[wordup] dear raed: an iraqi blogger

[Adam Shand]

This guys is quite the rage as a "war blogger" right now.  From 
everything I have been able to ascertain he is indeed an Iraqi living in 
Iraq.

If nothing else it's a little bit of perspective.

Adam.

From: 
http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/2003_03_01_dear_raed_archive.html#90779364

:: Sunday, March 16, 2003 ::

[RANT]

     No one inside Iraq is for war (note I said war not a change of 
regime), no human being in his right mind will ask you to give him the 
beating of his life, unless you are a member of fight club that is, and 
if you do hear Iraqi (in Iraq, not expat) saying “come on bomb us” it is 
the exasperation and 10 years of sanctions and hardship talking. There 
is no person inside Iraq (and this is a bold, blinking and underlined 
inside) who will be jumping up and down asking for the bombs to drop. We 
are not suicidal you know, not all of us in any case.

     I think that the coming war is not justified (and it is very near 
now, we hear the war drums loud and clear if you don’t then take those 
earplugs off!). The excuses for it have been stretched to their limits 
they will almost snap. A decision has been made sometime ago that 
“regime change” in Baghdad is needed and excuses for the forceful change 
have to be made. I do think war could have been avoided, not by running 
back and forth the last two months, that’s silly. But the whole issue of 
Iraq should have been dealt with differently since the first day after GW I.

     The entities that call themselves “the international community” 
should have assumed their responsibilities a long time ago, should have 
thought about what the sanctions they have imposed really meant, should 
have looked at reports about weapons and human rights abuses a long time 
before having them thrown in their faces as excuses for war five minutes 
before midnight.

     What is bringing on this rant is the question that has been bugging 
for days now: how could “support democracy in Iraq” become to mean “bomb 
the hell out of Iraq”? why did it end up that democracy won’t happen 
unless we go thru war? Nobody minded an un-democratic Iraq for a very 
long time, now people have decided to bomb us to democracy? Well, thank 
you! how thoughtful.

     The situation in Iraq could have been solved in other ways than 
what the world will be going thru the next couple of weeks. It can’t 
have been that impossible. Look at the northern parts of Iraq, that is a 
model that has worked quite well, why wasn’t anybody interested in doing 
that in the south. Just like the US/UK UN created a protected area there 
why couldn’t the model be tried in the south. It would have cut off the 
regimes arms and legs. And once the people see what they have been 
deprived off they will not be willing to go back, just ask any Iraqi 
from the Kurdish areas. Instead the world watched while after the war 
the Shias were crushed by Saddam’s army in a manner that really didn’t 
happen before the Gulf War. Does anyone else see the words (Iran/not in 
the US interest) floating or is it me hallucinating?

     And there is the matter of Sanctions. Now that Iraq has been thru a 
decade of these sanctions I can only hope that their effects are clear 
enough for them not to be tried upon another nation. Sanctions which 
allegedly should have kept a potentially dangerous situation in Iraq in 
check brought a whole nation to its knees instead. And who ultimately 
benefited from the sanctions? Neither the international community nor 
the Iraqi people, he who was in power and control still is. These 
sanctions made the Iraqi people hostages in the hands of this regime, 
tightened an already tight noose around our necks. A whole nation, a 
proud and learned nation, was devastated not by the war but by 
sanctions. Our brightest and most creative minds fled the country not 
because of oppression alone but because no one inside Iraq could make a 
living, survive. And can anyone tell me what the sanctions really did 
about weapons? Get real, there are always willing nations who will help, 
there are always organizations which will find his money sweet. 
Oil-for-Food? Smart Sanctions? Get a clue. Who do you think is getting 
all those contracts to supply the people with “food”? who do you think 
is heaping money in bank accounts abroad? It is his people, his family 
and the people who play his game. Abroad and in Iraq, Iraqis and non-Iraqis.

     What I mean to say is that things could have been different; I 
can’t help look at the Northern parts of Iraq with envy and wonder why.

     Do support democracy in Iraq. But don’t equate it with war. What 
will happen is something that could/should have been avoided. Don’t 
expect me to wear a [I heart bush] t-shirt. Support democracy in Iraq 
not by bombing us to hell and then trying to build it up again (well 
that is going to happen any way) not by sending human shields (let’s be 
real the war is going to happen and Saddam will use you as hostages), 
but by keeping an eye on what will happen after the war.

     To end this rant, a word about Islamic fundis/wahabisim/qaeda and 
all that.

     Do you know when the sight of women veiled from top to bottom 
became common in cities in Iraq? Do you know when the question of 
segregation between boys and girls became red hot? When tribal law 
replaced THE LAW? When Wahabi became part of our vocabulary?

     It only happened after the Gulf War. I think it was Cheney or 
Albright who said they will bomb Iraq back to the stone age, well you 
did. Iraqis have never accepted religious extremism in their lives. They 
still don’t. Wahabis in their short dishdasha are still looked upon as 
sheep who have strayed from the herd. But they are spreading. The 
combination of poverty/no work/low self esteem and the bitterness of 
seeing people who rose to riches and power without any real merit but 
having the right family name or connection shook the whole social 
fabric. Situations which would have been unacceptable in the past are 
being tolerated today.

     They call it “al hamla al imania – the religious campaign” of 
course it was supported by the government, pumping them with words like 
“poor in this life, rich in heaven” kept the people quiet. Or the other 
side of the coin is getting paid by Wahabi organizations. Come pray and 
get paid, no joke, dead serious. If the government can’t give you a job 
run to the nearest mosque and they will pay and support you. This never 
happened before, it is outrageous. But what are people supposed to do? 
thir government is denied funds to pay proper wages and what they get is 
funneled into their pockets. So please stop telling me about the fundis, 
never knew what they are never would have seen them in my streets.

[/RANT]
:: salam 1:37 AM [+] ::

"the West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or 
religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. 
Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do." -- Samuel 
P. Huntington