A luxury that we cannot afford.

Following the development of the nuclear weapons, the world changed forever. At those times, few people understood the seriousness of this change and how was it going to affect the world’s future. One of the few people who had a very clear understanding for that drastic changes the bomb had imposed, was not a politician nor a military man, he was a scientist and in fact the greatest scientist ever.

Albert Einstein was not a dreamer scientist as the politicians of his times described him; on the contrary he had what was probably the best understanding for the world after the bomb. He saw the ensuing threats and predicted the results and even suggested a solution for them which although impractical at that time -and still so in our time- there seemed no better alternative for it to deal with this serious problem.

He saw that the world after the bomb is nothing like the world before the bomb ( a fact at that time was not as clear as it is now) and that the American administration at that time made 2 grave mistakes:
-They thought that they could keep the ‘secret’ of the bomb confidential and he saw that this was a very wrong assumption and he was right and they were wrong.
-They thought that the bomb was just another weapon, much more destructive and lethal, but still just another weapon, while he saw that the bomb was a real threat to the existence of humanity with no possible comparison to other weapon as that between the cannon and the sword for instance. Again he was right and they were wrong.

Einstein and some of his colleagues tried to explain that to the American administration at that time and proposed that efforts should be made to either get rid of these weapons or forming a really active single universal government that controls these weapons and prevent their spread. Politicians and thinkers laughed at the idea of that great man. Of course it’s not like they didn’t agree on the principle, but the growing communism left them with very limited options.

Today, after more than 5 decades from the time Einstein showed his vision*, his prophecy is clearer than ever. At least 7 countries other than the USA gained access to the (ring), and an unknown number are developing, seeking or trying to buy it. The necessity of controlling the spread of WMDs has become of major importance and this fact- when we put in mind the growing power of terrorism and the mad dictators governing a considerable number of countries- cannot be overemphasized.

Still this critical task, which was delayed due to the cold war and its complications, is far from being easy, and when the US made her 1st step on this road (a step that had other motives beside this) the world went crazy and demanded solid proves that Saddam had those weapons or was at least developing them. Neither I nor anyone can deny the people and governments of the world their right to question such an ‘illegal’ act by the government of the USA.

But the danger is still there and we can’t simply wait until Saddam, Gaddafi or any other mad man develop these weapons, use them or hand them to a terrorist organization. So, let’s assume a neutral stance and try to offer some solutions without criticizing any part.

Should we agree that there is a real danger of the (ring) reaching the wrong hand (and there are so many of those wrong hands and the ring is not that rare anymore), then we should try to see what can be done to prevent it. But before doing that and while we all agree that WMDs are dangerous wherever they are, we can say without exaggerating that some WMDs are relatively less dangerous and others are relatively more dangerous.

Some examples:
Despite the fact that the USA and Russia posses the largest number of nuclear weapon, it seems that there is no real danger of either of these countries using them. The same can be applied to the UK, France and Israel. The only country that I think at least most of us agree that had made us restless about her WMDs seems to be Pakistan, which in turn will affect the safety of the Indian WMDs and probably the Chinese and…who knows.

Another valid question is: who are the countries that we are afraid of their plans to develop WMDs and who can decide which country is more dangerous or is actually developing or trying to buy technology of WMDs?
We cannot convince all the countries possessing those weapons of getting rid of them, nor is the UN or the Security Council capable of monitoring and applying full and endless inspection process upon all other countries.

We can however, be more realistic in our plans and stop sorting actions as evil and good with nothing in between. We should search for the best possible and reliable method of making the world a safer place. How can that be done?

One modest attempt is to define our fears: are we afraid of the possibility of, say, Belgium or Switzerland seeking those weapons? I’ll allow myself to answer on behalf of who I think the majority and say: not really. Are we afraid of the possibility of, say Iran, or Syria, seeking those weapons? Again I’ll allow myself the right to say: yes.
Why is that? And what’s the difference between those 2 groups of countries?
The answer lies in 2 parts:
1/The will and effort made by each country to possess these weapons and the nature of the regime in charge, its aggressiveness and prudence.
2/ The inclination to use these weapons once possessed. This applies also to the countries possessing WMDs.
So, if we can’t destroy the (ring), at least we can make sure it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. But one may say-without being far from the truth-that no country can actually think of using those horrible weapons or handing them to a terrorist group, as it would equal suicide. And here where I agree totally: no country would think of such a mad action, but when we talk about Iraq at Saddam’s time or Afghanistan at Taliban’s times, are we really talking about countries? Or are we talking about a mad dictator and a small group of mullahs living in the middle ages? The same question applies to Libya, Syria and Iran; with the same answer I’m afraid.

There’s obviously no real need to monitor Japan or Netherlands’ nuclear reactors, because simply we are talking about countries here. Democratic countries that are interested in economic and technological progress, knowing that they will not use nuclear weapons once they develop them. So why spend billions of dollars on a weapon they are not going to use? It’s simply stupid and meaningless.


Once we define our fears, we can see the path that we should follow. We are afraid of totalitarian regimes. They and only they could seek nuclear weapons regardless of their countries real needs, and they (and only they) maybe stupid enough to use them or at least give them to a terrorist group.

The world took 13 years of negotiations AND political, economic and military pressure with S.H. with no much benefit, while it took less than 1 year in case of south Africa with very little pressure for a similar task to be accomplished. What should that tell us?

We will be fooling ourselves and risking everything by relying on weak organizations such as the UN to negotiate with people who understand no language and listen to no sound but the sound of guns.

Something I’ve learned from chess (from Kasparov’s writings) is that making subsequently the safest move is the shortest way to lose. In order to win or at least achieve a draw, one has to make the best move. Politics, of course is not exactly a game, and politicians are not chess players, we can only wish they were! We all know how European and American politicians kept making the safest moves when they were faced with Hitler’s greed and threats prior to WW2.

Should we get prepared for more wars? Maybe, but not necessarily. If the right message is delivered to both dictators and their citizens, then I think we can avoid more wars. The 1st part of the message was delivered and was effective (take the change in Gaddafi’s attitude following the capture of S.H for e.g.). The 2nd part still needs to be delivered clearly. Once that accomplished, the dictators will find themselves crushed between the pressure from the international community and that of their own citizens, and the change will occur almost automatically or at least it will be much easier and less costly. Then the UN and the Security Council can negotiate with the legitimate governments of these nations and war will be discarded as an option.

I think it’s far from reasonable to make the fate of the whole world rely on the judgment of a single person whoever he is, not to mention men like Arab and Muslim dictators. They may not have WMDs at the moment, but everything tell us that at least most of them dream of this and logic tells us that if they are determined, then it’s only a matter of time before they get it. They have the decision in their hands and the resources of their countries almost fully at their disposal and tyrants always in need for more power and more control. When it comes to dictators and WMDs, we should not stop too long seeking evidence. The slightest doubt should force us to act actively and then it would be the responsibility of the dictator in question to provide solid evidence that he had quit his intentions and that he will no longer present a threat to the world peace. In case of Saddam for e.g. we had more than slight doubts and he failed to provide the required evidences.

It’s amazing how westerns and even some Americans still screaming, even after 9/11 “this is a safe world and this is a safe country, so stop trying to frighten us in order to justify your malicious plans!” It’s good to feel safe, but one has to take safety measures first and these are usually risky, but not as risky as sitting idly waiting for the insane to become prudent and the evil to become good. This is a sad and distressing fact that many people refuse to admit, but the world is not safe, not since that bomb was made, and only after the toppling of the last dictator on earth that we can afford the luxury of feeling safe regarding WMDs, although a lot has to be done afterwards but war will most likely become out of the question. We may not be able to achieve Einstein's dream, but we can at least have a unified attitude when it comes to WMDs and dictators pursuing them.

*From an interview with the famous Egyptian writer Mohamed Hasanen Haikal back in the 50s, which he included in his book ”a new visit to history”
-By Ali.

Calling for the dead.

