An Iraqi's Thoughts

End of the tryant

2006-12-30T20:55:00.004Z

I am not a neutral person when it comes to Saddam Hussein. Ever since I was a child I was around family, friends who educated me in what he and his regime were doing to my people back in Iraq. I hated the man, for making my parents leave their own country and live as foreigners in other countries for our whole lives. I have lived in the United Arab Emirates, Canada and the UK and I am 25.

The end of him can have several different meanings, I think today’s end was a bitter disappointment for me because it proved to me once in for all that the government and people in charge of Iraq are clowns. They are like sports managers and team owners that need to be changed cause the franchise keeps losing and has no real hope of getting better.

Is this an example we want to set up for the world? We could have just done with the photo of Saddam’s dead body to know he is dead. We talk about unity and forgiveness but when an eye for an eye is being practised on live television one begins to wonder?

What about the justice for the rest of Iraq? The people of Dujail should be happy today because they received justice for the crimes committed against them but what about the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis whose cases against Saddam won’t mean much because of the hanging of the tyrant? That makes me sad.

From around 2 pmish my time I was telling everyone that the whole thing was a Dawa against Ba’ath victory rather than an Iraqi one. About half an hour an article was written with the same story written except it wrongly stated Ibrahim Ja’afari was the number 1 person in Dawa and Nouri Al Maliki number 2. It’s the opposite actually but that’s not the point, the point is that Al Ja’afari made sure that the Dujail trial came up first to show the heroic resistance of the Dawa party when there were much better cases he could have been tried on. Then secondly Al Maliki rushed this whole process and guess where the leaked video of Saddam’s dead body ended up? Beladi TV station which is one of the Iraqi TV stations that are hardly watched by Iraqis. Its not state television, that was the first tape of him about to get hanged that was on state television…….. the second tape of the dead body in white covers was leaked to Al Dawa.....

I am not unhappy he is dead, I am just saddened how a political party’s vendetta took a whole country’s hate for Saddam and used it to finally do what they have been hoping to do for so long.

May all those who died or have suffered under the hands of Saddam and his stooges rest in peace. Your memories sadly will be only remembered by your families and those Iraqis in the same boat as you but thanks to politics the whole world will never really understand the tyrant Saddam Hussein really was.

Now its turn to hope that the same fate bestows Moqtada Al Sadr and Islamic extremism in Iraq is defeated the way Ba'athism has been

Iraq Study Group report? A JOKE

2006-12-09T12:27:00.000Z

American taxpayers, sorry your money was taken away from you to produce something that really doesn't present real solutions nor does it help the current situation in Iraq which continues to slide towards the bad......

This is just ridiculous, and disgusting to read as a moderate liberal Iraq who wants his or her own country to get better. The truth is that this is a report that has points I agree with but those are far and few between. Anyone who knows a little about Iraq could have come up with some of the points of the report.

Sunni insurgents are being supported financially by individuals from the Arab world? Really no shit!!?? Good one….. That must have taken a while to realise…….

Shiite members of militias are in the ministries and security forces and some are rogue elements that work on their own? Wow James Baker you must be a genius for that one too…..

The only thing missing from the report was the following:

In conclusion, we decide that the best course of action for peace in Iraq is to let our old friend Saddam out of jail and allow him to continue what he did in the past to secure the area. I am surprised they left that part out.

How many references to Kurds and Kurdistan? You add them all up and there are more references to oil and that is not me being biased….. Next time you want to write about Iraq visit all of Iraq. They did not even visit the Kurdish north because once again they are expandable to keep Turkey happy. Why didn't Baker say well investment and life in Iraqi Kurdistan is booming and it continues to progress and we hope the rest of Iraq follows suit by creating a security apparatus loyal to the country first......

A centralised government? No autonomous regions? Who are you to know what Iraqis all want. Some Iraqis will be happy with the report, especially those who are anti American and want to prove Bush wrong at any cost.

This is not about Bush, things were done wrong but for example why did they not look at the root causes of the problems? For example unemployment in the youth is sky high and they have nothing to do or earn so they join the insurgents or the militias….. How do you avoid that? Give them something to do…. Bring back conscription…… Don’t bring back the old army in its entirety but bring back conscription and you will see a difference in the problem….

Corruption is a rampant problem, I regret my vote and wish there were new elections again and I think I am not all alone, the ministers are sitting down enjoying the lives they used to say Saddam enjoyed…. They are all multi-millionaires now and for god’s sake I know you like the prestige but in the end of the day you have made your money leave…… I am not talking about all but most and I know personally how Iraqis can be…..

Like look at me I have the best cars or best this… one of the ministers I know personally has his son hired in another ministry and his son doesn’t even speak any language besides English, he is learning….. this is disgraceful and upsetting because it seem like I have given up on good people…. We think the world is full of good people but sadly we know that is not the case…..

Arrest Hareth Al Dhari and Moqtada Al Sadr, this will make a double statement that we don’t differentiate between criminals……whether Sunni or Shiite it doesn’t matter, a criminal is a criminal….. I don’t understand what they are waiting for?

My Iraq study recommendations to Bush:

- Bring back conscription, give the youth something to do, fighting for their own country back from the corrupt Iraqis who are everywhere

- Arrest all those clerics that talk about hate and evil….. Hareth, Moqtada etc….
- All Iraqis given high positions such as minister or undersecretary should not have any immediate family allowed to work in any ministry or work in embassies around the world. ENOUGH NEPOTISM WE ARE SICK OF IT
- Fix the basic utilities, these should not even be ministries…. Give the utility ministries by force to technocrats with financial aid that will instil all the necessities……
- Ask the allies of the US in the Arab world to hand over all those Iraqis who are busy collecting funds in the countries they live in and send it back to Iraq to promote their own agendas or to keep the infighting going on….
- Give all your support and funding to Iraqi liberals and moderate even if it is out there in the open, we don’t care…. They don’t have armies, they have words and just as we see with Fouad Siniora in Lebanon that can’t help much…..

Have a nice day :)

My first thoughts...

2006-12-02T10:36:00.000Z

Hello all, I will be writing on Sami's blog from now on. My points of view may be different in some aspects but we both hope for the Iraqi people to share the same sort of lives that they have not been able to enjoy for too many years.....

On Friday 17 Nov 2006 a Kuwaiti writer Abdullah Al-Nafisi issued an ominous warning to the Gulf people and states that if they don't wake up to the coming immense threat which is casting its shadow it will be too late. He referred directly to the presumed imminent threat by what is going right now in Basra. He stated that Basra is now totally controlled by Iran. This sounds horrific indeed, but what are the real events and what are Dr Al-Nafisi’s motives? On the same day that Nafisi was trumpeting his catastrophic vision of the Middle East region, Mr Gordon Brown was visiting the British troops in Basra where the BBC correspondent spoke live from Basra about the city and the would-be next prime minister’s trip to strengthen the morale of the forces.

At the same time the reporter stated that the promising people of this beleaguered believed that "healthy drinking water is a luxury in Basra." The truth is that healthy drinking water has been a kind of dear luxury since 1991 after the spark of the intifada against Saddam that started in Basra and swept through the whole country albeit a small number of areas. Saddam decided to punish the whole population of Basra by cruel methods that included depriving the people of the city of clean drinking water, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of fragile people, particularly children. Al-Nafisi lives in Kuwait, was a witness to the invasion of Kuwait and Saddam’s threat, and was quite aware of the continuous and carefully planned process of extermination. To add insult to injury Saddam after many years decided that he would do something about the water problem. He called his project "Loyalty to the Leader" and everyone in Basra remembers it as a big mockery. Why is Nafisi suddenly so worried about the people and city of Basra? Actually it is the old-new perennial sickness in the Arabic World.

The majority of the inhabitants of Basra are Arabic Shi’ites and this is a nightmare for the people of the Arabian Peninsula. Anotherthing al Al-Nafisi mentioned in his appearance on the Al-Jazira channel was no less significant. He stated that we, i.e. Arabs who share his mentality and they seem to be in the majority, are now surrounded by a dreadful and unprecedented danger. He emphasised that the movement of Al-Hooti in Saada in Yemen as another threat, this one coming from the south of the peninsula implicitly accusing the Shiites of being the root of the problem. If anybody thinks that Nafis is is an unrealistic scaremonger must be mistaken as the majority of elite Arab and Islamic ideologists think on the same lines though they pretend to adopt an ostentatious liberal attitude (actually Nafisi has always been considered moderate and somewhat liberal ).

One can easily detect the fundamental errors in their ideation which can be summarised by these points:

1. They have never moved from the theocracy despite the huge political heritage in the history of the Islamic Empire

2. Monopoly of the truth as the High Sunni Clergy sees this truth.

3. No place and no acceptance of the others and especially the Shia.

Some could be misled that these issues have appeared anew on the political arena in the middle-east because of the Coalition invasion of Iraq and what happened after the fall of Saddam. No that is entirely wrong. I remind my readers of what Saddam and the Baathists used to repeat during the Iraq-Iran war 1980-1988. He said the road to Jerusalem passes through Tehran and it is well-known that all what Saddam had said or done was wholeheartedly endorsed by the majority of people in The Peninsula and up till now they don't hide their lamentations about the dishonourable fate of Saddam.

I believe that the Kurds of Iraq suffered horribly simply they were considered unprepared to play their assigned role in the sectarian conflict. They adhered to their nationalism instead.
So looking at their theocratic, monopolistic and exclusive manners of dealing with the other religious varieties in the Arab world there will be a hard job for those who think that the democratic solution is achievable in the near future. Nevertheless and ironically enough Iraq will be a quite different matter. The majority in Iraq will never be granted their due right of living as equals in a real democracy but they will wrench it out and hopefully soon.

Does he deserve it? Yes

2006-11-06T15:55:00.000Z

Today was an intense day where I went through a whole range of emotions and felt sad, happy and every other feeling a human might be able to enjoy but yet still I am unsure the source of this frustration.

My hopes from the days where there were rumors Saddam was going to be toppled was simple, finally the world can see what sort of man he was, and the type of regime he helped create that killed, maimed, raped, stole and ethnically cleansed so many people inside the borders of Iraq and in neighboring Kuwait and Iran.

I hoped that my Arabic friends would finally realize that after the removal of Saddam what the majority of Iraqis were suffering from. I don't want to use the terms Shiites, sunnis, kurds etc not because I don't believe they exist, on the contrary there have been differences between Iraqis for years before and believe me for years after Saddam's reign. The point I am trying to make is that the media picks up a rally in Tikrit and a rally in Sadr City and then can generalize the whole verdict into two camps. If only life was that simple, its a good thing reporters don't work on business deals cause with incomplete information they would not do terribly well.

The truth is I know Sunni Arabs who were so happy with the verdict and I know Shiite Arabs who were saddened about what happened. Now I don't have figures or numbers but the people crying for Saddam inside Iraq are those who enjoyed life under his rule, and those who like to attach themselves to fake heroes who in their minds stand in the face of Western power...... Inside Iraq the majority of people know by now that Saddam is BS and the same man who liked his whiskey on the rocks is not genuine when he shouts out 'God is Great' and Long live Iraq.

Long live Iraq? Buddy you helped alienise whole communities into becoming unintelligent ready to raise the pictures of people like moqtada who have done 0 for the advancement of Iraq or mankind but are given the title Sayed due to his bloodline. Its funny seeing Iran, the US and Sadr all agreeing finally on something and it is sad that it had to be the verdict of Saddam that brought all these people together.

I honestly think that if I were for capital punishment this would be the best day of my life but the best thing is insulting and humiliating somebody and I believe that day came a couple of Decembers ago when Saddam was found in a hole. We had the same story that is going on now, whether or not it is fair.... Arabs crying over it and Iraqis celebrating but that was classic because that was when his dignity was taken away from him. Now he is faced with losing his life and the beauty of it is I think in his twisted mind he somehow thought there would be a way out and this was the final nail in his coffin.

We need to think about the hundreds of thousands who died, the plus one million who have been displaced and live in countries because they don't have one of their own, they were all victims of this terrible tyrant. This should not be about the US elections or the Gaza offensive, this should be about congratulating and sharing your happiness for the man that once brought a whole country to its knees with fear, found himself shaking and shouting aimlessly well we Iraqis who understand what he stood for laughed and enjoyed his performance. Unlike his half brother who couldn't put a couple of sentences together Saddam managed to shout out his usual slogans and the sad part is that until this day sooo many Arabs believe it.

My colleague was almost in tears at work, she is Syrian and came in shouting saying oh my god that's the biggest asshole and meanest person I have ever seen, and I knew she can't have been talking about her baby Saddam and I asked her who?

Her response........ The judge for talking to them like animals..... Go fuck ourselves is what I wanted to tell her....... A slap is what I wanted to give her but I left for my lunch break swearing to myself that today has to be a good day. When supporters of islamism and ba'athism are in tears then that must mean the side I am on which sometimes even I am not sure of is winning.... This has been a long post but I will always remember Guy Fawkes day as the day in Iraqi history that Saddam's the Arabic lion persona got burned to show the coward he really is.

To the people who have died, lost relatives, been a victim of rape, or any sort of crime pre 2003 I want to say you have reason to rejoice as soon we will be hearing of Saddam's death or his rotting away in prison........

To those that see the problems in the current new Iraq, I say be patient, what Saddam taught a lot of Iraqis was not science, maths and arts but rather how to be able to kill, bomb and maim and that will take at least a generation to get rid of.... so the number of lives that have been lost because of Saddam will never be known because his teachings mean we will have to live through difficult times ahead of us until the Saddam is brought out of Iraqis and Arabs that still have 'him' in them.

Thanks and please visit more often I will be blogging more regularly

Iraqi bloggers of all kinds

2006-10-21T13:41:00.000+01:00

You have probably read about it on other blogs about a LARGE number of Iraqi bloggers getting together and being upset at Iraq the Model.

Konfused Kid has the related piece on his website:

http://ejectiraqikkk.blogspot.com/2006/10/iraqi-bloggers-discuss-lancet-study.html

that does not mean I agree with everyone who commented, nor do I speak for all Iraqis....... but its my duty to say that ITM let me and a lot of liberal Iraqis down.

We did support the removal of Saddam but we do not support the killing of Iraqis no matter who does it and its being done by ALL.

Read the post to see my comment and what lots of other Iraqi bloggers wrote.

Blogging.

2006-08-26T07:47:00.000+01:00

What i used to think:

-The were liberal secular minded people in the majority of Iraq.
-There were honest Iraqi politicans who wanted to help the people of Iraq escape from Saddam's rule an way of life.
-There was hope for some sort of normal life for the people of the region.
-That most people would understand the concept that despite Iraq being a state full of different nations (read your political science books) it would still unite behind the suffering of Saddam.

What I think now:

I don't know to be honest, let me tell you this story and tell me what you think. My dad's uncle and his wife own a nice house in a good part of Baghdad. They have left Iraq almost 3 years ago just after the fall of Saddam's regime. They hired a guard to take care of the house and recently he got kidnapped. The courts blamed the owners' of the house, and in absentia since they have not been to Iraq since they left sentenced them for carrying out the kidnapping. The whole point is to gain ownership of the house.

Moral: The number of criminals in Iraq is so large that it will take more than military might and elections to beat that. Look at the effects of Saddam, sanctions and religon all mixed in a nice up-sized combo to create an enemy that is just the bad side of human nature, that has nurtured in so many people.

Wrong policies

2006-08-06T23:38:00.000+01:00

I have not written in a while because I am travelling around and am currently in London. Its been a strange summer holiday with as you all know never ending tragedies in the Middle East.

How the West is succeeding in losing the support of almost all the people of the Middle East:

Lebanon: Everyone knows what is going on between Isreal and Lebanon but the results are not more 'freedom' nor is it an end to terrorism, or minimising the threat of Hizbollah. The true results are the following:

- An embrassment of the Lebanese government at the expense of making Hizbollah more popular than they have been in history. Even secular moderates support the actions of Hizbollah to some extent after seeing the devestation that is happening to all the people of Lebanon. The bombings do not stop and those who think this is a strategic campagin to destroy a milita and help make the area safer are DREAMING.
- The huge rise in anti-Isreali feeling around the world, i am in England and despite Tony Blair's policies the majority of the people here are disgusted by the way he has conducted himself. It is shameful to admit that this is self-defence. Please do not see this as a defence of Hizbollah, to me the Isreali Defence Forces (IDF) and Hizbollah are both guilty of crimes.

Iraq: The situation has become extremely desperate with thousands of people being displaced and with the offical split of Iraq underway though not everyone agrees on who is behind it. The death squads and the insurgents fight each other with weapons and money that have to come from somewhere.

As for popular sentiment among Iraqis, its probably quite ironic that its probably Sunni Arabs that want the US to stay, as opposed to the old days when it was the opposite.

- The destruction of Nasrallah and Hizbollah has alienated the majority of Shi'ites who had started to have faith with the West. Plesae do not talk about Al-Sadr (an old mate of Uday's) or Hakeem (as representative of ALL Shi'ites) but its true that the actions of Isreal have turned the tide in Iraq.

-The Kurds have seen the support the US gives the Turkish givernment and have realised that in the end of the day just as always they are just pawns being used, and this despite the fact that the removal of Saddam was welcomed with over joy but now the Kurds live in fear of an Isreali-style attack starting from Turkey.

Please see that now the people of Iraq and Lebanon who had so many moderates and secular minded people who had some sort of faith and hope in the West have lost it. Its as if they thrive on weakening all the countries of the areas.

This has ruined what has been built in both these countries and proves that one of theories must be true:

-The west want the middle eastern countries to fail and to never gain strength for a variety of reasons OR
- The people in charge of policies have no idea how a Middle Eastern person thinks or feels and as a result have conducted numerous policies that have resulted in the loss of support among the majority of ppl living in the Middle East.

The continious support of Isreal at the expense of all others in the Middle East will not decrease world wide terrorism, nor will it help establish a democratic free Middle East. It will only result in more and more Islamic fundamentalists winning in elections and bringing us back to the days of secular dictators (Saddam Hussein style)...... there is no hope really for the near future and that is why most bloggers have stopped writing.

There is a site that is written by people living in Iraq but seem only intersted in the financial aspects of things and have lost all touch with reality. This is sad because they inspired me and many others to start blogging and hopefully they regain some of the rigour they used to have in their old posts.

Cheers and have a nice day.

Damn it

2006-08-05T22:33:00.000+01:00

I wrote the longest post and best post I ever have. And it just dissapeared, I am so dissapointed right now.

Sorry.

HOPE EXISTS

2006-07-04T18:04:00.000+01:00

Today was a really great day where I got some hope back about the future.

There are a lot of problems and issues but I attended a sort of open discussion today with Iraqi PM, defense Minister, Oil Minister and Minister of State of Foreign Affairs present.

I don't want to divulge to much information apart from the fact, he has a presence and he is a great man though I am secular and he is not, though he is a Shiite and I am not I believe that he is the right man for the job if people don't interfere in his way.

Security, basic services and administrative corruption are the main issues that need to be dealt with according to Al - malice, some interesting stories though.

Shahrastani blamed the oil problems on the way that Iraqi distribution companies were stealing and said he will this week bring in whole new management to take over.

I will tell you one thing, never will there be an open Q and A by any four ministers at the same time the way it was done today.

This is democracy, people took the microphone and complained and whined, people thanked, people cried but people spoke their mind face to face and to be quite honest I wish I was not so tired cause I have so much to say about this... Watch this space...

Tidbits

2006-06-19T22:58:00.000+01:00

To be honest I have a few things I want to vent about, its like when you try and quit smoking or go on a diet and realise its not working you come back with a bang, well I have a lot on my mind and I realise its best to let it all out.

Firstly I kindly asked one of the more famous 'Iraqi' blog sites why my link was removed, apparently I do now right enough. I guess that would be a logical response but at the same time a lot of the links that are still there do not write often either. Its not a big loss in the end of the day but I don't want to get into those petty details because everyone is free to think and write as they please and so are they.

I want to start with Saddam's trial. I haven't really written about it much just because I think this is one of Ja'afari's worst legacies. He started with the Dujail trial that was meant to show the the Dawa Party and their supporters are heroes who fought and battled against Saddam. Again even in the trial of one of the world's greatest dictators, Jaafari put his own party interests above Iraqi interests. As a Kurd I would not have even started with the Anfal trials, as the most legally sound case would be of how the Ba'ath party including Saddam took over power by a military type coup. This would kill the argument that the Arabic lawyers along with a couple of left-wing wannabe type Americans who are relishing the end of the trial to return to the states and make some good money.

The story is well known and documented and evidence is avaialable. I am not absolving Saddam of guilt, I mean he is guilty of almost any crime I can think of at 2 o'clock in the morning but still what can you do. I like the judge, he is not the greatest but then again any judge on live television in a case like this will not really be the greatest judge.

On to Abu Musab Zarqawi, where the brother of one of the most senior ministers in the new Iraqi government told me and a number of friends on how Al Zarqawi was really caught but said that it was left a secret for a number of reasons. Now please one thing people should know is that Iraqis love exaggerating and lying about many things espically in the field of story telling so I wouldn't be surprised if this was not true but I'll recite it based on the merit of the individual who told me.

Apparently a gentleman was caught in Baghdad with a laptop and a whole bunch of techie equipment that was of obvious importance. Al Maliki then sought out IT experts to maxmimise what they can get from the computers. He did not let those IT people leave as soon as he realised that documents on the laptop say where the locations Zarqawi usually goes to are. Then this is where it gets funny, apparently Al Maliki being the courageous smart PM he is made sure the IT men were not allowed out and did not inform anyone from the Interior or Defence ministires because of his lack of faith in them, and only told a small number of his inner circle and coalition forces so that the operation could not be infiltrated.

My opinion? Some truth but mostly hollywood....... point is the man is gone and he will be replaced since despite what some Iraqi bloggers may write this type of mentality still exists in the Middle East. I hate US therefore by transitive property of love I love Zarqawi is how the average person must think. Anyways as long as a lot of Iraqis and by that, I mean a number enough to keep operations moving, continue their support than zarq or anyone else for that matter will be able to do almost anything they please.

I think that I am chaning in the sense I used to believe that everything was going to be solved not knowing how lazy people can be. I wish to write this to the people who still read this,, I am back and better than before, im excited and to be honest I have a lot of projects on the go, including a possible return to kurdistan somewhere in the not too distant future with an eye on a high job since I am related after all to some of the 'agents and spies' that call themself the Iraqi government.

Have a nice day, watch Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, no relevance to Iraq but god movie that I watched on DVD tonight.

Back from isolation

2006-06-13T10:20:00.000+01:00

Yeah I am alive, and I have not written in ages but I have decided to write now.

I live in one of the Gulf Countries in the Middle East not in Iraq so I just feel its not my right to really comment on issues that effect the people who live inside more than people like me.

I have not stopped caring, but I have realised that false hope was what I used to have. The death of Zarqawi, and yes he was a criminal and a terrorist, is not going to solve the militant islamic fundamentalism that leaves tennis players being killed and women being forced into submission.

