Faiza&Media

Good Evening..
we are feeling better day after day, trying to wake up from the nightmare we have lived in the past two weeks..
as our friend sharon from America said that may be God sent my son to be in jail in Baghdad to see what is going on inside iraq, and the unknown poor iraqis who are in jails for many months and nobody of their families knew about them, and they have no right to have lawyer to defend them, what kind of justice is that?
Bremer put emergency law in Iraq , it means the government has the right to arrest anyone,anytime, took him out of his bed in his underwears to jails, stay there for months, tortured or abused, and nobody cares about him.
is this the security policy to protect the citizens from terrorist?
its the terrorism my dear !
well ,when i came back from America before one month, my plans to the future was like that i should go back to Iraq to participate the political operation and try to make change to the better..to stop the violence, the corruption, the evil works controling the daily life.
but after the ordeal of my son, i can see Iraq from new eyes , its not the one i want to live in or work with, its now filled with people in power working under the banner : its our turn to revenge
and nobody can stop us !
so, they are controling the streets, the media, the decisions, the social and political activities..
and the moderate groups are helpless, there is no chance to them now , nobody listen to their voice, the violence and hatred are talking now loudly in Iraq , some groups from inside and outside of Iarq , want this to be, to accomplish their agenda...
and the victims are iraqis , all iraqis, the rich and the poor, the old and the young, the men and women and children, the sunni and shi`ee, and iraqis and noniraqis....all have been targeted in this mess.
I have met different kinds of iraqi people, working with government as moderate , trying to make change, but i saw how depressed they are, and trying to protect their families to get them out of iraq, this is their priority now, and i saw them as powerless, they cant help any iraqi in jail or bad condition, they have nothing to do..
so I asked : why you are in power ?
just to get high salaries and new apartments in Amman ?
the iraqi people elected you in the last election to defend them, but you did nothing , you have just change your life to the better, get your kids and wives out of iraq to live in a fancy way, and you go back to live in Baghdad under the protection of security men .
in Saddam Hussain era, the jails were filled with shi`ee iraqis, now its filled with sunni iraqis and noniraqis like Jordanians and Palestinians or others from Arab Countries.
now the men in jail because of their Identity card no more , most of the time.
so, after this horrible war on Iraq , what we have changed ?
its the same criminal mentality controling and torturing iraqi people.
who will stop this nightmare going on in Iraq?
can you tell me that the American Government dont know what is going on in Iraq now?
for me and my family, its better to be out of iraq, at least we meet journalist or activist
to talk about iraq, and arrange meetings with iraqi families , to hear their stories about kidnapped or killed or injured members, and why they left iraq .
poor and rich families, known and unknown, all have the same pain..
all have the destroyed and torn country , named Iraq .
and American government waged this war in the name of iraqis and their freedom.
we can see now what kind of freedom we gained...
we are out of our houses, faraway from our relatives, friends, neighbours, eveything we loved.
we are living outside of our country, but our minds, hearts, souls, still inside of Iraq.
trying everday, every moment, to find a way to give help to iraqis who still suffering inside.
and asking ourselves : what is the future awaiting for iraq?
where is the shining future that Bush promissed iraqis when he started this war?
and what about the iraqi victims who are falling everyday in jails or streets?
dont tell me they are the price of our shining future...
it should be named : the blood stained future .
faiza

I heard that sentence for the first time from an American congressman, while we were standing in one of the corridors of the congress building some months ago, with an Iraqi women delegation, when the man passed. Some of the Americans standing about volunteered to introduce us to him. He puffed up his feathers and said the same phrase: Don't worry, we will not abandon you, and will not pull the troops out of Iraq….
I looked at that foolish man, and saw how stupid and conceited he is, how he reads reality according to his mood, imagining he is playing the role of the savior hero, while we play the role of the weaklings who call to him for help. The truth is exactly the opposite; the American presence in Iraq brought upon us destruction, catastrophes, chaos and terrorism. And scheduling the withdrawal is the only thing that can make the Iraqis happy.........

