Flying Kites....
I really don't know what is going on here...
The other day was Pink and today it is Pastel colors.
Not a fitting time of the year for pastel colors. After all, it is the beginning of Autumn, with its golden brown, rusty red and dying green...
But pastel colors have been obsessing me...ever since those pink and red taints.
Maybe because it is the Eid, the feast that marks the celebration of the end of our fasting month, Ramadan.
I remember the Eid in Baghdad, what used to be the Eid...
We have a tradition for the Eid, we must wear something new. I remember young and old saving that new piece, that untouched garment, for the Eid.
I remember the little boys and girls dressed in their new clothes, laughing as they rock on their swings, as they cry with joy on their merry-go-rounds...
Eating "shaar al Banat" or "ghazl al Banat" as some may call it.
You know, that fluffy hair-like sugar, dyed in pastel colors, that feels like cotton in your mouth, wrappped around a wooden stick and glues all over your face and leaves your tongue colored in pastel...pink, green, blue, yellow and...white.
I also remember the conversations...
"Baba, baba, shoof, anee helwa?" - Daddy, daddy look, am I pretty? would ask a little one raising her eyes to her dad. Showing off her new pastel colored dress and the pastel ribbons in her hair...
"Mama, mama, shofee shlon atayerhom"- Mom, mom, look how I can make it fly! would shout a little one to his mother, pointing his finger to his brand new kite made of pastel colored paper...
And the father would respond "Hadha shlon Jamal" - What beauty you are. Or,
the mother would say "Shater, ibnee, enta shater" - Clever my son, you are clever.
I can still hear their giggles, their laughs and their shouts of excitement...
I can still see the joy in their shining innocent eyes, their funny faces, their tender smile...
I can still feel their hugs, their wet kisses smelling of candies and their warm little heads on my shoulder, when tired from too much running around...tired from too much play.
I am lucky to have such memories. I am lucky to have witnessed them.
Today's children in Iraq are either too scarred or will not live to remember or... are already dead.
Only two days ago, 11 little ones were severly wounded by a mortar attack. Yesterday, 9 little ones were killed in a so called counter-insurgency attack by your brave boys. Today, at least 2 little ones were blasted away when a bomb placed in a toy cart exploded in their curious little faces...on the day of the Eid.
Our little ones are nothing but appetizers for you. Your anti-pasti, your hors d'oeuvres...The more, the merrier...
In the name of Liberty. In the name of Democracy. In the name of Freedom. In the name of the o' so civilized West that you are.
For 13 years, our little ones suffered, our little martyrs...Over half a million died as a result of your o' so civilized sanctions, while you were watching...
Thirteen fucking years and you watched, in silence, tasting your hors d'oeuvres in front of your TV screens.
Thirteen years of a deafening, utter silence.
Silence from the so called left and anti-war clowns. Silence from the international community. Silence from the so-called Islamic Ummah.
So silent, that the silence turned into a lullaby of agonies that you can still hear in the mass graves of our little ones. So silent, that they have slept, never to wake up again...A murderous lullaby.
The little ones who survived, experienced their final liberation in 2003.
God damn you. God damn you. That is all I can repeat for now. I will have to stop.
I need to regain my composure. Recompose what you have decomposed...
Am back...
The composed, rational, polite Arab woman...I am now wearing my satin gloves, lest your sensitivities get ruffled...
But let me ask you something, are you as ruffled by an average of 40'000 little ones killed each year because of an occupation carried out in your name, with your money, under your "benevolent" eyes ?
40'000 is the conservative estimate figure from the 2006 U.N Human rights report.
The real figure for 2006 is much higher. Way higher. And am not counting the orphans in the thousands...
Only yesterday, a new report warns of an ever-deepening humanitarian crisis, never seen before, since World War II...And I say, it is much worse than what this report states.
Come and see our overflowing morgues and find our little ones for us...
You may find them in this corner or the other, a little hand poking out, pointing out at you...
Come and search for them in the rubbles of your "surgical" air raids, you may find a little leg or a little head...pleading for your attention.
Come and see them amassed in the garbage dumps, scavenging morsels of food...
Well over half of our little ones are under nourished or dying from disease. Cholera, disentery, infections of all sorts....
Under nourished does not mean on a diet like your fat little kids. It means not having food to eat. It means cannot find food to eat. It means starved.
Come and see, come....
See them being trafficked, raped, sold and "finally" killed by your brave boys. The "final solution." Remember that one ? It was not so long ago...Except this time it is carried out by the "greatest Democracy on earth."
