[Mb-civic] More notes fromt the "Baghdad blogger" -- The Phantom Weapons...

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

This is another post from a female blogger in Baghdad.  It would be 
right for every American to read and reflect on this.  Do your 
part...pass it on....


Another from the woman in Baghdad. Let's hope she survives 
Bush's "free election".

David
    
Subject: Baghdad's girl blogger

Baghdad Burning http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

... I'll meet you 'round the bend my friend, where hearts can heal 
and souls can mend...
- posted by river @ 11:06 PM 

The Phantom Weapons...
The phone hasn't been working for almost a week now. We just got 
the line back today. For the last six days, I'd pick up the phone and 
hear... silence. Nothing. This vast nothingness would be followed by 
a few futile 'hellos' and a forceful punching of some random 
numbers with my index finger. It isn't always like this, of course. On 
some days, you can pick up the telephone and hear a bunch of 
other people screaming "allooo? Allooo?" E. once struck up a 
conversation with a complete stranger over the phone because they 
were both waiting for a line. E. wanted to call our uncle and the 
woman was trying to call her grandson. 

The dial-tone came about an hour ago (I've been checking since 
morning) and I'm taking advantage of it. 

The electricity situation isn't very much better. We're getting two 
hours of electricity (almost continuous) and then eight hours of no 
electricity (continuous). We still can't get the generators going for 
very long because of the fuel shortage. Kerosene is really becoming 
a problem now. I guess we weren't taking it very seriously at first 
because, it really is probably the first time Iraq has seen a kerosene 
shortage and it is still difficult to believe. They say in 1991 when 
there was a gasoline shortage which lasted for the duration of the 
war and some time after, kerosene was always plentiful. This isn't 
the situation now. We're buying it for obscene prices and it's really 
only useful for the lamps and the heaters. 

It feels like just about everyone who can is going to leave the 
country before the elections. They say the borders between Syria 
and Jordan might be closed a week before elections so people are 
rushing to get packed and get out. Many families are simply waiting 
for their school-age children to finish mid-year finals or college 
exams so they can leave. 

This was an interesting piece of news a couple of days ago:

The United States has ended its physical search for weapons of 
mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq, which was cited by the first 
administration of President George W Bush as the main reason for 
invading the country, the White House has said. 

Why does this not surprise me? Does it surprise anyone? I always 
had the feeling that the only people who actually believed this war 
was about weapons of mass destruction were either paranoid 
Americans or deluded expatriate Iraqis- or a combination of both. I 
wonder now, after hundreds and hundreds of Americans actually 
died on Iraqi soil and over a hundred-thousand Iraqis are dead, how 
Americans view the current situation. I have another question- the 
article mentions a "Duelfer Report" stating the weapons never 
existed and all the intelligence was wrong. This report was 
supposedly published in October 2004. The question is this: was 
this report made public before the elections? Did Americans actually 
vote for Bush with this knowledge?

Over here, it's not really "news" in the sense that it's not new. We've 
been expecting a statement like this for the last two years. While we 
were aware the whole WMD farce was just a badly produced black 
comedy, it's still upsetting to hear Bush's declaration that he was 
wrong. It's upsetting because it just confirms the worst: right-wing 
Americans don't care about justifying this war. They don't care about 
right or wrong or innocents dead and more to die. They were 
somewhat ahead of the game. When they saw their idiotic president 
wasn't going to find weapons anywhere in Iraq, they decided it 
would be about mass graves. It wasn't long before the very people 
who came to 'liberate' a sovereign country soon began burying more 
Iraqis in mass graves. The smart weapons began to stupidly kill 
'possibly innocent' civilians (they are only 'definitely innocent' if they 
are working with the current Iraqi security forces or American 
troops). It went once more from protecting poor Iraqis from 
themselves to protecting Americans from 'terrorists'. Zarqawi very 
conveniently entered the picture. 

Zarqawi is so much better than WMD. He's small, compact and 
mobile. He can travel from Falloojeh to Baghdad to Najaf to Mosul
 
whichever province or city really needs to be oppressed. Also, 
conveniently, he looks like the typical Iraqi male- dark hair, dark 
eyes, olive skin, medium build. I wonder how long it will take the 
average American to figure out that he's about as substantial as our 
previously alleged WMD. 

Now we're being 'officially' told that the weapons never existed. After 
Iraq has been devastated, we're told it's a mistake. You look around 
Baghdad and it is heart-breaking. The streets are ravaged, the sky 
is a bizarre grayish-bluish color- a combination of smoke from fires 
and weapons and smog from cars and generators. There is an 
endless wall that seems to suddenly emerge in certain areas to 
protect the Green Zoners... There is common look to the people on 
the streets- under the masks of fear, anger and suspicion, there's 
also a haunting look of uncertainty and indecision. Where is the 
country going? How long will it take for things to even have some 
vague semblance of normality? When will we ever feel safe? 

A question poses it self at this point- why don't they let the scientists 
go if the weapons don't exist? Why do they have Iraqi scientists like 
Huda Ammash, Rihab Taha and Amir Al Saadi still in prison? 
Perhaps they are waiting for those scientists to conveniently die in 
prison? That way- they won't be able to talk about the various 
torture techniques and interrogation tactics...

I hope Americans feel good about taking their war on terror to 
foreign soil. For bringing the terrorists to Iraq- Chalabi, Allawi, 
Zarqawi, the Hakeems
 How is our current situation going to 
secure America? How is a complete generation that is growing up in 
fear and chaos going to view Americans ten years from now? Does 
anyone ask that? After September 11, because of what a few 
fanatics did, Americans decided to become infected with a collective 
case of xenophobia
 Yet after all Iraqis have been through under 
the occupation, we're expected to be tolerant and grateful. Why? 
Because we get more wheat in our diets? 

Terror isn't just worrying about a plane hitting a 
skyscraper
terrorism is being caught in traffic and hearing the 
crack of an AK-47 a few meters away because the National Guard 
want to let an American humvee or Iraqi official through. Terror is 
watching your house being raided and knowing that the silliest thing 
might get you dragged away to Abu Ghraib where soldiers can 
torture, beat and kill. Terror is that first moment after a series of 
machine-gun shots, when you lift your head frantically to make sure 
your loved ones are still in one piece. Terror is trying to pick the 
shards of glass resulting from a nearby explosion out of the living-
room couch and trying not to imagine what would have happened if 
a person had been sitting there. 

The weapons never existed. It's like having a loved one sentenced 
to death for a crime they didn't commit- having your country burned 
and bombed beyond recognition, almost. Then, after two years of 
grieving for the lost people, and mourning the lost sovereignty, we're 
told we were innocent of harboring those weapons. We were never 
a threat to America... 

Congratulations Bush- we are a threat now. 




- posted by river @ 10:53 PM 


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