[News] Baghdad blog

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Baghdad Burning

riverbend at velocall.com
http://www.riverbendblog.com/

... I'll meet you 'round the bend my friend, where hearts can heal and 
souls can mend...
Wednesday, April 07, 2004

Teapots and Kettles...
Now it seems we are almost literally reliving the first few days of 
occupation. I woke up to the sound of explosions and gunfire last night and 
for one terrible moment I thought someone had warped me back a whole year 
and we would have to relive this last year of our life over and over again.

We haven't sent the kids to school for 3 days. The atmosphere is charged 
and the day before yesterday, Baghdad was quiet and empty, almost the calm 
before the storm. The area of A'adhamiya in Baghdad is seeing street 
fighting: the resistance and Americans are fighting out in the streets and 
Al-Sadr city was bombed by the troops. They say that dozens were killed and 
others wounded. They're bringing them in to hospitals in the center of the 
city.

Falloojeh has been cut off from the rest of Iraq for the last three days. 
It's terrible. They've been bombing it constantly and there are dozens 
dead. Yesterday they said that the only functioning hospital in the city 
was hit by the Americans and there's no where to take the wounded except a 
meager clinic that can hold up to 10 patients at a time. There are over a 
hundred wounded and dying and there's nowhere to bury the dead because the 
Americans control the area surrounding the only graveyard in Falloojeh; the 
bodies are beginning to decompose in the April heat. The troops won't let 
anyone out of Falloojeh and they won't let anyone into it either- the 
people are going to go hungry in a matter of days because most of the fresh 
produce is brought from outside of the city. We've been trying to call a 
friend who lives there for three days and we can't contact him.

This is supposed to be 'retaliation' for what happened last week with the 
American contractors- if they were indeed contractors. Whoever they were, 
it was gruesome and wrongŠ I feel for their families. Was I surprised? 
Hardly. This is an occupation and for those of you naïve enough to actually 
believe Chalabi and the Bush administration when they said the troops were 
going to be 'greeted with flowers and candy' then I can only wish that God 
will, in the future, grant you wisdom.

This is crazy. This is supposed to be punishment for violence but it's only 
going to result in more bloodshed on both sides. people are outraged 
everywhere- Sunnis and Shi'a alike. This constant bombing is only going to 
make things worse for everyone. Why do Americans think that people in 
Baghdad or the south or north aren't going care what happens in Falloojeh 
or Ramadi or Nassriyah or Najaf? Would Americans in New York disregard 
bombing and killing in California?

And now Muqtada Al-Sadr's people are also fighting it out in parts of 
Baghdad and the south. If the situation weren't so frightening, it would 
almost be amusing to see Al-Hakeem and Bahr Ul Iloom describe Al-Sadr as an 
'extremist' and a 'threat'. Muqtada Al-Sadr is no better and no worse than 
several extremists we have sitting on the Governing Council. He's just as 
willing to ingratiate himself to Bremer as Al-Hakeem and Bahr Ul Iloom. The 
only difference is that he wasn't given the opportunity, so now he's a 
revolutionary. Apparently, someone didn't give Bremer the memo about how 
when you pander to one extremist, you have to pander to them all. Hearing 
Abdul Aziz Al-Hakeem and Bahr Ul Iloom claim that Al-Sadr is a threat to 
security and stability brings about visions of the teapot and the kettle.

Then Bremer makes an appearance on tv and says that armed militias will 
*not* be a part of the New Iraq. where has that declaration been the last 
12 months while Badir's Brigade has been wreaking havoc all over the 
country? Why not just solve the problem of Al-Sadr's armed militia by 
having them join the police force and army, like the Bayshmarga and Badir's 
Brigade?! Al-Sadr's militia is old news. No one was bothering them while 
they were terrorizing civilians in the south. They wore badges, carried 
Klashnikovs and roamed the streets freely. now that they've become a threat 
to the 'Coalition', they suddenly become 'terrorists' and 'agitators'.

Now there's an arrest warrant with his name on it, although the Minister of 
Justice was on tv claiming he knew nothing about the arrest warrant, etc. 
He basically said that he was washing his hands of any move against Muqtada 
Al-Sadr. Don't get me wrong- I'd love to see Muqtada behind bars, but it 
will only cause more chaos and rage. It's much too late for that... he has 
been cultivating support for too long. It's like a contest now between the 
prominent Shi'a clerics. The people are dissatisfied- especially in the 
south. The clerics who weren't given due consideration and a position on 
the Governing Council, are now looking for influence and support through 
the people. You can either be a good little cleric and get along with 
Bremer (but have a lot of dissatisfied people *not* supporting you) or you 
can be a firebrand cleric and rally the masses...

It's like the first few days of occupation again. it's a nightmare and 
everyone is tense. My cousin and his family are staying with us for a few 
days because his wife hates to be alone at home with the kids. It's a 
relief to have them with us. We all sit glued to the television- flipping 
between Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabia, CNN, BBC and LBC, trying to figure out what 
is going on. The foreign news channels are hardly showing anything. They 
punctuate dazzling reportages on football games and family pets with a 
couple of minutes worth of footage from Iraq showing the same faces running 
around in a frenzy of bombing and gunfire and then talk about 'Al-Sadr the 
firebrand cleric', not mentioning the attacks by the troops in Ramadi, 
Falloojeh, Nassriyah, Baghdad, Koufa, etc.

Over the last three days, over 150 Iraqis have been killed by troops all 
over Iraq and it's maddening. At times I feel like a caged animal- there's 
so much frustration and anger. The only people still raving about 
'liberation' are the Iraqis affiliated with the Governing Council and the 
Puppets, and even they are getting impatient with the mess.

Our foreign minister Hoshyar Zibari was being interviewed by some British 
journalist yesterday, making excuses for Tony Blair and commending him on 
the war. At one point someone asked him about the current situation in 
Iraq. He mumbled something about how there were 'problems' but it wasn't a 
big deal because Iraq was 'stable'. what Iraq is he living in?

And as I blog this, all the mosques, Sunni and Shi'a alike, are calling for 
Jihad...


- posted by river @ 3:44 PM

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