[Mb-civic] latest installment from Iraq young woman blogger

[Mha Atma Khalsa]

Baghdad Burning http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/ 


... I'll meet you 'round the bend my friend, where
hearts can heal and 
souls can mend... Sunday, November 06, 2005 

Movies and Dreams... 

My parents, like many Iraqis of their generation and
educational 
background, discouraged too much tv. When E. and I
were younger, they were 
vigilant about the type of shows and movies we were
allowed to watch. They 
didn’t like for us to be exposed to propaganda-
Arab or Western- and any 
programs containing excessive violence, foul language
or sexual content 
were prohibited. On the other hand, all types of books
were encouraged. I 
grew up reading books by authors ranging from Jane
Austen to John LeCarre, 
from Emily Bronte to Maxim Gorky to Simone de
Beauvoir… nothing was ever 
off-limits. 

Where movies and television were concerned, there were
times when 
something would slip through their censorship- or
rather, there were times 
when WE would slip through their censorship and watch
something at a 
friend’s house or at a relative’s house,
etc. 

I believe everyone remembers a movie or two, seen
during childhood, that 
remained ingrained in their memory for years. For me,
there were two such 
events. One was a movie, the other was a recording or
documentary- I can’t 
remember which. 

In my memory, neither of them have a name and neither
of them have a 
place- I don’t remember where I saw either one.
The images, however, play 
themselves over in my head with the clarity of an
original DVD being shown 
at the highest resolution. 

The first one, I remember, was a movie about the
Holocaust. It was 
fictional but obviously based on actual events. I saw
that film sometime 
in the mid-eighties. The image that horrified me most
was of a little 
girl, no more than six or seven years of age, being
made to run by Nazi 
guards and try to scale a very high wall. She was told
that if she could 
scale that wall, she would be free. As soon as she
started running towards 
the wall, her little feet stumbling in the rush to
cover the distance 
between her captors and freedom, the guards set free
three large, 
ferocious, black dogs on her. I don’t remember
exactly what happened next, 
but I remember a symphony of terror- her screams, the
barking dogs and 
laughing guards. 

The second movie/film/actual footage had no actors-
they were real people 
acting out atrocities. We were visiting Iraq and I was
around 8 years old. 
I walked in on someone, somewhere, watching what I
thought at first was 
news footage because of the picture quality. It showed
what I later 
learned was an Iraqi POW in Iran. I watched as Iranian
guards tied each 
arm of the helpless man to a different vehicle. I was
young, but even I 
knew what was going to happen the next moment. I
wanted to run away or 
close my eyes- but I couldn’t move. I was rooted
to the spot, almost as if 
I too had been chained there. A moment later, the cars
began driving off 
in opposite directions- and the man was in agony as
his arm was torn off 
at the socket. 

I never forgot that video. Millions of Iraqis still
remember it. Every 
time I hear the word “aseer” which is Arabic
for POW, that video plays 
itself in my head. For weeks, I’d see it in my
mind before I fell asleep 
at night, and wake up to it in the morning. It haunted
me and I’d wonder 
how long it took the man to die after that atrocity- I
didn’t even know 
human arms came off that way. 

The horrors of what happened to the POWs in Iran lived
with us even after 
the war. The rumors of torture- mental and physical-
came back so often 
and were confirmed so much, that mothers would pray
their sons were dead 
instead of taken prisoner in Iran- especially after
that video that came 
out in either 1984 or 1986. Every Iraqi who had a
missing relative from 
that war, saw them in the agonized face of that POW
who lost his arm. 
SCIRI head Abdul Aziz Al Hakim and his dead brother
Mohammed Baqir Al 
Hakim were both well-known interrogators and torturers
of Iraqi POWs in 
Iran. 

There isn’t a single Iraqi family, I believe,
that didn’t lose a loved 
one, or several, to that war. There isn’t a
single family that didn’t have 
horror stories to tell about the POW that came home.
They were giving back 
our POWs up until 2003. In our family alone, we lost
four men to that war- 
three were confirmed dead- one Shia and two Sunnis-
and the fourth, S., 
has been missing since 1983. 

When he left for the war, S. was 24 and engaged to be
married within the 
year- the house was even furnished and the wedding
date set. He never came 
back. His mother, my mothers cousin, finally gave up
hope that he’d come 
back in 2003. With every new group of POWs returning
from Iran, she’d make 
phone calls and beg for news of her darling S. Had
anyone seen him? Had 
anyone heard of him? Was he dead? With every fresh
disappointment, we’d 
tell her that in spite of the long years, it was
possible he was still 
alive- there was hope he’d come back. In 2002,
she confessed to my mother 
that she wished someone would come along and crush the
hope once and for 
all- confirm he was dead. In her heart, a mothers
heart, she knew he was 
dead- but she needed the confirmation because without
it, giving up hope 
completely would be a form of betrayal. 

The agony of the long war with Iran is what makes the
current situation in 
Iraq so difficult to bear- especially this last year.
The occupation has 
ceased to be American. It is American in face, and
militarily, but in 
essence it has metamorphosed slowly but surely into an
Iranian one. 

It began, of course, with Badir’s Brigade and the
several Iran-based 
political parties which followed behind the American
tanks in April 2003. 
It continues today with a skewed referendum, and a
constitution that will 
guarantee a southern Iraqi state modeled on the
Islamic Republic of Iran. 

