Another Step Forward

Despite the questioning put forth by so many people about my nation, about what we could do, we continue to move forward. Those of you who e-mailed me, those of you who have questioned this entire episode in history - the sands of time are proving you to be WRONG.

I am happy to say that the current elections are going on without any problems, it is strange that we have no violence during elections though, if anything - it shows me that our security forces are growing in strength and that is another signal that we are moving forward.

What else can I say - except to say to the naysayers that you must stop your nonsense, and realize that Iraq will be built in a democratic fashion - and that it will happen. Despite all the violence, carnage, and negativity, the Iraqi people continue on the path to freedom.

I cannot emphasize this enough, I don't think that non-Iraqis understand the bloodshed here, everyday for the last three years, there has been some type of violence, someones family being robbed of love, someone being crippled, and yet, and yet, Iraqis have seen through this cancer and remain comitted to the goal.

This election is encouraging for this reason, and because we are finally seeing progress in unification, the Sunni leaders are finally seeing that we must stand united with our Shia and Kurdish brothers, or else our country will never be strong. How fitting is it that in this month, the animal Saddam goes on trial, and that we build a new parliament.

I am obviously excited, and optimistic, I look forward to the continuing progress, and the day when Iraq is a completely sovereign nation and that foreign troops leave our nation, and we stand on our feet. Then, all this bloodshed that we have been put through will truly be worth it, then it will be clear to us, that it was all worth it.

God Bless Iraq

The Horrors of War and Terrorism

I have been away for a very long time, my great and deep apologies to all who read my blog, and to those who have e-mailed me. I have done a great dishonor by not keeping up with e-mails. In my culture, it is looked at very badly if one does not return the warmth that one is given by a stranger, friend, or any other human being. Please do forgive me.

In my time away, Iraq has seen daily bombings on the scale of what happened in London two weeks ago. I am very sad to see what happened in London, but for me, it is nothing new, those of us in Iraq have become used to tens of people dying on a daily basis, it is sickening, as I think we have become used to it, almost as if we are losing our humanity in the midst of so much death, pain and agony. The bombings in London are important though beacause they show that my religion is being molested by evil forces who use religion for their own agenda. The same fanatical mindset that causes so called "mujahideen", which means holy warriors, but which are in reality nothing of the sort, to blow up Iraqi children, this mindset has clearly spread to the rest of the world, even in the Unitd Kingdom.

I was distressed to learn that the bombers in the UK were born there, but I am no longer surprised. The tentacles of bin Laden and his brothers are very long, and the entire world must do what it takes to not only cut them off, but to destroy the center of the growth. It is like a tumor, one branch is cut off, yet others keep growing. Despite all the sucesses of the US in killing and catching terrorists, terrorism continues, and it has only gotten worse and worse here in Iraq. We never had public death on this scale in the days of Saddam. Strange that there can be some good comparison to his regime.

But don't think I am sympathizing with him, no, he should be killed tommorow. His trial is only going to foster more attacks on Iraqis, and one way to show his demons that Iraqis will not fall to them is to nip their inspiration at the root, and kill Saddam. Sure, attacks will go on, but we will have sent an important message to his sympathisers, and to those who think that terrorism can work. It cannot. People only get sick of violence, and they themselves react in order to bring peace to their community. Every man on earth is looking for a peaceful place to live, and this cancer is depriving us of it.

Either men do something, or we get used to it. I have hope that Iraqis will do something, and there are always good signs demonstrating this, but I also see the sickness of getting sick falling over my people, even over myself. None of you, my dear readers, have seen the horrors of what war and terrorism bring. I have seen it all. The first time was in the opening days of the American invasion when I saw victims of errant American bombs, they were no longer people, they were nothing more than clumps of human muscle, fat, and so on. Faces no longer existed, it is for this reason that such things are even more heart-breaking for the family.

Imagine your loved one dying, and you having to see them in their end, no longer looking like the beautiful human that they once were.

Do you know what a person looks like who has been subject to war? I hope not, it is disgusting. The worst image that is burnt into my memory is that of a young man, I believe he was a victim of a road-side bomb, and his head was there, but his face was no more. It looked like his head had vomited out his insides. God help the dead, and God help us cure the insanity that is gripping our nation and the world.