-
- There’ve been always debates here in Iraq and of course on the Arab media about the Iraqi army and during the conversations they always blamed the USA for disjoining that army after the fall of Saddam’s regime.
Such debates came back to the surface after the last terrorist attacks on Baghdad and Kerbala. The Arabs together with some Iraqis suggest that “the USA should’ve not dismiss the Iraqi military because if she kept the structure of the Iraqi army it would be a major factor for securing Iraqi borders and cities from foreigner intruders”. And they went on with their analysis saying that "Americans want Iraq to remain in chaos to justify keeping their troops there as long as possible and that's why they replaced the old strong army with small, weak troops"!
I say, those people clearly forgotten what that “army” was. So I’ll try to refresh their memory a little about this issue.
The Iraqi army after the gulf war was made up from the following types of personnel:
:: Soldiers: obligatory conscription applied to all Iraqis at the age of 18 for 3 years (for those who don’t go to college) and for 18 months for college graduates (immediately after they finish their study whatever their specialization was). Those were given salaries of about 15 $/month which was not enough to cover the transport cost from their homes to their units. And they also suffered from humiliation and inhuman punishments from their officers.
:: Staff officers: those were originally volunteers, but got imprisoned in the military service. After they joined the army in the 70’s and early 80’s they were forced to serve for at least 25 years before they can apply for a resignation. That’s why the majority of staff officers are over the age of 45. There were many cases in which some of those (who had enough money) paid thousands of dollars (a fortune in Iraq) to bribe their bosses to set them free.
:: Officers: the past regime worked hard to make an Iraqi officer one of the following:
- Murderers: who were responsible for the killing of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians, and sometimes for driving their own colleagues to the death penalty.
- Thieves: those who made benefit of their positions as units’ commanders were making their living out of the “gifts” given to them from the younger officers and soldiers under their command.
- Helpless: those were the type that Saddam didn’t have to fear. They were trying their best to stay away from troubles; obeying as much orders as they can, hurting as less people as they can. They kept serving in the army just because they wanted to stay alive. They were simply trapped and those were also getting humble salaries, so they had to find an additional job to keep their families alive, just like other civilian officials, they became grocers or cab drivers, along with their original jobs.
So, who do you think would agree to stay in the same army?
The poor slaves and the silent lambs couldn’t believe that they were free to go and start a new life, and believe me no one would agree to join the (old army) again after what they’ve suffered.
However, when the CPA declared that a new army would be formed with new rules and new values, many of them chose to volunteer and serve their country.
As for the thieves and the murderers the case is different, their interests were damaged. They always considered the Iraqi people and the US to be their most hated enemies, so why would they come back to help the Americans help the Iraqis?
Again I say, at the end of the war, there was practically no army to keep and the decay actually started years before that.
It makes absolutely no sense to keep that expensive, corrupted, damaged structure. Does Iraq need an army of 600,000 soldiers?
What shall we do with all that number? We have no intentions to invade our neighboring countries as Saddam used to do. All we need right now is to secure our national borders and keep our streets safe, so we need efficient border guards, strong police, a new intelligence system established on new basis (not the bloody Mukhabarat) in addition to a small but modern and efficient army.
I don’t know why I’m bothering you and myself reasoning silly perspectives presented by people who are either narrow minded or just trying to seize a shadow of an opportunity to claim that what’s been done in Iraq is wrong. We're not solving the problem when we put the blame on our allies (that's what our enemies want). Instead we should work together to locate the real defect and try to fix it.

Spitting in the face of the wind.

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- What happened today in Baghdad and kerbela were not just the bloodiest terrorist attacks that took place in Iraq after the war, they were events that set a clear definition to the meaning of the violence in Iraq.
There was a debate since that time of how to define those violent attacks against Iraqi civilians, IP and coalition forces. To us, it was more than clear that these were terrorist attacks made mainly by the remnants of Saddam’s regimes and terrorists from outside Iraq supported by some neighboring countries and Islamic radical groups with political and moral support from all anti American media and countries.

Others, mostly paid off or idiots, looked at these attacks as legitimate resistance by Iraqi people against "occupation". That was when the attacks were mostly on the coalition forces, but when it switched to aim mainly at the IP members and the infra structure, those supporters of "resistance" claimed that the "resistance" is doing damage to the American interests and not to the Iraqi infra structure and that the IP were traitors that are helping the occupiers! And some tried to divide those actions into 2 parts: one (aimed at coalition) they insisted on calling resistance and the second (on the IP and infra structure) as conspiracy planned by the occupation forces to justify prolonging their occupation! Others had the nerve to call every attack in Iraq that wasn’t aimed directly at Iraqi civilians as resistance, and that this justifies the "accidental death" of say 10 Iraqis when a bomb fails to reach its final target and explode outside the concrete barriers of an American facility to kill only Iraqi civilians!

What happened today leaves no doubt about the nature of these attacks. They are terrorist crimes meant to stop or at least hinder the democratic changes and progress in Iraq, taking different ways each time selecting the most vulnerable and most (rewarding) target.
The recent attacks along with the previous, were aiming directly and clearly at Iraqi civilians. The purpose is more than clear once we look at the places and the people who were attacked. As most of these attacks took place in She’at and Kurdish areas and at such a critical time as happened today, where the She’at were gathered to memorialize a sacred religious occasion, it leaves no doubt that the final objectives of these attacks were starting a civil war between She’at and Sunni or between Arab, Kurds and Turkmen.
There would still be some stupid people who would say” but there were attacks on coalition forces these days. So there are still 2 types of violence: resistance (killing coalition forces) and terrorism (killing Iraqis)".
I want to say that this is one of the most stupid things I’ve ever heard (for those who really mean it), as how can you call attacking innocent people as terrorism and at the same time justify the killing of the soldiers and police forces who are trying to protect those innocents, and what is worse is that some of the people who make such discrimination are the same who blame the Americans for failure in protecting Iraqi civilians!
They are saying that when someone kills an American or any other coalition soldier, who is trying to protect Iraqis and keeping order and security in Iraq, that he is resisting occupation, and when say, someone kills a soldier who is supposed to protect a group of Iraqis or injures him and thus it becomes easier for "another one" to carry a terrorist attack on those unprotected civilians, they call it terrorist attack and blame the soldier for not doing his duty!
These attacks however will not achieve their objectives, as we all saw that despite several attacks on mosques, wholly symbols and different ethnic or religious groups on hot areas that are the focus of a political struggle such as Kirkuk, there was never any feedback that makes us believe in the possibility of a civil war. And here where people we generally don’t like or at least disagree with, such as Sistani and the leaders of the SCIRI, play a vital role in calming people, containing and minimizing the political echo of such terrorist attacks, by insisting on blaming terrorists from outside Iraq and asking people to show self discipline, and we all know the effect of words from men like Sistani on the common Iraqis.
It maybe early to predict the reaction to those horrible attacks, but I’ll (risk) and say that I’m firmly on the belief that the terrorists will not succeed in achieving their malicious intentions.
The severity and brutality of these attacks, if should tell us something, then it’s that we (Iraqis and coalition) are on the right path and that our efforts to build a new Iraq are progressing in a very satisfactory way, otherwise our enemies -Arab dictators and terrorist Islamic groups with the remnants of the old regime- wouldn’t have acted so madly and wouldn’t invest all their evil forces in what I still consider a futile attempt to stop the great progress being done in Iraq trying to build a stable, democratic and prosperous country and the greater effect of achieving this objective on the ME in particular and the rest of the Arab, Muslim world and the world in general.

Some people still wonder what would be the relation between liberation of Iraq and war on terrorism. I think that the fact that nearly all the terrorists are gathered on our land to fight so fiercely should be more than enough an explanation. It may seem that the dictators and fanatics from outside are winning by inflicting such horrible losses in our lines and that the battlefield is Iraq, where in fact (my opinion) we are doing them a much more damage by building Iraq and that the battlefield is much more larger than Iraq. We are fighting them on their lands by showing their citizens what they can achieve once they are free. It’s still far from being an appealing vision, but soon it will be. These dictators, instead of trying to change so that they can find a place in the new world or at least take a safe shelter (Aristed) and not end being dragged from a sewage hole, are actually stupid enough to try to resist it. They are (spitting in the face of the wind).

Some people may have been dispirited by today’s tragedy. I for myself am sad but -as I see these evil powers show their true ugly face and play their last card -surer than ever that we are winning and that it’s just a matter of time before the people of the neighboring countries start to look admirably at what seems to be at the present time a very unstable chaotic and poor country.

By Ali.

Our dream...Their nightmare.

