Crucified by "Freedom"
The story am about to tell you is a true one. I have kept the details unchanged, but I did change the names, location and dates to protect the anonymity of the victims.
Ahmad lives in an insalubrious, run down apartment in Syria with his wife and 5 kids. Prior to his forced exile, he lived in a decent neighborhood and in a large home, large enough for his family and his parents.
After the occupation and during the usual nightly American raids, that all Iraqis have experienced, Ahmad's life took a definite turn from which he will never recover.
His house was besieged by a horde of American barbarians, tanks and weapons...They stormed in the middle of the night, made everyone lie on the floor, face down, including his elderly parents, kicked and beat the whole family with their boots, resting them on their heads and necks...
Then they proceeded to storm each room using axes to break down the doors when the doors were not locked to start with. Then they opened the wardrobes, and said they were looking for weapons of mass destruction. They set all the wardrobes on fire.
They moved Ahmad's family to the vicinity of his home and made Ahmad and his family watch as your brave boys blew the house up.
They arrested Ahmad and a few others, blindfolded them and took them to an American camp in Baghdad. During the ride to the detention camp, around 20 soldiers were kicking and butting with their rifles edges, Ahmad and the other detainees.
Once arrived, they placed them in a corner of a dirty cell and started pissing on their wounded bodies while hysterically laughing. Not contenting themselves with that alone, they (the Americans) brought in a basin used to collect shit from their mobile toilets and emptied it on Ahmad and the other detainees heads.
Ahmad and his mates spent several months at this American detention camp. The first few days their interrogation consisted of identifying posters on a wall. The picture was that of Saddam Hussein. Of course Ahmad was able to identify Saddam Hussein's picture. When he and the others answered affirmatively, they were violently beaten up by the Americans because for these Americans luminaries, that was proof that they (the detainees) knew Saddam personally.
After several days the interrogation took another turn. Ahmad believes it was not even a process of getting any information which he did not have. But, according to him, the interrogations were just a form of humiliation to the prisoners and a way for the soldiers to "HAVE FUN." - American fun.
Ahmad recalls that one of the American officers used to sit on his chair with a bottle of whisky next to him and start questions like: " Where do you buy your vegetables from ?" " What is the name of your barber?" Other humiliating questions were - "How many times do you have intercourse with your wife ?" "What positions do you take ?... At times, a male and female soldier would undress and mimic such acts in front of the other soldiers all the while "teasing" the detainees...
Ahmad and other prisoners were then transferred to another camp in the South. Which meant that officially there were under British custody. But the personnel inside the camp included US, Australian as well as British soldiers.
When they arrived at this other camp, the British received Ahmad and the others with the same sort of treatment -- kicking and striking with their riffles butts, just like their fellow Americans did before. Ahmad's head was injured during his first arrest and the wound in his head reopened and started bleeding.
The soldiers tried to stitch it in the prison cell but failed, since they are not trained to do so. So they were forced to transfer him to a military hospital. X rays showed that his skull was fractured and had been fractured for several days by now, from the physical blows. They had to operate on him and he was moved back to the prison camp.
Ahmad recalls that all sorts of humiliation and torture were still being inflicted on the prisoners of this camp. He said that when they wanted to take any one to the interrogation session, they'd strip him from all his clothes and put a hood on his head and make him walk naked the whole distance, around 3 km, in front of the other prisoners while the accompanying soldiers would be using their vehicles.
The interrogation still consisted of questions like - "where do you buy your vegetables from and where do you get a haircut?" All the while, with insults and all kinds of beatings being showered on the detainee.
These interrogation sessions were done in the presence of the highest ranking prison officers. Ahmad is completely convinced that these interrogations and torture sessions were done for the sake of "FUN FOR THE SOLDIERS" and not for extracting and gathering security information as the Americans like to pretend.
A whole year elapsed and Ahmad was allowed to receive one visit from some members of his family. His family had spent days and weeks in front of the prisons, begging to see him...
Food in the prison was in itself an insult and a form of torture.
The soldiers would collect the prisoners in one large open space at 8 am for "breakfast". They would make them sit in the heat of the sun till 11 am.
They were forced to take on a "stress position", i.e to sit in a position straining their joints with their hands crossed over their heads so they can have their "breakfast"!