Long Absence

I am sorry to have not posted for two months now, it has been a very crazy time for me. I lost internet connection due to funds, I was arrested for a few weeks, and then Baghdad was attacked by insurgent attacks. I am however, by the grace of God, alive, I can say that and many others cannot. It is amazing to me when I think back and see that it has been almost a year since we got our own government formed. Yet there is a lot of work yet to be done. Tehre is still corruption here, there is still violence. These things are taking their toll on us, I find it hard sometimes to remain patient, my own experiences have made it difficult. I will elaborate later, right now, I just watn to post once again in my online world where I can forget about bad things, and focus on the good, and meet friends who care about my country and me and my brothers.

Although I have to be frank and say it has been a bad last few months, I hope that this summer will be good. The Iraqi army, yes the Iraqi army, not the Ameriacn army, has begun operations to clean up Baghdad. Let us hope that they spread from tehre across Iraq.

Responses to the 2 Year Anniversary

Thank you all for the messages you have sent me in response to my reflections on the two year anniversary. I did not realize that they would reach so many people, and I am honored to have touched some of you. While the vast majority of the responses I received were positive there were some negative ones. I must frankly say I have a hard time understanding these people who attack me. For what for expressing my opinion? The vast majority were from countries outside of the Arab world. I must say that one thing I am learning through the work I am doing on my blog is that there are some people even outside of Iraq and the Middle East who seem to content to want to live under dictators, in an environment where expression is crushed. I will share some letters below in italics and my response:

Dear Hussein:

What the hell is wrong with you, you don’t mind having your country blown up by others but you mind people not understanding you. This is a pure crock, and you sir are either mentally unstable or working for the United States.

Oliver Jordan

Because you dont say what you want to hear I am a liar? This is a great insult to me, this is something that gives me anger. You sit in your box and tell me what is happening in my nation?

Husayn, you are an idiot, I think you are really American. No, I know you are American, no Iraqi feels like you do you lying scumbag. How much is the CIA paying you to spread lies about the occupation of Iraq? I hope you get yours.

Nameless

This is a very common thing I hear from people, they say I work for the USA or the CIA! I do not work for either, although I am sure if I did my family would be better off. I am a simple Iraqi young man who is scratching a living for his family. I tell things how I see them, and I am giving you what I see in Iraq so that our message, our voice is not extinguished. Interesting how the nameless have the most bravery in slinging insults!

Sir I was linked to your blog by another website. What I found is quite interesting. Despite what everyone else in the world says, you are saying that things in Iraq are good. Ignorng the fact that everyday bombs are blown up, you are happy. Despite the fact that Americans are wasting money in Iraq, you thank them. May I ask you, are you blind or just stupid?

Richard Jones – UK

All these things happen in Iraq, but they are not things I focus on or Iraqis focus on. They ahve become part of our life, but we look to the future, and do not want to dwell on evil. That would be self-defeating, and that would be stupid, not what I type.

Mr. Husayn-

Your website would be more enjoyable if you gave us accurate news rather than just telling us about hope and other abstract things. Sure you have hope, but do your countrymen? Do those who died for imperialism have hope? How does it feel to get robbed for oil by the worlds strongest nation? Talk about these things, and then I might start reading your blog. BTW – I found it by accident

Charlene Spector
Boston

Hope is worth more than oil, money or anything else that dictates your life.

This is a sample of what I have received, it is in a way a rude awakening to me of the attitudes that some people in the West hold. Perhaps I was a big naive in the past, I thought these were fringe ideas, but I see that you in the West have people similar to the self-defeating terrorists who infest our nation. If the US or Europe were in a similar situation that Iraq is in, then these people would surely be the ones blowing up innocents so that your nation would be stopped from progress.

And on that note, let me remind my friends, and these enemies of mine that progress is being made, slowly, but surely in Iraq. Yesterday we learned that the terrorists have lost more men this month than in any other month. That is not progress? The more of them that die, the closer we come to absolute freedom. They are like roaches that must be stepped on, and the more that we step on the less there are to eat at us later, and the less there are to breed more!