I do like some of the new Iraqi politicans but most are the same, and have taken the country's secular identity away which was not the idea. The people would vote for a secular Allawi or there would be vote rigging, instead though the votes were rigged or not I don't know but Allawi didn't do as well and the trend of secterianism is everywhere.

I heard a story from the brother of one of Iraq's top ministers, about how Al Zarqawi really got found but just like always I have not much trust in iraqi exiles who try and show that their family ties is what makes them above everyone else.

Its as if the struggle for years and years of freedom from a tyrant was wasted, why do we need fourty ministers plus, why do we need to delay parliament if somebody like abdul aziz al hakim is unable to attend?

The way to start peace, is to eliminate the iraqi terrorists and by that i mean somebody like moqtada who spews almost the same rhetoric that ahmedinajad does except with no nuclear bs.
The parties fought over the silly ministries where as the education and higher education both went to extremely relgious men. u see why i am not that optimistic for now?????

Not in my lifetime

2005-11-11T15:01:00.000Z

RIP to all the victims of the suicide bombers across the world.

Its a shame really to see the events unfold in Amman and the reaction. Its like it was unexpected....

rhetoric that is going around in the arabic media and among the people......

Zionist/Imperialist plot to destroy the arabic world and arab nation one by one... palestine, iraq, lebanon and now jordan.

They look and talk to me like I am stupid, cause I don't believe in conspiracy theories. They don't realise that to me its not the race or the person that commits the crime that matters. Its finding them and punishing them. The fact that people blame certain races or people helps create this sense of anxiety and doesn't help.

The fact is that in my lifetime I doubt that people will in the Arabic world and by that I mean the majority, understand the threat of the people that exist among them with extreme views. Its no use blaming others for creating and aiding them in the past. Its a feeling of helplessnes to be honest. Thats why I haven't really been writing cause its not exactly positive when you have the sort of activities on going now in the part of the world you live in.

Thanks for all ur e-mails, my next post will actually have substance.

Dillemas

2005-10-05T19:22:00.000+01:00

I was asked a question the other day by a person interested in Iraqi politics. He asked me what benefits are there for the Sunni Arabs of Iraq in the new constitution. I couldn’t really answer. It made me think, unlike others I try to look at things from all sides and I am using my mindset as an Arab Sunni writing this article.

From the creation of the modern day Iraq, the ruling powers have almost always been from the Arab Sunni minority. They have helped balance the complicated demographics of the Western created borders of what is Iraq. The differing ethnic and religious groups in Iraq made it hard to control the country so an iron fist was needed. I can speak for the last 30 years, Arab Sunnis look at the 60’s and 70’s as good times in Iraq and other Iraqis do the same. Racism did exist but it was more anti-Kurdish than sectarian, but that’s a separate issue entirely. In schools and universities they were taught that there is no region called Kurdistan and instead it’s Northern Iraq. This is in essence the denial of the existence of a nation separate from the Arab nation. These ideas stick in one’s head, that’s why until today you will never hear Ibrahim Ja’afari utter the word Kurdistan. He was the first Iraqi politician to proudly have the Ba’athist flag behind him. Those who may personally know him know that prior to returning to Iraq he was in London, working in religious activities that really didn’t have much to do with politics. If you understand Arabic you would realise that he spends and hour answering a question without actually answering it. Good knowledge of the Arabic vocabulary does not make one a good decision maker and leader.

Back to the topic at hand, the Kurds and Shi’ites were oppressed but still there were people from both groups that preferred money and stood with the Ba’ath. It was Iraqis of all types that committed atrocities against Iraqis, and today it’s the same story. Nothing much has really changed sadly and the leaders worry about elections and constitutions and religion when the important issues are neglected. I mean how is it that in Lebanon a whole UN team was sent to try and find out the killer of Hariri yet it’s not possible to do that in Iraq? I mean just how many people are out there killing daily? The numbers are not decreasing.

If I was a Sunni Arab and saw today’s events in Iraq I would definitely be heart broken and I probably would wish the return of Saddam. This is due to the lack of Sunni Arab participation in the current government and municipalities, a mistake made during the past elections not necessarily by choice since the dangerous areas they reside in had low voter turnout cause of terrorist threats in addition to the boycott. The concept of power sharing is new and takes a lot of time to adjust to after years of being in control of everything. The worries are purely economical and rightly so since the middle parts of Iraq are not where the oil fields are located and that is no secret. Therefore even those that don’t engage in violent acts help the terrorists by being so anti-government in everything, from appearing on TV to discussions with friends. I am not saying all Arab Sunnis think this way, but the majority do. Ask an Iraqi Arab Sunni about changing the flag, ask him about reversing ethnic cleansing, and ask him about the Shiite rituals. If he were honest you would see that the mindset is still there and that is why it’s hard.

When you lose everything you had and have to start from scratch living with people that you know suffered at the hands of Saddam, you have fears and suspicions, it’s the whole process a sector of Sunni Arabs are against, because they realise that for them Iraq will never be the way it was in the past. The worry is that the Kurds and Shiites refrain from revenge. As Lebanon learnt that won’t solve anything. It’s a shame that the leaders of Iraq today didn’t stand united, after all those terrible years where people lost their life under Saddam and his cronies.

P.S. Saddam used to be proud of Salaheedine Al Ayoobee the famour KURDISH warrior that fought for Islam, and took pride in the fact he hailed from Tikrit generations ago. Tell me how is that he was Kurdish and from Tikrit? Then these animals accuse the Kurds of trying to grab land. Pathetic indeed when people preach without any background or history on the topics they discuss.

Rejection???

2005-09-21T17:55:00.000+01:00

I am sure its happened to all of you, feeling of rejection, not being wanted etc. Most people take a while to get over it and hurt, but don't allow it to dictate their lives.

I bring this up for a simple reason, my friend who posts comments on every post I write attacking me. He has called me every name there is, brings me articles trying to look smart from different resources thinking that its going to really affect me.

I have been in a relationship before where the girl was so in love, and when I finally told her it was over she couldn't understand. She tried her best to try and ruin me by doing everything. Calling me daily, using every lie in the book and constantly harassing me. It didn't bother me but i felt sorry for her, i realised that she was still not over it and that feeling isolated and alone she had no better option than trying her best to make me feel bad.

Now back to the point, its the same thing with this guy who posts daily. He makes me laugh, instead of making his own blog writing and publishing all the material that he reads and place it in his blog he comes back like a rejected ex. Knowing full well he is lost everything, he still tries every time to outsmart me. I don't doubt he is Iraqi, but I know where he lives and its funny he publishes all his anti western rhetoric when he himself lives in the West. The irony is because he lives so far he relies on news reports and odd clippings from web sites rather than speak to Iraqis who live in Iraq. Thank you my friend for making me feel happy. With every comment you publish it gives me great joy knowing how much my words hurt you. The fact is most of the people who share your ideals are too busy watching Jazira and haven't reached the stage of opening their minds.

I wish to pay respect to Jalal Talabni for speaking in Kurdish at the UN Summit. That was a gutsy move and won the respect of all the Kurds around the world.

I with to pay my respct to Iyad Jamal Deen a shi'ite cleric who is bold enough to argue that religon and politics should be seperated. He really is a man tha with every interview makes me proud. He calls for the rejection of the constituion in its current form. His reasons that its built to create a second Iran show his incredible courage given the current climate of many Iraqi politicans being under the influence of Iran.

I finally would like to thank my friend who will no doubt post another bunch of useless propoganda. Sorry bro Saddam is gone, and the people may be impoverished now but years down the line they will turn agains everything you believe in.

I don't praise the US, my purpose of writing is to try and show the world that we do have some future and that not all of us are close minded fascists.

Thanks to all those sending me e-mails and helping encourage me to realise that people do in fact read what it is I write.

Rejection: The feeling my friend got when his bathist government fell to pieces and the people of Iraq from every race and religon finally got a voice to express whaetever they feel.

Stupidty

2005-09-14T18:46:00.000+01:00

Iraqi lady whose family are known to have been agents and spies for Saddam:
Hey everyone tell me how is Iraq? I have been in England all summer? What's the news ? Anything new?
Bunch of brainwashed Iraqi women:
Are you serious?
Iraqi lady: Tell me how much land have the Kurds stolen from us?

Morale of this tale..... The Saddamist racist ideas won't die for a long long time.
He instilled these ideas in people's heads and sadly they revert to it when they need to.

I myself am the same, and hence it takes a large man to admit it.
In the old days Saddam used to accuse Shi'ites of being more loyal to Iran than Iran.
Now I find myself arguing the same thing, even though its probably a small minority but its just the fact you use cheap arguments to try and make your points.

The deal is that now Iraqis have freedom of speech, they are abusing it and sadly instead of pushing towards changing the country, they instead try and build bridges between themselves. The Sunnis say that federalism will split the country, when their real fear is that federalism would mean that the resources that exist in the South and North can't be taken advantage of.
Then they say America this America that, believe me the only thing thats stopping Shi'ites and kurds from attacking towns like Ramadi and Baqubah is the American presence.

Today was nice, Talabani and Zebari attended the UN summit, let me guess tommorrow's news will be Sharon and Talabani walked past each other.
The reason being Iraq is alphabetically close to Isreal so it always happens in UN events.

Its a shame really that Talabani wastes his time trying so hard for people who will always look at him as second class. Its rare and its heart warming when you meet someone whose from Iraq and admits the truth.

Case in point, a guy I hardly know from Baqubah tells me that he won't vote for anything but Kurds in the next election.

reason: Secularism, alliance with the west like all other arabic countries bar syria, and at least they have expierience.

Nepotism: Rampant and sad, the fact remains it will take years to fix the country to answer Louise who left her comment on why Iraqi bloggers have stopped.

They realise why waste the effort anymore caring about people who enjoy complaining and using words than doing actions.

I am pessimistic only cause a state full of nations is a recipe for disaster cause no one group will ever be content unless its at the expense of others and that sadly is the same as what's happening.

Split it into two

2005-09-13T15:03:00.000+01:00

Reason we or most of us stopped writing, is its not even worth it.

Saddam managed to create so many people who have the same mentality and backwardness that he had. Now who knows whose stealing whose not, whether Iran or Syria will keep their agendas the way they are.

Let Iraq be split in 2.

One for the Liberal secular pro-western iraqis of all races and religons
Second for those that support backwardness and want to stay loyal to the same arab league that endorsed hosni's re-election while attacking our elections.

Moqtada can be president in the south.

And Iyad Jamal Deen it would be every peace loving Iraqi for you to lead us brother. We are with you.

Amr Mousa leave Iraq alone and stop causing more loss of life in out country

2005-09-05T16:00:00.000+01:00

Dear Amr Mousa,

We as peace loving Iraqis who wish to see a democratic, federal and prosperous Iraq ask you to please leave us alone and stay out of our business. When one of our ministers shakes hands with an Isreali Minister you always have the time to come on every media outlet and make it a storm. Your efforts to de-legitmize anything thats productive in Iraq and to make the murderers and rapists seem like heroes shows us where your real intersts lie.

Most Islamic and Arabic countries have relationships with Isreal and you know this, but you only make it an issue when Iraq is involved. The article you were most worried about in the constituion was whether Iraq is part of the Arabic nation. You completely treat the Kurds the same way the Israelis treat the Palestinians. Your double standards are disgusting and your corruptive ways in supporting dictators is disgusting.

When the Iraqi people who stood against murder, rape, beheading and Saddam wanted to meet with you, you were too afraid and instead you always gave the excuse that you only speak with legitimate governments. Now that we have one you treat them with disrespect and instead of that you meet with groups, parties and all those that stand against the current government which contradicts your earlier defence of Saddam.

Your deputy or secretary or what not came on an Iraqi channel and made a fool of himself. There was a debate and the argument was made that IRAQ AS ITS BORDERS STAND NOW were created by the British colonialist powers in the earlier part of the twentieth century. Your representaitve from the arab league said Iraq has been around for thousands of years..... its funny how they don't even know their history and have such high positions and all have opinions on Iraq and Iraqi matters. Please try and see if you can get legal and proper elections in your own country. You still have no democracy in your own country yet you come interfere in ours.
It was good to see Iraqi lawmakers in the Parliament attacking you and your friends for not helping Iraqis after all our tragedies but at the same time complaining of articles of paragraphs in the constitution. I am being nice, I could have gone all out and attacked u but what's the point, your a dictator but instead of ruining a country you have ruined the relationships that exist beteen Arabic people and countries rather than governments. Congrats Amr

Best Regards
Sami

Brilliant plan if true

2005-08-16T16:15:00.000+01:00

Well rumour has it that its planned to not reach an agreement on the constituion. I hope its true and the results will be new general elections and a new parliament. This is probably what is needed in Iraq at this point.

Lots of people who voted for the Islamic 169 regret it, while at the same time Sunnis realising that every vote does count will enter meaning that it won't like the old days where the islamists can do what they like. I hope that 35 years of baath, gets followed by a swift smashing of the islamists who wish to take the country back to the stone age with all their added paragraphs in the constitution.

The rumours are that Allawi, the Kurds, the communists, the other secular Arabs will all unite.
Strong leaders with a secular mentality is what Iraq needs and wants, if you combine the voted Allawi and the Kurds got and if you count the discontentment a lot of the Shiites feel towards their government then u can forsee that it could be planned on purpose to break the talks and start again. The Shi'ites will probably start realising this towards the end...

2 options:
1- rig the next elections like their brothers in Iran have just done
2- to try and appease their demands, give women rights , take out the name Islamic from the name of Iraq, stop making federalism look like a big joke because you want to make the Kurdish cause look bad.

I hope that they don't agree on anything and the Kurds are not the ones being difficult, they goto the tables with all the same things that they have always asked for. Its the Shiites whose demands change as much as their turbins do. Lets hope that in 7 day the Arab Media celebrate the fact Iraq has a democracy and that means disagreements and arguments and surprise surprise re-elections hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

And the US i think are more supportive of this idea but cover it up by being so insistent on the constituion being completed, therefore it looks like the Iraqi government aren't stooges..
it does make sense or maybe its just me being optimistic

Politics is not for children

2005-08-12T10:14:00.000+01:00

Here is a man that sticks to his prinicples, comes on television and speaks his mind when it will turn every non Kurd against him. To him that is not important, what matters is sticking to his principles and what the Kurdish nation have struggled for.

Some highlights of the interview he had more than a week ago on Arabiyah :

1- We ( interpert we whichever way u like but me and Masood and every IRAQI should agree to this) will NEVER EVER raise the Ba'athee flag up. It looks nice? the stars and stripes? Or is it cause what they are used to? It is pathetic there is even an argument about this, whats even more pathetic is that the Shi'a claim to have suffered so much under Saddam yet they are so politcally backward that they don't know how to yield their influence. Mr Sistani sits and releases a few sentences once in a while, why doesn't he come out and say bring down the Ba'athee flag? Oh I forgot he might ask for the Iranian flag to be its replacement.

2- Masood's refusal to use ISLAM as the source of law, where are all u arabs ? Stand up for your women? Too afraid to look unreligious? To afraid to lose the votes of all the uneducated masses ? Be brave and do what you think is right. If the elections this time are not rigged then it ill be a huge victory for SECULAR IRAQIS.

I am going to interrupt my tribute to MR MASOOD, I love him even more cause 'THEY' hate him.........

Its no surprise that the constituion won't be finished by Monday with the purpose of a new political spectrum rising up. The Shi'ite political leaders made grave mistakes and will always regret the chances they had in the last year.

They have strong strong support among a large sector of Iraqi Society, and i am talking about
the Iraqian's Abdul Aziz, Sadr, whose allegiances swing from IRAQ to IRAN......

this strong support comes with a backlash, so many Iraqis will do their best to prevent these people from gaining power.

The incidents in Samawa are an example. Its Shi'ites fighting themselves and the new plan is obvious.

Allawi visiting the Kurdish leaders with the American Ambassador.
I hate conspiracy theories but I hope this one is right.
The Americans have encouraged an alliance of all the secular politicains in Iraq.

Allawi and the Kurds and co. will be much more likely to crush 169 next time around if the votes aren't rigged due to the desperation of the Iraqianis.......

More highlights of Mr. Barzani:

1- Making the point that he Peshmerga are not a militia and will not be disbanded. They are the the warriors and sons and daughters of warriors who gave their blood to fight and defend our land from Saddam and all the tyrants before him. The Peshmerga were not imported across the border after April 9, they have always been there and asking to disband them is a joke.

2- Let Arab Iraq be part of the Arab Nation, we are not.
Thats one of my fave phrases thank u Mr.Masood

3- Our rights as Kurds are self determination and our own state. We gave up those rights to live in a state created by western colonialism 80 something years ago, so Kurds are doing a favour by deciding to stick with the current BS thats going on. They are compromising jut by agreeing to be a part of Iraq.

Presenter said when will u consider urself an Iraqi:
' When its a Federal Democratic Iraq where every citizen is treated equally. '

4- Mr Barzani is not even from my home town in case ur wondering if i am biased and most of my city and area used to be anti Barzani and KDP........

now every Kurd of the 25 million of us scattered are proud of him.
Look at the events in Eastern Kurdistan ( occupied by Iran)
and Northern Kurdistan (occupied by Turkey)

the American Zionist plan to create Kurdistan might happen
hahahahahah
fucking pieces of shit the state of Kurdistan is neither a Zionist or American plan.
Its a hope of the Kurdish nation to have their own country rather than be obiedient slave minorities in all the countires they reside in.

Shame on the current Iraqi politicans who have succeeded in turning even me who used to be the most person wanting the new Iraq to succeed into a person that really just can't understand why the extreme elements of the other sects and races have taken political control and release embrasssing statements such as a southern Federal region made up of 9 provinces.

Some of the current crop of Iraqi politicians need to take political science 101, and learn the following definitions:

Federalism:
Nepotism:
Corruption:
Secularism:
That winning the hearts and minds of the ppl is sitting down for 2 weeks discussing the fastest way to restore electricity and water and security and keep politics aside until then.

Sadly these deadlines exist for creating constitution, more elections etc......
but no deadlines for water food etc....

Where are the Iraq Arab liberal moderates?

2005-08-06T15:10:00.000+01:00

Why are you all quiet?
Your country is being taken over, the Iranians have come in via Hakim and co. and the fundamentalists have come in via the likes of Hareth Al Dhari and co. Together they have helped ruin any chance of stability and peace in Iraq for at least ten years.

We see arguments these days and its all Kurds versus another group
Kurds versus Sunnis on the concept of federation.
Kurds versus Shi'ites on the concept of the role of Islam.

The Arab Iraqis complain that Iraq is becoming like a second Iran but are too afraid to voice their opinions where it really counts.

Welcome to the Islamic Republic of Iraq, where alcahol is banned, women are oppressed and the money is going to the mullahs and their agents. Hmmm sounds a little familiar. If the Americans were to leave now I wonder what would happen? If you look back at it the Kurds lived a comfortable life of prosperity even in the last days of Saddam and really didn't have much to gain from his overthrow. The Shi'ites on the other hand seem to have forgotten the way their life was during the days of the tyrant. They have replaced Pan-Arabism with Islamic Fundamentalism and the end result is the same. The people have no real freedoms or choice in their daily lives. Instead of facing the wrath of torture or jail, one has to hear about how he or she will burn in hell. I am really dissapointed. I thought that Iraqis would unite to combat all types of government oppression, instead they came out in full force to vote for a list that represents the extreme side of Iraq. I personally don't understand why the constituion needs to have written in it that Iraq is made up of this and that, or the offical languages are so and so.
List them all and thats that.

Ja'afari I was so wrong about. Turns out to be Sistani's lap dog and has to go and try and get the thumbs up for everything he does. Its time for all those opposing 169 to join forces and try their best to beat them in the coming elections and thats only if the proposed changes dont happen in the voting process.

Constitution?

2005-07-24T16:24:00.000+01:00

Why the rush?

There is this feeling that everything has to be completed as quickly as possible in every political aspect at the expense of everyday life for all Iraqis. This just adds to a competitive nature between politicans that seems to continue on a daily basis. Its not easy working in government espically for a country where the majority sadly aren't politically mature enough to know what the implications of federalism, pluralism etc would be. Thanks to Saddam there is a majority of followers who helped put in power DEMOCRATICALLY a thoecratic party whose allegiances to Iran are more and more evident for everyone to see.

Ja'afari knows that the people of Iraq were unhappy with Saddam and on TV used to preach and complain about all the Arab leaders that supported him and dealt with him economically and politically at the expense of the Iraqi people. Well is it not double standard when he practices the same by visiting Iran and giving a hardline killer legitimacy? Its saddening that instead of leading by example the rulers of Iraq could become an inspiration for all those in the Middle East by rising up and telling the world of the atrocities that go on in all the neighbouring countries.

This won't happen because politics means power and once a human being attains that level of power it won't be long before he or she changes.

The constituion meetings are a joke. Some of the members are more racist than Saddam, some of the people on it have decided that since they believe in an Islamic state then the rest of Iraq has to follow. Why not give the people a choice?

The Kurdish people should ask for what is their right and if not attained then whats the point in being part of an Iraq where they are always going to be looked down on. Its getting like a boring soap opera where people always complain about the same points.

Its not really important to get people who oppose freedom of choice and thought to be on a constituion shaping the future of a country. We were all happy to see the end of Saddam but that was because we wanted oppression to end not to change forms.....

Pan Arabism, Fanaticism and the rest have no place in Iraq..... To be honest its funny how all the clerics condemned the suicide attacks in egypyt so fast, while in Iraq its just a 'RESULT of the occupation'. Double standards towards Iraq will never end leading to what I believe will be events that shock the world.

Corruption, thieves

2005-07-19T16:47:00.000+01:00

Today my cousin called me from Baghdad saying there was an emergency needing to talk to my dad, my dad is in England on holiday. My heart stopped it sounded like something happened to someone. I kept asking whats wrong in the way that someone who doesnt want u to know whats going on will want u to know. I kept asking she was like don't worry something to do with property.

Well turns out some lawyer is claiming that my dad's property ( a house in an affluent part of Baghdad) is his etc. Of course I don't know the details but I can imagine he will have all the paper work and its going to become a bigger problem. The collapse of Iraqi society in front of your eyes is sad, sad because the end of the tyrant was meant to bring a new beggininng.

It won't because of the amount of poverty and a mentality that exists in a large number of Iraqis that stealing, killing and crimes of that nature are just ways of life.

Sadly it starts from the top with key politicians, its not my place to name call I don't know who steals what, but nepotism is alive and kicking in Iraq like never before. Saddam and his people ruined the country, now I find myself realising so many politicians did not take those lessons into consideration. Instead they realise without doing favours for their clan, people they want have popular support. Its a cycle that really doesn't have a solution.

Instead we have to sit down and realise that killing corruption and stealing is as much an issue as security, I am sad. Sad that people believe conspiracies so easily thinking that governments in this world are soooooooo sophistacted in planning and not realising that there is bueraucracy in almost every department that would never allow for the kind of bullshit that i sometimes read might be going on.