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Several days ago, the UN declared her report about development in the Middle East. This report raised a lot of clamor in the Arab world, and as usual, the so called (Arabic thinkers) stuck to their condemning attitude and criticized the report with the same old tone claiming that the report is trying to support America’s perspective and strengthen the grip of America over this rich and critical region.
Criticism focused on the withdrawal of 12 million $ by the US from the organization because the report contained phrases supporting the idea that says that (occupation retards the development process).
And I’d like here to concentrate on this point because our thinkers chose to do so and raised their voices in the media about it. I mean what occupation that the region is suffering from?
They claim that the Israeli occupation to some Arab lands and the American occupation of Iraq are retarding the ambitious plans of other Arabs to develop their countries and make them prosper.
Well, let’s imagine the opposite and let’s adopt their point of view. Will the full control and sovereignty of the national Palestinian authority on all the Palestinian land provide any economic development and progress? (If the answer is YES, then why do many Palestinians look for jobs inside Israel?).
Would Saddam and his regime in Iraq if he had the chance to remain in power support the (creative and ambitious Arabic development plans)?
We only criticize without offering solutions. I too have much criticism regarding this report, but what can I offer to diagnose the current crisis in the Arab world?
Where are the alternatives that the Arab media and regime would like to substitute what they call “imported ideologies”?
OK, they’re imported like all the other products of civilization we’re using in our daily life and all the scientific materials we’re studying in our schools and colleges.
So what’s wrong with that? Didn’t we export our ideology to the world at the time when we were creative and leading in science and culture?
Didn’t the European thinkers, for e.g., adopt many of the ways of thinking of Ibn Rushd, which were useful in limiting the domination of the church?
Now what? Will you provide an alternative?
Certainly not, as in the last decades we haven’t produce anything but (historical leaders), who allowed no methods of thinking other than theirs and no mature visions other than the ones they saw.
Those who call themselves thinkers are sadly nothing but tools in the hands of those (great historical leaders).
Certainly we do not lack thinkers, but sadly those found no suitable place, as if they expressed their minds they would be charged immediately as agents for the CIA or traitors who should be strictly monitored and may be imprisoned if not eliminated (which is the most usual fate).
I think I know why the Arab regimes criticize this report; it specifies dictatorship as the major element that hinders progress and development in the region, because it limits the space for free thinking and creativity to a minimum. They blame (Israeli and American occupation) of Arab lands as being the main obstacle to development in the region and they use these excuses to cover for their growing fears from the oncoming democratic changes that will happen sooner or later. They’re not even ready to see any tiny positive aspects in that report. After all, I think it's silly to ask or care about what would the Arab dictators or their media say about such reports, because this will look like asking a thief whether he's guilty or not.

The large M.E is a dream that worth working hard for. It’s for the benefit of the whole world and I believe that Iraq will be a keystone in this great project.
Iraq is going to change sooner or later and no one can stop this process, we can only act to accelerate it or hinder it. It’s just a matter of time and those who care for the world’s peace can and should help in minimizing the time, costs, and sacrifices needed to achieve this dream.

By Mohammed.

More optimism.

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:: On many occasions, some readers describe us as (over optimistic bloggers) and others question the degree to which we represent our fellow citizens.
I won’t say that we represent all Iraqis, but we do so as much as we care for their interests and participate in building a better future for them.
And we are optimistic, that’s right, but we do not exaggerate things. Our optimism comes from our daily life observations and from logical prediction of events and their consequences. I’m not trying to pretend that we’re sharp minded bright thinkers; we’re normal Iraqis with some patience and some reason.
You remember all the hysteria that accompanied the 137 announcement with all the inflammatory comments and reactions. And you may remember what our reaction was.
Yesterday, the GC cancelled that announcement forever, 15 members voted with canceling 137, 5 with keeping 137 and 5 remained silent. This voting was in response to the suggestion made by Dr.Rajaa Khuzaee (a female member in the GC).
From this, one can conclude that 137 -from the beginning- was illegitimate, and more important it’s reassuring that Iraqis will never accept to return to the dark ages.

:: Ayatollah Al-Sistani made a declaration few days ago, in which he said that he’s not demanding a theocracy in Iraq, but he pointed to the necessity that the new government should respect the religious rights of Muslims as they represent the vast majority of the population; he also showed his satisfaction with the report of the UN envoy to Iraq about the elections issue.

:: Dr. Abbas (the minister of health) said that the GC formed a special committee to track back all suspicious contracts that were done under Saddam’s regime to locate all the violations in those contracts that drove the money to Saddam’s pocket or to some of his allies as bribes (and to return the stolen money to the Iraqi people). Dr. Abbas mentioned some contracts concerning sonar devices, dental chairs! and renal dialysis equipment.

:: Iraq received back his smuggled money from Lebanon. About 19.5 billion Iraqi dinars were smuggled to Lebanon last month, now that money is back to Iraq and investigations are performed to discover the smugglers.

:: The 4th. Battalion of the new Iraqi army (1024 soldiers) graduated today after finishing the basic training course.

:: Internet centers are providing their services in the colleges and universities one after the other. Today I visited my college and was surprised to see an internet center in the main yard in the college (I was there 3 weeks ago and nothing was indicating that this will happen). The prices are really encouraging (1/3 of the usual cost elsewhere), actually I envied the students and wished that I'm a student once again!.

*some of the news from Al-Sabah newspaper.

Dumb... and dumber!

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There’s a joke here in Iraq, it's about the government in an Arabic country that didn’t like the fact that their country is much behind from other countries, so the leadership asked the government members to give suggestions for a solution to this defect. So, one member introduced an idea that got acceptance from all the other members. This idea says that (when America invades another country, she will later leave this country in prosperity and great development, an example is Germany and Japan. So the idea is illustrated in declaring war against America to persuade her to come to invade the country and push it to advance and flourish. Just right here, one member shouted: “OBJECTION!, AND WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF WE WON THE WAR!?”

There exists in our region (M.E) people who are so so dumb, and what happened in Iraq upsets them, that’s why they decided to interfere forcefully in a direct or an indirect way to interrupt the evolution or at least to delay it as much as possible.
And dumber than that are those who think that they can achieve victory in this war against the USA and the Iraqi people who really want the change.
In the beginning they targeted the American troops hoping that causing large casualties will force these troops to leave Iraq as if the task is as simple as that.
Later, when those idiots got frustrated, they decided to target the Iraqis themselves, the Iraqis who are holding tight to the train of freedom and democracy. This time hoping that Iraqis will pull back and retreat to the dark hateful past, again…as simple as that!
In my opinion, they were a total failure in both fields. The coalition and the Iraqis have made up their mind to move forwards to a bright future with its shining lights blinding all dictatorships that surround us, and I’m sure of victory in the end.
I wish you were here with me in Iraq to see the real change in people’s thinking and more exciting is how fast this change is taking place. They’re talking now about the future, about building, about hope. The old, sick regime has become history, and we should quickly get rid of its residues to catch up with the advanced, free world.
It’s become clear to everyone what bad role these dictatorships are playing to delay and interrupt the change here. Having their countries infected with democracy is their worst nightmare, and they’ll never save an effort to delay that infection, just to delay it, and nothing more.
They know well that the (story) is not over yet, and there’s still a missing chapter until all people are freed from tyranny, oppression and blind fanaticism.
They do not want their oppressed people to see a bright model in Iraq. That’s what they fear.
This model must be disfigured, and let the media work hard to report every single tiny mistake in this experiment and forget about all the good results that were achieved.
The neighboring nations’ people should prefer to stay under the whip of their jailors and must not look forward to something like what Iraq is becoming.
That’s what those dictators are saying to their people “look, do you see what happened to Iraqis after their leadership was toppled? Do you wish the same for yourselves?…..so be satisfied with your existing leadership. We’re the best you can have”.
It’s just a matter of time until it becomes clear to everyone that what happened in Iraq was for the good of the whole world, not only for Iraqis. The case here is not a pink dream. It is a conviction that the right, the fair and the logical will win in the end.
I salute all the brave men and women who took upon themselves to bear all the risks and stand at the frontline to defend freedom.

By Mohammed.

A friend send me this:
Iraqi Sculptor who used to create hundreds of Saddam's
statues melts down parts of three of them and creates
a new statue in tribute to America's fallen soldiers.
You can find more about this in:http://www.snopes.com/photos/arts/kalat.asp


Thanks, Steve.

What elections?

The talk about the elections, their timing, necessity and possible alternatives are still hot topics in every discussion about the future of Iraq in the streets, despite the fact that the UN and by the words of its general secretary declared that elections cannot be held at the present time due to the enormous complications on the ground. And what is more strange about it is that it was (us) who asked for the opinion of the UN and I’m still unconvinced with it because we chose the worst part on earth to offer us a solution. It seems that we forgot that it was the same UN that gave Saddam’s regime its legitimacy for the last 4 decades and it was the same UN that stood strongly against the liberation of Iraq and here we are seeking its help again.