Long Live a Free Iraq
Long Live Freedom
Long Live the Free World

2 Years

It has been now two years since the United States, UK and other countries invaded our nation. It has been two years since Iraqis have had to live with daily violent attacks and rampant terrorism. It has been two years since our nation began being turned upside down. It has been two years since the road to democracy began.

It has been a very hard two years. So many people have died, so much has been destroyed, so many drops of tears and blood have been shed, so many have been robbed of loved ones, and so many words have been spoken about Iraq, it's future, and this war.

Two years...seems like yesterday that I was awoken by bombs going off in Baghdad, and the realisation that my life and that of my country was going to change. That very day I remember being scared that my house might be destroyed by a bomb, or that my relatives who were forcibly put into the Iraqi army might be killed.

Two years since Saddam came on TV, and pledged that Iraq would never fall. Little did he know, he surrendered like a rat in a whole only months later. Two years since my father had a heart.

Two years is about 730 days. In those days what have I seen. My eyes have seen more than I had ever hoped, more blood, more death and more pain, then I ever imagined or hoped I would have seen.

In those days I have seen the worst of humanity, the animal that lives in all humanity, the ability of humanity to destroy at will others, and rob the life given to others by God almight himself.

So you ask me, Husayn, was it worth it. What have you gotten? What has Iraq acheived? These are questions I get a lot.

To may outsiders, like those who protested last year, who will protest today. This was a fools errand, it brought nothing but death and destruction. I am sheltered in Iraq, but I know how the world feels, how people have come to either love or hate Bush, as though heis the emobdiement of this war. As though this war is part of Bush, they forget the over twenty million Iraqis, they forget the Middle Easterners, they forget the average person on the street, the average man with the average dream.

Ask him if it was worth it. Ask him what is different. Ask him if he would go through it again, go ahead ask him, ask me, many of you have.

Now I answer you, I answer you on behalf of myself, and my countrymen. I dont care what your news tells you, what your television and newspapers say, this is how we feel. Despite all that has happened. Despite all the hurt, the pain, blood, sweat and tears. These two years have given us hope we never had.

Before March 20, 2003, we were in a dungeon. We did not see the light. Saddam Hussain was crushing Iraq's spirit slowly, we longed for his end, but knew we could not challenge him, or his diabolical seed who would no doubt follow him and continue his generation of hell on Earth.

Since then, we now have hope. Hope is not a tangible thing, but it is something, it is more than being blinded by darkness, by being stuck in a mental pit without any future.

Hope has been the greatest product of the last two years. No doubt, many have died, many have died by accident or due to crimes. But their sacrifices are not, and will not be for nothing. I refuse to let it be, and my countrymen stand with me.

Our cities are smoking, our graveyards full, and terrorists in our midst. But we are not defeated. We are not down, we are not regretful. We are not going to surrender. For all that the two years have brought, the greatest thign they have given us is a future, and a view of the finish line.

Iraqis see the finish line, the finish line of freedom and democracy and a functioning nation. We can smell it, taste it, and like a sprinter, one who has broken his legs, but who has a heart full of passion, we will crawl there no matter what the cost. No matter what we must endure, we have realized what we can become, and that is the biggest result of the last two years.

Noone can take that from us. Not the terrorists, not those who want to question the good of the removal of Saddam, not those who want to reduce our glory for politics, none.

We have been brought from darkness to light. And not only has the future been made better for Iraq, but the martyrs of our nation, their blood is watering the roots of democracy across the world. We are watching our neighbors come closer to the light, and this only pushes us more, and makes us stronger in our burning desire to reach the finish line, to realize the dream that our people have had for so long.

No, we will not give up, and we will not say that the last two years were a waste. They for all their trouble have been momentus. They for us, have been a turning point in history. Whether or not you agree, this is how it looks from Iraq.

The Spring of Democracy

There has been more bombings, yesterday in Mosul another bomb went off. A lot of sadness has been brought to that city in the last few days, showing that we still have bumps in our lives.

We are getting ever closer to forming a functioning government. Since January 30th, the government has been doing a lot of maneuvering behind the scenes setting up coaltions and future alliances and I suppose other secret dealings.