There is no real improvement in the work of the Iraqi Police force or the Army, something to suggest they were ready and competent to take over the security agenda, and control Iraq in an acceptable way that would allow for the scheduling of the foreign force withdrawal. And the American administration always says they will withdraw when the Iraqi forces are competent to take over the security issue in Iraq…..
This means it is in the interest of the foreign forces that the Iraqi forces should remain weak, defeated, or hated by its citizens, and under suspicion of its good performance, so the foreign forces would remain indefinitely on the Iraqi soil….
There is no responsibility about the human rights violations held against the Iraqi Ministries of Defense or Interior, who committed many crimes, but no one brought forth the ministers, held them responsible, or put them to investigation…
No accounts were settled about stealing billions of dollars from the Iraqi treasury and public funds, which were supposed to be used for reconstructing Iraq.
There was no improvement for the citizen's services. Who cares about them? What are they worth?
Huh, huh, huh. (to laugh at a bitter joke, the Iraqi way)…..
The prices of fuels and food were raised, while the country sinks in high (and growing) unemployment levels, of about 50-70%...
Who cares?
No one cares about the Iraqis' souls, comfort, or food…
I do not know why the whole world turned against us, or abandoned us??
International interests?
The latest trend in Iraq in the last months is that of the militias, which raid residential neighborhoods in broad daylight, or in the dead of night, breaking through the curfew hours, and none of the occupation forces or the official Iraqi police can control them, or deter their attacks and protect the civilian residents… they enter residential areas, attacking mosques, burning them, killing the Imam and the security group. (are these Muslims? In all our lives, we never heard of a Muslim who attacks a mosque and burns it. Who are these? Magies? Infidels? Zionists? No one knows). Or they might have some seeking eyes in collaboration with them in the neighborhood, who give them lists of the families there and their "kinds"; these are Sunnies, those are Shia'ats. And so, the houses are raided, and a certain sect gets killed. A number of shop owners get killed; mobile shops, furniture shops, groceries, vegetable shops, a bakery, whatever…
These battles rage for hours, then the militias run away. And the government and the occupation forces are powerless, or uncooperative with the cries of the residents.
And the same story is repeated for months in the same neighborhood, until it becomes deserted, and lifeless… the residents departed, and left their houses, and shops closed….
These stories happened in neighborhoods in Baghdad, like Al-Ameriyah, Al-Gazaliyah, Al-Doora, Al-Khadra'a, and Hay Al-Jamee'a, and now in Hay Al-Jihad and Al-Mansoor, and so on…. A grinder turning on and on, grinding the innocent Iraqi civilians. The government and the occupation forces give statements, and condemn, but in reality, one of them is powerless (that, of course, is the government), and the other is happy (for such stories justifies their existence as an occupation sitting heavily over the Iraqis' hearts, one who wants to achieve security for the happy Iraqi people).
Well then, if the attackers were from Al-Qaida, why do they target the Sunnies, being Sunnies themselves?
Why do the target Iraqis? Who is their enemy?
The American occupier, or the miserable Iraqi?
Silly, unreasonable justifications. But the result of all this violence, organized or un-organized, lands into the interest of the occupation forces, one way or another, justifying its remaining in Iraq indefinitely….
Those neighborhoods, before the militias attacked them and ripped them apart, were crowded with people, mixed, and secure, but witness now and then an attack against the occupation forces….
Praise is to God, who changes all. What has the killing militias and the death groups done to them? How was the "program" changed, from crowded, mixed residential neighborhoods with a little resistance against the occupation, into neighborhoods suffering the daily raids of the occupation forces and the random arrests of men, then into suffering from killing militias and death groups, who attack them, killing the men, and dislodging the families, thus turning them into lifeless ghost towns….
Is there a logical connection between these stages?
Yes, there is definitely an invisible line connecting the violence episodes with each other…
This is the summery as I see it in front of me.
And I always ask: where is the Iraqi house which wasn't touched by fire after this war?
The fire touched us all, and burned us, one way or another….
We no longer believe the stories of the dumb American administration, in explaining what is going on in Iraq… or showing themselves innocent from the crimes that ripped the Iraqi society apart……

I feel very tired, and have no wish to talk or write. But what calamities are happening in Iraq should be talked about, and I feel it my duty to take the responsibility of talking for what is happening to the Iraqis, from my point of view, and my readings of the daily reality there.
Those Iraqis like me, who were forced by the bad security conditions, which threatened their families directly by kidnapping or killing, had to leave Iraq and live in different exiles.
The days pass very heavily upon us, each day like a year…
And in the countries were Iraqis reside, there is: security, settlement, water, electricity, and fuel…
But we live like strangers........
For who can compensate us for the homeland we were forced to leave?