In case any prisoner moved his hand to rest his body a little, the guards would directly shoot him with a rubber bullet right on the face. Some prisoners lost one of their eyes in such incidents. Other developed severe pain and blue faces for months. Those who were unable to stay in the stress position were the elderly, some older than 70 years of age.
That same procedure was repeated between 1 pm and 5 pm - during the "lunch" period The food consisted of a bag of beans with sugar for "breakfast" and a very hot peppered rice for "lunch."
After a year or so, Ahmad and others were transferred to Abu Ghraib prison.
Ahmad recalls that what was unique to this prison were not the notorious sexual insults and torture - something he was quite familiar with and used to by now, but the presence of woman prisoners among them (the men) and the torture these brave women were subjected to in front of them.
One such technique was to tie the woman's legs with two different ropes and pull the naked body in opposite directions. Some died from the pain of this method and others were either split in half or had their hips totally disconnected from their joints.
Another "sport" for the American brave boys, so they can have fun, was to tie
a male prisoner with the noose of a rope to his neck and the other end of the rope was tied to the waist of one soldier. The soldier would run from one end of the cell to the other dragging the suffocating prisoner on the ground and other soldiers -- spectators would time the race.
Then, other soldiers were to do the same thing but in a shorter period. In other words, a race competition/a contest. The prisoner would usually end up with a dark blue face from strangulation and his whole body bruised from being dragged in a "fun" race.
Ahmad was finally released with no charges. He moved to Syria, having lost his home in Baghdad and nowhere to go. About a year after his arrival here, Ahmad started feeling numbness and weakness in one side of his body, something which made speech and swallowing excessively difficult. At first he thought he had a stroke, but when he consulted a specialist, he was told that he had some dead brain cells due to some traumatic accident.
Today, Ahmad drags his legs and is unable to use his arm and hand. Ahmad does not only carry the physical trauma which is there for all to see but the psychological trauma from which he will never heal.
While in Syria, Ahmad met another friend who was an inmate in some Basra camp. This other friend told him that the Americans used to drop hot pepper liquid in the eyes of the prisoners as a form of torture. His friend added that the brave boys did that to him more often than not and today Ahmad's friend is totally BLIND.
Ahmad also met the daughter of a judge, she can't walk anymore, her hips "went loose" after being tortured in Abu Ghraib.
There are more stories, real stories to tell...Stories of "Liberation." Stories weaved by a "civilized" West, the West of " Human Rights and Democracy."
Some bad faithed, dirty, corrupt, hypocrites will argue that this is the work of "a few bad apples."
American and British "ideals" - Yes more like it.
The Western ideals of "Freedom."
P.S: A special thank you to A. for sharing it with me.
Painting : Iraqi artist, Haidar Al-Karagholi, 2007.
Ahmad lives in an insalubrious, run down apartment in Syria with his wife and 5 kids. Prior to his forced exile, he lived in a decent neighborhood and in a large home, large enough for his family and his parents.
After the occupation and during the usual nightly American raids, that all Iraqis have experienced, Ahmad's life took a definite turn from which he will never recover.
His house was besieged by a horde of American barbarians, tanks and weapons...They stormed in the middle of the night, made everyone lie on the floor, face down, including his elderly parents, kicked and beat the whole family with their boots, resting them on their heads and necks...
Then they proceeded to storm each room using axes to break down the doors when the doors were not locked to start with. Then they opened the wardrobes, and said they were looking for weapons of mass destruction. They set all the wardrobes on fire.
They moved Ahmad's family to the vicinity of his home and made Ahmad and his family watch as your brave boys blew the house up.
They arrested Ahmad and a few others, blindfolded them and took them to an American camp in Baghdad. During the ride to the detention camp, around 20 soldiers were kicking and butting with their rifles edges, Ahmad and the other detainees.
Once arrived, they placed them in a corner of a dirty cell and started pissing on their wounded bodies while hysterically laughing. Not contenting themselves with that alone, they (the Americans) brought in a basin used to collect shit from their mobile toilets and emptied it on Ahmad and the other detainees heads.
Ahmad and his mates spent several months at this American detention camp. The first few days their interrogation consisted of identifying posters on a wall. The picture was that of Saddam Hussein. Of course Ahmad was able to identify Saddam Hussein's picture. When he and the others answered affirmatively, they were violently beaten up by the Americans because for these Americans luminaries, that was proof that they (the detainees) knew Saddam personally.