It's a sick joke that we ask the help of our worst enemy's ally, to act as a judge between our friends, who gave us our freedom and us. And when the UN gave us their wise opinion, those who call themselves the representatives of the Iraqi people, shook their heads showing dissatisfaction and demanded other alternatives. And I’ve never seen a political immaturity as like this.

It’s supposed that the leaders should struggle to achieve the demands of their people, while in Iraq it’s upside down, as it’s the leaders who demand from the people and urge them to support the demands of those leaders!

In the beginning, we were not interested as people with the process of elections in the meantime, but those leaders showed the process as the major issue and you can see them on TV screens yelling as loud as they can that they want to achieve the demands and hopes of the Iraqi people and by God, they’re their goals and their greed that they seek.

And if elections were to be held, who am I supposed to give my vote to? We don't have political parties with proper vision for the future. We have only representatives of Ethnic and religious groups, with the same old faces and without practicing democracy in their own parties, so what elections they are talking about?

These people are testing the patience of the those who believe in freedom and the battle between us and those people will be a long and even harder than that against Saddam's regieme, but it will be a peacful one and time will be the ally of the realistic political vision.

-By Mohammed.

Just the tip of an ice berg.

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Last month, I finished a training course about the structure, operation and maintenance of dental chairs and their auxiliaries…etc. This is not the big deal of course, but what attracted my attention was what our teacher (a dental equipment engineer) told us about the last contracts that were made in 1998 and 2000 (under the MOU) to import dental chairs to Iraq.
During my 2 years of practice in different medical centers, I heard a lot of gossip (from other dentists) about undercover bribes and theft related to those contracts.
What the engineer said confirmed my doubts about the theft and bribes in which Sadddam’s regime together with the producing and commissioner companies were involved.

Let me tell you the story:
In 1998 Iraq imported about 1500 dental units from china and about the same number of dental units from Germany in 2000. Both entered Iraq through an intermediate commissioner, which was some Russian firm.
The Chinese unit arrived Iraq at a price of 11,000 US $, while the German one arrived at the price of 25,000 US $. The shock was in knowing that the original prices of those two units were 3,000 US $ and 17,000 US $ respectively.
This means that for every unit, 8,000 US $ were added to the cost…why? And where did that money go?
Another fact is that those prices (the original) are for the full-option versions and not for the versions that reached Iraq, which lacked many parts and systems.
Also the engineer (who was in the team that was responsible for examining and receiving the units) said that the team was instructed to accept all units even if there was a manufacturer defect in any of them.
More worse, the Chinese unit was a total failure (I mean what do the Chinese know about dental equipment if compared with Austria or the US !?), and almost all of those units now are functioning with less than 50% efficiency, and many have even become a piece of room furniture! As the spare parts that were included in the contract were only enough to cover less than 50 units.
The German unit was really good looking and efficient, but very delicate and we suffered from the same problem of spare parts, but this time no spare parts at all.

I don’t want to go deep into boring technical details. What I want to put clear here is that through a very small contract concerning one item, for one branch, in one ministry, over 20 million dollars were stolen from the Iraqi people’s money. What about huge contracts? with hundreds of millions or billions of dollars? The money that was supposed to feed the starving Iraqis and provide them with medications was deflected to bribe firms and to buy political support of powerful countries.
Weeks ago, there was the scandal of oil bribes, but that was not the only way that Saddam used to give bribes. Every single contract done under the MOU was providing a chance for Saddam to give bribes, or even worse, he had agreements with many firms to split the income of over-charged contracts between him and the concerned firm. And It’s obvious where he spent that money; palaces, weaponry, intelligence work or whatever his sick mind desired to have.
There was always enough money to cover the needs of the Iraqi people. YES, EVEN UNDER THE SANCTIONS.
Saddam always managed to get money. But for whom?
My question is: where was the UN? Where were the human rights defenders? And where were the peace activists? And where were our (Arab brothers) with their (honest media) at that time?
We were getting killed and robbed every day and all they did was blaming the sanctions and the US. They never figured out the real cause of our misery. I think it’s time for them to admit that they were wrong.
We’re trying here to build a new Iraq with the help of our friends and allies, so either they help us and say something good, or let them shut the f*** up.

The 2nd. half spoke today.

-
This morning, there was a meeting and a public conference for Iraqi women in Al-Firdows Square.
The crowd was actually small, something around 150 ladies from different ages, jobs, political trends and ethnic groups, but all came for one reason (women rights in the new, free, democratic Iraq) Anyway, the reporters and journalists were almost more in number than the women who held the meeting.
The speeches made there focused on the demand that the Iraqi women must have their appropriate representation in the coming national council and in the local administrative councils in every city in Iraq, and that representation should be no less than 40% of the seats in each council, relying on the fact that women make up about 60% of the population in Iraq. This demand was also supported by Mrs.Ssongol (GC member) who also showed her complete refusal to the 137 announcement stating that suspending that announcement is not enough and that they will work hard in the council to cancel it with another official announcement. She also said that a suggestion was made to the Iraqi ministers that every minister should assign at least one female assistant. Yet, one of the groups who attended the meeting (women freedom in Iraq) insisted that women should have 60% of the seats and that they would not accept the 40%. This one also had tough criticizing attitude towards the GC, the Islamic fanatics, and the CPA.
Dr. Mahdy Al-Hafidh (the minister of planning) was also there today and made a speech in which he declared his total support to the Iraqi women demands.
Among the groups that attended this meeting, there were:
- The sports teaching college for girls.
- The economy and administration institute.
- Neenawa’s plains women association.
- Kurdistan libertarian women movement.
- The modern Iraqi woman movement.
- The independent Iraqi women aggregation.
That’s what I could record from the signs, but I think that there were others that I didn’t mention.
The groups who organized the meeting passed papers among the audience to have their signatures to support omitting the 137 announcement from the Iraqi law. AYS and I gladly gave our signatures.
At the beginning, I was disappointed by the small crowd, as it was smaller than I expected, but later I had my hope back…I mean this is the first time that Iraqi women go out to the streets to demand their rights with no fear and have the support for their demands from senior officials. Their voice is now clearly heard, and I believe that in a democratic, free Iraq, women (once they have such determination) will no longer be ignored or deprived from their social or political rights.

**By the way, here are some photos from there:
1,,,2,,, 3,,,4,,,5,,,6,,,7.

Expectations, disappointments and understanding.

-
Whenever someone criticizes the Iraqis for failing to do their duties and rise up to the requirements of the present and future challenges, my mind takes me back to the old, still unanswered, question which could be applied to any country at anytime:
What makes people evil, coward or lazy? This is a very complex question, to which religions, philosophy and science have different answers that are all far from being convincing.
Through all this controversy, I’ll not try to cross my brain’s limits and I’ll try only to present my point of view about why many Iraqis fail to see and stand up for their responsibilities.
This cannot be answered by looking at each incident alone, as –in my opinion- the response of people to sudden and hard changes is usually shaped as a result of a multifactorial process including instincts, the way they were raised and previous experiences with similar incidents.
This long introduction was necessary to show why Iraqis in many cases (like the last attack on the police station in Fallujah) failed to meet the expectations of the rest of the world, especially their friends and the people who paid so much to set them free.
During the years of Saddam’s regime and especially after 1980 the Iraqis lived in what was close to total isolation from the world; no satellite channels, no cell phones ( with the poor ground lines under intensive surveillance), no access to internet and extreme restrictions before allowing someone to travel across the borders.
This was all Saddam’s doings, which some people could again blame Iraqis for submitting to, an opinion I don’t agree with but one that cannot be easily refuted.
But let’s take a look at the world’s doings, especially after 1991.
After that and for a considerable period of time the whole world closed his doors to Iraqis, no Iraqi was welcomed outside his national borders, and after that only Jordan, Libya and Yemen allowed Iraqis to stay and work but with sever conditions also.
But sure millions of Iraqis were accepted as refugees all over the world, but is that something that you accept for yourself? When you have a job opportunity in a certain country would you accept to live as a refugee (legal, or even worse: illegal) to get this job?
Again millions of Iraqis accepted this as they had no other option, some of them with enough resources applied for immigration and after years managed to make it (they had to do this outside Iraq because it was a serious charge to go to another country’s embassy and ask for immigration or refugee) others less fortunate with their qualifications chose the dangerous costly short-cut which led –not in few times- to them sunk at the bottom of the ocean or handcuffed and forced back to Iraq and you can imagine how Saddam’s security dealt with those fugitives.
This is another reason for writing this post because this happens all over the 3rd. world as a result of poverty and oppression. Another important reason that makes me, as well as it should encourage the free world, to support freeing and democratizing the Arab and Muslim world.
The majority of Iraqis (chose) to stay. Motives??
It’s not easy to leave your home, at least in our culture, many were prohibited to travel outside Iraq; military officers and their wives, relatives of politically opposing personalities, doctors…etc. some (few) chose to stay and fight, others found it very difficult to accept the humiliation of being a refugee (kept in a camp and supervised on and examined for months) and others had combination of all the above. Humiliation here and humiliation there.
Iraqi people were punished for Saddam’s crimes (the borders of most of the world are still closed for Iraqis and yes, even our saviors’ borders with our American travel document!).
Iraqis were left alone to Saddam to do whatever he wants and practice his sadism and hatred (combined with cowardice) teaching without any opposing power.
Alone and isolated, Iraqis were supposed not only to survive and resist but also to emerge through this river of s*** after 35 years as clean and pure as babies and as brave and hopeful as men who were born, lived and taught to be free and brave.
I’m not defending Iraqis, we are, after all responsible in part in what happened, but I’m asking others to be more understanding and patient. This is a hard and important process in which Iraqis together with Americans and other coalition forces and freedom-loving people should stick together, accept each other flaws and understand rather than exchange blames and accusations.
One should add that the IP who showed that day at their police station, knew that they were risking their lives and yet they did show, and after that horrible attack where they faced an enemy who is much better supplied, trained and yes, determined, they showed the next morning and still do. I, on my part would call that bravery, and let's not forget that there are still some Iraqis who look at the IP as part of the (old guard) and there are others who look at them as traitors.
It is been said that" the worst enemy you may face is the one who his goal has turned into a complex inside him"
We are fighting all the evil powers in the world, which their ultimate goal is to destroy the western civilization represented by its leading power, the USA and destroying all their efforts to transmit the disease of freedom and democracy into the Arab and Muslim world via building a model for it in Iraq. These powers are supported by all the shortsighted enemies of the USA including some free and democratic countries! Their dream can be summarized in destroying their enemy or opponent, while ours is freeing the people of the world starting from Iraq. They cannot be more united than us.