And if you are too sensitive to such scenes, and your stomach can't take it, even though your hands and pockets contribute daily to it, come and search for them in the alley ways of Damascus, Amman or Cairo...
Search for them, hiding behind walls. Find them selling or begging in street corners.
Look for them behaving like a 40 year old adult, fending for a whole family...
Come and see...
The other day, I overheard a 6 years old saying to her mother, "I want to die."
Just in case one of your bullets does not get to her, you have ensured that she will finish it off herself...
Come and see them stutter, hear them shout at night during their sleep and see their wet beds...
This is no lost innocence. This is a raped innocence, a murdered innocence...
Raped and murdered by you. I will net let you off the hook that easily. I guess you know me by now.
As for the little assholes (I guess am losing my composure again) who call me a whining Arab bitch, let me not wish the same on your children...
Because by God, if I did, you would strangle yourselves in grief and...remorse.
An article in Haaretz states that the Holocaust is still affecting the granchildren of the survivors...and that is well over 60 years, later.
How many decades, centuries would it take our surviving little ones to get over being freed by "Democracy" ?
In the meantime, the little survivors of your Holocaust, those who were born under your bombs, under your occupation, under your destruction, in your ghettoes, in your prisons, in your new Iraq, and who have known nothing else but you, their primal "caretaker", if they ever make it to adulthood, will bear witness on the day of Eid...
They, who have not known the Spring, Summer, of their lives. They who have witnessed nothing but the cold of the Winter. The coldness of Death...
They will remember, as I am doing now, the blown up cart of toys, the overflowing morgues, the rubbles of their homes, the mortars falling on their heads, the noise of explosions squatting their ears, their sisters and brothers in pieces, in front of their very eyes...
They will remember it, like some ugly melody, like some ugly lullaby...you lulled to them during their "liberated" childhood...
And those who have not and will not survive your "Liberation", will be flying high above like the pastel colored balloons of the Eid, like the kites made of pastel colored paper, like some white feather plucked from an innocent Dove...
Only to fall on the ground like dying, dried up, Autumn leaves...
Painting: Iraqi artist, Mohanad Al-Hayali.
The other day was Pink and today it is Pastel colors.
Not a fitting time of the year for pastel colors. After all, it is the beginning of Autumn, with its golden brown, rusty red and dying green...
But pastel colors have been obsessing me...ever since those pink and red taints.
Maybe because it is the Eid, the feast that marks the celebration of the end of our fasting month, Ramadan.
I remember the Eid in Baghdad, what used to be the Eid...
We have a tradition for the Eid, we must wear something new. I remember young and old saving that new piece, that untouched garment, for the Eid.
I remember the little boys and girls dressed in their new clothes, laughing as they rock on their swings, as they cry with joy on their merry-go-rounds...
Eating "shaar al Banat" or "ghazl al Banat" as some may call it.
You know, that fluffy hair-like sugar, dyed in pastel colors, that feels like cotton in your mouth, wrappped around a wooden stick and glues all over your face and leaves your tongue colored in pastel...pink, green, blue, yellow and...white.
I also remember the conversations...
"Baba, baba, shoof, anee helwa?" - Daddy, daddy look, am I pretty? would ask a little one raising her eyes to her dad. Showing off her new pastel colored dress and the pastel ribbons in her hair...
"Mama, mama, shofee shlon atayerhom"- Mom, mom, look how I can make it fly! would shout a little one to his mother, pointing his finger to his brand new kite made of pastel colored paper...
And the father would respond "Hadha shlon Jamal" - What beauty you are. Or,
the mother would say "Shater, ibnee, enta shater" - Clever my son, you are clever.
I can still hear their giggles, their laughs and their shouts of excitement...
I can still see the joy in their shining innocent eyes, their funny faces, their tender smile...
I can still feel their hugs, their wet kisses smelling of candies and their warm little heads on my shoulder, when tired from too much running around...tired from too much play.
I am lucky to have such memories. I am lucky to have witnessed them.
Today's children in Iraq are either too scarred or will not live to remember or... are already dead.
Only two days ago, 11 little ones were severly wounded by a mortar attack. Yesterday, 9 little ones were killed in a so called counter-insurgency attack by your brave boys. Today, at least 2 little ones were blasted away when a bomb placed in a toy cart exploded in their curious little faces...on the day of the Eid.
Our little ones are nothing but appetizers for you. Your anti-pasti, your hors d'oeuvres...The more, the merrier...