After several days the interrogation took another turn. Ahmad believes it was not even a process of getting any information which he did not have. But, according to him, the interrogations were just a form of humiliation to the prisoners and a way for the soldiers to "HAVE FUN." - American fun.
Ahmad recalls that one of the American officers used to sit on his chair with a bottle of whisky next to him and start questions like: " Where do you buy your vegetables from ?" " What is the name of your barber?" Other humiliating questions were - "How many times do you have intercourse with your wife ?" "What positions do you take ?... At times, a male and female soldier would undress and mimic such acts in front of the other soldiers all the while "teasing" the detainees...
Ahmad and other prisoners were then transferred to another camp in the South. Which meant that officially there were under British custody. But the personnel inside the camp included US, Australian as well as British soldiers.
When they arrived at this other camp, the British received Ahmad and the others with the same sort of treatment -- kicking and striking with their riffles butts, just like their fellow Americans did before. Ahmad's head was injured during his first arrest and the wound in his head reopened and started bleeding.
The soldiers tried to stitch it in the prison cell but failed, since they are not trained to do so. So they were forced to transfer him to a military hospital. X rays showed that his skull was fractured and had been fractured for several days by now, from the physical blows. They had to operate on him and he was moved back to the prison camp.
Ahmad recalls that all sorts of humiliation and torture were still being inflicted on the prisoners of this camp. He said that when they wanted to take any one to the interrogation session, they'd strip him from all his clothes and put a hood on his head and make him walk naked the whole distance, around 3 km, in front of the other prisoners while the accompanying soldiers would be using their vehicles.
The interrogation still consisted of questions like - "where do you buy your vegetables from and where do you get a haircut?" All the while, with insults and all kinds of beatings being showered on the detainee.
These interrogation sessions were done in the presence of the highest ranking prison officers. Ahmad is completely convinced that these interrogations and torture sessions were done for the sake of "FUN FOR THE SOLDIERS" and not for extracting and gathering security information as the Americans like to pretend.
A whole year elapsed and Ahmad was allowed to receive one visit from some members of his family. His family had spent days and weeks in front of the prisons, begging to see him...
Food in the prison was in itself an insult and a form of torture.
The soldiers would collect the prisoners in one large open space at 8 am for "breakfast". They would make them sit in the heat of the sun till 11 am.
They were forced to take on a "stress position", i.e to sit in a position straining their joints with their hands crossed over their heads so they can have their "breakfast"!
In case any prisoner moved his hand to rest his body a little, the guards would directly shoot him with a rubber bullet right on the face. Some prisoners lost one of their eyes in such incidents. Other developed severe pain and blue faces for months. Those who were unable to stay in the stress position were the elderly, some older than 70 years of age.
That same procedure was repeated between 1 pm and 5 pm - during the "lunch" period The food consisted of a bag of beans with sugar for "breakfast" and a very hot peppered rice for "lunch."
After a year or so, Ahmad and others were transferred to Abu Ghraib prison.
Ahmad recalls that what was unique to this prison were not the notorious sexual insults and torture - something he was quite familiar with and used to by now, but the presence of woman prisoners among them (the men) and the torture these brave women were subjected to in front of them.
One such technique was to tie the woman's legs with two different ropes and pull the naked body in opposite directions. Some died from the pain of this method and others were either split in half or had their hips totally disconnected from their joints.
Another "sport" for the American brave boys, so they can have fun, was to tie
a male prisoner with the noose of a rope to his neck and the other end of the rope was tied to the waist of one soldier. The soldier would run from one end of the cell to the other dragging the suffocating prisoner on the ground and other soldiers -- spectators would time the race.
Then, other soldiers were to do the same thing but in a shorter period. In other words, a race competition/a contest. The prisoner would usually end up with a dark blue face from strangulation and his whole body bruised from being dragged in a "fun" race.
Ahmad was finally released with no charges. He moved to Syria, having lost his home in Baghdad and nowhere to go. About a year after his arrival here, Ahmad started feeling numbness and weakness in one side of his body, something which made speech and swallowing excessively difficult. At first he thought he had a stroke, but when he consulted a specialist, he was told that he had some dead brain cells due to some traumatic accident.
Today, Ahmad drags his legs and is unable to use his arm and hand. Ahmad does not only carry the physical trauma which is there for all to see but the psychological trauma from which he will never heal.