-By Ali.

:: Al-Hurra TV has started broadcasting today at 6:00 pm Baghdad time. This channel is American in origin, but broadcasts in Arabic and has a major office in Iraq.
American information officials stated that this channel will be completely independent and the channel staff will not be subjected to any pressure from the government, so that they will be completely free to tell the truth and show what’s really happening to the Arab audience without exaggeration or manipulation and without being affected by political pressures.
The first program I watched on Al-Hurra was a conference among 2 of the channel officials (who are Arabic Americans) and some Arab journalists and editors representing other Arab and American media. The conference was about the credibility and the desired role of the channel. The channel officials stated that the main goal of the channel is to bridge the gap between the American people and the Arab people, to make both nations' people understand each other, eliminate the feelings of hatred that were planted by some governments and some Arab information sources, and also to tell the news and handle the events and issues (especially those related to Iraq and the Middle East) with high objectivity.
I liked the program and the way the host managed the conversation, and I hope that Iraqis will find time and will to watch this promising channel.


:: Still talking about media, another Iraqi satellite channel (Al-Deyar) will start broadcasting a test transmission next Sunday (on Nile sat and hot bird). This new channel will provide a variety of programs: social, cultural, political and news reports, and of course entertainment programs.


:: In the last week, I noticed that the new Iraqi army soldiers are patrolling (on foot) the streets in Baghdad and other governorates. The new thing is that those soldiers were -for the first time- not accompanied by coalition soldiers, which left a good impression among Iraqis that soon Iraq will have his efficient, free and independent new army. This, together with the growing count of the IP and the ICDC and their obvious hard work and active presence in the streets is strengthening the belief that the dark clouds of terrorism will soon fade away.


:: Electricity has improved considerably since last week. The outages have been reduced from 12 hours/day to less than 8 hours/day and this is in Baghdad only, while in other governorates the electricity is almost continuous with an average of 2 hours of outage/day.

-Abu Hayder*…Abu Musaab.

-
-Two hard working men.
It’s obvious for every one what enormous efforts both guys are doing regarding Iraq and Iraqis, and I’m sure that they stay awake late every night with their minds busy thinking about the Iraqi people. And they also wake up early in the morning to put a schedule for the day work. They should not have any delay, and always there’s an important question that never leaves their minds and that is “what should I offer the Iraqi people today?”
So let’s start with Abu Musaab:

:: He’s overwhelmed with joy nowadays; as the latest operations which he or other men from his type have performed recently have added to the development and prosperity of Iraq and enhanced the life standards of the Iraqi citizen and made him feel more safe and secure!.
Abu Musaab is sure that the Iraqi people are grateful for what he has done and even demanding more and more heroic actions. He blew up the UN and drove her out of Iraq with many other humanitarian organizations. Abu Musaab is positive that Iraqis need no one’s help.
He blew up the mosque in Najaf and killed hundreds of Sheia in the hope that this will start a civil war in Iraq, which will purify the Iraqi people from the infidels and bad guys and after that only the good men like himself will remain.
Oh. He should envy himself for his extreme wits and his brilliant plans for Iraq’s interest.
And don’t forget the explosions in the headquarters of Iraqi parties, as plurality is a great danger threatening the Iraqi people. It means different opinions, and this is corruption.
Iraq should be ruled by one opinion and one idea and those must be Abu Musaab’s and there’s absolutely no place for another opinion.
Ah.. There are some people who wish to cooperate with America to build a new Iraqi army and a new Iraqi police, and this is a terrible mistake as Iraq needs security forces with iron fist that has no place for the word mercy in it’s dictionary to spy on and eliminate any one who would dare to think in opposing Abu Musaab or his ideas.
While this new police that read the citizen his rights when arresting him for a certain charge is nothing but true evil that comes straight from Satan, because no one opposing Abu Musaab has any right.
What worries Abu Musaab these days and keeps him busy is his hope that the number of his victims would be at least worthy of the enormous efforts he bears on his shoulder on a daily basis “but it’s OK, I will cut down my sleeping hours for the sake of the Iraqi people who are certainly worthy of all this trouble”.
Now I will repeat the question to the others: who’s behind Abu Musaab?
Certainly he’s not alone, there’s the finance, logistic and intelligence support.
Who supports the plan of Abu Musaab and share with him those ideas in serving the Iraqi people?
I know those people. They’re Iraq’s neighbors and some of the media that we finally discovered where do they get the funds. They’re madly in love with the people of Iraq and they will not save any effort to help making this new free democratic model a real success! That’s all what they wish, that there will be a democratic nation in the neighborhood.

:: As for Abu Hayder:
I know he’s very busy too, there are many challenges ahead of him. He just disagrees with Abu Musaab in seeing things and in his perspectives.
Let’s take a look at his plan to rebuild Iraq: it involves
- Rebuilding Iraq. And reforming the fragile infrastructure -that we inherited from the past regime- is his major concern.
- Reforming the Iraqi economy, improving the salaries, improving the exchange rate of ID, lowering Iraq’s debts, improving and supporting private business.
- Handing authority to Iraqis, supporting political peaceful diversions allowing space for free elections at the right time, building new Iraqi police and army that are capable of securing Iraq.
But who stands behind Abu Hayder?
I know for instance that a large sector of Iraqis share his vision with some of the countries who believe in democracy and freedom along with the coalition.
After all that I find myself standing in the middle not sure whom should I support.
Both work so hard and make many sacrifices. One promises us what he believes to be a paradise in heaven, while the other promises a much less appealing and more realistic paradise on earth.
Both of them came from places far from Iraq, endangering their lives and sacrificing so many. Whom efforts should I appreciate and with whom should I cooperate?
I think that the Iraqi people and others will not need a long time to answer this question.

*Abu Hayder is a name used by Iraqis to refer to Mr. Bremer, for more details about this see the post on Jan. 21st.
- By Mohammed.

Closing a mine.

There are lots of arguments about how the last war had caused much civilian causality among Iraqis. I plan to talk about the responsibility of Saddam’s regime and the coalition in these causalities in the next post, as the latest terrorists’ attacks on Iraqis made me choose this subject to discuss in brief before going into that annoying issue which has became confusing to many people due to the effects of the way the major media dealt with it, always with lies and exaggerations.

Though I’ve said it before, it’s obvious that the terrorists are the most responsible part for directly murdering Iraqis.
and Their reasons are a little complex ones and can be divided mainly into the following:

- the hatred for the west, Jews, Christians in general and America in particular, so they follow those wherever they go.
-Most of the terrorists’ leaders are either mercenary-agency managers or extremist who rely on whoever interested in supplying them with money and in return, they're ready to perform any cervices their spoonsers demand.
-More important and subtle factor is destroying the Americans and Iraqis efforts to build a new model for democracy, peace and prosperity in Iraq. This seems to be a common goal for many parties, but each pursues this to achieve different objectives.