Lets hope good things are happening in ur lives :)
Stop reading about depressing Iraqi politics and instead go on and enjoy life
IF the people in Iraq make the best of life then so can everyone else

The recent events

2005-07-16T15:21:00.000+01:00

Hello for those that bother still checking up on my blog, its been a while since I wrote but its been a hectic month with so much going on that I really haven't had much time to write. I changed jobs and I am loving my new jobs, its in my field and its so challenging.

That is not why I decided to write, I decided to write because of the events in London.

For those that read my blog you probably know that I spent almost every summer of my life in London and that I have lots of family and friends who live there courtesy of Saddam Hussein. May all the victims RIP, and I just want to vent and let it out.

Its obvious now that three of the culprits were Pakistani who were upset about the daily killings in Iraq. Firstly why are they upset? Because their heroic brothers in the resistance can only kill so few in their suicide bombings.... its pathetic that people would go so extreme for a country that has nothing to do with them. Its just like when the Iraqi opposition used to meet in London, the protesters were mainly from Pakistan.

I used to work 2 minutes away from Edgware Road tube station two whole summers, and yeah it was a few years ago but still its a sad sad day in history when this happens.

I stopped writing about Iraq because my hopes are not as high because the government is being so tolerant with these killers. E.g. Hareth il Dhari should be behind bars but he is not. Send all those that defend the attacks even verbally back to their country of origin? Why? Because its a lost identity of not feeling neither British nor Pakistani that turns these people into fundamentalists......

Coldplay

2005-06-15T16:18:00.000+01:00

Well the title of my blog today is meant to have a double meaning to be quite honest... the song that is being over played in my car and on my laptop is Coldplay's Talk and yes its not for everyone but to me its a beautiful song and it fits the mood that I am in.... I have probably had one of the best weeks of my life and hence the lack of blogging.....

Firstly concerning my personal life I handed in my resignation at the bank I work at today which was sad and happy at the same, sad cause I met so many good people had great expieriences and really enjoyed my time there but I realised that the area I was in is not for me in addition to getting a new offer at a better place that doesnt compare to the offer I was on... Lets just say that for a 23 year old turning 24 later on this year I can get married and have a comfortable life if I chose to but to be quite honest don't see that happening anytime soon.....

Next highlight is there is a girl I left behind in Toronto and to be honest we were friends in the sense we could speak for hours, we have the same taste in almost everything.... she has the most beautiful personality.... and lately the more I have been dating the more I have been realising that the whole you should date and marry your best friend is such a cliche but true.... I finally told her how special I thought she is but there is a distance barrier and a small matter of her feeling the same way but at least she did not stop talking to me anymore....

Lesson of the day....... Confront and DONT AVOID.....I realised that I could sit and regret it but just like in the movies I just decided the time was right to be open and honest and I have had a smile ever since.........

Finally COLDPLAY....... thats the way I see certain Iraqis treatment of the Kurdish minority.... firstly it was a historic day yesterday and I don't care frankly what people say but for us Kurds it was a day that we never thought we would see.... Our own Parliament with the son of one of Kurdistan's real heroes being given leadership with our anthem being played (though they did really extend it a little over board, we don't have to rub it in the rest of Iraq's face) but the facts remain that Kurdistan is the most prosperous and safest part of Iraq and will remain to be so thanks to the decade and more of liberation we have enjoyed. Cities and infrastructure and fresh mentalities don't get born overnight.

I am very happy to hear about the release of the Australian hostage..... yes random thoughts.....

There is a blogger that keeps leaving comments on my board and he is not Iraqi but he insists that I am an agent etc..... Far from it.... I am not happy with everything the government is doing.... there is courrption and there is no doubt that an IRAQI identity does not exist because of so many different views. There is one thing that every Iraqi can agree on and thats to lay down the weapons and rebuild the country for all and then come back and start arguing about silly little things like whether or not the constitution is in place. Its still early days and I don't understand the point in fixing deadlines that can't be met and will just show us to be a divided people when the real explanation is simple and comes down to political reasoning......

Iraq is a state made up of many nations and just like Lebanon the people have to learn to respect one another, live with another for the benefit of all and sadly that won't be happening when the system works in a way where the brother or cousin of so and so simply gets a job cause of his bloodline rather than his skills and qualifications.

To the brainwashed

2005-06-03T17:07:00.000+01:00

Thank you mr.i want to create a blog by using ur comments forum....
you have inspired me to write a piece with your latest pathetic comments.

'I wont use ur nickname cause i find it 7aram that u would use such a name' said...
All the links came from neutral or pacifist pages. And then the affermation "the people who agree with your idealogies carry weapons where as the people who agree with mine carry minds and morals" it's pretty funny. The ip and ing have weapons and use them. By Allah, they 'll be defeated, Allah willing. For make you understand what the average Iraqi think about the situation I only said that in the Iraqi street the Americans are called "jews" and the new Iraqi army "the infidel guard". And then (in the US media this isn't repoerted) everytime a carbomb detonate killing Iraqi civilians or hitting a mosque everyone in Iraq think that this types of attacks are carried out by the cia or by the mossad, because a Muslim can't do a similar action.

In the average Iraqi street? Which streets which areas which district which people? Are you generalising and using what to gauge your views? The Army and the Police are more honorable than you and they put their life on the line against people like you on a daily basis. All I have to do is argue with you on a verbal level but they are proud to fight for the people of their country who risked their lives on voting day.

The conspiracies regarding the carbombs thats old news..... now there are ignorant people who believe in these conspiracy theories and to be honest its pointless even arguing with them. The real truth is a few changes have occured. The fall of Saddam, the creation of a semi-elected government. Its semi only because your brothers in the resistance struck fear in the hearts of a lot of people that prvenented from higher turn out but the next elections will show an even higher turnout much to your frustration. Business is booming, wages are better and radicalism is being destroyed. I am glad that god willing slowly slowly the people like Saddam, who have facism in their blood and whose whole idea of life is based on killing hate and death are getting more desperate in Iraq by the day. I just wish that you would stop talking so much and act on your 'BRAVE' words. Take care and keep watching those right wing Arabic news tv stations.

Zarqawi ?! And then what...

2005-05-26T13:49:00.000+01:00

Rumours about Zarqawi and his status and his health are all over the news and with people asking questions and wondering about his status the question becomes what relevance is there anyways. Already there are reports of the next leader to be and just like any multi national corporation the loss of the CEO will not mean the end of their functions and their objectives.

Its a company except their expertise is not in banking, engineering, medicine or any other positives that they could all unite to achieve to help the Iraqi people they claim to be rescuing. No their type of business specialises in killing, kidnapping, terrorising, brainwashing, and many other sectors that are 'VITAL' to keeping humanity safe from the evil corruption of capitalism. Yes I hope the sarcasm is understood for those that read this.

The end result is that the end of one man will not end the problem, its a mentality, its a type of thinking that is supported by many people in the part of the world who easily believe in any type of BS they watch on the tv or radio. When people from all various forms of life become political analysts then you create a society entrinched with rumours, innuendo and straight up bull shit.

Examples are easily available, the sadness felt in so many Arab people's hearts at the humilation of Saddam caught in a photo washing his own clothes. :( And another picture with his boxers on. That is what they feel sorry about, not about all the Iraqi people who never reached his age thanks to his actions.

Another example is the recent handshake between the Iraqi Foreign Minister with an Isreali diplomat. This is considered again a sign that the government are puppets but its ok to forget where this handshake took place, its ok to forget the number of governments that do negotiate with Isreal. Its only wrong when Iraqis do it. Its become so more apparent that this is not a few people versus Iraq battle. Its a whole society that needs to be taught and brainwashed in the opposite direction that they are heading now. The end of Zarqawi will just mean a small blip but how to end it all? Sadly it won't end anytime soon, before my hopes were high that peace will be achieved through dialouge and understanding but now I find myself supportive of Iraqi government measures against these people and I ask myself do I have a bit of Saddam in me?

Of course the answer is I don't, I want justice and punishment for the people in charge and the people carrying out these operations. I also want justice to be brought to those that defend and support these operations and look at them at defending Arab pride. If Arabic pride is judged by the colour and shape of Saddam's panties than I really feel sorry for the Arabic world. Instead of trying to promote the virtues of life, and the happiness of all respectin one another we see the opposite.

To me the capture of Zarqawi is irrelevant, as in the end we will get another name of a person in charge of the operations and the few Iraqis supportive of them will be put all over the Arabic media and it will continue to show all Iraqis as against the new government and process. All I can say is that its time for the government to try and become assertive, there has been two years and it seems like it could go on and on for ten so the plans of breaking up Baghdad into seven areas and doing a complete sweep look very promising and its a bold initiave that hopefully the end result being the eradication of the MENTALITY from Iraq. The mentality will not be gone in other countries for a while but as all fanatics there does come an end and hopefully for the people of Iraq the end comes sooner than later.

Thank you to those that stand with us

2005-05-20T13:59:00.000+01:00

I would like to write this post in appreciation of Mr.Gerard Baker who wrote an article in Times of England about Galloway. I wish to just reprint the letter of thanks I wrote to Mr Baker who in my eyes understands Iraq and Iraqis. We are not all one anymore. Iraq is broken into two groups and thats reality whether Iraqis want to admit it or not. There are those that long for the return of the old days of facism and fantacism and there are those that are for breeding a democracy and hoping for a better futre. Sadly its being pitted as a Arab Sunnis versus the rest of Iraq in most of the media but that is not the case as many Sunni Arabs are also in favour of the changes happening. The people most unhappy are the Arabs that had hope in dictators like Saddam and the people who do not want to see Harvard, MIT, and educated professionals running Iraq. They still long for the days where the vice President was an ice seller in the start of his career.

The article is in the Times of England and is intersting to read. Due to lack of time I can not reprint the link but I will print what I wrote back to Mr Baker thanking him for standing with us and for the Galloways of the world realise that you are only agenda is trying to show the world that the Iraqis who despise freedom and democracy get their way.

To Mr.Baker,

Thank you very much for your article in regards to Galloway's defense in front of the US Senate. This man claims to be friends with Tarek Aziz and with pride admitted to visiting him numerous times. The Senate should have asked him why being so cosey with Aziz did he not ask him to tell Saddam to stop his atrocities against my people. Why was the gassing of Halabjah, the draining of the marshes, the initation of two wars, the state police apparatus Saddam put in place not ever their subject of conversation. Instead he blames it all on the sanctions. Well does he not realise that while these sanctions were taking place Saddam was spending more and more money building palaces and fattening his bank accounts. Also why did he not ask Saddam to spend on his people when he met him? The reason is obvious, he would have met the same fate as of the late Guardian journalist who was one of millions whose family lives will never be the same after being executed by the tyrant. It boils our blood to see this man pretend that he was RIGHT about everything. Mr.Galloway you were wrong, you were wrong when you said there were no weapons of mass destruction.... look at Halabjah. You were wrong when you said the Iraqi people were against the toppling of Saddam. (21 days it took and there are 25 million plus Iraqis) You were wrong when you said the people will resist, and that the government is made up of puppets. Eight million plus put their lives on the line to vote for this puppet government and because those hardline killers who lost everything are fighting now to defend your causes Galloway does not mean you were right. Thank you for your article and WE and by we I mean the majority of the Iraqi people who want peace, hope and prosperity for our country are glad to see that people like you understand the real killers of Iraq then and now. Facism Mr Galloway died in Iraq and nothing you can do will bring it back.

Best Regards

I am alive and well...

2005-05-14T20:37:00.000+01:00

To those that still bother clicking on the link to my site... I apoligise to be quite honest. When I started this blog I used to be unemployed and on the verge of a new life so I had lots of time on my hands to write and sadly thats not the case now anymore. I love to write even though my career currently is in finance and banking, my real love is to be able to write commentaries and reports on events that effect the world. Sadly I don't have connections in those industries *hint hint* so I am stuck for now in writing on here to vent.......

The last month has been hectic, to be honest I haven't been watching the news as much as I used to. That doesn't mean I don't know whats going on but it just means I no longer know what the 112th member of the united iraqi coalition is saying on sharqiya and so on... my knowledge is not as in depth... The Iraqi community around me has not changed their whole lives revolve around it and who can blame them.... some dream of going back there.... others worry about getting their family out of there safely.

The current new government has fans and has people who are unhappy with it but thats politics and government its logical and normal for people to find faults in the government and the ministers. Its funny how some Iraqis whose relatives did not get posts in the new government start saying ohh the new governement are all theives..... etc The sad reality is if someone knows people personally in the government their faith will be higher and in a country of 24 million or more its really hard to appease everyone. There can be a million complaints but hey its a start and at least our ministers have degrees and education...... I try to remain optimisitic and stay away from the news these days......

My reason for absence has been a sudden return of a lot of my childhood friends back here, my work, the break up of a relationship which lefted so much off my shoulders and the lack of internet on my laptop.... today my parents went and saw a couple of the ministers in the current Iraqi government and I chose not to go but I will try and post some of what they had to say.....
but i can bet it was something like:

dont worry god willing things will get better , it takes time but we will win......
I don't blame them.... I am starting to realise just how facism and bigotory can be defeated amongst a large sector of the iraqi population and thats what keeps the terrorist lifelines pumping... I hope u stick around and come back to read more... take care of urselves

Happy April 9th

2005-04-09T17:12:00.000+01:00

To everyone who views this day as a happy one, as the day Saddam's regime finally turned from rulers to rebels who until this day refuse to understand that the majority of Iraqi people do not want them back. Sadly today we see some people on the streets protesting and obviously the Arabic News Channels that HATE Iraq got so excited about this and went on and on about see see Iraqis hate that day. Firstly I think that 8 million ppl plus is a lot stronger than a bunch of people who would come to the streets whatever leaves the mouth of Moqtada Al Sadr.

They did not learn from the Najaf expierience that their hero is Saddam dressed in a turban. Rather it is not through any fault of their own, its a known fact that poverty and joblessness incites and breeds the kind of views and opinions that can be easily taken advantage of. It is uncanny how Sadr always seems to do and say the same things that that the terrorists do but pretends that his people are loyal and have nothing to do with the terrorists.

This day for me is always going to be the day Saddam and his boys fell and not the day Baghdad fell. For me its the day that the 25 million people plus that have to share the state called Iraq were given a chance at a futre regardless of what people's views of America are. Things are not WORSE than they were, they appear to be only because the outside world did not see what happened before. When western rappers rap about where were the weapons of mass destruction bush trying to be all trendy and sell records by being anti government and anti political well they should take their money leave Brookyln and Harlem and goto Halabjah and see what weapons of mass destruction did to a city.

Its become so pathetic to argue back and I really don't even care, its not like it bothers or upset me becuase I have realised the majority of human beings have a closed mind and that most people are models of their parents in our part of the world. To think is to sin but to follow is to achieve should be the motto of those people that worship the likes of Saddam, Bin Ladin and co.

Regardless I got an e-mail recently talking about the positives that happened in Iraq since the liberation and I can start off by saying that the people protested today and went home to their lives without losing sleep on whether the police would come raid their homes or not. The e-mail asks the following questions and I am sure most people who KNOW about Iraq rather than just get brainwashed about it would know the following:

1-Did you know that 3100 schools have been renovated, 364 schools are under rehabilitation, 263 schools are now under construction and 38 new schools have been built in Iraq?
2-Did you know that Iraq's higher educational structure consists of 20 Universities, 46 Institutes or colleges and 4 research centers?
3-Did you know there are more than 1100 building projects going on in Iraq? They include 364 schools, 67 public clinics, 15 hospitals, 83 railroad stations, 22 oil facilities, 93 water facilities and 69 electrical facilities.
4-Did you know that 96% of Iraqi children under the age of 5 have received the first 2 series of polio vaccinations?
5-Did you know that there are 1,192,000 cell phone subscribers in Iraq and phone use has gone up 158%?
6-Did you know that Iraq has an independent media that consist of 75 radio stations, 180 newspapers and 10 television stations?
7-Did you know that the Baghdad Stock Exchange opened in June of 2004?

There is a lot more, but I cut it out cause I don't want to keep this long......
This was part of the e-mail, other things are elections ok not 100 percent perfect but the most democratic ever, minorities finally having a chance and yes the Assyrians may argue with me but I have not heard of villages being razed and ethnic displacement occuring. Its terrorists targetting churches so instead of blaming Kurds as a commenter did in a previous post lets unite and realise that we have on common enemy that wishes to see Iraq reach a level where people crave for a return to dictatorship. Inshallah this day will not arrive and to all the Iraqis celebrating today keep your hopes up as whether the Aflaqists and the Ba'athists and the Ladinists like it or not the people are getting braver and I hope that history proves how monumental the Liberation of Iraq from the regime of Sadddam was and still is.

Congratulations IRAQ

2005-04-06T13:21:00.000+01:00

This is a great day in my life, one of the days that I probably never thought would ever happen. I left work early today just so that I could see in my own eyes if it were true. Obviously the average non Kurdish Iraqi will not be too pleased with the results of today but it was an ARAB IRAQI who destroyed Iraq. When people complain that Kurds ask for a lot well we as a race have no country to call our own so there are 2 choices to assimilate us into society as equals and accept that a person of any origin, race or ethnicity can become president or prime minister OR give us our own country. We will not accept to be second class citizens and no indivuidual should ever give up their rights to be equals in their country.

The way that a lot of Arabs view Kurds is similar to the ways that the whites viewed blacks in the old days, and it will take a while to erase the racist mentality. For most Arabs they still stick to their dream of an ARAB IRAQ. Well its the Arabs doing the most killing in Iraq and in order for Iraq to be an ARAB country then the non-Arab Iraqis should be given their own state to live in and that will help them solve their sickness of not being able to comprehend the realities we live in. We will not go back to the old ways of being ruled by an iron fist and Mr.Jalal Talabani will not be the President for 30 years with his friends and family to slaughter anyone in his way. Sadly he is not a believer in the death penalty which means that Saddam Hussein might escape that punishment but I think he will change his mind on that because he doesn't want to turn the Iraqi people against him from the start.

Today was an achievement for the NEW Iraq in more ways than once, it shows democracy can work, it shows that a person despite his background can have a chance and it shows that there is a progression towards a goal that we all have in common, to see a country where all the people can live in peace finally and can have a chance at real life. Its rare you see that a President can the next day become the Vice President and do so with pride but kudos to Mr. Ghazi Al Yawar for being able to do that.

To Mr. Adnan Pachachi who claims there is a big conspiracy against him by the Kurds and Shi'ites well my dear Sir, its 30,000 votes to get a seat in the assembly and you could not even manage that. Now accept it and keep whats left of ur pride intact. I used to have a lot of respect for him and I still do but I think it is those around him that are the ones doing the influencing but to start badmouthing almost 80 percent of the population is ludicrious. He had his chance and the people of Iraq spoke. Even some key Sunni politicians and clerics try and keep their distance from him. In Iraq we are all winners in this process, the names should matter little, the race and religion should be even less but the end result is that Iraqis finally have a chance to re-elect someone based on performance rather than being forced to.

I know today is a sad day for many Egyptians, Palestinians and Syrians but so was April 9 the day Saddam fell, and saw was December 12th i think it was the day the rat was found in a hole. Today he and his friends were made to watch the proceedings and that in itself is probably the highlight of the day. To see him suffer and to see him feel pain at the changes in the new Iraq brings joy to the majority of all Iraqis. Congratulations Iraq on picking a President who has a long history of fighting aginst the regime. Well here is to some hope to negate my previous negativity that was a result of certain ignorant people getting a lot of air time in the media....

We as a Kurdish race will be proud to be Iraqis once we are all equal, today was a first step and hopefully when the Shiite Alliance say that they want to get rid of everything ba'ath and saddam related they look behind them and start off by ridding us off a flag that symbolizes the union of three DEAD idealogies between countries whose intersts in Iraq are self serving and deplorable. Maybe Kurdish history lessons need to be implemented in the Arabic world ;)
But that would be yet more 'american lies' so lets take it step by step I know......
Mr.Talabani congratulations and to all the Iraqis who voted at least now you realise that your votes as well as daily risks in life are not going totally unrewarded.

Happy Nawroooz

2005-03-21T20:25:00.000Z

To all my Kurdish brothers and sisters around the world happy Nawrooz, don't let the acts of people like Abdullah Gul, Bashar Assad, Iranian clerics and lately Moqtada, Sistani and the likes dishearten you.

Our time has come, we have always been a peaceful people, even after being gassed and slaughtered we did not go around murdering and using suicide bombs against Arabs.... today's celebrations in places like Ankara, Istanbul, Kermansha, Qamishli, Sulymaniah has given us a renewed hope for optimism. Lets face facts whatever we ask or do we will always be looked down on as trouble makers who ask for too much.

The history of the creation of the borders of the state called Iraq can easily be found out by anyone with access to a library or a professor. Sadly most people who hate Kurds and resent them for their support for Americans forget it is the same colonial powers that created what is now modern day Iraq.

Winston Churchill's grandson once said that his grandfather's biggest regret was not giving Kurds their rightful and legitimate lands...... as a result generations have been brought up to look down on Kurds.........

e.g's Look at Iraq's flag represents a union of Arabic countries ............
Imagine a Kurdish President
Look at the Iraqi media channels today kudos to Sharqiyah for being the one channel that focused and highlighted on the plight of the Kurds....

This argument that oh the Shi'ites were also persecuted has nothing to do with granting a nation statehood one they have their own culture, language and land.

We will never be liked and sadly I always used to argue with Kurds who told me that, I said nope trust me their are Iraqis out there willing to help us obtain our rights....i was WRONG big time.......Today we partied while the rest of Iraq sadly has to deal with the same BS that it deals with on a daily basis....................Sistani and Chalabi and the gang shiver at the word Kurdistan but its time they realised that the hopes and aspirations of over 25 million ppl that survived a lot will not dissapear over night.......

Arabs are one nation with so manu states
we are a nation without one state...... how is that humaely possible..... make us feel Iraqi and u wont hear us complain.

Name Change

2005-03-18T18:40:00.000Z

Been thinking of changing the name of my blog to be honest.....

Thanks to a few of the great religious politicans that we have in Iraq and their followers... the Kurds are being treated worse than in the days of Saddam......

I felt Iraqi after the fall of Saddam... finally proud of it but its not the same anymore.... now its a repeat of having to defend my people on a daily basis to ignorant people who don't even realise the history of the Kurdish nation, don't understand the creation of the actual state of Iraq....

Ethnic cleansing is a crime that needs to be reversed... it shouldn't only be the Kurds who are demanding this but every decent human being whose Iraqi and has a heart should understand...

Yesterday was the anniversary of Halabjah and then some Arabs still ask why do Kurds want so much........

Wanting to be governed by our own policemen...? So that a repeat of the last god knows how many years doesn't have....

Kirkuk being a part of the province of Kurdistan? why is that a big deal?

There is 25 million plus Kurdish people who have no country of their own.... there are more than 20 arabic countries and counting yet when it comes to any sort of benefits that Kurds may get its like ur talking about doomsday.... Grow up get educated read history and goto Kirkuk and find out in person why the city is Kurdish .......