The referendum results were so disappointing and there
have been so many 
stories of fraud and shady dealings (especially in
Mosul), that there’s 
already talk of boycotting the December elections.
This was the Puppets’ 
shining chance to show that there is that modicum of
democracy they claim 
the Iraqi people are enjoying under occupation- that
chance was terribly 
botched up. 

As for the December elections- Sistani has, up until
now, coyly abstained 
from blatantly supporting any one specific political
group. This will 
probably continue until late November / early December
during which he 
will be persistently asked by his followers to please
issue a Fatwa about 
the elections. Eventually, he’ll give his support
to one of the parties 
and declare a vote for said party a divine obligation.
I wager he’ll 
support the United Iraqi Alliance - like last
elections. 

Interestingly enough, this time around the UIA will be
composed of not 
just SCIRI and Da’awa- but also of the Sadrists
(Jaysh il Mahdi)- 
Muqtada’s followers! For those who followed the
situation in Iraq last 
year, many will recognize Muqtada as the
‘firebrand cleric’, the ‘radical’ 
and ‘terrorist’. Last year, there was even a
warrant for Muqtada’s arrest 
from the Ministry of Interior and supported by the
Americans who 
repeatedly said they were either going to detain the
‘radical cleric’ or 
kill him. 

Well, today he’s very much alive and involved in
the ‘political process’ 
American politicians and their puppets hail so
energetically. Sadr and his 
followers have been responsible for activities such as
terrorizing 
hairdressers, bombing liquor stores, and abductions of
women not dressed 
properly, etc. because all these things are considered
anti-Islamic 
(according to Iranian-style Islam). Read more about
Sadr’s militia here- 
who dares to say the Americans, Brits and Puppets
don’t have everything 
under control?! 

Americans constantly tell me, “What do you think
will happen if we pull 
out of Iraq- those same radicals you fear will take
over.” The reality is 
that most Iraqis don’t like fundamentalists and
only want stability- most 
Iraqis wouldn’t stand for an Iran-influenced
Iraq. The American military 
presence is working hand in hand with Badir, etc.
because only together 
with Iran can they suppress anti-occupation Iraqis all
over the country. 
If and when the Americans leave, their Puppets and
militias will have to 
pack up and return to wherever they came from because
without American 
protection and guidance they don’t stand a
chance. 

We literally laugh when we hear the much subdued
threats American 
politicians make towards Iran. The US can no longer
afford to threaten 
Iran because they know that should the followers of
Sadr, Iranian cleric 
Sistani and Badir’s Brigade people rise up
against the Americans, they’d 
have to be out of Iraq within a month. Iran can do
what it wants- enrich 
uranium? Of course! If Tehran declared tomorrow that
it was currently in 
negotiations for a nuclear bomb, Bush would have to
don his fake pilot 
suit again, gush enthusiastically about the War on
Terror and then 
threaten Syria some more. 

Congratulations Americans- not only are the hardliner
Iranian clerics 
running the show in Iran- they are also running the
show in Iraq. This 
shift of power should have been obvious to the world
when 
My-Loyalty-to-the-Highest-Bidder-Chalabi sold his
allegiance to Iran last 
year. American and British sons and daughters and
husbands and wives are 
dying so that this coming December, Iraqis can go out
and vote for 
Iran-influenced clerics to knock us back a good four
hundred years. 


What happened to the dream of a democratic Iraq? 

Iraq has been the land of dreams for everyone except
Iraqis- the Persian 
dream of a Shia controlled Islamic state modeled upon
Iran and inclusive 
of the holy shrines in Najaf, the pan-Arab nationalist
dream of a united 
Arab region with Iraq acting as its protective eastern
border, the 
American dream of controlling the region by installing
permanent bases and 
a Puppet government in one of its wealthiest
countries, the Kurdish dream 
of an independent Kurdish state financed by the oil
wealth in Kirkuk… 

The Puppets the Americans empowered are advocates of
every dream 
except the Iraqi one: The dream of Iraqi Muslims,
Christians, Arabs, Kurds 
and Turkmen… the dream of a united, stable,
prosperous Iraq which has, 
over the last two years, gone up in the smoke of car
bombs, military raids 
and a foreign occupation. 


- posted by river @ 12:47 AM 

*** 

Protest Plans to Drop Robert Scheer's Tuesday Column 

Email the LA Times: 

Publisher  - Jeff.Johnson at latimes.com 

Editor - Dean.Baquet at latimes.com 

READ MORE ABOUT IT: 

http://laobserved.com/ 

LA OBSERVED 
By Kevin Roderick 
Wednesday, November 9 2005 

Scheer out as of December 

Here's an update to my exclusive post last Friday on
the end of Robert 
Scheer's column on the L.A. Times op-ed page: He went
on KPCC's "Airtalk 
with Larry Mantle" this morning (audio) and said he
has now been informed 
the column will stop running at the end of the year.
Scheer speculated 
about political pressure on the Times because of his
lefty views, and 
noted he has been "a punching bag" for Bill O'Reilly
and Rush Limbaugh for 
many years, but he told Mantle "I don't know what's
driving them because 
they won't tell me." No one from the Times would
comment to Mantle either. 
I've previously reported on plans to revamp the lineup
of Times op-ed 
columnists. Scheer's column will still be distributed
through 
Creators.com, and as I mentioned on Friday he will
soon launch a new 
webzine called TruthDig.com. Supporters of Scheer's
work have apparently 
begun a letter and email-writing campaign hoping to
convince Times 
Publisher Jeffrey M. Johnson to keep the column. 

***** 



		
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