While in Syria, Ahmad met another friend who was an inmate in some Basra camp. This other friend told him that the Americans used to drop hot pepper liquid in the eyes of the prisoners as a form of torture. His friend added that the brave boys did that to him more often than not and today Ahmad's friend is totally BLIND.
Ahmad also met the daughter of a judge, she can't walk anymore, her hips "went loose" after being tortured in Abu Ghraib.
There are more stories, real stories to tell...Stories of "Liberation." Stories weaved by a "civilized" West, the West of " Human Rights and Democracy."
Some bad faithed, dirty, corrupt, hypocrites will argue that this is the work of "a few bad apples."
American and British "ideals" - Yes more like it.
The Western ideals of "Freedom."
P.S: A special thank you to A. for sharing it with me.
Painting : Iraqi artist, Haidar Al-Karagholi, 2007.
Comments
I have heard countless times from American politicians, news people and from so many others that our "brave soldiers" are "fine young men and women, doing a great honor and service, fighting to defend freedoms & liberties and promote democracy, etc, etc, bullshit, bullshit BULL SHIT.
THIS is the face of the "soldier", the government agent............the rapist / the murderer / the government lapdog terrorists.
The USan influence, whether strong or weak, on any part of the globe should be considered reprehensible and the source of decay towards everything that is good. This includes their film industry, their books ... everything. The US has NOTHING to offer to the rest of the world and the USans don't seem to realise that, across planet Earth, they are loathed and looked upon with deep revulsion. Unfortunately, this scum does not travel away of its shores (unless they are invading other countries), so it does not know the Truth - they are too busy living off credit and stuffing their fat bodies - their lives are total SELF-INDULGENCE. USan society represents everything that goes against morality and strong, decent values held by other civilisations across the globe.
The 'fun for the boys' which you've written about represents the 'FAMILY UNIT' in the US, as it exists, because the 'family' forms the core of any nation. When this is corrupt, everything else is corrupt, and we see this reflected from the top to the bottom in the US. These 'fun-loving' 'boys' and 'girls' are only doing what is done within their own society, and acting out their 'dreams'. Throughout their lives, most of them have fed on these 'dreams' - savagery, lying, killing, etc. to get what they want, have been part of their daily diet from the time they were born, in addition to the stupid belief that 'they are better than the rest of the world'.
I have no words to express what I feel about Ahmad and the silent thousands upon thousands of other Ahmads and women in Iraq who have suffered at the hands of these barbarians.
My only consolation is that these brutes - the lowest form of the animal kingdom, because they are not human - will return to their dysfunctional homes and thoroughly dysfunctional society, and continue to do what they've done in Iraq to their own, eventually destroying this absolutely sick nation. Which is heartening, because, once this happens, the rest of the world will be better aligned, as God has meant it to be.
In Iraq, the world gets to witness the real fight between GOOD and EVIL, and EVIL has travelled across the oceans to show its true face - in the form of 'fun-loving boys and girls'. Their parents and 'leaders' are a total failure and deserve all the horrors they will witness in the future - no escape from that, Layla.
In solidarity, Layla.
BuT the cruelty and the arrogance of Anglo-Saxons seem to be worthy of a special place. The Brits seem to be the creators of a culture that is so insanely cruel that it is hard to imagine that they are surpassed by their American Brethren. Maybe their misfortune is to become empires when technology reached a point that makes the power of humanity seem weak in comparison.
OR their misfortune is to have a shallow enough civilization that enables them to be that stupid.
An adulterated, pseudo religion established by perverts with bad haircuts isolated from populace might also be a BiG factor. Yes, I think it's that christianity that fragments their minds to the point of imbecility...The same fragmentation and linear thinking makes them good in creating technology but condemns them to use if primarily for dominating others...
If there's a god, it sure has a sense of humor, albeit a dark one.
What you tell us is harrowing, and without doubt it is true.
Might I offer, as some measure of evidence of the balance of "Karma", an extract from a recent study of american soldier-boys who have done their duty for "Texas and Wall St."
"...On any given night last year, nearly 196,000 veterans slept on the street, in a shelter or in transitional housing. In all, 495,400 veterans experienced homelessness at some point in 2006.