I don't start getting angry when people say Baghdad is the heart of the Arabic world or its an Arabic city... cause thats true... even though almost a million Kurds moved there does not make it a Kurdish city.......

The politicans treat Kurdish politicans like idiots..... I thought the new government would be different but they are even worse when it comes to respecting our rights....

Rumours of Kurds mistreating Christians when 3 of the people on the Kurdish list are Christian Arabs....... so I don't know how many Christians were on the Sistani/Chalabi/Hakim list.....

I really had such high hopes buy people's lack of knowledge and intelligence and thinking about things from the other side have made me realise that as always Kurds who live in Northern Iraq are treated as though they are lucky to be part of Iraq........

How many suicide bombings have been done by Kurdish separitists in Iraq?
How much crime and looting goes on in the kurdish areas?
If you want to talk about we are all IRAQIS then lets please treat them all as IRAQIS

not make rules for certain things and break them for others..........

I am a strong believer that the people of the marshes in the south deserve compensation and that the environmental damage has to be reversed but the concept of ethnic cleansing is always immune to those that perform it .......... I swear some Iraqis are more obssessed with Palestinian's getting their rights than Kurds so how should that make any Kurd feel?

Still alive.......

2005-03-15T16:49:00.000Z

Its been ages since I have blogged not because I have not been following the news, I have its just not become the primary source of material anymore. As I have written before I work full time now five days a week and from 8-4, I come home eat lunch and then go out and enjoy the day until its about bed time. I get the odd phone call from my parents telling me that hotel closing hours are at 12….. but they are happy cause I am happy.

I know this is an Iraqi political blog but I want to talk a little about my job. I love it……. Its so good that I waited for a while before taking the first thing on offer. On my floor alone there are three Iraqi family friends but then again in the city I live in 80 percent of Iraqis know each other. Then there is stuff going on in the female front which has also kept me busy and to be honest its exciting but I am not going to use my blog to boast about my personal life escapades.

Concerning the current political situation, I knew this would happen simply because of the party 169. They are not a group of independent minded politicians. Granted there exists some of them that are open minded and smart but when the final saying goes down to the religious clergy then its kind of disheartening because it makes one feel like the whole move to bring democracy to Iraq is collapsing day by day.

What irritates me the most is how the media makes it seem like it’s the Kurdish parties fault every time. Their demands are simple and just, they do not want non Kurdish officers and army patrolling Kurdish streets simply because of the past. I doubt people in Basra would enjoy it if the police and army roaming in their streets were Kurds. Then the problem of Kirkuk, now even after the elections there is no way an Arab will be able to fathom and accept the concept that historically and you can look it up in books or sites that are not strictly spreading lies and propaganda about Kurds that the majority of people living in Kirkuk WERE Kurds. The numbers have decreased thanks to Mr.Hussein but he couldn’t perform enough demographic change. Baghdad is an Arab Iraqi city where a minority of Kurds reside but we can not use the opposite in regards to Kirkuk. Some politicians start sweating at the mention of the word Kurdistan. In Saddam’s days he even recognised the area and referred to it as Kurdistan.

In regards to Lebanon well pretty much it’s a repeat of Iraq, there is two different groups and its split with those who want what’s right for their country and those that still believe and crave conspiracy theories. Hopefully the Lebanese people aspire and get their wishes and for those who watch the news we all know that the same groups that believe that resistance in Iraq is legitimate want Syria to remain in Lebanon. They are losing, we are winning but the process sadly will be long and bloody……

Clash between....

2005-02-18T20:18:00.000Z

The whole deal in Lebanon currently is really an almost identical battle facing Iraq yet when I try and explain that to people they really don't understand. The assissination itself is now a hot topic, as there are the Mossad/USA theorists and the its Syria theorists and at the end of the day there is no united Lebanese voice just like there is no united Iraqi voice.

Both countries talk about how rich their history is but its the rich history of the cultures that shared the land they should remeber. The creation of both states in the first part of this century was similar in that it groupd people of different ethnicities, religious sects and races in one country. Of course the numbers in both countries vary but at the end of the day it doesnt come down to that. Its a battle between those that want change and want to be part of the West as they have come to realise that being allies is the only way forward, against those that think that the big evil is the West. In Iraq the people have spoken and yes maybe they have voted majoritly because of ethnicity and religious sects but that is because of the past and the history that a tyrant created. With time things will change but for now people wanted to vote for the leaders that they know would do most for them at the current situation.

What saddens me is the way it is so easy for most Arabs to easily accept consiparcy theories without pausing to think that maybe its too far fetched an idea. When I argue with someone I always feel like telling them well that sounds really smart but do you know that every barber, baker and cab driver share your conspiracy theories. I swear watching al Jazira makes one realise the type of people, they really don't want any good for the region at all.

In Lebanon granted not the whole country wants the Syrians to leave but there is a large percentage of people who do want them to leave and this is their right, its funny how Jazira spends a daily report on US occupation updates in Iraq but never talks about how the Lebanese people suffer. There were signs hey Syria get your dogs out and more, I really believe that Mr.Assad will try and calm things down and will realise that his time is short, its hard to believe he would be so stupid as to try this latest move but then again I doubt he thought so many Lebanese people would dare stand up against his government.

Last year he dealt with the Kurds swiftly, but its less easy when the people whose your land your occupying are supported by the UN.

In Iraqi devolpments the race between Chalabi and Ja'afri for PM is uncertain, but the majority of Iraqis would be surprised if Chalabi were to be picked. He is a man of no principle and sadly I am ashamed to admit I used to defend him back in the day against those who used to attack him but with the last couple of years I realised how wrong I was. It all started with his refusal to sign the interim constitution based on the fact that Sistani didn't agree to it. Now Chalabi was never a religious man, and those who know him personally all claim he is far from it but to suddenly turn into it and to change sides knowing that its the only way to get into politics smacks of a man that doesn't stick to his principals. In Iraq they call these kind of people masla7chiya bas in Iraq they actually call him worse names that I wont repeat on here. Anyways the number of things he has done to prove his loyalities lie to nobody but himself and his family have made me turn against him and realise that I was wrong.

Another sad reality of post elections Iraq is the discontent felt by the Christian, Turkoman and Sunni communities who altogether probably at the most make up 25-30 percent of the population. They are upset and have already lodged complaints etc and are already talking about the Shi'ites and Kurds the same way that the Iraqi government used to. This is disheartining to say the least and will be only more reason for them to continue suffering. Instead of complaining they should do more to unite and all stand firm on one side to rid Iraq of its problem makers and then squabble about numbers . To Mam Jalal I ask you to do 2 things when you receieve your Presidency, to initiate a general consensus of the population and to unite all the forces and armies to rid Iraq of the people who refuse to understand that the game is lost and there plans of bringing back tyranny and theocratic rule are over.

As a Kurd I am proud that we did great on the elections and it doesnt surprise me that even Kurds who dislike the politicans went out and voted for 130, and I also am happy that the Shi'ites did well because they too have been on the recieving end of a lot oppression. I just hope they stick to their promise and keep religion and politics mixed and I guess the only way to know is through time and patience.

Hopefully democracy and freedom of choice increases not only in Iraq but in countries like Lebanon also to allow the people to choose who and what they want. Even a 50 percent turnout would be more legitimate than somebody like bashar il assaad being in control of the intelligence services in Lebanon. Anyways there are also two new Kurdish bloggers who are talented and write intersting blogs, I will be posting their links today or tommorrow so I urge some of you to read what they have to say. It will be in the Kurdish blogs section. Anyways I am off to bed cause of my work tommorrow and hopefully my next post will contain info regarding what is happening inside iraq from my family there, take care al of you for now.

The memory remains.....

2005-02-15T21:30:00.000Z

His legacy remains and his scars will take generations to heal. What line I think agitates me the most is hearing oh well why do Iraqis still complain about Saddam he is gone now, it’s the Americans who caused this and that. Yes well I will tell you a real life story concerning myself and how his effects still linger on until today. Today and the last few weeks have been really long as I am mixing work with spending time with my grandfather and cousin from Baghdad. They arrived here almost 3 weeks ago and left today.
It was emotional for me in more ways than one, firstly its sad saying goodbye to somebody whose in the final years of his life not knowing whether you will see him again but god willing I will and secondly because I am 23 years old and in the last 3 weeks I got to know my grandfather. I spent 23 years where to be honest I spent maybe a total of one month’s time with him. He finally got to know his real grandson and vice versa. Many such families exist I mean when they bring up names of second and third cousins I am always bewildered as thanks to Abu Il Gamil aka Saddam I have never been lucky to see most of them. This shows you that apart from taking lives his policies have helped in creating so much distance between families. He complains about the Americans and how they should do more but he praises Allawi’s efforts and is convinced that despite the Shi’ite victory the whole thing will be set up to ensure they don’t have control. I tell him and tease him all the time to stop believing in conspiracy theories but I can’t change him and he has lived through conditions I can only imagine so he has more right to complain and what not.
Hearing about the near misses and about the situation inside Baghdad from my cousin was also disheartening, as a young woman in her early twenties her only outings are to university and she takes valium to sleep. She says her friends say things are improving which can only be hopeful.
What disappoints me most is the way some Iraqis are describing the results as tainted and unfair, not through evidence but rather because the people they voted for if they voted at all that is did poorly. I believe the elections were set up yes, they were set up by Saddam Hussein when he committed his crimes against the Shi’ites and the Kurds and that’s what made their turnout extremely higher than everyone else. When the Sunnis complain well its not safe to vote, well all the 8.8 million people took a chance on their life and slowly silenced the world, but we still hear people upset about the results due to one reason or another.The pro Turkish Turkmen Front did much more poorly than predicted because of many reasons but that does not give them the right make derogatory statements about the Kurdish turnout and election methods. Yeses there are clergy men in 169 and the Kurdish leaders are not the most democratic people but the majority of people voted for the parties they believe could best serve their interests, and in the end the results can only be a positive step in the right direction. I just hope that the new government deals with the criminals and shows them that their dreams are over. I have work in just under 5 hours so I have said enough, hopefully my next post soon… well be more politically inclined rather than personal experience. I hope you all enjoy my venting and ramblings…. Take care

What a day :)

2005-01-31T18:05:00.000Z

Nothing can take this day away from us, not a bunch of criminals and killers, not a bunch of of left wing Western writers nor a bunch of right wing conservative Arabic media channels and newspapers. We proved them wrong, and believe me it feels so good to be able to not say anything. We don't have to explain since we turned out to be right, its the people who predicted that no Iraqis would come out and did not expect a day like yesterday.

Firstly from family and family of friends I know that in many parts of Baghdad the terrorists and Saddamists tried until the very last night to intimidate and force people to stay home, the amount of fear and pressure they put on the people had the opposite effect. Instead people wanted to prove a point that they will no longer be held at gunpoint by these people. My grandmother in her late 70's went out in Baghdad and walked to the polling station for a reason. Not because its the perfect elections, not because she is in love with any of the parties but because for the first time nobody forced her. They went to the polls optionally.

I know that there will be cheating her and there and obviously there is going to be the Americans set it up but they underestimate the amount of respect Allawi has in Iraq. The arabs were in shock, Al Jazira's main headline was ' XX number of people killed on day of elections'. It forgot a very important point to add to its main caption, '8 million and more risked their lives to show the world that we do not want to live in fear anymore.' This is not an attack against those who did not vote. Not everyone who voted is pro-occupation and not everyone who didn't vote is for the terrorists but the bottom line is that every Iraqi had an opportunity to select the list that he or she felt would be benefical in moving us forward. The national assembly idea and with its rules means that no matter what party wins we still will not have to live in fear of a singular party deciding and ruling everything for else. The people dancing, the people crying, the people being carried, people taking their children these are scenes that should make people like Abdul Bari Atwan and Claire Short apolgise to Iraqis for being wrong about us. They sterotyped us as a people who view these elections as a fraud, as a shambles but instead we proved to them that its up to Iraqis to decide that not them. I am not talking about the Iraqis that cut heads off, assissnate officals, and kidnap people for money in the name of resistance these Iraqis may influence and excite Atwan and his friends like Mohd Al Douri the former ambassador in Saddam's days to UN but to us we know them and realise that if it weren't for their heavy presnece in the Sunni presence then the vote would have been higher.

As for who I think will win, well its a question of whom will hold the most number of seats in the parliament and thats without a doubt List 169 which is aided by Sistani. This does not mean that all is lost, on the contrary that just means its democracy and hopefully they learnt from Saddam's old ways and realise Iraq is for all. The list that will come second might be either Allawi's or the Kurdish alliance depending on how many people voted for Allawi. I realise now after seeing my grandfather whose been here on holiday for 2 weeks from Baghdad that Allawi is indeed popular in Iraq and does have support and thats bound to make the Arabic street even more frustrated. We should abandon them because from the very start their intentions have always been against our sucess. Then after that I really do not know as differen areas voted differently but what I do know is that for the first time there will be a government composed of different people with opposing views but lets hope they unite in one goal. Providng my futre kids a better life, helping the Iraqis today inside Iraq live better lives and go and attack these savages who have tried from April 9 to show the world that there exists a real national resistance. Well yesterday was the day the resistance fell short, withou their cars they were forced to try wearing body suits and thankfully about 7 of them non Iraqis of course got arrested. Its still sinking in and honestly despite my persistent optimism I reached a point where I believed this would NEVER happen. Nobody expected the scenes and turnouts and line ups and I think the whole world saw that nobody knows how to celebrate like the Kurdish people do. I thank the idiots who stood outside polling booths in Manchester and Australia trying to block Iraqis from voting, for they proved that their hate for us is genuine. Go deal with your own countries and leave us alone. Let us choose our destiny and you choose yours. And hopefully in 4 years time we learn from the process and get another chance to go through the same procedure again. A great thanks to all those that contributed in minimising the loss of life and to those who worked fairly in the election process. Despite their hardest efforts the anti-Iraqi channels and newspapers could not hide the pictures and line ups. They tell their own story better than any article can ever do.

I voted...... and ....Why low voter turn out internationally....

2005-01-27T01:44:00.000Z

An update of my last blog, well today I voted and went to the center and to be honest the process was faster than the voting process in Canada but that is obvious considering the number of Iraqis voting in the country I live in. The only thing that is funny is that the staff were so many, and they were talking to me like I was 5 years old.... you place a TICK in this box.....and then the ushers were acting like celebrities....... it was funny but at the same time a happy moment........ Its just a lot of things did upset me but I'd rather not get into them because to be honest this is a time for people to try and recoincile rather than cause more problems.

I remeber from the last time of registration this man was really rude to me and said an insulting comment which I did not post about but it was racist and to be honest I don't even want to give him that benefit of the story, cant expect every Iraqi to become politically and socially mature over night. He was at the front door and he asks me what room am I in, so I answered in Kurdish I registered in room number 9 and he asked again and I answered again and I could see he remebered, he laughed and let me in.... my friend was standing behind the ballot box that u drop ur voting paper in and said hello.... I asked the staff in Arabic if I could get a translator cause I speak Kurdish better and they looked at me and I am like I am only joking... I just wanted to speak Kurdish to that one guy and I guess the excitement of it kept me going.... I ticked my box and I placed it in the ballot box and then the staff is like mabrook congrats and I did not whether to laugh or not..... I mean I am proud I voted but I guess I went at an odd time because the only two people in the voting room were me and a friend of my dad's so imagine more than 10 staff members with nothing else to do.... it was a good thing we went at Friday prayers time because as we left the line up for cars waiting to enter and getting searched was sooooo long.... All in all I am happy but I am angry at certain people's silly comments but whatever I am learning to let things go in one ear and go out the other....... Hopefully my vote and everyone else's does really count and that no sort of cheating takes place by the Americans or by Iraqis.

Part 2

The media has already started with the anti-Iraqism by talking about low voter registration outside Iraq etc... process is illegitimate and so forth but as always its Iraqis who have to explain to the world the reasons for this....

Firstly if you look at the total figures and breakdown country by country which I have done, you will notice that in the states and in canada and in Europe Saturday and Sunday the registration was a lot more than the other days.... doesn't take a brain genius to realise a lot of people can't leave work for it and at the same time espically those who have to travel to a registration station.... therefore the numbers in my opinion would have been more had for e.g. there had been more accesible centres.... I can use an example why waste a center in France..... if you read the figures they are ridicoulously low registration numbers in France as its not a big secret a lot of former Ba3thists live there and there are other countries they could have chosen. The UN along with the IOM can't perform mircales and considering the number of registration stations and the wide ranging diaspora of Iraqis around the world... a quarter is a great figure....There are more than one reason for lower then expected turnout and it is not what the media keeps saying about people being anti-occupation and anti-american therefore they don't consider it legitimate.... The majority of Iraqis living abroad ran away from Saddam and the hell Iraq was going through and a minority were friends and business partners... now they for sure didnt vote but that doesnt make up 75 percent of Iraqis abroad. Also I know a lot of anti-american anti-occupation Iraqis who did register with their sole purpose of doing their best to make sure list 169 does not take too many seats. Now they have been blessed etc.... but with the kind of candidtes on that list I can't imagine why any educated Iraqi would vote for them. For example Ahmed Chalabi... I was a big supporter of him before and used to argue in his support and defense but a lot of his actions have made me lose all respect for this person. I realise my mistakes and have even apolgiised to many friends about it admitting they were right.

It started with his refusal to sign the transitional constitution because he stood with the strong religious powers which shocked all those who knew him personally. I will not use this blog to expose him or defame him because to me every personal has his own freedom for a personal life. But that was the first step, then it got worse...... a man who was friends with Richard Pearle, Wolofowitz and co. and is now part of the most religious alliance in the list.... that shows you his intersts does not lie in his princicpals rather than in his pockets and power. There are other examples I can use but I'll use a well known of how he treated his close associate Mithal il Allusi.... now that was something which also made me upset because he was changing his mind according to popularity and politics.... thereby how any Iraqi can still trust him is beyond me....

Anyways its their right and their choice if they want to put their country in their hands of people like him but I will not and can not lend a hand in helping create an Iraq that is not secular and when people who support 169 argue with me they say but no no they will be secular etc... I tell them go read Khomeini's comments before the start of his reign of rule and slaughter of his secular allies who helped him overthrow the Shah when they believed him and his words.

Anyways I got off the topic, I wanna say at the end of the day I still respect every Iraqi who registered and votes regardless of which party because as long as this is their choice and not something enforced upon them then one can only consider this fair.

Back to the low voter turnout internationally... firstly its about 25 percent of eligible voters is for a variety of reasons... Iraqis in syria and jordan are scared and stayed away because of sadddam's old henchmen roaming around...... in Turkey also there was stircter regulations and complaints... guess they dont want Iraqi kurds who moved there to vote...then there is a whole bunch of countries where Iraqis live and cant really fly out twice to vote.... then lets not forget work bad weather etc... if not for these circumstances it would have been more close to the 50 percent figure.... so dont let those news reports fool you.... and as for inside iraq well my family is here on holiday from baghdad and they said that very few ppl in baghdad will vote mostly out of fear but i hope they are wrong...... and to be honest the elections is breaking down into two categories...seculars versus religious....and do i know anyone personally on this list who can help me versus others.....these things are still prevalent. The funny thing is that I do not want to vote for parties that I know people's uncles or grandparents or what not in, I am going to vote for the party that I myself think would make the biggest difference in helping out my wishes for the country and I am sure most Iraqis who registered felt the same. I was happy to see many of my sunni friends come out and vote for secular open minded leaders, and to be honest there are even religious men such as the great Iyad Jamal il Deen I would vote for.....or Hussein Al Sadr who is on Allawi's list.

Finally in the west is voter turnout ever 100 percent nope... its not... and 50 percent figure is good and the Un represnetative told me he was impressed as these elections were much more organised than the ones in Sierra Leonne and a few other countries he had gone to as an observer. Anyways hope this explains a bit to certain people and remeber if you are Kurdish vote 130, if you are not then vote 324 :)
To secure a democratic, federal, open minded Iraq where freedom of religon choice etc will never be undermined ;)........... and by the way I wish either of those 2 lists knew how many people I have helped convince to vote for them :) Thats it for me from now and take care of yourselves.......

Iraqi voter registration and elections outlook....

2005-01-23T15:27:00.000Z

The last few days have been very hectic and fun at the same time. I realise most of my last few posts were low on any substance but now I have so many experiences I would like to talk about. I live in a country where there are 2 polling stations for Iraqis to vote at. I experienced both of them with 3 days spent assisting and helping out in the city I don’t live in. I did it to see, learn and try and understand Iraqi people as much as I can.

The city that I live in well I went with my family to register and the security was very good. They checked all the suitcases in our car as we were heading on a trip and searched and it made us feel safe even though if one wanted to I doubt there would be much to stop him from blowing himself up anywhere in this world. We walked in and I went into a room different than my family. My friend was the guard at the door and the polling station officer was so anal. I was going to cause a scene because she gave me two warnings because friends of mine there came to say hello and it’s not like she can’t hear what we are saying. She is like this is your final warning or you won’t be able to vote. I was going to laugh in her face, and tell her I know her bosses and that nothing will stop me from voting especially not an ignorant woman who I was surprised was given such a role. It’s difficult though to find honest smart Iraqis who have the time and dedication to work the long hours for the pay but the good thing was I realised later when I went to the other city that she was just a bad apple.

We left and then headed over to the second city, and stayed there for almost 5 days. I spent 3 days at the polling station there and wow I was surprised the atmosphere was really different. The way it was set up was more people friendly but there were bad apples there too. I realised then that sadly there still exist a lot of people with no manners or respect. It’s sad but I guess the circumstances caused most of that. What I noticed was a very heavy influx of religious voters. It was like surprising to me because where I live I know a lot of the Iraqi community and I truly thought the secular parties had a solid chance. Still I saw all kinds of Iraqis who were coming and Id say on average between 1000-1200 voters a day. It seems that the list 169 does have a strong chance but I am basing that on where I was. I was lucky enough to meet the UN representative to the country I live in and he is advising the Iraqi observer who comes from my hometown.

Little incidents did occur such as a journalist came in there to complain and bitch and ended up writing an article defaming the process when she probably never been to a polling station in her life. There was not much difference between these elections and the Canadian ones in which I worked in except the people were less polite and the number of parties is a LOT more. There were highlights I met a man from Tikrit who gave me much hope, and talked to my about how much he and his family suffered. He was genuine and kind and talked about his fears. Lots of Iraqis who are voting , even the anti – American and anti-occupation ones are doing so in the hope of securing a secular to make sure that 169 does not come out on top but from the voters I witnessed it looks like bar a fix up they do have it wrapped up. The only positive news is rumours of alliances being merged after the elections between Allawi’s party and Pachachi’s and the Kurds and 324 that would make them outnumber 169 so at least there is some hope in case of an IRAN part 2.