In this issue the terrorists' leaders have their own fears of such a project that makes them fight so fiercely. This can be summarized as following:
The terrorists’ leaders are in continuous need for frustrated, angry, desperate and ignorant people to teach them their hatred and convert them into blind obedient walking bombs that could be directed wherever and whenever they choose. Such (raw material) was/still provided by the oppressive Arab and Muslim regimes.
I was always on the opinion that hatred or faith cannot persuade a human being to kill himself and others, these can convince him to fight and kill others, but never through killing himself, as life in my opinion is precious for all, and the only way to convince men or women to kill others through giving up their own lives is through driving them to the edge of despair, making them believe that their life worth nothing, and only when they're desperate enough, that hatred for others or the faith in a better life after death can act as an enough motivation to commit such a horrible crime against themselves and others.

So, when Iraq becomes a country that provides hope and peace for her citizens instead of despair, and putting in mind what creating such a model will affect other Arabs and Muslims, one can conclude with no much difficulty that the unseen heaven promised by the terrorists’ leaders will find it so hard to maintain the same effect while competing with a solid reality that provides peace, honorable life and prosperity without even the need to give up the dream of a better life after death. Then those evil leaders will not only loose what was before a promising (mine) of continuously supplying this raw material, but will also loose many grounds on other mines they used to monopolize such as Saudi Arabia, Syria, Algeria…etc.

The last horrible attacks were very saddening and proved how afraid those evil leaders are from the ongoing changes in Iraq, never the less when I went down to the streets and despite almost everyone knew about these attacks at least hours ago, the traffic was busy as usual, the traffic police, the IP and the new Iraq army soldiers were all in their places doing their jobs as if nothing has happened, and the reason that I don't believe this is attributed to apathy is that when the same terrorists made a threatening announcement through Al-Jazeera about 2 months ago, asking the Iraqis to go on strike for 3 days and warning those who disobey that they will face horrible consequences, the next day the streets in Baghdad were nearly empty. This is not the case anymore, and it made me surer than ever that we are winning and they will lose because they can’t kill us all nor can they force us to quit our jobs and take a safe corner in our homes.

I’ve always told my friends soon after the war, when most of the attacks were aimed at the American soldiers and the infra structure- they were hardly trying to rebuild with no much help from Iraqis at those times- that I was pretty sure it will be the Americans who will win this struggle. This was not based only on the fact that their case is just, nor their superior technology and resources, but also to another factor that in my opinion plays no less role than the above: they were determined, brave and patient unlike their enemies. They were moving slowly sometimes, taking causalities most of the time, but never hide in their camps or stop patrolling in dangerous areas and very rarely responded irrationally to terrorists’ attacks. I was not the only one who looked impressed and astonished to see those soldiers patrol on foot on the most dangerous areas in Baghdad, where attacks on Americans seemed to be a daily routine, and moreover there was not the slightest sign of fear, anxiety or hostility on their faces, still saluting people smiling to children, as if they are walking in their own land. Now at least one of the major 3 powers, that were a constant threat to their lives, no longer poses such a significant threat and the final outcome bears no doubt in my mind.

I’ve always hoped and believed that Iraqis will adapt such a determination to live their lives as they choose and to believe in their dreams, cling into their hopes to the degree that makes it impossible for such attacks to even hinder their progress to build their country and choose to hope and never surrender to despair.
My believe is that this had happened and it didn’t happen today or last week. My message to those crazy evil creatures is: get out of our land, invaders, and leave us build our country with our friends. This mine is closed.

-BY ALI.

Where is that convoy?

To me and other Iraqis it wouldn’t matter much if all what was told about the WMDs were nothing but lies, although we all know that this isn’t the case, the war on Saddam’s regime (yes it’s not a war on Iraq) would still be the best decision even if unjustified in the minds of others.

But again this would be so selfish on our part to ask for the world to sacrifice, provide enormous resources and go into, what seems to be a very dangerous split in international relationship that may endanger peace in the whole world, just to save us, Iraqis, from a brutal tyrant who some people blame us to be too coward and lazy to do it ourselves.

So the question is why do I bother answering it? And does it matter what I say in this respect?
The most commonly heard question nowadays"Where are the WMDs?" is irrelevant when it comes to us in Iraq,but when this question is presented to the world it is relevant and we are after all part of this world, so why look at it from this narrow aspect only? And being an Iraqi may add something when I discuss this matter as just a human being, as I lived my whole life under Saddam’s regime and I had the opportunity to know a few things of how secret issues were dealt with at his time and I had many relatives and friends who came in direct and indirect contact with such type of information.

I will not discuss the whole issue as this is beyond my capabilities, but I’ll try to present some well known facts and use them in discussing 2 points: to whom this question should be directed!? And whether the war was the best option available?

Facts:
-Saddam was a dangerous man.
-He possessed WMDs and there was a reasonable doubt that he did posses some before the war or at least was trying to develop some.
-He used those on his enemies and on his people (a fact, and no need for real distinction here between those 2)
-When those were destroyed as happened several times, he simply started over again.
-During the period from 1991-2003 he made every possible effort to avoid the inspection, and he expelled the inspectors several times.
-When he used to agree for the return of the inspectors, it was only due to threatens from the USA and UK.
-Generally, the technology of producing WMDs or buying them is getting cheaper and easier every day, and the greed of human beings never end.

From the above simple facts, one can conclude without much difficulty the fact that Saddam was a dangerous and crazy man with enormous resources at his disposal and great lust for possessing WMDs. that is if we supposed that he didn’t had them already.A frightening and serious matter that needed to be dealt with firmly and urgently.

What options there were to deal with this serious problem? Obviously not many, and each carries a serious drawback and uncertainty. Let’s take an examining look at the most suggested by the (anti-war) camp and see which is the safest, less costly and more effective,and I'm speaking of contineous inspection process:

-This was tried for 12 years without achieving the desired result, and this is a fact that all agree on.
-This process costs a lot of money too (Iraqi people’s money and USA and UK also)
-It is true that this process made good progress sometimes, but only with the (American gun) pointed directly at (Saddam’s head).
-That power (the American’s) had to act many times to prove that it was serious which cost the lives of civilian Iraqis, as we all know that it was part of Saddam’s ways to protect himself and his precious weapons by using civilian properties as a cover.

So one can reach the result that the world, in order to avoid war, using inspections, needed the military power of the USA at (Saddam’s doorstep) for an unknown period of time, and still will not feel safe with all the cheating, and cooperation that was given to Saddam by other regimes and foreigner firms, and will also cause continuous loss of lives of civilians and American’s tax payers’ money that will surly be higher than what the war did cost putting in mind that there was no possible end (at least not in the short range) to this threat as long as Saddam was in power.

There still one thing that worth mentioning here; is that there is one factor that (favors) the previous alternative over war, that is there would’ve been much less losses among the Coalition soldiers. I agree totally with that and I believe that this should be the first concern of any government, but there remains the fact that this same concern is dealt with, not unusually, by military force, and soldiers are soldiers, they are brave men and women who are well trained and willing to defend the lives and interests of their fellow-citizens. There will always be the sad fact that soldiers, and especially American, for well known reasons, will die during this process, and we can accuse the government of not caring much for the lives of these brave people only when military action is unnecessary or can be safely and effectively be replaced by other alternatives, a case that, in my opinion, doesn’t apply in the extremely important situation we are still discussing. The lives and interests of Americans’ cannot be defended from the national borders, and that has been the case since WW1.