In the name of Liberty. In the name of Democracy. In the name of Freedom. In the name of the o' so civilized West that you are.
For 13 years, our little ones suffered, our little martyrs...Over half a million died as a result of your o' so civilized sanctions, while you were watching...
Thirteen fucking years and you watched, in silence, tasting your hors d'oeuvres in front of your TV screens.
Thirteen years of a deafening, utter silence.
Silence from the so called left and anti-war clowns. Silence from the international community. Silence from the so-called Islamic Ummah.
So silent, that the silence turned into a lullaby of agonies that you can still hear in the mass graves of our little ones. So silent, that they have slept, never to wake up again...A murderous lullaby.
The little ones who survived, experienced their final liberation in 2003.
God damn you. God damn you. That is all I can repeat for now. I will have to stop.
I need to regain my composure. Recompose what you have decomposed...
Am back...
The composed, rational, polite Arab woman...I am now wearing my satin gloves, lest your sensitivities get ruffled...
But let me ask you something, are you as ruffled by an average of 40'000 little ones killed each year because of an occupation carried out in your name, with your money, under your "benevolent" eyes ?
40'000 is the conservative estimate figure from the 2006 U.N Human rights report.
The real figure for 2006 is much higher. Way higher. And am not counting the orphans in the thousands...
Only yesterday, a new report warns of an ever-deepening humanitarian crisis, never seen before, since World War II...And I say, it is much worse than what this report states.
Come and see our overflowing morgues and find our little ones for us...
You may find them in this corner or the other, a little hand poking out, pointing out at you...
Come and search for them in the rubbles of your "surgical" air raids, you may find a little leg or a little head...pleading for your attention.
Come and see them amassed in the garbage dumps, scavenging morsels of food...
Well over half of our little ones are under nourished or dying from disease. Cholera, disentery, infections of all sorts....
Under nourished does not mean on a diet like your fat little kids. It means not having food to eat. It means cannot find food to eat. It means starved.
Come and see, come....
See them being trafficked, raped, sold and "finally" killed by your brave boys. The "final solution." Remember that one ? It was not so long ago...Except this time it is carried out by the "greatest Democracy on earth."
And if you are too sensitive to such scenes, and your stomach can't take it, even though your hands and pockets contribute daily to it, come and search for them in the alley ways of Damascus, Amman or Cairo...
Search for them, hiding behind walls. Find them selling or begging in street corners.
Look for them behaving like a 40 year old adult, fending for a whole family...
Come and see...
The other day, I overheard a 6 years old saying to her mother, "I want to die."
Just in case one of your bullets does not get to her, you have ensured that she will finish it off herself...
Come and see them stutter, hear them shout at night during their sleep and see their wet beds...
This is no lost innocence. This is a raped innocence, a murdered innocence...
Raped and murdered by you. I will net let you off the hook that easily. I guess you know me by now.
As for the little assholes (I guess am losing my composure again) who call me a whining Arab bitch, let me not wish the same on your children...
Because by God, if I did, you would strangle yourselves in grief and...remorse.
An article in Haaretz states that the Holocaust is still affecting the granchildren of the survivors...and that is well over 60 years, later.
How many decades, centuries would it take our surviving little ones to get over being freed by "Democracy" ?
In the meantime, the little survivors of your Holocaust, those who were born under your bombs, under your occupation, under your destruction, in your ghettoes, in your prisons, in your new Iraq, and who have known nothing else but you, their primal "caretaker", if they ever make it to adulthood, will bear witness on the day of Eid...
They, who have not known the Spring, Summer, of their lives. They who have witnessed nothing but the cold of the Winter. The coldness of Death...
They will remember, as I am doing now, the blown up cart of toys, the overflowing morgues, the rubbles of their homes, the mortars falling on their heads, the noise of explosions squatting their ears, their sisters and brothers in pieces, in front of their very eyes...
They will remember it, like some ugly melody, like some ugly lullaby...you lulled to them during their "liberated" childhood...
And those who have not and will not survive your "Liberation", will be flying high above like the pastel colored balloons of the Eid, like the kites made of pastel colored paper, like some white feather plucked from an innocent Dove...
Only to fall on the ground like dying, dried up, Autumn leaves...
Painting: Iraqi artist, Mohanad Al-Hayali.
Comments
What civilisation have we got in the "West"? Hey Christians, the cannibals who want to eat and drink their "saviours" body and blood; yea right, what a brilliant basis for a democracy.