Conspiracy theories are rife amongst the Iraqi community, why vote when the results are already fixed, etc…. Personally I am voting for 130 which is the Kurdish alliance but that is because I think they will do the best for Kurdish people thereby allowing us to have more seats in parliament even though I disagree with their current state of corruption and mismanagement. To all the non Iraqis I encourage them to vote for list number 324. I HOPE THAT EVERY IRAQI VOTES FOR 324. You will hear people bad mouthing them about being commies etc. Firstly no all 275 candidates on the list are communists. They are made up of secular open minded Iraqis who would help the country out greatly. They also have been around since the 60’s which means they still have a base in Iraq and I know where I live I can categorise the voters into 4 categories: 1- Those going to vote for 169. 2- Those who are going to vote for 324 ITi7ad il Sha3ab or in English the People’s Union. 3- Iyad Allawi and his alliance. 4- Not voting. Yes it’s true more people are not voting than expected for a variety of reasons. It was funny during registration I saw some people afraid of giving their address, that is why the fear still exists plus in the tent where I was there were people who worked there who others were suspicious of but without proof. All in all its better than nothing the people of the IOM are working hard to help out Iraq even though its going to be a process littered with errors and suspicion its better than nothing. Secondly the Iraqis involved are working twelve hour shifts in various positions and the pay isn’t that great unless you are one of the top people in the process. It’s just sad to see people just saying its fixed and not even trying to vote. There are a lot more incidents that happened in the polling station I helped in but at the risk of making all Iraqis look bad I won’t mention them. I know most bloggers in exile have written their events of registering and voting. The voting day will be more exciting since its going to be for 3 days instead of the 7 or 8 days they have for registration. I hope to write my thoughts about the politics side soon. Take care of yourselves. If your going to vote go for 130 or 324 that I will explain later.

Change of site....

2005-01-14T20:29:00.000Z

Sorry about the lack of any news or information on here but its been a busy and hectic couple of weeks as well as that I might be moving to a new site and hopefully all of you that visit here will come over there and encourage your friends to as well. I will go into further details once its fully confirmed but the purpose of it is for most of you to read not only my writings but those of other Iraqis living in various parts of the world. We all have different thoughts and opinions but we all wish the same for our country. I will be writing more intensively and regularly in the new site and hopefully most of you enjoy and like the layout as the design team is composed of a couple of two extremely innovative and intelligent Iraqis. Thank you and I'll be posting soon.

Yet more stories of an iraqi in exile....

2005-01-04T22:39:00.000Z

Well the last couple of weeks have been hectic as many friends who study abraod have returned to where I live for thier xmas break. Its been fun though but I think its taking a toll on me physically as I am exhausted when I get home but I can't complain. I am content and enjoying life and wish I could say the same for the iraqis in Iraq.

Its been strange as I went to 2 Iraqi engagment parties and 2 seperate Iraqi new years parties.....reason being less about politics more to do with women not getting along I guess....Well I went to both but stayed mostly at the one that was more fun atmosphere wise. I have met Iraqis from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Britian whom I havent seen in years and its been intersting to hear the difference of opinion. Tonight we were at a jazz club and a girl who coincedentally was with me in university in Toronto was there, anyways she was anti war anti western etc though she has lived most her life in Canada. Its like ok u hate the American policies and economic way of life move...... she was telling a story to one of my friends who was intersted only because she was pretty.... she is like a friend of her uncle's got tortured so bad that he got killed....... now i know this girl and if its true then I am sorry to hear that but all night she was trying to aggrevate Iraqis so me being me, I start whispering to my Iraqi friend whose Christian coincidentally.... I told her a bit about her background and how her closest family friends were from a well known tribe from Tikrit so its natural for her to get upset and angry as they lost it all. I was with her in uni for many years and never heard her complaining about how Iraqis were treated until now........ then she moved on to another friend trying the same thing.... i sent him a text message saying watch out this girl lies about everything....... I had to be mean it was my only way............

Mostly the Iraqis around my age are not yet politically mature enough to make their own choices and instead just recycle what their parents tell them because as soon as I confront them with a question or two that are tricky they have no answer cause mommy or daddy aren't around to help them out........ e.g. A friend said we as Iraqis outside don't have the right to vote! I was like why, he said its because they are suffering so they should pick who they think is the best...... I said after 30 years and more of tyranny don't you think that the lack of education and seeing the world might hinder some into becoming followers rather than free thinkers? Isn't it our duty at more than 4 million Iraqis living outside to vote and hopefully vote for people that allow Iraq to become and devolp into the country that he or she lives in.

Anyways sometimes its pointless arguing, so I really don't even bother.... I just hope whomever wins doesn't enforce an Islamic state nor does he revert back to Saddam's old ways......Personally I am voting for the Kurdish leadership not just beacause of my Kurdish blood nor because I think they are the perfect candidates but because they have over 10 years of democracy type expierience. Of course its not perfect democracy but one has to look at Kurdistan and see what has been accomplished in less than a decade and hope the rest of Iraq can follow suit. There are other candidates I'd vote for like the communist party, yes u read right because their leader is a noble honest straight up man whose love for his country to me seeems genuine. There are my opinions, and I guess finally we all as Iraqis have the freedom to choose and I hope these terrorist acts don't deter people from coming out to vote.

Finally I am contemplating whether to work in the election process where I live or not but the problem is I may be getting an offer from a company and cant turn that down for 2 months of election work though my expieriences working for the Liberals whilst living in my riding in Toronto would probably be beneficial so I will just see how it goes. A close member of my family is heavily involved in the process and if anyone is intersted in questions just leave them in the comments section and I will ask that person. My apoligise for about a month of garbage blogging but as a new year dawns our spirits are high again and we hope and pray that the people of Iraq see the peace and secuirty that not only they deserve but have yearned for, for so long...... don't let the actions of a few fool you into thinking all Iraqis are against the elections their is of course that minority but if you probably asked them US or Saddam their answer would be obvious so their not voting is their loss not ours. I hope you are all in good health and enjoying life and I do sincerely hope that people start coming back here reading my entries.......Bye bye for now

Happy New Year

2005-01-01T07:06:00.000Z

I am just waking up from last night, I went to two different Iraqi parties with families and all, I guess I am that age now.... its been a hectic week 2 engagement parties and the 2 parties last night, so I been enjoying myself and not really paying too much attention to the Iraqi politics scene. It was good to see all types of Iraqis in one room enjoying themeslves together regardless of there political affiliations and I hope that in the year 2005 the same thing can be enjoyed by Iraqis inside Iraq.......

I will have blogs relating to the elections here as a close family friend of mine has been hire to be the main worker with the IOM team that has been sent here to help run the elections. It should be intersting to learn firsthand about the way things are going here......

Where I live I think the majority will be voting secular but at the same time the strength of the United Iraqi Alliance inside Iraq can not be ignored :(
We will see if they win but personally I can not and will not be voting for them..... Ihope you all enjoyed your new year and had a great time........... Best wishes and many happy returns to all.....

Away for now..

2004-12-23T21:57:00.000Z

Hello to the readers I may still have........:)
I am currently away and hence the lack of new posts or material espically during a critical time like this, I am sure there are many blogs keeping you up to date with whats going on. There is a slight possibility I might be helping somehow in the Iraqi elections where I live but I haven't made my mind up and it might be diffuclt considering I have got a great job offer that I can't miss out on.

Other than that I don't have much time to post much more material, hope those who still visit here are in good health and hope you come back in a week to 10 days for some solid new posts. Take care.

we are out of the Gulf Cup

2004-12-16T23:11:00.000Z

Well this week has been shitty and lots of other blogs seem to be downcast and down....
today we lost in the soccer gulf cup
what frustrates me is that politics mix with soccer.... the referee in 2 games made sure we were robbed and its saddening why it seems sometimes the whole world is against Iraq.....Its not only the ref's fault but our coaches too.... this isnt like the NBA or the MLB......pure BS occured and it doesnt matter cause Iraq was mostly on the recieveing end of so many BULLSHIT calls

Its not paranoia but its not all bad maybe they can finally sack the coach, a Saddam sympathiser, a man who talks about how bad things are now, but was all too happy to keep his month shut when he was buddy buddy with Uday......... pick a team based on the best players for god's sake he seemed like he wanted to lose on purpose at times......... i hope they fire him so he can go back to Samara and stop doing this to us..... and leave his political comments for his dinner table................

Apart from that, the current elections i dont even want to know about to be honest.............
There is so much I can complain about them and yes I know its all baby steps but it seems we might be taking gigantic steps back to the 7 century...........
they need to learn and teach them how the most fundamental part of democracy is not the rule of the majority but the respect for the minorities..........Iraq is not a nation state and honestly...... the way the elections are shows how divided a nation we have............ thank you Saddam

Your legacy carries on and will continue on for a while........ i wanna swear at him but whats the point..........roobbing people of power for so long, seems to have made me a lot of politicans very greedy for the same things that they used to complain about Saddam from nepotism to corruption.......

I have read other Iraqi blogs, from inside and outside and it seems like many other Iraqis are also downcast and feeling upset about life in Iraq...

sorry this is pessimistic i am pissed that we lost and i am pissed that he brought on this striker who defended the resistance.........that guy doesnt deserve to wear an Iraqi shirt....... i am starting to ask myself why do I even care?

Ladies and Gentlemen we got him...

2004-12-11T21:39:00.000Z

This is going to be a short post because I been busy and sick both at the same time....
but the anniversary of the capture of the tyrant gives enough reason to post this blog. I'll never forget that day I was in the shower and my mom comes banging on my door come down they got him they got him............ and we waited 2 hrs and watched various reports and conspiracy theories until they showed him live on TV with Bremer and Dr.Pachachi .....

Very very emotional I remeber everyone sitting around the TV in tears, the reporters iraqi ones who were in the hall screaming and crying..... phone wouldnt stop ringing all day everyone was celebrating.... we knew it didnt mean the end of violence etc..... the bastard is smarter than people realised and had it all set up for Iraq to never prosper until people actively beg for his return.

Of course you hear the odd Iraqi saying oh things were better in Saddam's days etc... but thats most probably cause he didnt suffer much and lost all that he or she had... or had relatives in important places... but for all the innocent Iraqis who lost their lives at the hands of Saddam this is a tribute for you. Sadly he was not arrested by Iraqis because then he would not be alive today but I wish him the best of health so that hopefully in 10 years ....... he can get a tv in his room and see the new Iraq..........That day was so eventful huge party on the beach etc but i really wish i had more time to get into it....

Sadly some of his old friends along with new allies who share the same goals of oppresion tyranny and holding people hostage are trying still to carry on his legacy......I hope they fail......to be honest I know the majority of Iraqis hope they fail...... I just wish that ALL Iraqis would lay down their weapons and come together to try and build a country that the whole region would be envious of because with the resources Iraq has its possible. Its not just foreign figthers ruining things but Iraqis who have been brainwashed to fight but at what cost? Justifying the continuation of an occupation? The US will never leave by force so if the leaders of the so called resistance had brains they would at least pretend to be peaceful and co-operative so that then there can be no justification for the US troops in Iraq. They don't want to be there as much as the people dont wan't to be there.

May god bless all those who lost their lives as a result of Saddam's legacy and that includes the ongoing victims today.....the attackers learnt well from their teachers at the secret police and republican guard etc...

Iraqi or Iranian or Kuwaiti or Westerner if your life was cut short because of one of the most evil men in the world then may you rest in peace and hopefully he will get what he deserves.

On another note Iraq lost in its first soccer match in the Gulf Cup by a score of 3-1
i doubt any readers would care but I hate the coach so much I wish they would fire him ASAP...
thats for another post till then take care... and this time last year was one of the only days in so many years that soooooooo many Iraqis around the world actually had reason and cause to celebrate. I hope more happy days like that return to the people who share the land called Iraq.

Stories of an Iraqi in exile 2

2004-12-02T06:40:00.000Z

I prepared this post last week and thought time is right to post it now even though I am kinda feeling down...... Its been a rough last 2 months..... Hope you enjoy this story........

I would like to follow up on my last story by talking about the day Qusay and Uday and Qusay’s son I think it was were killed in a battle which people like Abdul Bari Atwan editor of Al Quds newspaper called ‘heroic resistance’. I guess to him rapists and murderers are heroes if they fight against Americans. Killing Iraqis is no crime as long as you are anti American, funny coming from a man residing in England but oh wel. If that’s not blatant racism I do not what is. Anyways this day was momentous for many reasons, I was in London for my summer holiday which I usually have gone to every year for summer since I was a child since I have tons of family who live there and some childhood friends and I love the place. Everything ABOUT it…. But I won’t keep promoting London like I seem to always be doing lately….

Anyways breaking news on TV that eventful day was that the 2 monsters along with a 3rd one were killed but of course as sceptical as Iraqis are we couldn’t believe it until we saw the bodies. So I was happy but didn’t want to get too happy because false reports were coming out all the time. My family were ecstatic, imagine it takes a lot for human beings to be happy about the deaths of others especially when you come from a moral happy family that desires peace but these people did so much harm and damage I guess all those sensitivities become immune and you just rejoice in the moment, it was bittersweet for they never felt the pain they caused so many, and also we had the Arabs who defended them not because of who they were but as always because of who killed them. Wake up, almost the whole country hated these two men, then they had Arabs on satelliate TV talking about meeting Uday and how he impressed them with his courage…. Made me sick….. but at least he was gone now and their words won’t bring him back. Even my Anti-American Iraqi friends were happy about their demise, it can truly be said this was a great day in Iraqi history.

Anyways for the afternoon I went along with my dad to visit a man who is now a minister in the interim Iraqi government, who has known my dad for a while and we sat and just chatted and asked him is it true and he said, at the time he was not a minister (feel free to insert your ohhhh SAMI is a CIA agent I knew it in my comments section if you so feel), that it is true and he kept getting phone calls and it was all so easy. I don’t know if my palms were sweaty cause I was sitting with a politician in his office or because of the news, then walks in another famous Iraqi politician to visit and now he is a deputy minister in the interim government so me being the polite young man that I am I just sat there and listened. As most of you know I graduated in economics/politics so my dream is to go back one day and be able to help but I hate nepotism, I want to be on my own rather than asking people to help me out cause I am so and so’s son etc…. that’s the way sadly it works there and I hope the new Iraq really does change. It should be about abilities rather than nobilities. I didn’t say a word, not just out of nerves but in Iraqi culture when you are about 21 you don’t really add your input to when important people are discussing it, and then they turned on the TV and breaking pictures were on of the disfigured bodies, this was before the bodies were cleaned up. My first thought was that no way the Arabs will believe that this is them etc etc because you know how much they love a conspiracy theory. Eventually even that was disproved when they cleaned the bodies up and it was them, so other conspiracy theories started developing, but amongst the Iraqi community in Britain and I am sure in many other parts of the world the feelings of relief and happiness were everywhere.

Me and two of my friends decided to visit Edgware Road in London which since lots of Kurds and Iraqis and Arabs walk around there we thought we would go for a walk over there. Anyways people always argue on the streets about politics there, we got into a small argument with some idiot Algerian who said that the US had no right to kill them, what does he know right? But being the way I am I had to make my point then we saw a lady walking around asking people about their reactions with a cameraman and someone else. We were like one of us has to talk and say something, we can’t let others come on camera and say it was a bad thing etc……

We must have stalked the poor news team for about 10 minutes trying to come up with the proper things to say and me being nervous in front of cameras we picked my friend to go in front of the camera to answer the questions. I am not sure and can’t remember the network but it was American that I can guarantee, but for some reason the lady was trying her best to get a sympathetic reaction for Uday and Qusay and I couldn’t understand why. My friend whom we assigned lost it on camera, he started saying they are killers, murders, rapists, their place belongs in hell and god will make sure that’s where they stay, then the lady asked what about the young boy who died along with them? What did he do to deserve it? My friend replied well what about the hundreds of thousands of young children who died as a result of uday, qusay and their dad. I am not using capital letters for their names on purpose, they weren’t human rather they were animals so I apologise for having used capital letters earlier. If you are not Iraqi please or lived there please don’t call me sadistic especially when you don’t know me personally, I hate the sight of death and war and killing but sometimes there reaches a point when a person deserves it especially when they deprived of so much. Point being I am 100 percent sure that interview was never aired, instead of answering diplomatically my friend went crazy on them and was angry and shouting etc….. but can you blame someone whose lost uncles, stripped of their passport for being a Shi’ite accused of Iranian origins of NOT shouting and getting worked up? and that’s just us a bunch of twenty something’s. I can not fathom what would have happened if they asked these questions to my parents and their friends who really suffered a lot more than we did.

Later on we went to try and see and did find celebrating people waving mostly Kurdish flags and there were a fair bit of Iraqi flags too here and there, I never kept a diary or anything but thanks to my solid memory there are tons of stories that I can recite along the lines of this one. You will just have to wait to hear about the day the rat was found in a cage. Oh my god I have the biggest smile on my face that was one of the happiest days of my life, and I was in an Arabic country when that happened so the story is even more interesting I will keep that for next time. Hope you are enjoying these, I guess I come up with new ideas every time….. If the stories are cheesy then please be straight up and honest so I can revert back to that ‘interesting’ Lebanese essay ;)….

RIP to an inspiration :(

2004-12-02T06:11:00.000Z

An amazing Iraqi friend of mine passed away this past week, I don't want to give names or details but it was not in Iraq, it was in Canada and it was tragic. Even though I only met him a handful of times he was an inspiration because of his thoughts and god given musical abilities. He had such a bright futre and to be honest I cried a lot for him even though we were not close friends, because of the amount of respect and admiration I had for him. Not many Iraqis my age have had the courage and hard work to achieve even one tenth of what he managed to. Instead of talking and not doing anything, he created music and loved Iraq with all his heart. He will be greatly be missed by so many people who knew him. I just wanted to post a tribute to him and later will talk about his achievments when the rime is right.

RIP Noofy il Fannan inta you really were looked up to you by so many young Iraqis and everyone misses you. Allah eee ra7amak akhooya.

Stories of an Iraqi in exile 1

2004-11-26T13:42:00.000Z

I thought my internet would be down until Saturday but thankfully the problem got fixed and I can blog again. Well my last few blogs have been mostly related to the Lebanese Civil War and thanks to those readers that are enjoying it but I am going to take a break from publishing the remaining parts for a couple of days just because I am feeling better and thought its time to publish something fresh.

Anyways I decided to start writing about stories and experiences of being an Iraqi living all over the world, as I realised I have so many interesting ones from the time an American news agency interviewed me and my two friends in the streets of London in the summer on the day Uday and Qusay were served their justice, to the time I was arrested and charged with crimes I didn't commit just because my passport (not my Iraqi one) had Baghdad, Iraq as my birthplace. Bad things do happen to Iraqis outside Iraq to you know and we all have to pay the price for the actions of a murderous few who make more than 25 million people look like criminals.

Today I would like to recall a story from my last year of university in Canada, I was sitting at my University's Tim Hortons (Canada’s equivalent to Starbucks) when a Pakistani girl (no disrespect to Pakistinis I am sure they are not all this way) comes round to the table me and a bunch of people were sitting down at and she is like I am invitttttinggggg you and allll offfff youuuuu tto a rrrrrally to get US troops out Iraq ………..I got filled with rage…… I was like what? Are you kidding me?

She is like what do you mean? and her being female and being male maybe I shouldn’t have shouted at her, but after hearing from my relatives how glad they were they no longer had Saddam around and being shortly after the fall of the dictator I had no other way than to be angry. So I shouted and asked her: ARE YOU IRAQI? She was like no but I am a Muslim, I said what does that have to do with anything? Are you from Iraq? She was like nope, I said have u ever been to Iraq? She said nope again and finally I said do you have family there ? She started getting angry and said nope. I said well I am Iraqi, I lived in Iraq and I have family there and I won’t allow you to walk around here promoting civil war in my country and endangering the lives of my family and friends there.

She was in shock, she was like there is no need to be rude, I told her that if I came and threatened her family wouldn’t you get rude? She said she just wanted the Americans to stop killing Iraqis. I said where were you for over 20 years? Why do Iraqi lives all of a sudden mean so much to you? What about the innocent Pakistinis being brainwashed into murderers? Then she gave me the line I have heard a million and one times ‘Yes Saddam was bad but US is worse’. I swear I wanted to punch her right then and there…… but of course I didn’t …. I said to her if it wasn’t for the West you wouldn’t be here in this country, Canada free to wear your hijab free to express your opinions and free to organise rallies, why do you want to rob the Iraqi people of the same privelges? I guess now I hit the wrong buttons, she was like there is no need to show off in front of your friends and I said this isn’t a game I am playing. I am not showing off, I am defending my people for too many years we had no voice and now when slowly we are regaining our voices you and your friends are organising rallies to kill our voices once again. I asked her, ' Do I go around the campus organising rallies against Musharaf or Kashmir? Nope I don’t even though I am Muslim and they are Muslims I don’t live there nor do I have the right to speak about a place I haven’t been, so the same applies to you.'

My friends were all shocked too, they hadn’t seen me so angry in a while and I guess it was built up frustration and I was happy cause I put her down nice and made her look dumb…… Every thing she argued I disproved, and I used facts and she used the media and then I realised forget this she is not worth it, just because she is religious doesn't mean she is right so we ended our argument and she left, my friends couldn't stop laughing, they thought I was trying to be an asshole on purpose but I really wasnt. Then a couple of weeks later I bump into her walking around campus and she has the audacity to come say to me ‘I am sorry I did not mean to embrass you in front of your friends!’ I was like embarrass me? You only embarrassed yourself and tell all your non-Iraqi friends before they want to go and care and talk about Iraq to find out why it is a country of 25 million plus fell in 21 days. Tell them to also go watch videotapes of Halabjah and I offered to lend them my copy so they could see what we were going through, she didnt even seem like she knew what happened in Halabjah. If our conversation was to happen right now today I would add things like why is it so many Iraqis are running for office? Are they all agents and spies? Why is it that wages for a lot of people are better? Why is it the insurgents are so desperate that they carry out the most heinous crimes? I wish I could see her now so I could shout at her once again but sadly I left Canada and don’t live there anymore. I guess the built up anxiety in me is a result of so many of these kinds of stories…… I even have one where I went to an anti-war rally…. I went because I do believe in peace and I really wish Saddam could have been gotten rid of some other way but I am a realist and can't protest the removal of Saddam if there was no solid other way ( WAKE UP UN) . Anyways that was today’s story and I'll write a different one in a couple of days.

On a positive note I finally watched some Iraqi related news and I guess the situation is getting better, of course its not ideal and there is a LONG LONG way to go but from most Iraqis that I speak to here where I live and other parts of the world all in exile to be honest, since I have not had any contact with Iraqis inside Iraq for a while for fear of hearing negative news, they want the government to be tough on these insurgents. The insurgents factories and weapon depos etc being discovered are going to be labelled as ‘American props' or 'Allawi lies' etc…. on the anti-Iraqi Arabic media channels but honestly I couldn’t care less what they think anymore, as long as peace, happiness and prosperity reaches Iraq then I will be happy. Fighting against the US will only prolong the need for them to remain and until these ‘terrorists’ understand that then I guess Iraqis will have to suffer for a while sadly. On a final note please check out Baghdad Dweller’s website as she has posted a very interesting article written by an Egyptian which I think is a MUST read. Take care all and I will update with the fourth instalment of my Lebanese essay soon.