And those figures are expected to go up. Another 72,000 of recently returned veterans are currently paying more than half their income for rent, leaving them extremely vulnerable to experiencing homelessness in the near future.
"We're beginning to see, across the country, the first trickle of this generation of warriors in homeless shelters," said Phil Landis, chairman of Veterans Village of San Diego, a residence and counseling center, told the New York Times. "But we anticipate that it's going to be a tsunami."
Their experiences in Iraq have turned their minds to mush, their thought processes and sociability have been lost in a thick fog self-pity and shame.
The pain of the Iraqui people will haunt them to their graves will even curse their children, and their children`s children.
What they've done to Iraq, (an innocent nation, already crushed by their inhuman years of sanctions), to their legitimate leader and to the thousands upon thousands who have been displaced, killed, maimed, psychologically damaged ... all this will follow them for generations, and God willing, this rogue nation, will fall to its knees and bite the dust. The (abysmally low) standard of education is already pointing that way, and, if one follows the news, it's downfall has already begun.
To urungu, where you've stated:
"The same fragmentation and linear thinking makes them good in creating technology but condemns them to use if primarily for dominating others..."
I beg to differ a little with 'makes them good in creating technology..." - if one looks carefully enough (and the evidence is plain to see), that the major part of the creation of technology is done by SKILLED PEOPLE FROM OTHER NATIONS, mainly 'developing' countries (Asia, Africa, to name a few; which people dominate 'Silicon Valley'?). These specialists have been POACHED by the US by offering incentives such as higher salaries, etc. Which nation is today trying to take all of IRAQ'S best brains (of which there are thousands) - doctors, scientists, etc.? Yes, the FILTHY, IMMORAL US.
Layla - xxxxx
But it is dwarfed by their mindset, that created institutionalized slavery, their deep rooted arrogance. It's true, Layla. Real intelligence, an essential and primary ingredient for moral judgment, the ability to predict the consequences of one's actions is obviously lacking there.THeir shortcomings and lack of moral aptitude is clear, what is interesting is the popularity they enjoyed among many in four corners of the world until recently...and/or willingness of those best brains and specialists to be recruited by accepting "incentives such as higher salaries, etc"
The American Indians were willingly helping yankees against the Japanese in Pacific, the anglo-saxons might be the agents of corruption but it's the corruptability of humanity that makes their boat float. After all, the bloodthirst of humanity is nothing new, it's our grandfathers that caused the extinction of neanderthals....
But if the best economists are right, the days of the current empire is numbered..I just hope there won't rise another world hegemony afterwards...
My main point being: The issue is human conciousness...(or lack thereof:)
Much Love and thank you for giving voice to the painful stories of Ahmad's...Nadia's, Hossam's.
Urungu: "Yes, I think it's that christianity that fragments their minds to the point of imbecility..." Don't blame Christianity on this one, Americans can be imbeciles no matter their religious affiliation, especially those living the good life in California and those liberal thinkers from Berkeley...
To 'Ahmad' : The law (including military law) is an ass!! I wish I could take your experiences away for you.
Layla: could we change "Western ideals of 'Freedom'" to Americanized ideals of Freedom?
Peace Out
Adele
Thank you for a GREAT comment. You sussed it all up. Those on the outside, the white man/woman mentality have no fucking clue what Iraqis have been and are going through and despite all evidence they refuse to understand that Iraq and Iraqis have been changed on both a personal and collective level -- beyond any fucking recognition.
Sometimes I feel am talking to a friggin wall - Yes that's it a Fucking WALL.
Bless you and yours.
Ah those nice words of peace, love and humanity ! Were you not the one who compared the legitimate president of Iraq who was murdered by the US to Adolf Hitler ???
Hence de facto legitimizing the slogans that the occupation came with to justify their murder and mayhem ? I dont want your love Ungunru, and I don't want your peace either - I want INFINITE JUSTICE!
You said :
"To 'Ahmad' : The law (including military law) is an ass!! I wish I could take your experiences away for you.
Layla: could we change "Western ideals of 'Freedom'" to Americanized ideals of Freedom?"
Excuse me but what are you talking about ? There is no military law, the westerners are above the law.
Hence getting to your second point -
No I will not change the Western Ideals of Freedom to Americanized ones. Are you laying the filthy brits out of the equation, or the retarded aussies or maybe the ukrainians and the poles, or the italians.