Hey, would you like me to write you an article about shitty old Britain? I bet I can tear it apart more than you can. Those Christian control freaks, who take every good idea, and use it to enrich themselves are the biggest drips going. They're too shit-scared to break the rooles themselves so they get this sadistic pleasure out of grassing anybody who does, to the authorities.
It's like living in a nation of sheep. I met one this week. I spent about ten minutes telling this ****hole what a moron Gordon Brown is, and his reply? "Well we're better off under Gordon Brown." Yea right, only because he is one of those minimum wage drongoes who Blair was devious enough to take care of, to keep them on his side. I'm not sure who are the thickest, New Labour voters, or Yanks. It's National socialism in either case, but they're too dumb to see what they really are.
Do not kid yourself.
You are nothing to me.
Your inner politics, I could not care less.
You are like a clock...back or forth, a couple of minutes, makes no fucking difference.
Meanwhile, I invite you to come and count pastel colored flying kites, with me...
Every morning at 9 am, they all go to the conference room where they are connected to Mr Bosch himself, who connects in from Germany to sort out their "problems".
So this is where they all stab each other in the back to curry favour with the great Bosch god, kissing his **** in return for a promotion. Oh, and they're not employees; no, they're colleagues. LMAO Now this brings to mind another John Lennon song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njG7p6CSbCU
They're still fucking peasants, but they think "colleagues" means something special.
Hey, how am I doing? Do you want me to get onto the dummies who spend their miserable lives watching TV? "Did you watch Eastenders last night?" Why bother answering them? They gave themselves away just by opening their mouths.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LLEHtDcOG0
May we witness the liberation of Iraq soon, through the heroic works of the Iraqi Resistance. May we also witness justice for the crimes that have been committed on the beautiful Iraqi nation.
As for Iraqi children, dearest Layla, what can I say? You already know how I feel about this....
God bless always and in solidarity.
xxxxxx
I have not commented lately to your posts, because What can one say? It's better to spend the energy in thought of what you said and pondering on the "mea culpa"...
That said, I repeat myself that your blog needs to be widely disseminated for everyone to get an earful.
It's so unbelievable sad how little aware people here in the states are of the suffering and destruction of humanity that we are causing. And YES, I do agree with you, it's WE, not just our leaders or our government. It's WE, all the people in all the world that we are contributing to the genocide being committed in Iraq.
What a great writer you are. You soul must be hemorrhaging to be able to feel and witness the destruction of your people and country the way you do. My heart is with you, and I myself know, I am one of the cogs on these killing fields.
I am a non believer so I don't have the solace of thinking "may god forgive me"... but no solace is good, no one deserves to feel "consoled" when so many are suffering behind comprehension.
In solidarity
Inshallah , law leena 3omr nezoor Ba3'dad el 7orrah after the liberation.
Lysistrata where are you?!!!
Women of the world UNITE!
Peace to you
For Iraqis, seems there is no end in sight.
Thank you, you write nicely yourself.
Salam.
Eid mubarak to you also, bel saha wel salama insha'Allah...
Your fellow egyptian says am a "shemale"....hahahahaha...
Please tell her if you speak to her, that I prefer to be a shemale as opposed to a barbie with a tweety brain. :-)
Dead ones coming back from the hereafter excluded, that is (alas...)
Good question.
Do you want an idealistic, wishful reply or do you want a pragmatic, realistic, realpolitik one?
Both the idealistic and the realistic replies, if you don't mind.
It is all about attention. Besides I don't know her and I never spoke to her before
Even though I agree with parts of your comments, I think you deliberately left out some VITAL facts.
- While some were eating caviars and frequenting brothels, it is true that Iraqis and Palestinians died and it is true these sons of bitches had a hand in it.
- But what you fail to mention, is that while these SOB were doing what they were doing, IRAN, purposefully, deliberately, in COLLABORATION with the U.S, DESTROYED IRAQ.
- What you have FAILED to mention is that the Persians that you seem to hold in high esteem, trained, funded, backed, infiltrated...massacred, ethnically cleansed, finished off, the IRAQIS through their Revolutionary Guards, their Militias, and their DUAL puppets in Govt.
- What you FAIL to mention is that NASRALLAH and his party of "God", trained HEZBOLLAH-IRAQ, trained JAYSH AL -MAHDI of Muqtada al Sadr
in technics of Ethnic cleansing AND in the Killing of the Palestinians in IRAQ. Over 6'000 palestinians were murdered in Baghdad ALONE.