Oh before I forget, I tried song of the day, quote of the day and now its movie of the day. Its all part of trying to uplift people and make them feel happy and good for a change, since I see and encounter a lot of anxious and stressed out people around me. For those that want to rent or watch a heart warming movie watch Love Actually. Its set in London ( my fave city in the world) and I guess with all the bad things going on in the world today it’s a heart warming tale about Xmas and love and all that stuff, that will cheer anyone up. I know its more than a year old and most of you probably watched it but still if you haven't go RENT it. Till next time......

Ramblings and Leb Essay 3

2004-11-22T18:50:00.000Z

Well today was a strange day, going through the motions and I guess I am still not able to go near anything negative. I want to write this story thats pretty funny but I have no energy left for some reason, I will tommorrow I think. Just one of those blah days, I am putting in the third installment of my Leb Essay, as always this is my writing based on my research so you are free to criticise or disagree, don't forget I am a 23 year old university graduate not a prof. I just took this topic to my heart because if any country most resembles Iraq its Lebanon and we all know sadly how that turned out in Lebanon. I wish all Iraqis good or bad could just say enough is enough and live life in peace. The roots of the problem are poverty, and all sorts of other third world problems that are too numerous to get into. There are tons of Iraqi blogs and mostly from people inside Iraq so check them out support them and give them your prayers. Any person in this world who can live through such conditions shows their strength and nobody deserves the suffering they are going through. Anyways enjoy the 3rd installment of the essay for those that read it.

LEB ESSAY PART 3

The deep divisions evident in Lebanese society were to become the reason why politics became based on sectarianism with each group following their own leader. In Lebanon each sect from the majority of different types of religions and tribes had a Za’im (translated in English means the head, the boss, the godfather) that played a large role in politics sometimes larger than even those of appointed ministers, as the majority of the people from various sects looked up to their respective Za'im's with adulation and respect.

The Za’im’s role in Lebanese life and politics can not be put in words, and can't be emphasized enough. It created many problems because it was based on nobility, ancestry and a sort of feudal system that was not favorable in instilling real democracy in Lebanon. Following such a system where tribal and feudal leaders garnered more respect and influenced life more than actual politicians, meant that Lebanon could not have a real stable political structure as these Za’im’s were more interested in maintaining the livelihoods and prosperity of the sect they belonged to rather than helping out the country of Lebanon as a whole.

“Za’im’s main task was to please his clients and constituents, finding them jobs, settling disputes, persuading the government to provide a village with a mosque or a church, etc. The most important single ingredient in the za’im- client relationship was patronage which, with its close relations, nepotism and corruption existed at every level of the political and administrative system.”[1]

There were many political leaders in Lebanon who played dual roles as a politician and as a Za’im for a certain sect, such as Kamal Jumbalatt who was the Za’im for the Druze sect, a derivation of Islam, and at the same time a political leader for the Progressive Socialist Party. Even though he was politically active his followers viewed him as a Druze Za’im before they viewed him as a Socialist politician. This system of becoming a leader because of which family you come from and who you know has been a major problem throughout the third world and unfortunately does not help in uniting a country but accomplishes the opposite of turning people away and causing social and political unrest especially amongst the poor and under privileged.

As we can see now Greater Lebanon’s creation in the 1920’s enforced an unsatisfactory ‘pluralist’ compromise, for the benefit of a small multi-communal upper class. The compromise could not endure as they created social divisions amongst the people. The resulting problems between the different sects during this time caused them to come together in order to achieve some sort of cohesion by what was called the National Pact.

“The National Pact was the unwritten agreement between President Bishara al Kuri, a Maronite, and his Prime Minister Riyad al- Sulh, a Muslim, that Lebanon was neither to seek union with Syria or with Arab countries east of Lebanon nor seek to ally itself with any European colonial power. Lebanon was to be an indepent state with Arab character. Moreover, the major political positions in the country would be divided among the major religious sects. The president of the republic was to be a Maronite Christian, the president of the the Chamber of Deputies, a Shi’ite, and the prime minister a Sunni Muslim.”[2]

The purpose of this pact was to bring together the two conflicting main ideologies and keep everyone satisfied and try and keep Lebanon united. The sad realities are that by creating the confessional type of democracy for the government, all that the National Pact was successful at doing was creating sectarianism and delaying the inevitable. It is always going to be a problem when the government is made up of people elected based solely on what their religious beliefs are, rather than what they could do for the country politically. A lot of these political groups had no real political goals or campaigns that they ran on, and what kind of democratic system does not allow a person to ever reach a certain position in the cabinet simply because of the religion they were born into? (THIS IS MY COMMENT I ADDED NOT ON ORIGINAL ESSAY EVEN IN CIVILISED WORLD COULD YOU IMAGINE A MUSLIM BEING A PRIME MINISTER IN BRITIAN FOR EXAMPLE?) I guess I am critiquing (surely spelt wrong) my own work.

These conditions were to dictate what was to happen in the following years that led up to the eventual start of the civil war in 1975. The perseverance of sectarian loyalties stopped Lebanon’s political development and made ties to the Za’im and religion more important than national ones.

“Barring a few exceptions, almost all the ‘feudal’ zu’ama have been continuously elected to the Legislature since independence. Record holders in the cabinet (i.e., people who have served in ministerial positions the largest number of times) are also from this group.”[3]

Politics was dominated by people whose families were from the high end of the economic spectrum in Lebanon and these leaders usually inherited their power rather than gain it by any sort of legitimate elections. Either the Za’im himself would enter politics or he would make sure that somebody would enter on his behalf thereby making it seem like a legit process when really it was just a staged form of democracy. This was to be the precedent for the corruption that took upset the working masses and caused them to support left-wing parties that preached political reform at the start of the Civil War.

[1] David Gilmour. “Lebanon, The Fractured Country.” Oxford.1983. Pg. 43.
[2] Marius Deeb. “The Lebanese Civil War.” Praegar Publishers. Pg.5.
[3] Samir Khalaf. “Lebanon’s Predicament. Columbia University Press.” 1987. pg. 113.

Thats that for today, don't wanna make them drag since nobody will probably read them anymore! Again I apoligise there was a quote but I lost the book I took it from so I apoligise to the writer of the quote. Take care of yourselves and I know its moving slow but just by reading this you can see the similarities with Iraq and Iraqis politics and tribalism.

Quote of the day : You can't change the past but you can ruin a perfectly good present by worrying about the futre.

Cheesy I know but still I tried song of the day, now I am giving quote of the day a try.

Other than politics...

2004-11-20T01:13:00.000Z

It seems thats all I post about politics, I was lying in bed obviously over analysing and thought to myself why not just write about anything.... no need to constrain myself..... i got a new idea thats positive, everyday i will post a link to a video or a song that puts me in a good mood. Today its from a band called Sparta who hail from El Paso Texas..... some of the younger readers will know that some of them used to be members of At the Drive in before they split up...... anyways song has been keeping me on a good buzz all day so here is the link...... hope it does the same 4 u!

SPARTA Click on where it says 200k in the video box to watch it.

Keep in mind i am in my young twenties and listen to everything from Tupac to Enya to Nirvana to Paco Du Lucia so if you dont take a liking to the song then I am sorry........ maybe my next song of the day will be better, and for those reading this blog for the political side my first 2 entries about the Lebanese civil war are availaible to read. :) They are toooo long I know but the paper is 30 pages! ENJOY

The sequel.....

2004-11-18T17:38:00.002Z

Hey there how are you all? i hope ur all in good health, not much to write about Iraq since I have isolated myself from the news as i feel immense hurt, anger and frustration about what the people in Iraq are going through, and I feel terribly guilty that I can't do much to help. Today is the first day i dont feel anxious or nervous, its been a rough 2 weeks but like all bad things we as people need to expierience to value life even more plus some medication of course that could be a reason. Since a few were intersted in my last piece then I will continue and post the second part! if everyone should be so lucky ;) ..... sorry its a long ass paper and thats why i cant just post it at once, nobody would read it! ENJOY part 2.......

The second part of my Lebanese civil war essay, for those reading you are probably thinking to yourself whats an IRAQI blogger doing blogging about LEBANON? Its the best example of a country that has so many internal and external simmilarities to Iraq. When I am done blogging the whole thing i am going to write about the similarities and problems both countries share. But for now enjoy my essay i gotta go listen to some music....... while you educate yourselves!

PART 2

Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after WW1, the League of Nations mandated the five provinces that had compromised present-day Lebanon to France. Modern Lebanon’s constitution, drawn up in 1926, specified a balance of political power between the various religious groups. The country gained independence from the French in 1943. The demographic make up of Lebanon is an interesting one,

‘as there existed 3 million people of 17 officially recognized Christian, Islamic and Islamic derived communities in an area that makes up a mere 4000 sq miles of largely mountainous land. No single sect numbers more than a third of the population, but each of the three communities of Maronite Christian, Sunni Muslim and Shiite Muslim make up more than 20% of the population.’[1]

With so many different sects of people living in one country, it is no wonder that the people who live in what is now Lebanon have always had trouble forming a single unified Lebanese identity, as each sect viewed Lebanon through their own eyes and pursued their own benefits. Historically religion has played a large role in Lebanese politics even before the creation of the Lebanese state, and there has always been fighting between the various sects.

“Different sects within the same religion have rarely been united. Indeed, alliances or friendships, when they have taken place have normally between sects from different religions. Maronites and Shi’ites against the Sunnis Melchites (who are the Catholic and Orthodox) and Sunnis living in harmony in the coastal towns. During the fighting between the Maronite and Druze communities in the middle of the nineteenth century, some Shi’ites fought for the Maronites while the Greek Orthodox assisted the Druzes.”[2]

This turbulent history was to lay the seeds for the havoc created during the civil war as historically it has been evident that at one point or another all the various communities in Lebanon have been at odds with each other, thereby destroying any trust or good will that existed between them and unfortunately that mentality is passed on from generation to generation.

Why was Lebanon created? This may seem like a trivial question but it is very important to understand the large role colonialism played in constructing modern day Lebanon, and how the enforcing of artificial borders amongst the various groups living in what is now Lebanon has created all the political and social fabrics that led to the turbulent times experienced by Lebanon.

“The creation of ‘ Grand Liban” by General Gouraud, high commissioner for Syria and Lebanon, was the first step taken by France, the mandatory power, to fulfill its pledges to its traditional Lebanese Christian protégés. For the Christians, especially the Maronites, the establishment of an independent Christian state with extended borders and under French protection was the realization of a centuries old dream. For the Muslims in Syria and the area newly attached to Lebanon, however, it was the final blow in a series of demoralizing events. The establishment of a Christian state in Lebanon symbolized a victory of Christianity over Islam.”[3]

Historically there have been two different mentalities shared by the people who lived in what is now known as Lebanon. Lebanon had been part of Greater Syria prior to its creation and therefore the creation of Lebanon was a product of colonialism. Colonialism played a large role in fermenting sectarianism in Lebanon since after the creation of Lebanon there came to be two kinds of ideological dreams. The first main group supported the idea of a Lebanese state, mainly the Maronites, and wanted to have their own state because they wanted to be the majority in Lebanon rather than the small minority in Greater Syria. The second group belonged to the school of Arab or Syrian Nationalism, which even though are two separate ideas, did not support the colonial powers plans of breaking up Syria. Grouping sects with such opposite ideologies and beliefs together, with the hope of them living in harmony was just a pipe dream, and this was never more evident than during the Civil War when the two sides broke down along similar lines.

‘The Maronites regard themselves almost as a separate people and consider Lebanon as their particular homeland to be defended against all intruders. Many Maronites vigorously denied their Arab ancestry.”[4]

The creation of Lebanon was done to safeguard the Maronite community by making sure it would not be absorbed into a Syrian Muslim state. The problem though was that the Maronites were not the majority in this new state, rather they made up about one third of the population thereby making sure French support would be needed in order for them to establish and maintain political dominance on the other communities and sects living with them. If the Maronites were the chief proponents of the idea of a Lebanese state, the Sunnis were its main opponents. Their refusal to recognize Lebanon’s existence as a legitimate independent entity separate from Syria posed the most difficult problem in the political development of Lebanon during the 1940’s. They wanted to be united with Syria and regarded Lebanon as an artificial state created by a foreign power in order to dominate them.

[1] Adel Mohammed. “Hayat Lebanon.” Beirut. 1999. pg.204
[2] David Gilmour. “Lebanon, The Fractured Country.” Oxford.1983. Pg. 26.
[3]Meir Zamir. “The formation of modern Lebanon.” Cornell University Press. 1985. pg.1.
[4] David Gilmour. “Lebanon, The Fractured Country.” Oxford.1983. Pg. 75.

Too depressed to ....

2004-11-11T19:09:00.000Z

Hello all, firstly I am feeling better today.... thank goodness that with each passing day I feel a bit better, I managed to do things I haven't been able to do in a week... no need to get into specifics but still have NO idea whats happening in Iraq now because it was one of the main reasons why I fell into this anxiety-panic mode.. when I fully recover I will be able to start commenting on the current situation. I even avoid going on MSN to talk to friends and relatives in Iraq out of fear and paranoia so for now I am going to post day by day parts of my essay about Lebanon. I will hopefully after publishing the whole thing explain what i think the similarities and differences between the two countries and their situations are and were. I guess I will let those who are intersteed in reading it read it.... i am sure its not for everyone but at the end of it you will get a gist of why its so closely related to Iraq from the internal and external factors as well as the lack of NATIONAL identity as different people in Lebanon have their own views about their country, and the same could be said for Iraq. They had their power struggle and now live in a shady situation. I just hope we dont fall into the same pitfalls.... Anyways hope those of you intersted in politics enjoy it and those looking for humour well I don't think civil war, death and third world devolpment has much positvism ( ok that word means something else but im too lazy to correct it) ..... so I'll post daily bits and pieces ... start of today with the first 3 pages..... please let me know if i should continue cause i dont wanna be posting an essay that 3 people end up reading! Thanks for your comments and kind words and espically to those who e-mailed me with encouragement... I wish to say that this is a paper I wrote after studying the topics, researching, reading and watching tapes etc... it does not necassiraly mean that this is everyone in Lebanon's outlook on the war... a lot of people could have read the history of Lebanon and come up with a different conclusion but the fact that I had Iraq in the back of my mind while I wrote it will probably be obvious to some of you.... ENJOY

LEBANESE CIVIL WAR PAPER

Civil Wars have been a major problem this century with the establishment of so many new states resulting in upheaval and havoc in several countries throughout the Third World, with each country having a distinct and unique set of variables that created the conditions for civil strife and civil war. These civil wars are brutal and usually result in the killing and displacements of innocents. The majority of civil wars occur in the third world because poverty, inequality and undemocratic forms of government lay the foundations for political, social and economic crisis. The case of Lebanon is a very complex one

Unfortunately throughout the 20th century we have witnessed many civil wars with the majority unfortunately taking place in Third World states that suffer from various social, political and economic problems. Ethnic conflict has been rampant in the Third World because of the large numbers of ethnic groups that have been forced to live together under one state even though they are different nations. Another problem that leads to civil strife is the lack of legitimate and mature governance. Sadly the Third World is years behind the West, since the West has already had its fair share of civil wars, bloodshed and killing and has now learnt from those lessons, while the people of the Third World are still slowly realizing that power has to be shared. Sadly it seems to be that Third World countries don’t learn from each other since the mistakes that happen in one country are often repeated in others. In Lebanon race did not play a large part since nearly all the Lebanese people are Arabs (some will argue they are Phoenicians but this is not a sociolagy paper) and the problems were between sects and communities.

We will see that it was not a war between Christians and Muslims, or between right and left, or between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat – though it contained elements of all those things. It was a clash between different ideological traditions which produced conflicting concepts of nationalism. All the leading figures in the war regarded themselves as nationalists defending their traditional brand of nationalism. The political structures implemented in Lebanon we will see later were prearranged to be a Consociationalist form of democracy.

“Consociationalism offers another potential solution to conflict. It has had limited success. Conscociational democracy in plural societies entails a careful division of political power designed to protect the rights of all participants. Consociational democracy consciously rejects pure majority rule. Instead, it seeks to create framework for stability and peace by guaranteeing minorities a share of political power.”[1]

In regards to Lebanon though, consociationalism turned out to be a failure with the evidence being the Civil War. This form of political structure was implemented by France, the colonial power, with Lebanese acceptance after the creation of Lebanon.

The sad reality though is that Lebanon’s Consociational Democracy failed and it was for a number of reasons, internal as well as external. The za’im system which I will explain later played a crucial role in Lebanese society, since the political leaders who were Za’im’s were more interested in their own personal interests rather than interests of Lebanon as a whole. Another reason why the political system collapsed was that the demographics of Lebanon changed over time and as a result the consociationalism not being adjusted accordingly the Civil War broke out in Lebanon; mainly this happened because the Maronite Christian community which enjoyed the most political power prior to the break out of the Civil War was not interested in accommodating the rising Muslim population out of fear for their own safety and prosperity.

Sectarianism is a major problem that occurs when civil wars break out across the Third World, especially in societies that are made up of different religious groups as well as made up of different ethnicities. The sad reality is though usually the people who use religion when perpetrating their violence are not even really religious. It goes against every religion to use force to kill women, children and innocents for no reason apart from their religion or race. In Lebanon as we will see sectarianism became a main problem when the Christians and Muslims started massacring each other for no reason apart from their religion. The problem is though the Civil War in Lebanon did not start out as a religious war instead it was much more complicated than that. Poverty, lack of political maturity and other social problems that are experienced in the Third World also contributed to starting the conflict.

“In Lebanon, sectarianism is as modern and authentic as the nation-state. In fact the two can not be disassociated. The Lebanese state was created as a result of a series of compromises between the French Mandatory power and the indigenous elites. More importantly, colonialism transformed the social, political and economic significance of religion into an order where religious identities alone defined individuals. Prior to the nineteenth century, communities in Mount Lebanon were predicated not so much on religious distinctions as on hierarchal politics of notability that cut across religious lines.”[2]

The above paragraph highlights two important points in relation to Lebanon. Firstly it shows he impact that the colonial power France had on Lebanon, as well as the resulting political structure of sectarianism produced out of this relationship. This can tell us before even evaluating the Civil War that the colonial power, France, developed a political structure in Lebanon that was doomed to eventually fail.

The political system of Lebanon developed within the framework of confessionalism which was put in place by the French whose main idea behind it was to make each community play a role in the political process. It was supposed to be for equality and to enforce the peace between the communities but unfortunately it performs the exact opposite since the system incorporates the leaders to serve their communities first and foremost before serving their country. During the Lebanese Civil war the Maronite leader, if President for example, would still be more concerned with the well being and prosperity of the area he hailed from, instead of worrying about the rest of Lebanon. In a system such as that, it creates a lot of mistrust that lead to in the case of Lebanon a total collapse of the political structure of the state and a full on Civil War that lasted almost two decades.

[1] Howard Handelman. “The Challenge of Third World Development.”Prentice Hall. 2003. pg.101

[1] Usama Makdisi. “Reconstructing the Nation State, The Modernity of Secterianism in Lebanon.” Pg. 24

To be continued if people are intersted........... :) Sorry about mistakes etc.... my health is my only excuse.

BE BACK SOON.... i hope....

2004-11-06T21:31:00.000Z

Been a really rough week on many fronts, i do have some intersting tidbits and stories to share but not feeling well at all..... Hopefully it will be worth the wait, for the readers that I HOPEFULLY still have..... for the mean time enjoy all the other Iraqi blogs......support them all!
Take care all

A tragic day

2004-11-02T23:16:00.000Z

Today was a sad day for all good people around the world, the world lost one of its real heros, a man who cared so much for his own people that he turned a desert into a paradise in less than 4 decades. I was going to write a detailed blog but neurotic_wife beat me to it and put it so beautifully and eloquently. Please read her post and may god bless his soul. It will be hard for those of you that never ever lived or visited the United Arab Emirates to understand what a great leader he was for the country. Her post is a must read and will bring to tears to the eyes of all those who know of the late great Sheik Zayed, may god Rest his soul in peace. I pray for the day that all Arabic leaders treat their people with the kindness and love that Sheik Zayed treated his people.

Support this project!

2004-10-29T22:52:00.000+01:00

I just posted what might have been the best post ever! I was so excited and had so many good ideas and thoughts in my head, but as a result of laziness I started writing it on here instead of on Word and I got SORRY WE ARE UPDATING. All gone now..... I wish I could recreate the magic but instead with the time being very late where I am you are all going to have to do with one of those sub par posts! I just watched Bin Ladin on Al Jazira followed by 'in depth' analysis from a couple of his apoligists namely Mr.Abdul Bari Atwan. His name may not be familar to non-Arabs but to many open minded liberal Iraqis he is one of the most despised people out there. He is the editor of an Arabic newspaper which I won't even name because negative publicity in my eyes would only help him and his sells. There are various rumours on his relations with the old tyrant but the facts are he was one of those who cried most when Saddam was found in a hole. The deaths of Qusay and Uday upset him dearly and I watched him on TV exaggerate that they went down fighting against the Americans as heroes. Anyways I don't want to get too worked up about him since happily his heros are slowly crumbling one by one and the real heroes of Iraq are showing him we don't need or want his kind in our country.

The subject of today's post was meant to be of a happier note. I mentioned a few days ago about a movie called Voices of Iraq and posted a link for some to watch the 6 minute preview on their site. Anyways I have been in contact with a wonderful inspiring Iraqi woman named Yasmine who worked very hard to make this project happen. Along with that there is a group of incredibly talented Iraqi musicians who provided music for this project. My brothers in Euphrates ( the Iraqi music group) and Yasmine are just examples of Iraqis making their voices heard and trying hard to show the world what we are capable of. We do not want death and war, we do not wish that upon anyone, instead we all hope that more and more people start accepting the reality that we are all one people one nation and that all these barriers are created by people whose brainwashed idealogies force them to hate. Please espically to those of you living in the US tell all your friends about this movie. Make sure they watch it, try and get the DVD if you can't make the screenings, just find a way to listen to what Iraqis inside Iraq feel and say.
The following is a copy of the e-mail Yasmine sent me and I encourage all of you to get in touch with her and help in trying to get the real VOICES OF IRAQ heard by all:

'VOICES OF IRAQ: A DOCUMENTARY FILM DIRECTED BY THE PEOPLE OF IRAQ'

As an Iraqi, a Chaldean, and an American too, I had the honor and pleasureof working on Voices of Iraq. There are 3 ways to watch the film this weekend: in theaters, by renting iton Netflix, or by purchasing the dvd from our website. Please spread the word and forward this email! We need everyone's help in letting America know about Voices of Iraq.

Thank you,
Yasmine Hannaney
First Assistant Editor, Voices of Iraq
naqwa@sbcglobal.net

Everyone should see the film "Voices of Iraq" before voting. Opening Friday October 29th, the documentary film "Voices of Iraq" brings you face to facewith the Iraqi people and finally allows them to speak directly with the world.

You see the war in the news and on TV. You hear the presidential candidates spout facts in an effort to win your vote. News organizations have made it harder and harder to separate the sensationalism and the spin from reality.

