Days that I cannot forget.

It's a habit for me to write down whatever seems important to remember, and there was nothing more important than the days before the war and those we lived through the war. I decided at that time and starting from the 14th of march to write what I thought was important to remember; my expectations, our feelings and the way we and other Iraqis reacted to what seems the most important event in the history of modern Iraq. I hope it may give the others an idea about Iraqis' life at those difficult and extremely important days.

:: Today, Friday March the 14th. 2003.
:: The dollar exchange price is 2550.
We’re still getting prepared for what the future days will bring with it. Just like every other Iraqi house, we had our emergency plan too. I went with my father downtown to buy a cage from the kind that is used to keep birds or hens but of course we had a different idea for that cage. Simply we’ll use it to hide the satellite receiver dish that we recently bought no matter the risk is to keep in touch with the news not wanting to miss anything. The cage sufficiently served our purpose together with a sheet of dark nylon; the dish was successfully hidden.
Now with the satellite receiver and the two radios (that worked almost 24 hours a day) and two clocks one set on New York’s time and the other to London’s time, my father and I felt like we were in a war operations room; the map of Iraq on the table and analysis was endless.

The streets are very tense, sand barricade are everywhere in Baghdad but still with no soldiers or Ba’athists in them because the emergency plan is not active yet.
Today, the American navy decided to load the aircrafts with bombs to make them ready on order.

-25 weapons inspectors suddenly leave Iraq.
-The B-2’s are heading to the Gulf from Missouri.
-We have only a few days left.
-Ali is still in Basra and I don’t know if he can reach Baghdad before the operations start.
-Iraq decides to destroy 3 Al-Somood missiles with 9 other missile heads.
-Chili makes a suggestion to give Iraq 3 more weeks and the US refuses.

Will the world’s attempts to postpone the operations succeed? I don’t know, but I see determination and I don’t think there are surprises on the way. Postponing the operation again? This is killing me. Waiting will break my nerves down. The whole matter should be carried out fast.

The worse I hate are those human shields. I hate them for their stupidity, what peace they seek? Don’t they think for one moment about what’s happening here? We’re already dead. Whom are they defending? I don’t know.
Today, some of the Spaniard human shields pulled out from Iraq after an argument with the Iraqi government. I think they refused to become a propaganda project for the regime.

-By Mohamed.