Now, allow me to give an example of my own experience of the old policy: there was a military facility near our district where one of my relatives used to work and despite the fact that I knew the nature of this facility through his (big mouth), it was nearly a common knowledge that this facility was used to develop long range missiles. Few days before the (desert fox) operations, and as it was clear that the allies were planning, and had set up their minds on carrying military strikes directed to Saddam’s regime and mainly to his military power, the old regime, as always, managed without much difficulty to transfer most of the important weapons and instruments that were located in that particular facility, as well as others as could be expected, to other unknown places. I saw with my own eyes at one of those nights a convoy of long green vehicles that was entirely covered, getting out of this facility and it didn’t need a CIA agent to know what was going on, but it sure needed much more than that to know where those vehicles were heading. What happened 2 days later was that 10 cruse missiles were fired at that (important target), and were very accurate as one the whole 9 empty warehouse inside that facility were totaly destroyed. I saw that (live). Oh and sorry for not explaining from the start why 10 missiles were fired instead of 9. The reason was that one of those 9 lost its way, somehow, and hit the ground about 500 meters away from the target. There was no civilian causality that time, but as similar attacks took place allover Iraq, one can imagine the benefits, the costs and the risks. What brought me so such dangerous zone? I didn’t do more than watching from the roof of my house which is located this far(about 400 meters) from the facility and needless to say that our house was there before that facility. I remember watching those missiles go down one after the other and despite the fear and worry, I couldn’t help counting: 1,2,3…10 there goes 10 million $ for nothing. This was one of the most useless applications of hard-earned money and superior military technology, the least to say. What still unknown to me, and to which my relative couldn’t give any help, is what happened to that convoy.

When I hear the question “where are the WMDs?” I cannot but agree and indeed where are they? With one difference is that my question is directed to the anti-war camp rather than to the American administration! Can you confirm to us the fate of that convoy among many others? Can you prove that all the WMDs that were present at Saddam’s times were destroyed? And if so, how, when and where? Or do you want us to take Saddam’s words for it? The only case that would make your questioning about the honesty of the coalition leaders valid, is if it had been proven by the inspectors (after the war) that Saddam had destroyed all his WMDs. Something no one had confirmed till now.

This is the same misunderstanding that was present before the war. Saddam thought/wanted the world to accept, that full cooperation demanded by the Security Council was opining all the doors, but this wasn’t what it meant. What was needed from him is to provide full evidence that he destroyed all his WMDs including providing full documented history and showing the inspectors the places, the remains if any and the way by which the WMDs were destroyed in addition to convincing the international community that he had stopped all the ongoing projects and that after the departure of the inspectors he would no longer consider re-building those and as he failed to do so- and it wasn’t at all expected from him to do it and taking in consideration his history with WMDs and his readiness to use them- the fact that the inspectors at that time found nothing worth mentioning regarding the WMDs, is far from being reassuring and on the contrary cannot but further increase the suspicions to near certainty. Something really effective and decisive was needed and it was done.
Thanks to the people who had the courage to take the decision of going into this inevitable war, our concerns and fears about the Saddam’s WMDs is now only comes from a technically legal point of view, and Kurds, Iranians, Kuwaiti, Saudi and Israeli people no longer fear those horrible weapons.

-By Ali.

Believe it or not.

Today a friend of my father visited us after being absent for a long time. I had heard that he was imprisoned at Saddam’s times when he was an officer in the Iraqi army, so I took advantage of the occasion to hear his story in full details and here is it as I heard it from him:
I‘ve had just been assigned in my new important position in the Iraqi army headquarters and that was in 1991 and I was very happy with my new job, fully dedicated to do it as best as I can, until that day when an officer from one of the Iraqi army divisions came to me with a presidential order to hand him confidential documents that concerned his unit defensive plans in Kuwait. He was authorized to receive those documents and after further checking, I handed the documents to him, and I looked at this as another routine procedure, he took the documents, signed on a paper that verifies this and went on his way to his unite with his escorts.

I didn’t expect the disaster that was coming to lie on my head. As that officer stopped with his driver and escorts on the long road, to have dinner, the idiot left the documents in a suitcase in the car. After finishing their meal, the officer and the men with him were shocked as they went out of the restaurant to see that their car was gone. Someone had stolen the car with its exceptionally important cargo.

Here I interrupted our friend, realizing the size of the terrible mistake, but again not understanding what has he got to do with it, as it was clear that he did exactly what he was told to do, and was not responsible in any way for the awful mistake. He said:

So you say, and so I thought but that wasn’t Saddam’s opinion. When he heard about it, he signed an order of executing all those who were related to that incident, including me, and I was just doing my duty. I don’t know if it was possible to escaped this fate, and where was I incautious, was it be possible that I shouldn’t give him the documents? They would’ve executed me as well. How could I know that the idiot will lose it? It wasn’t me who put confidence in him; it was them who chose him.

I asked for meeting with Saddam, and I sent some people who had strong relations with some of his relatives, who were the only people who could interfere in such sensitive issues without the fear that they may face the same destiny of the people they are defending, and hoped that they may convince him to look into my case in a reasonable way. When I finally managed to reach some of his relatives who explained to him how I didn’t have anything to do with what happened (not for free), the sentence was lowered to 15 years. And I accepted my fate. I have a family and this is better than execution.

After that I was transferred from my temporary prison to Abu-Garib prison, and from the moment I entered my cell, which I shared with many convicts, I couldn’t help but telling everyone that I was innocent and I shouldn’t be here.

The other prisoners gathered around me and asked me “what is your story, brother? You have given us a headache with your whining, so spit it out”

I told them my strange story, and here I was shocked. They all laughed at me, and when I said that this was not funny at all, they shook their heads and one of the said” sorry brother but if you knew why we are laughing you may excuse us. Do you really think you are the most unfortunate man on earth? Well at least there was a document that was lost. What would you say if you knew my case?”

So I asked him” why are you here?” and he said, “listen, I’m a senior Ba’ath party member and I was in charge of a large sector in Baghdad. One time I was sitting with some of my comrades, who I also considered my friends, and we were just chatting. I told them a silly dream I had the night before the meeting. I dreamt that I became the president of Iraq and that I appointed one of the comrades as a minister of the defense. The next night there was a heavy knocking at the door and the (midnight visitors) dragged me out of my house, and after a short investigation, I was sentenced to 15 years in prison and this, and he pointed at one of the prisoners, is the minister of defense who got 10 years in prison”
The man in question shook his head in conformation and said “ yes, I’m the minister of defense who appeared accidentally in another man’s dream. So do you still think you are innocent? No, my friend, you are guilty as charged, on Saddam’s justice scale. So shut up and live with it”.
I have to admit that after hearing (the minister of defense), I felt I was somehow overreacting and that I was lucky!

By Mohammed.

:: This morning, it was raining in Baghdad, and the rain was very heavy, after a while it started to rain those small grains of ice!! or the so called (HALOOB) in Iraq. this rarely happens in Bghdad, actually this is the first time in the last few years. Iraqis love (haloob) and consider it a sign of a gift from heaven.
the scene was wonderful, and I took this photo for our garden.

Is it 25 thieves instead of 1?!

Yesterday I watched a program on Al-Jazeera called (Al-ettijah Al-mo’akes or the opposite direction) and they interviewed an Iraqi journalist and an Egyptian one. The program was about the GC and SH and who is/was wasting or stealing more from Iraq’s wealth.
The host announced that the channel will be performing a poll through the duration of the program, and at the end of the hour he declared the results, which were:
** 78 % think that the GC members are stealing and/or wasting Iraq’s wealth more than SH used to do.
** 22 % think that the opposite is true.
Do you find this poll result credible?…Well, I don’t.
I’m not trying to defend the GC as it does not satisfy my ambitions, but I challenge Al-Jazeera and those 78 % to find the proof for their bad comparison.
I can’t understand why people deny solid facts and believe in illusions and skeptics.
SH and his sons left Iraq bankrupt after they stole almost every dollar in the banks, so what was there for the GC members to steal? Not forgetting that many of them were outside Iraq and came to Iraq months after the liberation.
Another fact is that the Iraqi budget is now declared after it was a mysterious issue for years, and the amounts of oil exported are now declared and these amounts give a clue about the income (although I don’t have documents that contain the exact numbers) which is really not a significant figure with respect to our needs, add to these facts the obstacles that the oil industry is facing now.
I want Al-Jazeera and the Arab to remember these solid facts:
- Salaries have considerably increased (sometimes 100 times).
- The exchange price for the ID against the $ has increased which indicates that the economy is in progress.
- Promotion of the purchase capability for governmental employees and its effect on the activity of private businesses.
- The reconstruction processes that are carried out even in very far spots in the rural areas.
I sympathize with the GC, for how can they handle such responsibilities and deal with enormous hardships with such a humble budget. The requirements of Iraq are huge, and I doubt that the GC members will find the time to steal funds!. The problem is that almost everybody here and in the Arab world think that Iraq is a rich nation just because we have oil, but the truth is that: we are poor, no, we are below the line of poverty even if we could export 5 million barrels/day.
One last thing to say is that the GC members are not in total accord with each other and I think that if one of them tried to steal or waste any of Iraq’s wealth, then the other members would be glad to volunteer to uncover this action and report the theft, and this is the advantage of plurality.

Five gallons of gasoline.

