The final count down.

-The day, Wednesday the 18th. of March 2003.
-The dollar exchange price is 3000.
-It’s really a very long day to me. I’m not waiting for something ordinary to happen, a huge event is a head of us in the coming hours and no one can tell in which direction things will go; who’s going to stay alive and who’s going to leave us for ever. Today I fare welled the last one of my friends who decided to leave Baghdad to another governorate, which is supposed to be a safer place for him and his family than Baghdad. I’ve been through this scene many times in the last few days but this time it gave me a different feeling; for the first time I realized how dangerous the situation is. This power-maniac tyrant may use chemical weapons or maybe he’ll poison the water supplies or blow up the dams as revenge upon everyone if he felt he’s in danger. This is the first time I feel afraid, my friend noticed that and he tried to calm me down with the tears in his eyes “don’t worry my friend, I’m sure we’ll meet again” I hugged him and I was crying too.
-Omar and I toady started to reinforce the glass windows with adhesive tape; a procedure we got used to during the previous wars. I was injured once with glass fragments as the entire house windows broke when our street got struck with an Iranian earth-to-earth missile in 1987. So we decided to do the job in a perfect way this time.
-Today, many of my friends (who decided to remain in Baghdad) came to visit me. We were convinced that we should stay and we should never miss such a historical event but we were anxious at the same time “was it the right decision to make?” it’s too late to retreat now and we have to get prepared.
-I don’t think that the operations will start immediately after the 48 hours are over. I expected the operations to start 2 days later but anyway the hours succeeding the 48 hours will be something different.
-Our operations room and our analysis went to a peak activity; reports are endless and we don’t want to miss anything.
-The Iraqi national council refuses forcefully the given 48 hours limit and Udday asks GWB to leave the white house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When shall God rid us from those crazy, brain-lacking freaks? Why is the world standing against the war? Don’t they know what’s happening here? I wish I’d survive to see an end to this tyranny.
-President Bush meets the senior American officials (Tommy Franks attends the meeting and I guess he received the war decision with the zero-hour) and communicates through the phone with the big leaders of the world.
-The security council holds an emergency meeting called for by Russia at the level of ministers of foreign affairs and Colin Powel sees no necessity for holding it and refuses to attend the meeting (well done Colin, those pigs should feel ashamed for standing by Saddam. I’d love to see a greater insult to this council and the UN).
-Hans Blix feels sorry for not giving the UNMOVIC enough time.(I feel really sorry for you Hans, you’re pathetic, you want to remain wise while Iraqis are playing games with you until you became a joke).
-I had my usual tour today and I felt very excited (how many times can someone see such events in his life time, events that history will always remember). Most of the shops are closed and the Ba’ath patrols are wandering in the nearly empty streets of Baghdad. Schools have become head quarters for the Ba’athists and the emergency brigades.
-I went to my barber and I told him to give me a war hair cut. He asked “and how do you want this?” I replied “the shortest cut you can do, I don’t know when I can come to you again” he laughed and started to work hard on my hair, the guy too wasn’t sure if he would be able to go out to work in the coming days. After that I went with my friend, who asked me to accompany him, he wanted to settle a debt to a shopkeeper from whom he took a loan. He said I’d better pay back my debts rather than dying and taking the money with me.
-I returned home late to find intensive guarding in our street; unfamiliar forces, well equipped with special uniforms. They stopped us “where are you heading?” I answered “to my house” and I pointed to my house which is 30 meters from their checkpoint they said “OK, put don’t go out again tonight” there was a large number of those guards, some of them taking positions near the fences of the houses. There was a military facility in our street which turned to a headquarters for the operations of the republican guards two days ago. It seems that there is a VIP guest tonight. I stood in the garden watching and very worried “that’s just what we needed tonight. A vital possible target near our house” after few moments I saw a number of fancy cars with no registration plates and the drivers wearing (yeshmagh) on their heads. Those are the special guards of Qussay. It seems that Qussay will spend the night here or at least he’ll hold a meeting here.
-OK, I won’t sleep tonight with such danger so close to me.
-We gathered in front of the TV to see that most of the news channels are displaying a count down clock as if we were waiting for the New Year.
Well, it’s 4:00 am exactly, time is over, now we’re expecting missiles to start falling on Baghdad at any second.
-My life will no longer be the same as it used to be. I asked my father “should something happen now?” he said, “I don’t think so, the white house told the press to go home”. Omar had a different opinion, he said “I think that the missiles or the aircrafts are on their way now but they’ll need an hour or so to reach Baghdad”.
-Well, what shall I do now? I can’t sleep I’m sure of that but I’m so tired so I’ll try to sleep. I left Ali awake; Omar and my father decide to take a nap near the TV. It seems that we’ll have to wait for another day.

-By Mohammed.