In solidarity.
Do not Forget: Iraq will be free again!
Continue telling the truth!
Your friend from Brazil