You now have the chance to be informed on a completely new level. If the situation in Iraq is important to you in any way, you owe it to yourself to see this film, and to tell others who won't receive this email about it. By handing out 150 digital video cameras to the Iraqi people, "Voices ofIraq" has made them the directors of the film, enabling them to tell their story from their own point of view.

To learn more about "Voices of Iraq", please visit
http://www.voicesofiraq.com.
There you will find reviews, making-ofinformation, background on the filmmakers, and more.

THEATRES: The list of theatres where you can enjoy this movie in the US can be found on the "Voices of Iraq" website at:
http://www.voicesofiraq.com/see_film.cfm?id=2

RENTAL: If your city isn't listed below, don't worry, the film will also beavailable for rent through Netflix (www.netflix.com) on October 29th,specifically at this link:
http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?trkid=73&movieid=70018153

PURCHASE: You will also be able to buy "Voices of Iraq" on DVD fromwww.VoicesOfIraq.com, starting October 29th.

Please see "Voices of Iraq" and please pass this email on to everyone youknow. Thank you.

END OF HER EMAIL

Please for those who have the time, get in touch with her to thank her and the whole team for their efforts, in addition to the group of Iraqis whose musical input and dimensions added to the beauty of this project.

Official website http://www.voicesofiraq.com
Euphrates, Iraqi hip hop music http://www.euphrates.ca

P.S Today I heard Mosh by Eminem for the first time, since I talk about politics so much I rarely show that I have the same obssesions for music, sports, movies and ..............
The song was anti-Bush, now what made me smile was that you over there in the US should be proud that people such as Eminem and the Dixie Chicks have the right to say how they feel and what they want without fear of persecution. Hate them, love them, loathe them but these basic rights to express their thoughts and opinions is what I hope happens in Iraq. I hope in Iraq one day Iraqis can rap and sing for or against the government without fear and death, thankfully my extended exile Iraqi family like the brothers in Euphrates and Yasmine are examples of Iraqis that try and paint a picture for the world to see. Since all Iraqis have been through so much you will hear a different story and different forms of analysis from each indivual Iraqi you meet, hence my emphasis on naming this blog An Iraqi's thoughts rather than IRAQI THOUGHTS. I hope for the non-Iraqi readers of this blog you understand that many Iraqis wish to contribute positively to this world, and the people I mentioned as all the Iraqi bloggers and writers regardless of their stances on being anti this or pro that are an inspiration to the rest of Iraq. Sadly for too many years nobody even cared about our plight and cause. Where as now most people around the world know the geography of Iraq almost as well as the geography of the countries they reside in.

Have a great weekend to those in the West as for us in this part of the world Saturday marks the start of another long week! Thank you and support Voices of Iraq no matter what your political inclinations may be!

PLZ SEE :
The voices of iraq links are having a small problem right now.... hopefully by the time most of you read this, that has been fixed! Watch the 6 minute preview! It will make you want to watch this movie.

Hearts, minds and mentalites

2004-10-27T22:59:00.000+01:00

As some of you know I started this blog for a variety of reasons. Having a solid background in political science and third world issues due to my university experiences, in addition to being an Iraqi whose been exposed to Iraqi news, news and more news ever since I can remember. I write from my heart and I understand many Iraqis and non-Iraqis might disagree or agree with my opinions strongly but as I have always stressed on numerous occasions they are just that my THOUGHTS and OPINIONS. I do not claim to have any solutions or miracles but as a result of what I see as a lack of understanding by many concerning Iraq and its various problems, this has become my little port to discuss my views.

The last few days have been quite depressing on the Iraqi front as too much bad news has been coming out of Iraq, but many other sites and blogs have gotten in to these issues so I won’t waste more time by repeating and commenting on them but I condemn the loss of any innocent life in our struggle to build a country that hopefully will be a MODEL for the rest of the region. These last couple of days I have been speaking to a few friends and family in Iraq and even those who used to share my hopes and optimism are starting to lose it. This pains me dearly as Iraqis don’t deserve this and have already seen so much in the last few decades that I hope they get through it. I hear from them more negative comments about the interim government and the coalition than I have ever done before.

Obviously the mindset of the Iraqi exile and the educated minority inside Iraq is going to be different then the majority of Iraqis and I do hope that day by day more Iraqis see the bigger picture and come to realise that the end of tyranny does not lead to an overnight transformation of society over night. The trust is being lost and I am saddened as the campaign to win the hearts and minds of many inside seems to be failing with each day that passes by. I have sat around and thought about little steps that the US can still do is try and win back these people and PROVE they genuinely want Iraqis to progress. There are a large number of economic and political steps that can be undertaken to achieve this, with regards to rampant corruption, not enough security etc. but again this has been touched on by many and I see no reason to start judging what’s right and what’s wrong when I myself am not on the ground there myself to see with my own eyes. I am not against what is happening now on the contrary I am proud that we have political parties, a process that may not be perfect is on the right track to democracy. Unfortunately without sugar coating it there do exist a large number of Iraqis that are suspicious of any political leadership and as a result of corruption and theft from a small number of these new politicians they view them with disdain and distrust.

My whole purpose of this post today is I have been trying to think of ways to regain back the average Iraqi’s trust both in the current government and in the foreign forces that are trying to help them. It is obvious the perpetrators of barbaric acts like Abu Ghariab are NOT the majority but because of some brainwashed media channels they have implanted those beliefs onto large segments of Iraqi society. Forget about the political and economic ways of making Iraq better now, instead I think mentality wise it is important to start making more of a difference rather than producing a few TV channels here are there. Some may disagree but I believe that ‘the true victims. the Iraqi people’ need to be reached out to and even if only a few change their minds a HUGE and honourable step would be if the current US government issued an apology for its past mistakes in the 80’s and 90’ and even further than that for supporting the Arabic nationalist parties to defeat the then powerful Iraqi communist parties. Most of you probably reading this are probably asking what does the US have to apologise for? Talk to Iraqis inside Iraq and I am not talking about those that carry weapons and use violent methods to destroy our society but the average man off the street and he will list you many grievances, which I believe would be better off being addressed rather than being pushed aside.

Now hear me out and my idea which I know would make a DIFFERENCE, maybe not convert the whole country but would be a step in the REAL process of winning back hearts and minds. It involves a speech by Mr.Bush to the Iraqi people, and of course many close minded people will not care to listen but there will be many inside Iraq who do and if eloquently stated this speech might elevate some misgivings Iraqis have about the way the West looks at them and thinks about them. My dream scenario and that’s just what it is, a dream since something like would never probably happen in real life would be for Mr. Bush to came on television and give the following address which I believe would make more and more Iraqis start to open up and be less paranoid about all the conspiracy theories that float around the streets of Iraq thanks to the haters in Al Jazira and co. For a few minutes I am going to pretend I am Mr.Bush and that I have no advisors to tell me what to say or to write and will write a speech to the Iraqi people that I DREAM would be broadcast on all networks reaching all segments of the IRAQI people. I am not aiming this to the non-Iraqis whose anti-American agenda make them blind to the true hurt and pain the Iraqi people feel and still go through every day.

Here it goes, hmmmmm I am starting to feel kind of important ;) …. My first speech as a political leader!...... Only kidding…..If I were Bush here would be my speech to the Iraqi people:

‘To the great people of Iraq, you have suffered more as a people in the last decades than any other country or people can imagine. We all outside Iraq share in the blame for creating the monster that destroyed Iraq and no words can bring back your loved ones and your pain but our first way of apologising was by getting rid of the tyrant as I would understand we were wrong to ever put our trust in a monster such as him. Previous American administrations were wrong to support Saddam militarily, economically, politically and it is with great discomfort that I admit that the United States government made mistakes in not truly understanding the brutal dictator and the cowardly acts he took upon your place. We should have acted a lot sooner when the silent majority on the receiving end of his barbarism were trying so hard to get their voices heard, instead we were gullible and as a result of Saddam’s totalitarian state control never truly understood your suffering until it was too late. I would also like to apologise for the mistakes my father made of not finishing of the job in the early 90’s when Saddam was on his last breath and when you Iraqis were so close and hopeful that the end was near. We do realise the grave consequences of those miscalculations and we are not alone in owing you an apology. Most of the world owes you an apology as we know now how hard most of you tried to get us to understand your police state like circumstances. As a result a misconception exists that we helped keep him in power to terrorise normal Iraqis and this believe me is not true, and again nothing I can put in words can make up for the mistakes that took us almost a decade to rectify, Having abandoned you before, it is easy to understand why a lot of you may have lost trust in our motives and goals. I would also like to apologise for giving the WMD as the main reason for overthrowing Saddam. There is no question that the majority of you Iraqis wanted to see the end of the tyrant to have an opportunity to live a better life, and to be able to experience the simple joys that human beings get to enjoy. Our emphasis on the WMD made it seem like our selfish interests were what started our operations, and instead we should have proved to the world that we are sincere in correcting the wrong of our previous policies. No country in the world is perfect and no administration is free of errors and all we can do now is spend the next few years proving that our interests do lie with your interests. The cases of corruption and mismanagement of funds are not going unchecked and we as the US government will try out utmost to try to stamp out the fraud and negligence which we came over there to try and get rid of. We are now facing a situation where there are elements trying to derail this process but unlike before we will not abandon you. On behalf of the American government I would like to send my condolences to ALL innocent Iraqis who have lost their lives because of the tyrant while we shamefully (the WORLD community) sat and watched having made one of history’s big mistakes of not acting on it earlier. It is understandable that many of you will be sceptical of this speech but the only way to prove you to our sincerest apologies is to help rebuild your country and to create a civil society where you can all live amongst each other with peace and prosperity. We now realise our previous errors of judgement and hopefully to the peace loving good Iraqis out there I hope you realise that we are now there, not to steal your oil nor occupy you lands forever. We want out troops home safe and sound just as you want to regain controls of your affairs without external interference. We will do our best to cut back and cancel the debts you face since it is not you’re the Iraqi people who accumulated these debts but the dictator and his friends. We are not perfect, and have made mistakes along the way but this is a delicate process being sabotaged by individuals to whom even the concept of life is not important. I hope that in ten years down the line those of you that still have doubts about our intentions will understand that whatever other reasons we may have, creating a safe, democratic Iraq will be our ways to apologise for our mistakes and lapses in error in the past. Thank you and long live Iraq.’

Most of you probably read this thinking whoaaaaaaaa what a dreamer, yes I am a dreamer….. I dream of politicians being honest and being held accountable for past mistakes and learning from them to build better opportunities and lives for people who never had those chances. Ok this is the SPEECH I wish Bush would give to all Iraqis with more details of course; please do not attack me for being anti-American. I am not; I respect all cultures and people of the world and on the contrary would love to see Iraq reach a level where we compete with the great powers of the world economically rather than compete with third world countries. This can not be achieved without the West’s help and any Iraqi who thinks Iraqis can do it on his own is only lying to themselves due to pride and nationalistic feelings. This is coming from a person who cares dearly about his people and I know the Iraqi mentality better then General X and General Y…. you are not dealing with people who have had the same opportunities and chances in life that we outside of Iraq have had. I always hear Iraqis complaining that US defended Saddam until he was no use to them…. This is a common quote and maybe not all Iraqis feel this way…… but let’s be realistic two wars, sanctions and the events of the last couple of years will cause mental and physical conditions that make people start to wonder the most elaborate and unbelievable stories.. To build peace and to progress we need as many good Iraqis in our side as we can, as we have seen what a small violent minority can inflict on the rest of society. I know such a speech by Bush will not make the whole of Iraq change their minds but every little step counts. I am tired of lies, and excuses and propaganda in politics. Lets start being honest and upfront and caring about the people whose lives are affected by these judgements. You are not going to win hearts and minds with deeds and presents but with words that carry sincere meaning to the Iraqi people.

I realise a lot of you will attack me for this post but I didn’t create this blog to be pro or anti-American. I created this blog as it’s my own little way to try and help my people get back on their feet and live a life they have been robbed of for so long. My goal here is to translate to the world the worries and concerns of the Iraqi people and this is just an idea of mine on how to slowly change the mindset of the people inside Iraq. Saddam horribly brainwashed Iraqis to such an extent that some Iraqis don’t even realise it. A case in point I was talking to someone and I mentioned I might be visiting Kurdistan soon. He knew what I meant but got upset and said please call it the North of Iraq. This is the kind of mindset that I hope changes, education and trust needs to return to the people and an apology from Bush for the past US administrations would be a positive step. Then I can go on and on and ask other leaders of many countries and corporations to also issue apologies but Bush would be very brave to do such a move and that would show people like Chirac and co. that they need to full up on their apologise for their concern about money and oil rather than life and soul but I will leave that for another topic. Transparency is what Iraqis need to see not belligerence. Thank you to every body out there whose interests are the lives of the people who live in the country of Iraq from the North in Zakho to south in Basra. The Iraqi people need some hope for a change, we are not a nation of kidnappers, beheaders and criminals but are being held hostage to these people. May God save all the silent majority of Iraqis from these tough times.

Venting....

2004-10-25T01:46:00.000+01:00

For those who still defend the ‘resistance/terrorists’ in Iraq.

I feel great shame whenever I hear of Iraqis or non-Iraqis who defend the terrorists destroying my country. I do not know how kidnapping, beheading, suicide bombings and mass executions of the security apparatus can be seen as resistance. Please spare me the conspiracy theories that US is doing all these attacks to prolong their stay in Iraq. I think if any person was sane they would not actually believe that the US would play a hand in operations that make them look as if they have no security over the country. The game is over, we realise that the loose coalition of Iraqis enemies have one goal in common, to make sure Iraqis suffer so much that they long for the return of the days of dictatorship were security was only achieved by force. Thankfully the numbers of Iraqis supporting these acts are few and far between and from my time spent in 3 different continents I do not bump into too many of these types, but also they have a habit of being two faced. You can almost tell whose who in the Iraqi community when they say the phrase, ‘ yeah Saddam was bad but the US is worse’ That alone makes me realise that its not the Iraqi people they ( perople who defend the terrorits) care about but some over expired feeling of nationalism and pride that failed with the Saddam experiment.

The GREAT IRAQ is no more and we have to try our hardest to rebuild it with the bright articulate Iraqis that are out there and I know there are a lot of them. Sadly right now in Iraq there exists many common and serious criminals performing such acts of savagery that to them seems normal, thanks to the acts of the Ba3thist regime in raising them to believe murder and such is legitimate given the right reasons. Also many of the supporters of the terrorits claim to support the resistance against the West and America and UK yet their children work for multinational corporations and study at universities only in the West. They (defenders of the criminals in the name of whatever ideology they wish) use a lot of old rhetoric but when it comes to their families they do not uphold these morals and values they so strongly preach. Basically its ok for Iraqis in Iraq to die on a daily basis in the name of liberation (FROM WHAT EXACTLY?) but they think that for them and their families living outside of Iraq they prefer the safety and security of globalisation that they rob Iraqis inside Iraq of. I find myself today facing a REOCCURING problem, having to explain to non-Iraqis that the resistance we have is not the legitimate heroic one that channels like Jazira try and portray.

Before we used to have to tell people how bad Saddam was and the crimes that he committed which most people turned a blind eye to because of the rhetoric that spewed from his mouth about an Arabic empire and the liberation of Palestine. Sadly the uneducated masses will fall for these words and phrases but most educated people know that if anyone damaged the Palestinians cause it was Saddam Hussein. I do not blame Palestinians for carrying pictures of Saddam but I do blame AL Jazira and the brainwashed intellectuals with their own personal vendettas that never fairly tried nor explained to the Arabic world the horror of the Ba’athist regime. To find pictures and videos of torture, mass graves and the sort during Saddam’s time you have to look for it on Iraqi sites on the internet or hear about it in the most obsecure of places. I habe yet to see Al Jazira spend an hour documentary on the chemical attacks in Halabjah because probably to them they still even refuse to admit it was Saddam’s work. Why doesn’t Al Jazira’s website for insistence open a section dedicated to all the victims of Saddam. These victims are dying until today at the hands of the mentality and culture that Saddam brainwashed small segments of Iraqi society with.

When Saddam was finally shown for the coward he truly was, then his apologists started disassociating themselves with him and started coming up with new slogans, Saddam was bad America is worse, or my favourite one that people use America put Saddam in power. America put so many leaderships and governments around the world in power. How many of them started two wars against neighbours? How many leaders started a genocide campaign against their own population? The funny thing is that the people who use the phrases I mentioned above were supportive of him during the Iraq-Iran war, turned a blind eye against the oppression against the Kurds and Shiites, and blame Kuwait for everything bad that Iraq has gone through.

Day by day I lose hope and I know what a big difference the media and ‘educated’ elite in Arabic society can play, if Al Jazira replayed the amount of death and carnage saddam caused then their presenters would not have cried and been so upset the day that Saddam’s regime fell or the day he was caught like a rat in a hole. I remember we had a party to celebrate his capture, and at the park we were at, there were some non Iraqi Arabs having a barbecue nearby and were so surprised about us celebrating, they couldn’t believe we were so happy at the ‘apparent humiliation’ of their hero!…. They came up and said they were deeply offended, well sorry to break it to you we were also offended, offended that he was given a chance to live and see a trial when he robbed hundreds of thousands of those rights. By the way the winner of the competition for saddam’s punishment was to put him back in that rat hole…. Open a little space where each day a different Iraqi can come and pee in the hole…. I wish I came up with that…. Its pretty vulgar and seems disgusting but for a man so obsessed with cleanliness it would be a much more fitting punishment then a fast painless execution. Sorry I am still talking about Saddam but when I see what is going on in Iraq today it breaks my heart and I still blame it all on that animal that took us back 100 years, and whose secret agents and followers are trying so hard to take us back another 1000 years now. Inshallah inshoof shwayit khair and take care of urselves!

P.S Sorry about the lack of grammatical cohesiveness to this piece as I am still recovering from my illness but thank you sooooooooo much for all your kind words. IF you lived where I lived you would all be welcome to join me for backstage VIP access in one of those classy Ramadan night tents I talked about earlier. ;)

God bless all Iraqis that lose their lives because of the ignorance of a few brainwashed indivuals that have started a civil war against the civilised peaceful Iraqis who are and always have been the silent majority.

Recommendations

2004-10-16T22:05:00.000+01:00

Hello as most of you probably know its Ramadan in my part of the world, and I guess the festivities have begun. People are out late and go to these tents at night for a fun night out. Tents that sounded bad, then we go camel racing and then carpet flying, I am only joking.....they are classy places believe me. Me and a friend, who just came back from the States, had a great idea for a business venture that we were excited about ALL weekend. To bring Poweraid the energy drink to this part of the world. I don’t know why we really thought we were soooo smart and that it was going to be a goldmine. We started off at a big store, which has a large variety of imported goods other stores don’t usually have, and didn’t take us long before BOOM right in front of us EVERY kind of Power aid you can imagine. Need better market research next time! I was thinking about going to do my masters in England just because I love London, I have spent many summers there and just want an excuse to live in the West again. By the time I complete my masters Iraq might be a bit better security wise enabling me to go back and help the people over there.

I was reading the other day on (Ihath’s) great blog the other day about the movie Divine Intervention and how she was taken back by it, that inspired me to write this piece because I felt the same way about a movie that sadly I just recently saw. It’s called Marooned in Iraq, and it’s a Kurdish movie created by the great Kurdish director Bahman Ghobadi. If any of you live in the West you can probably grab the DVD from select stores and it’s worth it. I recommend it for the story, its heart warming and beautiful and if anyone should be commended for highlighting the suffering and plight of humanity without being political it’s Mr.Ghobadi. His latest film has just won an award in Spain and sadly I probably won’t be able to watch it for a while, but I hope its in the categories for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars. Given the sentiment and what not the world has concerning Iraq I am sure that is not a distant possibility. It would be nice to show the world that Iraq has other sides to it. There is ANOTHER new Iraqi channel out called Al-Sumariya that is on Nilesat satellite for those of you that understand Arabic. It’s broadcast from Beirut for the time being and is trying to highlight the positives of Iraqi culture from music to film etc. I think it’s a good idea and from what I have seen of the channel it doesn’t look too bad and I will be commenting on it as time goes by.

I think that Marooned in Iraq will give those of you who haven’t ever had the opportunity to witness Kurdish music and culture a great introduction to it. The music and singing and dancing is different and very heart warming to watch. The director mentions at the end just how through out history and oppression the Kurds have always been able to resort to music and humour to make the best of dreadful situations and the movie is a great portrayal of that.

I also went to the website for the creation for the movie voices of Iraq. Thank you to Stefania for posting that link on one of the other Iraqi blogs, and on the site there is a 6 minute video clip there that made me so excited about watching this movie. I really can’t wait, most of you probably know what it is about but for those who don’t some Americans came to Iraq and handed different Iraqis cameras and questions to ask people and let them film it themselves. I think this is a brilliant idea and kudos to them for coming up with the idea and making it a reality. There are also selfish reasons for me wanting this movie to succeed as I know some of the Iraqis involved in the project. If anyone is interested in the website the address is as follows and I recommend the 6 minute preview: Voices of Iraq

On the political front, well there were some rumours that Zarqawi was arrested on Iraqi websites, and that they were testing his DNA, then the US Military issued a statement denying this therefore I felt all the emotions a man can feel in the space of a couple of hours. This was also because I made the stupid mistake of watching this show on Al Jazira tonight, I don’t know why I do it to myself I really don’t. I mean I watch and it’s never a debate on that show, it’s nearly always everyone is on the same anti-West level. Its either I am really brainwashed or they really need to move on and leave Iraqi alone. The number of times the people in the studio mentioned the suffering of the Iraqi people made me want to call and talk to them but sadly I know I would not be able to restrain myself if I ever did something of that sort. I am still waiting for an Al Jazira special airing the crimes of Saddam. The worst are the presenters; I mean the man stands there shouting at the guests, I really don’t know where they got their degrees from. It’s like I could get the same kind of knowledge and feedback from my local barber or from a taxi driver as I do from them. Sorry I don’t mean to disrespect those two professions at all but my point is without proper knowledge and objectivity it’s wrong to hire somebody to be a presenter and sadly this is what they seem to do.

Optimism

2004-10-14T23:53:00.001+01:00

Today’s news you have probably all read but I came across this article in an Arabic web site and thought it made me smile, so why not translate and show that despite the hardships that Iraq is going there is a distant hope for a good futre. Here is the original article: Karbala Demonstration

Demonstrations in Karabala:

" A demonstration comprising of about 1000 people demonstrated today in the city of Karabala, south of Baghdad asking the Iraqi government to capture the terrorists and especially in the triangle of death that is in the south western parts of Baghdad.

Those present distributed a statement talking about the grave dangers to our people from these terrorist acts that compromise killing, kidnapping, suicide bombs that even target children, and these terrorists trying to create friction between all the groups in Iraq.

They added that after witnessing the escalating violence especially in the areas of Al Yusifiya, Al Latifiyah and al Mahmoudiya that we ask the government to stand firmly against these terrorists and capture them.