And what about the Iraqis who have no ability to leave?
They remained there; enduring, suffering fear, terror, and the threat of death, every hour of every day…
When will the suffering Iraq and the Iraqis end?
I do not think there is naught who knows the answer…
Even the American administration who waged the war, doesn't know the answer. For they flounder in their stupidity and the Iraqi swamp, about which they didn't quiet grasp the truth, until they sunk in it…
And now, that failure of an administration is stumbling, not knowing how to solve the problems of Iraq and save the Iraqis, and doesn't even know how to save its own face in the dilemma in which it is… the foolish Bush doesn't stop giving lying, empty speeches, which are worst than those of the Arab leaders at the times of defeat; full of lies, and stories of imaginary victories…
He says he will not withdraw the armies from Iraq until the mission is complete.
I do want someone to ask him: Sir, what is the mission you want to accomplish in Iraq for three years now? And how much of it did you finish?
The destruction of Iraq, and killing more Iraqis?
Is this the mission?
Or to achieve freedom, democracy, transparency, and all that empty talk the world grew bored from hearing, and especially the Iraqis?
Tell him: you destroyed Iraq and killed its people, you fool, and you still sing of victory? The reputation of your army is stained by scandals; from the Abu Ghareeb prison, to the white Phosphorate in Fallujah, the massacre of Hadeetha, to the story of the teenage girl; Abeer Al-Janabi, who was raped by the American soldiers and killed with her family, to tens, or maybe hundreds of black stories unannounced till now…
An army whose reputation is stained with shame, an administration consisting of criminals and fools, and those claim they are manufacturing a new Iraq, to become a model for the Middle East states.
What model criminals and fools like those will create?

For almost a month, the Iraqis started leaving Iraq in a more intensive way, by the end of schools and university terms, and the beginning of the summer holiday for their children… and here in Amman I always meet new faces, or relatives and friends from Iraq, to hear new varied stories that the news media do not broadcast…
On the next day of my return from Umrah, I read a break- news item on one of the Iraqi channels that there are armed gangs attacking the public marketplace in Al-Jihad district, killing innocent civilians after checking their ID cards…
We used to live in Al-Jihad district during the last war on Iraq; the area is mixed, like many others in Baghdad, and I cannot tell who of my neighbors is the Shia'at and who is the Sunnie. We are all Iraqis who lived together through the good times and the bad times, so, where did all this evil talk come from?
The Iraqis call these sorts of subjects: after-the-occupation-culture.
A poisonous, deformed, lying culture…

I went to the phone and called Baghdad. The line rang in one of my neighbor's house's there. I knew they were Sunnies, because they were from Fallujah. Then a strange voice answered me. I asked him about the people of the house. He said they were fine, that he was their neighbor guarding the house, and that they left yesterday to Fallujah…
In one way, my heart felt relieved because they were not killed by the gangs, but from another I felt sad for them; for how does it feel for someone to be forced to leave his house to that of a relative's, because some frantic militia entered the area?
And a Shia'at neighbor guards the house of an evicted Sunnie neighbor?
Isn't this a comedy?
The neighbors cry for one another, and the militia that comes from outside the area brings along poison, death and destruction to the civilian residents?
Who finances these killers?
And for whose benefit do they work?

Some 50 civilians; women, men, and children of that neighborhood were the victims of that day in Al-Jihad district.
The government was confused, opinions contradicted, and ministers and parliament members clashed, trying to pin the responsibility on someone's head?
Some said they were militias from within the Interior Ministry; sectarian militias carrying out an agenda to destroy Iraq and rip its unity apart, and it is beyond the control of the Iraqi government.
And the Iraqis were baffled; is this a militia backed by Iran, the occupation, or by another enemy in the region who wants to tear Iraq apart?
But nobody claimed responsibility for that crime.
And for sure the American newspapers and other media said it was a sectarian fighting, to justify the presence of the occupation army in Iraq, and not to schedule its withdrawal…