Oh my god what a fool I was. Yes, I realized this just lately, although I had my doubts but I was blinded by some facts and now thanks to some good friends of the Iraqi people, I’ve opened my eyes to see the naked truth.

For the 1st time I realize what a big lie I’ve been living in for the last 9 months and the worst thing is that it was me who made that lie and believed it so much that I accepted no other opinion. The whole world was telling me to wake up and get real, have some brains and try to find the truth. They offered me several evidences that leave no doubt that I was living a lie, but I was so stubborn and I apologize for it.
For 9 months I’ve thought that things were OK, that America did the right thing, we got rid of S.H. and his killing machine, that I’m happy, free and dreaming of a better future.

Thanks to all the true friends of the Iraqi people, I began to have some doubts and began asking myself real questions and day by day my doubts grew bigger and bigger then I tried to do what I was afraid of during these 9 months. I decided to re-evaluate everything I see and compare it with what it was before the war.

So, one morning I walked down the streets as usual heading to the hospital were I work, but this time my eyes were open and I was very attentive to all that surrounds me:

-The 1st thing that struck me was that all the pictures of Saddam were gone, now of course I’ve noticed that before but I didn’t think about it seriously, I mean NOBODY asked me whether I liked it or not, besides who did this? Was it the Iraqi people? Impossible, Iraqis loved Saddam (the whole media can’t lie) was it the Americans? I think if they had spent their time removing his pictures they would’ve been in Nassireah right now. So I came to the conclusion that there must be a conspiracy behind this, and don’t ask me what conspiracy and who conspired and why, it’s a conspiracy and that’s it.

-The second thing that annoyed me was that NO policeman or security guard or American soldier bothered to ask me where I was heading, where did I came from and didn’t even ask for an I.D. I checked my wallet and I found that I wasn’t carrying any, and in fact I haven’t carried an I.D. since the 9th of April, while prior to that I used to carry 2 or 3 I.D. cards (including the military service certificate) and still I would check my wallet every now and then to make sure that I haven’t forgot or lost any on the road. I mean seriously what is a man without an I.D.?

-Another distressing incident came as I went to buy a newspaper, I found dozens of strange Iraqi newspapers and magazines and more foreign ones ( the total number of Iraqi newspapers till now is 132) instead of the 10 that were all owned by the government before the war, and I said ”what a mess! Who am I supposed to believe now? How can I tell which one of these is telling the truth?” and only for my further disappointment I read a title of the new Iraqi army celebrating the graduation of 700 volunteers! Now what? Aren’t we going to fight anymore (I mean a real war)? What a waste, we had only the chance to go through 3 major wars in the last 23 years and there are still many enemies that we haven’t taught a lesson yet.

-Another depressing news was that there will be no more public executions, what am I talking about, there will be no executions at all, can you believe it? There are no more action or amusement!

-Finally I got to work and there I didn’t find a large difference although I missed those sensational moments when a child dies simply due to the lack of cheap medications and his mother’s cries and the reporters from all over the world who were always around would rush in to get a good shot and make a smashing report about the effects of the sanctions. Things are now very boring, we just treat people and a lot of them even get well!

-Then a friend of mine told me that it was payment day and when I got my salary, they gave me these strange banknotes with no pictures of any Iraqi president. I remember well, and I said it here before, that my salary was around 17$ a month before the war. This time they gave me 200 thousand Iraqi Dinars which if divided by the current exchange rate (which is now 1330 ID for each US$) will be about 150 $ and what was worse is that they confirmed a raise has been approved to make that 300$ starting from the next month with possible raises in the future. And I saw clearly what that meant, they are bribing us! yes, I’m not an idiot! they’re going to steal our oil, and they can say they’re giving the money back to us and that they even assigned billions of dollars to build Iraq and push many countries to cut down the Iraqi debts, but WE are still the ones who are going to lose, and don’t ask me how, because I’ll be damned if I knew the answer.

-On the other hand before the war, Saddam gave us nearly nothing at even better times than these. Still he didn’t steal the oil, he kept the funds safe in his pocket.
And what if he used some to enjoy himself and his family? It’s his right by birth, and what if he made some gifts to the good friends of the Iraqi people like George Gallaway,Bernarde Merime or Jackie... Oops, sorry, the last one is just a rumor.

-And more and more, the long lines at the gas stations, the high prices for kerosiune are all gone and back to normal, and the only things that were left to remind of the (good old days) were the ruins and garbage here and there. But they were also(sadly) being, although slowely, removed and rebuilt . But then I heard an explosion and gave a sigh of relief and thanked my Muslim brothers “ at last, a sound from the past”

What an ignorant I was to think that it was OK and again thank you CNN, BBC, Al-Jazeera, Mr. Dean, Mr. Cherac and our dear Arab and Muslim leaders for showing me the truth, and I’m not talking about the silly things I have mentioned. I’m talking about the most important fact:

You made me realize that freedom doesn’t worth waiting for hours to get 5 gallons of gasoline, and 10 hours of power shortage a day (even if it was temporarily). in fact you showed me that freedom means NOTHING to me. Thank you for showing me that I was born to be a slave and that I enjoyed getting down on my knees in front of my master whoever he was (and there was no one better than Saddam to bow to).
I loved kissing the ground he walks on, and I adored his way of insulting, raping, torturing and killing Iraqis everyday.

A friend has asked me never to use the 4 letter word (and it’s not my style to do so), sorry Scott but I can’t help not saying For all those who tried to show me how I should feel:
Even if I was wrong (and I'm sure I'M not)To hell with oil, to hell with power supply and F***YOU ALL. GWB MADE THE RIGHT DECISION AND AMERICA DID THE RIGHT THING AND WE ARE FREEEEEEEEEE!

-By Ali.

We all need to dream.

Oh when sorrow mixes with happiness, feelings get confused, muttering hollow words….it’s the Eid and there is pain. I have to congratulate some people and console others.
What can I say when laughter mixes with sounds of explosions to play a tune that I can’t understand?

I’m sad I have a dream*

People celebrate others curse.
Some people realize, most do not do so or choose not to.
I maybe wrong in my demands and others maybe right, but I don’t ask for much.
Don’t be unfair, don’t insult me and leave me in peace. After that choose whatever policy you wish, pray for any God you believe in, but don’t steel the joy from children, they will not understand it. Let’s stop for a moment for their sake, because I’ll never forget that scene of a child who was crying out of fear, not knowing why he should cry, why he should fear, why can’t he have fun and he is not allowed to play as other children do. Stop it please, and let us give up a little of our personal ambitions for the sake other people. I think that what God is asking from us; to love each other.

So, it seems that it’s my destiny not to live like the others.It was meant for me to share the bitterness of others and mourn for their grief. I weep for their anguish, some people do not understand this; how can I weep Iraqi victims and coalition soldiers in the same time? My tears are for all the victims of evil and injustice, and those who sacrificed their lives while fighting it back.

My life and that of who share with me these feelings were so hard and will even be harder, but I will not abandon my dream, that one day all people will be united with love.
I will not stop writing these silly words, this is all I have for now, and I will not despair, even if what I wish seems impossible.
But I will be there; by all means I will be there,
There at the bank of the river,
I will throw my sword and armor.
There on the bank of the river,
I will not think of war any more. *

I need you brothers and sisters, believe me, when I read your words you give me enormous strength to go on, and the truth is: we need each other.
Our world is bad…bad. And it’s full of evil. We claim that we know this evil and that we’re fighting it, and that makes us less happy than the others, but in return for the happiness of today we will have something much more gracious. We will have the wits to do what lie within our capabilities to make the world less painful. *
Individuals reject the good that they see, but the people want the good that they do not see. Everybody needs someone who guides him or her, let’s speak together, and let us no stop speaking*, let our voice be louder than that of the evil.
The word is the leader of the human power. I know the strength of words, I know that words have a ring; they’re not those cheered by the cream of the crop. By the power of those words, coffins are pushed to march on their four wooden legs. *

My heart can be shaped in any image,
A grassy hill for deer and a monastery for priests,
A temple for idols,
And a Ka’aba for a pilgrim,
A sheet from the Bible and a page from the Koran,
I follow love wherever it goes,
Love is my faith and my religion. *

I have borrowed words from the east, from America, Russia, Europe and Arab in an attempt to prove that we, the people of the world, can make one speech, have one goal and can fight for it.


* Martin Luther King
*Richard Right
*Bertrand Russell
*J. J. Rousseau
*Mayakovsky
*Muhey Al-Deen Bin Arabi


-By Mohammed.