The American and Iraqi forces conducted an operation 10 days ago in the north of the Babil province where these areas lie because of the increase in killing and kidnapping in these areas.
The demonstrators gathered around the provincial headquarters and they represented political, religious and tribal groups and they carried many slogans with some of the ones worth mentioning, being ‘defending terrorism is a philosophy for destruction.’ ‘No to terrorism, no to violence and no to killing.’ ‘We will not allow the terrorists to stop Iraq’s path towards democracy and peace.’ "

I mention this even the though the number is small, because to me this is a positive development. I wish more and more Iraqis would come out and do the same but you have to understand it is very difficult and I can understand why most stay at home because of all the violence taking place. All it takes is a few criminal thugs to attend such demonstrations and target those who attend, hence I view all these people as heroes because they put their lives on the line in order to get their voices heard. Granted not all Iraqis would agree with my assessment of this situation but it’s good to see that there are Iraqis demanding the government to be firm.

The people of Karabla are nearly all from the Shi’ite sect of Islam and the stance of these protesters is to be admired. One can only speculate on how many people feel this way, but this reminds me of other demonstrations promoting peace occurring in Najaf about a month ago. The violent minority is trying so hard to intimidate the majority into silence the same way Saddam used to. They want people to praise the ‘resistance’ and the heroes the same way Saddam used to force the people into praising him. You are still afraid of who might hear you and this is what saddens me. I was one of those gullible Iraqis who believed the fall of Saddam will see a return of freedoms but instead you are faced with so many more faceless enemies. In Saddam’s time most people knew who to be careful of but now nobody knows the enemy and their motives. The general consensus is these barbaric acts are the work of a foreign force with Iraqis who for some reason or another are opposed to seeing a peaceful Iraq. I can not generalise and say they are all former regime members but I truly believe that most of it is financially motivated. In Third World countries you can do a lot by paying people large amounts of money. These are my opinions and maybe I believe this because deep down I really hope it’s true. I hope that most Iraqis feel the same way I feel. The next few months will see if I am wrong or right.

Lebanese civil war.

2004-10-14T14:34:00.000+01:00

I have a long essay on the Lebanese civil war which I wrote myself. Its about 25 pages long and explains a lot of reasons why countries in the Middle East go through the problems they do. I guess I am not sure if any of you would actually want to read it. Would you like me to post it in sections or not post it at alll? Or make a summary? I would appreciate your opinions regarding the matter. Thank you. No need to be polite! I appreciate honesty

We lost and more...

2004-10-14T01:27:00.000+01:00

What a day. I am heartbroken, as are all my friends. More important than politics is the fact that we lost today’s game against Uzbekistan meaning we have no chance of making it to the World Cup in 2006. This is such bad news, and I watched the game and can’t believe how unlucky we were. The referee was from Singapore. No disrespect to Singapore but when will the Asian football federation stop using referees from Third World countries that have no technical footballing skills from doing these important games. He was biased, unfair and I am not just just saying this because I am angry. A lot of the crowd were brought in to Amman, Jordan by buses from various cities from all over Iraq all paid for by the government. It was a good move by Allawi and considering the game was only broadcast on Al Iraqiyah, and given the fact that the commentator mentioned this fact many times, I applaud Allawi for this tactful move. Whether he did it out of kindness or not believe me it will have won him more a lot of extra votes. Its becoming a kind of love him/hate him type of relationship with the Iraqi masses.

I am sure most of you heard about the new mass grave site. It’s a tragedy and sad that it doesn’t become the main news story but instead a 2 minute headline. Wonder if it was a site full of bodies belonging to victims of American soldiers, how long would the piece be? Today saw another speech of Allawi’s on TV…… good man and to those who question his loyalties and call him a spy, I’d introduce you to a friend of mine, his late brother’s son who is about my age. The poor guy lost his father for no reason at the hands of the evil tyrant. If someone killed your brother you would befriend ANYONE to get your revenge on him, I hope people remember that Allawi was against Saddam when the US government were still sending Saddam weapons and aid. They couldn’t even officially condemn the Halabjah bombings at the time so please don’t try and discredit those exiles that truly care about their country. Yes I agree there are bad thieves among the exiles but it doesn’t give anyone the right to generalize.

Finally on a happier note, I was at a party tonight with all types of Iraqis, they were all enjoying themselves, dancing laughing, some drinking, some not. I was sad while everyone was happy. I felt guilty and really hope that Iraqis in Iraq are able to enjoy themselves the way Iraqis at that party did tonight. The whole purpose of it was to forget politics, because in Iraqi exile society people can’t sit and have a normal chat about music or movies or anything positive, its always politics and if there is football some men change to that and the other men pretend they care about the football thing. Especially men when they get older they start trying to act younger. A man in his young 20’s and a man in his young 50’s I think can get along very well and today was evidence of that. Finally talked to my friend in Baghdad today and he was complaining about the lack of women so that made me laugh, since at least now he is complaining about the sort of things guys complain about over here too. Hopefully he sorts his problem out since it’s a change from ‘the security is so bad I expect to die every time I go out.’ I leave you on a final note asking the Iraqi football federation to please remove the current coach and change him as I want to reach my dream of watching the country I was born in play in the World Cup BEFORE I hit the big 30.

Apoligies

2004-10-13T01:28:00.000+01:00

I would like to apoligise for this post in advance, not one of my cheerful happy posts, because its been a bad day... its 3am and I can't sleep for no apparent reason. I was not even going to blog today because my spirits are down. I don't know if its the lack of nicotine thats making everything so frustrating. I woke up this morning to the sound of an Iraqi girl's voice that I didn't recognize, so I thought I was dreaming..... anyways being half asleep and oblivious to who I am speaking to I started talking to her like she was an old friend, she laughed a little and said I have an interview and she gave me more good news that the lady whose interviewing me is Iraqi, I was so excited...Finally I can go to an interview and not have to put on the broken Palestinian/Lebanese accent of mine and can instead just talk to another Iraqi in my regular Iraqi Arabic accent which makes a world of difference. Anyways the interview went great, and I played a few mind games to get the package up, and then we talked about Iraq, she give me the 'we got rid of Saddam, how will we get rid of America comment'... I laughed with her.... not wanting to argue with her before even working there about the consequences of such a comment....

I wish I had asked her what she thought would happen if tommorrow all the foreing troops leave Iraq? I went home and then watched the basic news, nothing really out of the ordinary today... Saddam having an operation..... thats funny THEY were complaining about his treatment but they are operating on him? Sounds like his treatment isn't so bad after all...... Few rumours of Tarek Aziz's reported death being a ploy in preparation of a plea deal to get him out in exchange for some testimony against Saddam.... dont know how much truth there is to this rumour....

Anyways later on I met up with an old childhood friend of mine who i haven't seen in 2 years, he is a non-Iraqi Arab, and along came another friend. We were getting along so well until out of nowhere he says man you see that *^*^* Allawi? And they went on and on.... they steal your oil, kill your people etc... I was like no not them too... they are smart liberal and a bit more open minded than that..... I was quiet until I exploded and I went on a rampage... I was driving and my car hit the curb twice but I let it all out and wanted a cigratte so badddddddddddddd.....I was surprised by the end of my yelling they both said well we can see where you are going with that....maybe they were worried about their safety........ but still felt good to hear. I said this is the bottom line... 2 strong points I think I love to use.....1- Please don't talk about Iraq unless you spend at least 6 months there.... just like I have no right to judge on your country, you dont have that right either...... 2- We as Iraqis want to progress and move on and rebuild and we just want peace, most dont care about politics or America or Saddam anymore.... they just want what most humans get to enjoy.... the things that most of us take for granted.... I was happy that I made some difference on them.....I am just afraid that my whole arguments will be destroyed when they meet an Iraqi who agrees with them.....

Lastly and this doesn't get much better......I came home to watch some TV and on Al Arabiyah they had a debate between 3 Iraqis, one of them is called Mr. Iyad Jamal Il Deen, whose a politican and I think also a cleric. I thik he is one of the most noble and honest Iraqi people there is out there. He is a very very intelligent man and he always counters arguments on TV with solid facts. One of the men he was facing was the total opposite, defending the Iranian regime, etc and I just didn't want to watch anymore. I left the room to come try and sleep and here I am 2 hours later..... writing this out...I want to apoligise for the lack of real information in here today and the terrible grammer and spelling but I am so tired I just typed it out on here first and didn't even proof read...Hopefully tommorrow Iraq beats the Uzbeks and that just changes everything.... good luck to them tommorrow.......

Whose watching?

2004-10-11T22:05:00.000+01:00

Today has been a good day, I had my weekly football game (soccer yes) and I played really well, I think it’s because its now day 4 without a cigarette. A close family friend of mine met with one of the top Iraqi politicians today who told him that thankfully things are looking good and that they have plans to deal with some of the country’s hotspots. Now I don’t know if its because he has faith in his own government and has to be optimistic or its because it’s the truth but recent events this last week have shown an improvement in the security situation inside Iraq. Its still not the safest country in the world just yet ;)

Today I was watching Al Fayha the Iraqi channel talk show and there were many Iraqi callers complaining about the same thing I wrote about in my previous post. I really hope they are reading my blog but they are obviously not, if you are then make me a job offer ASAP I am about to get dragged into the world of banking and I want to avoid that at all costs! Back to what I was saying,,,, The callers all agreed that when the bombing occurred in Egypt the Arab Street all claimed it was a terrorist attack and that all the dead were martyrs and the Arab street in Egypt protested against these attacks. I don’t disagree with any of this but why don’t they feel the same way when Iraqis die the same tragic way? Is Iraqi blood cheap? Is it because they want to fight the West but only in Iraq? The positive thing is that slowly I feel a lot of people are starting to realise this inside Iraq. It has become more difficult for people to defend the ‘resistance’ because they have to resort to the outlandish type of statements like ‘it’s the US and Israelis doing these acts’, when people start arguing with such desperation you know they are fighting a losing cause. All the callers today were upset about the vicious bias against Iraq in general and the sad thing is when such callers’ phone in to Al Jazira they are usually cut off because of bad signal. One of my favourite video clips I have is of an Iraqi man calling into Al Jazira and reciting what is my favourite poem of all time in Arabic, it sounds really good in Arabic.

I know other blogs do this, goto Arabic BBC and translate into English and I guess I wanted to do the same today, in regards to the operations that occurred in Egypt. Here are a couple of Iraqis and their views on this. For those that speak Arabic this is the website that I translated these quotes from:
Arabic BBC forum page

‘To all Arabs: Make up your positions about these acts, they are either terrorism or martyr operations, you can not refer to it as terrorism in Egypt but martyr operations in Iraq, its terrorism in all its forms, and who stands by these operations today will face the consequences tomorrow.’
Faisal Al Iraqi , USA
‘I would like to ask a question: Why are the same operations in Iraq referred to as legitimate resistance but in Egypt and Saudi Arabia its referred to as terrorism?’
Ahmed Al Rubai3ee
Baghdad, Iraq

I read tons of Arabic articles but I can’t really summarise or translate them all so I am going to have a little paragraph with titbits of intersting stuff that I read everytime I blog, either from the papers or from the net. Firstly Wednesday is such an IMPORTANT day for Iraqis, I will guarantee you for a large segement of males my age it’s more important then Election Day! We play against Uzbekistan in World Cup soccer qualifiers and we HAVE to win to advance to the next round of qualification. I really hope we win, I am really afraid of the referee as in Asia the standard of refereeing is always low and Iraq always has a tendency to get cheated, don’t ask me why? I am not being paranoid! The World Cup is a dream away but it would mean sooooooo much to ALL Iraqis...... Maybe we need a Kobe or a Shaq type player for the refs to be on our side…..Second piece of news I am sure you have all heard a Turk and an Iraqi Kurd were beheaded, it makes me sick and it makes me sad. This is not the way forward I mean what do you succeed in scaring away companies, investors and labour? Just making sure you destroy the economy and that has nothing to do with being anti-occuaption....... On Al Sharqiyah (Iraqi channel) they said in their bulletin that in Kirkuk the police freed 2 people who were kidnapped and arrested the 6 or 7 kidnappers who had Iraqi police and national guard clothes on them…….I am sure you are all hearing about the weapons for cash deal in Al Thawra district in Baghdad and I see that as a positive development…. No matter what your opinions of Al Sadr are its up to Iraqis in the polling booths to decide if they choose him and I prefer this over his earlier use of force any day, as in the end what the majority of Iraqis do want in Iraq is peace, stability and prosperity...........

Hypocrites and more

2004-10-09T21:39:00.000+01:00

What really has been upsetting me these last couple of days is the terrible suicide bombings that occurred in Egypt. It showed me a few things about how hypocritical some Egyptian writers and politicians are when it comes to Iraq. I always read about the supposed Israeli presence in Kurdistan, as enemies of Iraq try and discredit the legitimate Kurdish right to self-determination by constantly trying to link them with Israel, when in fact the Kurdish cause most resembles the Palestinian cause as both are nations without a state. This false propaganda is based on lies and innuendo. Everyone now knows that there were Israelis in Egypt enjoying themselves and helping Egyptian tourism and economy. If I ever hear any Egyptian trying to discredit any Iraqi by trying to link him to Zionists on a media channel I will be the first to call in and pour my heart out.

Why is it that their foreign minister can shake hands with Israelis but when Iyad Allawi did it at the UN last week it was headlines news everywhere. This is just an example of the unfair attacks on Iraqi and Iraqi people. We are denied to reap in the benefits that most other countries around the world enjoy. When will the double standard end? One of my favourite channels to watch nowadays is called Al Fayha which is not an Iraqi channel. Its one of those rare channels that I feel is pro-Iraqi and fair and they have interviews with lots of important politicians inside Iraq all the time. Also I would like to mention that Abu Dhabi TV deserves and honourable thank you for its decision not to air the beheading of Mr.Bigley. This was a very honourable decision which they said was because they don’t want to be a mouth piece for these groups. Al Jazira can learn a thing of two from this but its hard when all your staff want the American plans to fail in Iraq. There is a current poll at an Iraqi website and the address is http://www.sotaliraq.com/enemies-of-iraq/ , the poll is in Arabic but for those who are curious who is the regarded the number one enemy of Iraq according to readers of the site, it is a man by the name of al Faisal Qassim who hosts Jazira’s weekly debate program. Granted most of the visitors to this site are the educated liberal Iraqi thinkers but its nice to see that one important block of Iraqis view him with such disdain. On the show he always teams up with the non-Iraqi against the Iraqi unless the Iraqi in questions conforms to his ideals and beliefs(VERY VERY RARE). Incidentally number 3 is Raghad Hussein, Saddam’s infamous daughter.

Today on that channel I was talking about earlier called al Fay7a they were talking about the rights for Iraqi exiles to vote, and they showed footage of all the excited Iraqis ready and all excited. It really brings you to tears seeing an old man emotionally pouring out his heart how he never imagined or dreamt he would see the day where he can actually vote regarding his Iraq. Others also were emotional and I think for us as Iraqis we are so curious, no matter what you think about the process, how it will be. Which politicians will unite with which others and so on…. I think a lot of secular parties will come together to form a huge bloc and they will gain strong support from Iraqi exiles and that is why you see a lot of Iraqi politicians pushing for all Iraqis around the world to be allowed to vote. I think it will be the secular parties against the Islamic ones and that’s where the major battle will lie and it will be interesting to see the other smaller parties taking sides in the elections.

Finally there were reports today that Tarek Aziz passed away, but thankfully they were not true. I hear he is the most eager to expose Saddam and his secrets and it would be beneficial to have him testify in court. I know they might have it on tape but that would not convince the conspiracy theorists. I wish they would speed up with the trial process, I don’t mean the sentencing just let us see these cowards from time to time so we can have reason to smile…

Random thoughts for today...

2004-10-06T15:34:00.001+01:00

Well since a few people actually read my first entry and the comments were all good, I decided I will continue. The reason why I am hesitant is because of the large number of Iraqi related blogs that are out there now. I respect many of the writers of those blogs though I do not know any of them personally. Most of them live inside Iraq under terrible conditions and are the REAL heroes who have the courage to do what they do. I on the other hand have the luxury of living a comfortable life but my hopes and dreams are for the people inside Iraq to enjoy the same kind of life that I have. I do not work for any government or anything, though I wish I did because then my dad would get off my back about finding a good job! I am still in my early 20’s and hold a university degree in economics and political science. I am obsessed with general knowledge whether it be in the world of music, sports or politics.

Yesterday on the Iraqiyah TV channel, I watched Dr. Allawi in a Q and A at the Iraqi national assembly and I have to say that he was very impressive. I am slowly warming up to him and if keeps this up I will be the first to try and cast my vote for him. Personally I do not care much about his past links to whomever, to me that is not relevant as most legitimate Iraqi opposition figures had to either get killed or live in exile. Upon living in exile some of them made it their goal to inform the world of Saddam’s atrocities. This is a not an anti- war or pro argument, just an acknowledgment of the fact that many noble Iraqis have been trying for years to get their voices heard but sadly to no avail. Many Iraqis don’t trust the West for their betrayal after the 91 uprisings where we were left to face Saddam’s wrath on our own.

Back to Dr. Allawi, he talked about various issues that are being dealt with in Iraq. My favourite part was when he was talking about the criminals and terrorists and he said a comment which went some like this, ‘We wont let these criminals and that man what’s his name….. and he paused and somebody had to remind him the name was Al Zarqawi,’ its obvious that Dr. Allawi was trying to make a point just how irrelevant Zarqawi is but the disdain and lack of respect shown was hilarious He also went on to talk about the forgiveness of Iraqi loans and hopefully things are looking positive on that front. His main topics were the economy and how hopefully with the increase in oil production, increased security and debt forgiveness that gives Iraq hope for the future. Call me an optimist or a puppet or whatever you like, I know some people are reading this thinking well just more lies coming from Dr.Allawi’s mouth but to be honest I could never have envision two years ago to have even seen a parliament and Prime Minister in Iraq about such issues. To me I am young and still in awe but to my elders this is a dream most have been waiting for so long for. It’s a step in the right direction, its baby steps but its better than being under the rule of a tyrant no matter how bad the security situation is getting. I hope more and more Iraqis give him a chance because he is a good dictator type figure, since he is un-elected yet I sincerely believe he cares about the people Why put your life on the line every day and go through so much stress when you were already happy and rich in the West.. He made many several witty comments but they wont sound as good translated in to English. I’ll stop talking about him now before I turn this blog into a Dr. Allawi fan club and move on to something else……

I keep reading reports of local tribes in the dangerous parts of Iraq, co-operating with police and the government in getting rid of criminals. Again a lot of rumours and untrue stories come out of Iraq but I hope this one is true. It would mark a significant achievement as lots of people I talk to who live in Iraq put more trust in their local area leaders than anyone else. Another thing is I don’t believe that the leaders of a tribe can control every member of the tribe so we will wait and see, to be honest I find it difficult to believe anything on the news just because in Iraq you will hear 10 different versions from 10 different people…… we love a good story I will say that much…..That itself is the problem, different Iraqis say different things in front of different people, since the majority sadly live in poverty than they have to complain and whom else to complain about then the government and the Americans and most also blame the insurgents but are more afraid to speak out in that regard. Today I was watching a man on Arabic TV channel talking about the sophistication of the kidnapping networks in Iraq and how it works and his face was blurred out. The level of fear is still there and that saddens me because what has happened is the fear has been replaced by another fear far from dangerous because the enemy is hidden.

I guess the next 3 months are crucial, I am so curious to how they elections will play out because to be totally honest with you its difficult to envision a fair and honest election process due to the large amounts of influence certain people can have on the majority through cash incentives or brainwash. I studied the Lebanese Civil War during university and wrote a huge paper on the project. I don’t want to turn today’s entry into a book so I will save it for another day and show you just why I believe the two situations have so much more in common than people think . I am trying to keep these posts short, though it’s obvious that isn’t working out too well, because I am sure most of you have other things to day in your day such as hopefully promoting my blog ;) just teasing. HONEST feedback would be appreciated and if anyone has personal questions they would like to ask feel free to e-mail me. Thank you and hope you all have a great day.

The debut....

2004-10-05T15:53:00.001+01:00

I am trying this out for fun and to be honest depending on how many people read it then I will decide to continue, it beats talking to myself and gives me a forum to express my views which is probably more producitve than smoking another cigratte. I am student of political science & economics and my thoughts and views are not a product of hours watching Al Jazira or sitting at the local barber shop. Rather they are a result of countless hours of reading and watching news from the very left wing to the very right wing. Having said that, that does not mean they are any better than that of a person whose never read a day in his life, I have just been blessed with those opportunities. Today though I was reading through a disscusion forum about Iraq and the beheadings and it really upset me. I do not condone this sort of violence or activities and find it difficult to understand how other people can somehow justify these acts against the coalition or those collabarting with it. Those collabrating are the ones trying to make the country better, I wish one tenth of the people who spent so much time on the street complaing about the West in Iraq would try and clean the streets up, do positive things and be role models for the next generation to grow up and become proud of their background.

I was reading a post about how kiddnappings and beheadings are new to Iraqis but I think thats not true and my reply was as follows :

'Beheadings, kiddnapings, torture, intimadtion of the public. These are not new to Iraqis, the majority of them remeber the people who took part in these crimes against us in the name of Ba3thism. The difference being they were ruling us and nobody saw anything. The mass media does not even play out all the videos of suffering under Saddam's time. We have to visit obseure web sites or rely on friend's emails to be able to see. Nowadays all these crimes are out in the open and u are right about Iraqis inside Iraq supporting it but this is because of a many factors. The way to stop it is to isolate them and that can be done not by Iraqi politicians but by influencing local influential leaders in all areas that this is not in Iraq's best intersts. I hate it that when some passport officer looks at my passport he is going to see baghdad, iraq as birthplace and associate me with these criminals. They are IRAQI criminals, we need to open up and realise that not every Iraqi is a good person, that Iraq is not the great country it used to be. We are more behind than countries tha Nigeria, and we need all the help we can get, instead of scaring them away. These butchers are scaring away workers, so are they going to put their swords down and become engineers and contractors? I think its about time we stopped picture framing what the real problem in Iraq is. The bright hope is that I am certain from reports that the people of Fallujah, Ramadi, Sammarra are sick of these trouble makers. The majority want them out and are happpily providing intelligence on them which is a good sign, but then again all of us would shut up and do as we are told with swords and guns to our heads.'

I realise my assesment at the time maybe a little harsh but my blood was boiling and most Iraqis stop being rational and get too atttached to the situation. It is very difficult to be an Iraqi, and most non-Iraqis think are problems starter in March of 2003, but ever since I have opened my eyes all I see around me are family and friends worried about loved ones, and we were hoping the end of the tyrant and his comrades would help end this but instead we see more of the same except more extreme and more frightening. Saddam may be in a cell reading old history books or maybe gardening as I read in a report earlier, but unfortunately his mentality of killing, kidnapping, torture and more still live on in the minds and souls of a many Iraqis who have nothing to lose and everything to gain by the escalating problems of Iraq.