It is however now publicly known that a government will be elected on Wednesday when our parliament, the one that we elected in our "Purple Revolution", meets. This is surprising because it is earlier than expected. The Shia and Kurds who won a large part of seats, because of the Sunnis being scared, unwilling, etc. to vote have in the past month been going through negotiations and it seems they have come to agreements for the formation of a functioning government that will accelerate the process towards complete freedom.

Although I didnt vote for or support the Kurdish and Shia parties, I am very excited about this news. I am surprised it is not more well known in your news, I didnt see any mention of it last night when I was watching television with my friends. The talk on the street is that the formation of this body will help to crush the insurgency, because there will now be a strong, central and indigenous government in Iraq, rather than the jumbled state of affairs that has persisted.

So, I am just telling you all my dear friends, do not forget about us in Iraq. Things are continuing on the right path! The next week should bring interesting news. It also seems that we are quickly coming to having our first real President and Prime Minister. It is likely that Jalal Talabani will be the President, and the Prime Minister will be Ibrahim al-Jafari. They are a Kurd and Shia respectively. Where that will leave Sunnis, I do not know, but I hope that one of our leaders will step up to be an ally to both.

If our government can function with men of different backgrounds leading us, it will indeed usher in a new Iraq. It will definately be a very important dynamic that will have great impact and meaning for our future. IF they can work together, then I pray that Iraqis of all backgrounds will work together more, and throw aside animosities that have been present for so long, fostered largely by Saddam.

If things go well, not only in Iraq, but across the world, then InshAllah this Spring will bring in the birth of Democracy in more parts of the world. What great symbolism, and how beautiful!

Im not Retired

Thank everyone for their kind words, wishes, and help. It is appreciated by all. But i must clarify, I am not stopping the blog. I have come to realize just how much we Iraqi bloggers mean to the outside world because we provide voices for our countrymen and therefore we help our future, so my last message was not an indication that I am ending the blog, no, I just will have less time.

There is not a lot of new news out of Iraq, the most notable over the last day was that there was a large weapons dump found in Mosul. They are not sure what is in here yet, or the nature of the weapons. I dont think it will be anything really important, probably jsut some terrorists' hiding their weapons.

The focus of the world seems to have shifted from IRaq to Lebanon. Things are not peaceful here, and horrendous terrorist attacks continue, although thankfully we havn't had one as big as the one that killed my cousin. In Lebanon the issue of Syrian occupation has come to the forefront since the Prime Minister Harriri was killed. I have not heard conclusively who did it, people on satellite tv speculate that it was Syria, but in Iraq people are divided as usual, everyone is being blamed from the Syrians to Israel to the KGB to God knows who, but you must understand this is the way things normally are here.

Living in Saddam's society, and a part of the world that generally has bad and controlling governments, we have become acclimated to doubting what we hear and knowing that there is always more to what is happening than what is visible to us, especially when we get it through tv or other mediums.

But thats not the important topic. Lebanese are having different demonstrations for and against Syria. What is really going on? I dont know. Some speculate that yesterday's pro-Syria was a sham, others say the same about the anti-Syrian demostrations. Whatever is happening, I hope that the true will of the people will come to dominate.

But I think we must all remember things are complex there. My barber is from Lebanon and what he told me was this: Most Lebanese want Syrians out, with Syria in Lebanon there is always this ghost hanging over the country, I think this happens anytime that a country is occupied by a foreign army. So naturally, the Lebanese want the Syrians to leave, for example he told me, after Hafez Assad died, a man went around yelling "Assad is dead, and we are happy!" and he was promptly arrested.
On the other side of the coin, he said that the Lebanese were fearful of Israel. Israel had afterall invaded Lebanon, and was involved in the civil war due to it's alliance with Christian groups. So, in a strange way, the Syrian presence is a buffer to this, and some lebanese fear that the removal of Syria will give Israel a freer hand in Lebanon.

What is the real case though? I dont know, these are just some ideas that were shared with me by a Lebanese man, let us all pray that the will of the people is paramount in the future there. Lebanon is a beautiful place with beautiful people, especially women :-), so it is a shame for it to be in such a bad position.