The body count of American soldiers killed in Iraq reached 4,000 this week. A tiny fraction of the military dead in this senseless and illegal war came from my hometown.
I feel nothing but shame when I think of the innocent Iraqis who have died because the government opened a Pandora's Box that brought misery and suffering on the Iraqis more than anything Saddam Hussein did in close to 30 years of running the country. The tragic story of the callous betrayal of the Iraqis can read here.
No one but God may ever know how many Iraqis have died in 5 years. Iraq was first a nation that was sent reeling by sanctions. Now Iraq is a nation that has been murdered. Women have lost their rights. The Sunni minority is oppressed. The Christian community that had existed there for close to 2000 years is either in exile or murdered. Last year I read that less than 10 Jews now lived in Baghdad. They were being looked out for by a Catholic priest who constantly got death threats. Only one of them, a woman, dared to visit the city's synagogue that sits empty and unattended. Obscure sects like the Yazidis are in said to be in danger of extermination.
Five years after the government's promises to rebuild Iraq, the people still cannot get basic services in areas such as health care and safe drinking water.
Still some of the children smile. I am often amazed by this. I am always captivated by the innocence and hope of some children.
3 comments:
Sincerae,
you may want to watch this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqvC9Po9-8s
This is the man who joyously bought down the Saddam statue. Now he regrets it. Life is a lot worse under the Americans. Every day is worst than the previous day.
I am glad that some people can still smile living in Iraq.
Ardent,
I was reading in an Egyptian online newspaper in English last night that the entire pulling down of the statue was staged by US forces who happened to come across it.
I would not be a bit surprised if it was.
Ardent,
Thanks for the video. It doesn't surprise me one bit what this man says. I have marvelled at how some of my fellow citizens and the politicians and journalists here who avidly supported this war have said over and over, "It will be all worth it in the end. This will bring democracy." But would we Americans want to be occupied by a foreign army that we did not ask to come? Would we want to see our way of life decline so brutally? No, many of us would be out in streets with our guns fighting the occupiers. Others would just commit suicide. Others would just barricade themselves in their houses and lose their minds. Why wish on this people something we would not wish for ourselves?
With Iraq we forgot the Golden Rule on a criminal scale. It is "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
Hate to sound racist, but this is a fact. The ones who endorsed this kind of freedom for Iraq were majority white Americans and some evangelical Christians. It was very painful for me as a Christian pacificist to see so much callous beating of the war drums in the beginning. I didn't like it that too many Christians were getting too mixed up in politics and trying to influence the government.
The government's minions nightly were on the news saying "kill, kill." The country was so traumatized from 9/11 and there was such a need for blood that the population just gave in and let Bush have the reins. No questions asked. If you questioned this rush to get into a second armed conflict, you were called unpatriotic and unAmerican.
So now our lifestyle here is taking a slow downturn. The economy is taking a nose dive. Prices are high. People are losing that part of the American Dream that they cherished so much, their homes. Gas prices and food prices are higher than they have been in our history. The job market isn't what it was. The dollar is no longer the top currency. The realization has come too late that Bush lied and betrayed his country for a number reasons which may never be publicly verified.
I think those who TRULY believe in God here know there will be hell to pay for a lot of things including the destruction of a people and their nation. Punishment should come and rightly so. What goes around comes around. Plus the Bible says, we have to reap what we sow. Once we Americans lose what we valued so much, we will be humbled, and being humble is good. We weren't back in 2003 and most of the time before.
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