Or maybe we should negate all colonial history so we can come across as political correct and receive the white man/woman's blessings ?
Think again, coz it ain't happenin'
salam to you,
Am all for karma except ...
Which reminds me, I used to have a grafitti poster in my univ student room and it said ---
God give me patience, but please hurry up!
You're right, there is no law, and even if there is, it does not ensure justice...personally I'd like to believe in devine retribution so that the 'people' who torture, rape and murder get theirs in the end so I say: "God give me patience, but please hurry up!"
Peace Out...
'Cause you'd be just wasting your time; better focus on reeducating the arab neighbors.
I couldn't give you peace even if i tried until my last breath, it is free and everywhere.
I did not compare Saddam to Hitler, I compared you saying that the Iraqis not deserving Saddam to the idea 'that the Germans didn't deserve Hitler' which little Adolf himself said before committing suicide.
I understand... after all the hardcore horrible happenings that you witnessed first or secondhand, you are not open to any kind of niceities...fair enough.
But let's be clear, justice is never objective. What you want is vengeance, which is allright.
It's just... by the nature of this existence, you cannot be right AND happy. You have to choose one. If you choose to be right, you fight eternally without achieving anything and there's one more human/woman/arab/sentient being NOT happy.
DO NOT mix that happiness with being happy about something/anything. The heart can cry rivers of sorrow when the soul is happy because there is the trust that...how to say this..ALLAH-u AeKbar...
All else is devils playground.
DO NOT mix your own little individual intellect's philosophical conclusions/bets with the Absolute Truth.
Plus what makes you think that Layla's soul is not full of faith in Allah, the fact that she keeps her religious sentiments to herself instead of wrapping herself in a black tent and going around preaching fatalism and resignation upon others ?
Unlike Christianity, Islam attaches great importance also to earthly happiness, that which comes from the little good and beautiful things in life and is a foretaste of the heaven's blissfulness, a right of every "sentient being".
Iraqis are being denied this right, they are being driven to prefer death to life in desperation, but thankfully there are still a few of them who haven't forgotten and haven't lost hope and fight to win back a normal state of things where happiness can be not only put off to the afterlife but a concrete everyday reality for all to enjoy, a "public good" as it was in blessed martyr Saddam's wise reign.
Revenge is not an end in itself, but the only possible "bridge" between the wound and its healing, unless one chooses to become insensitive - but then insensitivity is absence of pain, not happiness.
I do bother with this anonymous.
But The Celestial Stations of the Holy Book is for everyone. Even for those like me and you that are not muslims.
REaD....with the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.
[85.1] I swear by the mansions of the stars,
[85.2] And the promised day,
[85.3] And the bearer of witness and those against whom the witness is borne.
[85.4] Cursed be the makers of the pit,
[85.5] Of the fire (kept burning) with fuel,
[85.6] When they sat by it,
[85.7] And they were witnesses of what they did with the believers.
[85.8] And they did not take vengeance on them for aught except that they believed in Allah, the Mighty, the Praised,
[85.9] Whose is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth; and Allah is a Witness of all things.
[85.10] Surely (as for) those who persecute the believing men and the believing women, then do not repent, they shall have the chastisement of hell, and they shall have the chastisement of burning.
[85.11] Surely (as for) those who believe and do good, they shall have gardens beneath which rivers flow, that is the great achievement.
[85.12] Surely the might of your Lord is great.
[85.13] Surely He it is Who originates and reproduces,
[85.14] And He is the Forgiving, the Loving
who said we were unable? layla?
layla can take a break, and she can time out, but we know who, and we are very strong woman, in TÜRKİYE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NUR
I felt as sick when i read about what the US soldiers did to vietnamese without any guilt , or how they set up villages on fire and shot at civilians at close rang (my Lai) the criminal in charge of My Lai was kept under house arrest for his crime and got released within less than 5 years .
Layla, I thank you for writing and sharing the stories that aren't heard very often in the mainstream media.
It cannot be easy. I send you strength.
However, it upsets me to see the vein of rage and hatred that pulses through this comment section. I think that the least we should have learnt from the entire mess the US government has created is to stop dichotomising and viewing the world in black and white. I believe, very strongly, that splitting the world into the 'West' and the 'East', the Global 'North' and the 'South' is of no use to anyone. All it does is ruin things even more. I believe it is important to take the good and leave the bad behind... of course, this is all easier said than done. I do not mean to sound as though I am trivialising the horrors inflicted upon the Arab peoples, but I believe the Arab peoples must rise above this and not make the same mistakes as the West have made.