On the next day, a similar disaster happened in Al-Doora District, south of Baghdad. Some militias erected false roadblocks, read people's names in the ID cards, and killed those with evident Sunnie names, like Omar or Othman…
And in Al-Ghazalia, the same thing has been happening for months. The Shia'at families evicted their houses. Someone must have told them to. And the majority that remained are of Sunnie families, so, the area was shelled with mortars, and innocent civilians died. Then the shops and markets were stormed repeatedly, with random killings in broad daylight, until the area died. The shops closed. Even the baker's shop…
So was the case in Al-Ameriyah….
And in Al-Khadra'a District…
And from Al-Khadra'a, my friend told me that the occupation forces distributed referendum papers among the residents, asking: Do you want the guarding forces in the area to be American forces, or local Iraqis?
And the neighbors, of course, after the disasters they faced by the transgressions of the Iraqi police and their fierce behaviors with people, the random raids and detentions, hated that local police, and wished that the occupation forces would remain to guard them…
What a comedy…
The Iraqis demanding that the occupation forces should remain and protect the residential areas, because the local police are corrupt and unjust…
Well then who trained this new police force?
Aren't the occupation forces responsible for the training of the new army police force in Iraq?
Is this the policy required to be followed in Iraq? Let the Iraqis torture their fellow citizens, so the citizens would turn to the occupation asking them to stay…
Does this theory apply for the reason of the existence of these criminal militias on the Iraqi streets, so the Iraqis would call for help from the occupation? So the occupation can keep on justifying its presence in Iraq?
And a question: If the Iraqis would have remained united and in harmony, as they have been all their former lives, then what are the chances for a foreign occupation force to remain on the Iraqi soil?
The answer is: Nil.

And the series goes on; a trapped car in Al-Sadder city, for example, kills tens of Iraqi Shia'ats. Then it is followed by an attack on Sunnie mosques, and then followed by the killing of a number of Sunnie Iraqis, and so on…

The Iraqis are in agreement that the hands messing around in Iraq are one and the same… the hands that are blowing the Shia'at mosques are the same that blow the Sunnie mosques, the hand that sends a trapped car to a Shia'at neighborhood is the same that sends a trapped car to a Sunnie neighborhood, and the armed gangs that attack innocent civilians, Sunnies and Shia'ats alike, are gangs from one source, and are financed by one source.

And the question is: Who reaps the benefits of all this chaos and bloodshed?
Is there any one Iraqi Party or any Iraqi Formation which achieved any gains from all this?
It is evident that everyone are losers, and everyone is shouting and wailing under the Parliament's roof; the Shia'at members cry and complain of what befell their people, and so are the Sunnie members, angry and complaining about what befell their people.
Well then, who is the winner out of the Iraqi bloodshed? Who is the winner out of demolishing the trust among the Iraqis? who is the winner out of shredding all attempts at national reconciliation among the Iraqis?
Iran?
Israel?
Or the occupation?

These are usually the three suspects for more than three years now, for what is taking place in Iraq; the calamities, the killings, the devastation, bloodshed, assassinations, and sectarian provocation.
It is in the interest of these to destroy Iraq, tearing it apart so it would remain weak, and not threaten their interests…
They all agreed upon one goal: a torn, weak, divided Iraq…
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Today I watched an interview on the Iraqi TV channels, with some heads of parliamentary blocs who spoke about the National Reconciliation, about rejecting the idea of a civil war, it being a made-up notion that some people want to market on to the media, to achieve their own ends…
The head of the Parliament spoke; criticizing the occupation, saying that we shall unite, for the occupation is defeated, and when we will unite, it will be more so…
Whoever propagates for civil war is someone who wants the occupation to remain…
And we want the occupation to leave Iraq…
We will do all that is in our power to unite the Iraqis. We know that our enemy wants the opposite, and that is our battle…

My heart swelled with hope, as I saw them all on screen…..
******************

So was the equation for Israel, historically… how did she win her media war against the Palestinians?
Killing thousands of Palestinian children and their mothers, but they wouldn't be shown by the media….there would be a cold, neutral news item declaring that Israel made an air raid targeting Palestinian gunmen…….. and when a rocket launched by the Palestinian resistance falls on a settlement, once a year maybe, an Israeli man, wounded in the head would appear on TV, carrying his child, and run in panic…then, by GOD, the audience's hearts in the west would break, and they would say: oh, those Palestinians are terrorists and criminals, eliminate them!
But that same media covered and hid the bodies of the Palestinian children and their families, the victims of the continuous Israeli air raids, for years and years….
Isn't this media an accomplice in the crime, by covering it up?
If it was possible to fool people in the past, we today are no longer fools to believe all that we see on screen…we started to realize that they are saying half the truth to deceive people…
And this is a shame on the Media, and the newsmen…
There are some honest newsmen who want to tell the whole truth, Arabs and Westerners, but who will let them? Who will broadcast their viewpoint?
As the military control the battlefield with their tanks, so there is an intellectual, media terrorism against the "Other" viewpoint, and this intellectual terrorism exists first of all in America and its media, because those who own it are the powerful rich who gain benefits out of wars, and the people there are besieged with the official viewpoint that chase them in the TV, radio, and newspapers…

Baghdad

Monday, July 25, 2005 Faiza Al-Arji