- Iran and its so called anti zionism did shit. Hezbollah and its political jargon and his mullahs who scream "anti imperialism", Fadllala, Nasrallah and Bateekh, on the contrary kept the MOST UTMOST SILENCE and DITTO for Nahr al Bared Refugee camp in Lebanon where 30'000 Palestinians were left out to go into YET another wilderness...
- And also what you have failed to mention and that is probably because you do not know this FACT, is that HEZBOLLAH - Lebanon and BADR BRIGADES of al Hakeem - Iraq, were formed in Teheran to fight - no not the ISRAELIS but the IRAQIS in both Lebanon and IRAQ during the 80's i.e during the Iran-Iraq war. And what you do not know is that it is precisely this Hizbollah from Iran that detonated the Iraqi embassy in Lebanon with explosives...and the list is long.
- so in conclusion, I am aware of the impotence and the selling out of the Arabs and Muslim Ummah, but I am even more acutely AWARE of the perfidious nature of IRAN and its proxies, be it in Iraq or Lebanon.
An attempt at a reply. Not engraved in stone and not the 10 commandments either :-)
IDEAL post liberated Iraq :
- A secular, progressive, patriotic, Government in a UNITED IRAQ. All sects, and ethnicities included with LOYALTY to Iraq first and foremost.
The person or Group?
-Ideally should be some progressive party (not the communists please!!!!- not with the political stands we witnessed from them) Definitely not the agent ALLAWI either.
- Ideally, a combination of baathists, patriotic Iraqis, secular and "enligthened" religious figures (is ok too), leftists who have repented from disloyalty to their country... Notice I did not mention any sect or ethnicity here.
- REALISTICALLY what may happen
( am not a clairvoyant though - am just deducing from the current experience and its ramifications)- in a post liberated Iraq.
All depends on two major factors in my opinion :
1) how long is this occupation going to last - ie. DURATION and
2) if Partitioning as per the American-Iranian-Israeli agenda will take place or not. You may also call it Federalism.
1 and 2 are very closely intertwined by the way. And if the duration in time lingers on and it looks like it will (SADLY SO) The Resistance may juggle with two political options for its a ideological drive.
a) either enhance its Islamic coloring and runs the risk of isolating itself in a multi ethnic (what is left of it - society) or
b)through a process of trial and errors, extend a much broader cloak to include the highest number possible of Iraqis in its fight against the occupier.
I am hoping for the latter, as this will definitely make it much more effective.
On the other hand, if 2) partition-federalism does take place and is successfully implemented (that depends on a variety of factors and political developments i.e Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Israel-Palestinian question, Kurds....
Then, I am afraid, you can kiss IRAQ goodbye for a long long time.
And you will have three or more, states exhibiting either their full sectarian, ethnic, or tribal colors...
So far those who came up with all the blame on Iran are the racist Arabs in the Khaleej , if all the stuff you listed is truly committed by Iran and proved to be right and not propaganda , then i would be among the first ones to condemn iran . i would expect iran to stand by iraq and its security now that saddam has gone.
Hezbollah does not need to train iraqis , iraq had the best trained army in the Arab world since the 50s , with over a million soldier.
The sunni Arabs are spending a huge amount of money in their papers , tv channels, magazines to help the US in their next plan to demonize iran. saudi has done it before in the 80s to recruit jihadis to help the Americans .
Either you know nothing about what is happening in Iraq or you are DELIBERATELY twisting facts.
The first one is kind of forgiveable - but knowing how you go from one blog to another, reading info, I doubt that is the case.
Now deliberately twisting facts is in my opinion, one of the highest forms of deceit.
Hezbollah did not train Iraqis, it trained Iraqi/Iranian who were anti Saddam Hussein. It trained 2'000 members from Jaysh al Mahdi of Muqtada al Sadr, and the rest were done by the Iranian rev.guards.
Those who were trained were not part of the Iraqi govt or military.
Furthermore, you say Iran must stand alongside Iraq and safeguard it. I am telling IRAN was INSTRUMENTAL in DESTROYING IRAQ along with the U.S and ISRAEL that you supposedly hate so much - since you are always ranting on about Palestinian Rights has and is arming the KURDS.
And I read with my own two eyes, your saying that you SUPPORT an INDEPENDENT KURDISH STATE AND THAT YOU WISHED THEM GOOD LUCK.
Truth of the matter Fatima is that you hate Iraqis and you hate Saddam Hussein. Truth of the matter is that you are being terribly dishonest. POINT FINAL.