The World Bank, the I.M.F. and US dollar hegemony, etc.
I use to read your articles in rebelion.org, and for me they are a very interesting way of understanding the real situation of Iraq.
Only, I can desagree with the use of the concept of "western" as something homogenous. When you are talking about the way of understanding the freedom fel Garb, your making the same mistake that I must to listen every day about the arabs in my western country.
I don't believe in those ideas of the crass of the civilizations but when your using this term your making a favour to these ideas.
On the western there's a lot of people working to support a free Iraq, I mean free of the actual occupation, and they have another "western ideal of freedom".
I think that all us must to take care using this kind of terms only.
Thank you for your work and the informations you bring us about Iraq.
Many people in the U.S. abhor what is happening. Starting with the relatively inconsequential, the popular nomenclature which uses the word "Troops" simply deflects attention from the fact that a “troop" is a "Soldier," and a soldier is a Person, which person has been sent to occupy and destroy everything in Iraq of any value, from houses to religious objects and buildings (and please forgive me if I include less than is reasonable, or say it wrong -- we are at the mercy of biased, misleading news coverage, and even though I spend many hours a week on the web finding what I consider more accurate, I am sure I remain profoundly ignorant), families, cultures, emotional and physical health...
It makes me nauseous. I try not to avoid knowing, yet to dwell in this awful knowledge can cause me enough disheartenment and discouragement that I become useless. My way of remaining somewhat effective (to the degree any of us is able to be effective) is to pay attention until I notice the blanket of hopelessness and hopelessness settle on my ability to think, and then I turn away from it for a time.
I say this because while I think I may risk wrath and accusations (true ones) that it's so easy for me to do this, when all of Iraq does not have that luxury, it is also true that for me to sink into the mud of this travesty does no one anywhere any good at all. And maybe if I can keep my wits about me, there will be opportunities to do or say something somewhere that could make a tiny difference over the long run.
Please know, I have never -NEVER- thought any military venture by my country has had anything at all to do with protecting MY freedom (which is what they always say, and then demand additional respect more than generic respect accorded people just because). I and many others knew it was a terrible mistake to begin this awful war, with no reason except something of which we were not informed, which should have been a clue right away to all the sleeping ignorant selfish barbarians who populate this nation, but being who they are, of course, clues are too opaque; they need a fucking brickbat instead, and so, having been subjected to brickbats from birth, they know only how to use brickbats. Or rifles, or bombs or torture.
I am not excusing them. Good God, no. I am indicting this country for caring so little for itself, in any meaningful way (TV and gadgets and strutting around and big houses and hyper-sexuality and pugilism and hegemony and rape - I could go on - are not caring about anyone, even oneself. Acquiring goods is not caring) that it has even less care for others beyond its borders. Not even generic respect.
Then, the least civilized people gain the most power and get to send the least civilized powerless to Iraq and other places, and there is no surprise what happens. There are a large number of soldiers who have deserted, killed themselves, live in psychological breakdown, they are the more sensitive among the group, I assume (and here people always tell us to make our children tougher, when it has always been my idea that the world needs more sensitivity, not less), and some who looked up one day and saw through the proper lens and knew this was no place to be and no thing to be doing.
I want to apologize for the decimation of Iraq, and in a way, I do apologize, though for me this is difficult. Not because I do not care, but because I think these acts are inexcusable, they cannot be un-happened, and the implication of apology is that it mitigates against the offense. In addition (and it may be entirely wrong of me, I struggle with this one), I do not consider myself a member of any U.S. group that has wrought this disaster. I have been raised a pacifist (Quaker) that declines any violence at all. I know as a citizen of the U.S. I have a responsibility to make my voice heard, yet one voice -- or even many -- is exactly what is ignored here by what we have been stuck with in charge, voted in through fraud and ignorant stupid other voters.
To the extent an apology is a symbol of care and interest, I surely do apologize. I make no excuses for any of it, I know there are many like me, and we have been unable to make an impact. If it were in my power to change one bit of anyone's life or prospects, I would do so. And I am fully aware this might seem a condescension or an effort to remain blameless. I regret that, too.