BlogIraq

Earlier today, the Iraqi parliament approved a new flag for Iraq. The one shown below:

164 Parliament members attended the session of which 50% voted for this flag out of four options that were given in this session. Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani, the head of the parliament, said that "this is a temporary flag until a flag is chosen by the Iraqi people". It seems like the parliament does not represent the Iraqi people anyway.

Way to go Kurds. You've made it through an f*cked up the flag. Its the flag that the evil army of Saddam killed the Kurds under. The army that Maoud Al-Barazani asked for Saddam's help against Jalal Al-Talibani under. o you cannot tolerate its existence anymore.

This brings me to an interesting reading I came across today. Masoud Barzani is trying to press charges against Michael Rubin how said that the Kurds are assisting Iranian to come into Iraq in a deal that involves money and guarantees that no terrorism act will take place on the lands of Kurdistan.

"During the first week in July 2003, an American military unit patrolling the mountains of northeastern Iraq approximately thirty miles from the Iranian border came across an unauthorized KDP checkpoint from which they confiscated a cache of Iranian passports and money. KDP officials had used the checkpoint to facilitate Iranian infiltration–allowing Iranian operatives to swap Iranian passports for local Kurdish identity papers–in exchange for cash. Kurdish officials privately acknowledge that this case was not unique. At the beginning of the Iraqi insurgency in April 2004, Iraqi Kurdistan became a transit point for Ansar al-Sunna: its members entered Iraqi Kurdistan from Iran and received safe passage to Mosul in exchange for an agreement not to conduct operations in the three northern governorates–and perhaps payment as well."

Everyone in Kurdistan knows what happened after Saddam lost control over Kurdistan in 1991. Talbani and Barzani disassembled and sold all the facilities in Kurdistan and sold it through smugglers to Iran and Turkey. This includes water and electricity facilities and even school seats.  Afterwards, Talbani and Barzani started to ask for money to help and support the poor kurdish people. And they took the shares of Food-for-Oil program into their on pockets through fake companies and contracts.

People who do such things, are very likely to smuggle terrorism into Iraq for money. And also, having the whole country f*cked up would lead more investments into Kurdistan. An apartment in Sulaymaniya and and even Arbil now cost more than an apartment in Paris. The rents are very high and the living costs are going though the roof. And by the end of the day, a piece of everything goes into the pockets of the good old Talbani and Barzani.

If the kurdish people are willing to hold the silence for a long time, maybe it better for Iraq to let Kurdistan be an independent country of its own. 

Right after I write the title of this post, I recognized how wrong it is. Its not that everyone is above the law, its like there is no law at all. You can get killed for no reason and have the full faith that whoever killed you will not be punished for it whatsoever.

NY Times published an article a couple of days ago about the difficulties the justice department is facing in putting up a case against BlackWater for murdering "at least" 17 Iraqi in Nissour Square last September. This is only as good as slaughtering Shiites and joining the "Awakening" forces afterwards to become hero and a savior. And only as good as slaughtering the Sunnis and joining the Iraqi Security Forces afterwards and become a hero an a savior.

Its not only the lives of the 17 dead Iraqis we are talking about here. We are talking about setting an example. And this way, the example is put simply: kill the Iraqis as much as you can, no one will give a rat's ass..!!!

The US army are above the law. Blackwater are above the law. The criminals in the Iraqi government are above the law. The criminals in the Iraqi Parliament are above the law. Militias are above the law. Awakening forces are above the law. And basically every motherf***ing criminal on the Iraqi soil is above the law.

How many of the soldiers involved in Abu-Ghraib rapes and humiliations were actually thrown into jail?

How many of the Blackwater assassins was thrown in jail or even brought to trail?

How many stealing ministers or ex-ministers were brought to trail?

What happened to ex-minister of electricity Ayham Al-Samirrae after an arrest warren was issued for him? Oh let me answer that one for you. He was "helped" to travel outside Iraq.

What happened to the arrest warren of Muqtada Al-Sadr that was issued in 2004?

What happened in the "parliamentary" investigation conducted for the incident of finding guns and explosive in Adnan Al-Dulaimi's house in in his guards houses?

How on earth, at the end of 2007, the ministry of finance sends to the parliament the closures of the ministries spendings for 2004? Yes that is 2004. And by the way, this means that the accounts and auditing of 2005, 2006, and 2007 are not submitted yet.

How many Iraqi people are held in jails with no evidence, trail, or sometimes even without investigation?

I would really love to know if there is any law that is being applied in Iraq at all. I mean not even the traffic law are being applied for God's sake.

The nice thing about law in Iraq, is that every political party and basically every country who is involved in Iraq is pushing hard on the Iraqi parliament to pass legislations. What for people?? Its not going to be applied anyway. 

A good piece was published in the Economist few days ago. Although I don't with some points in that article, but its worth to read.

"IT IS not easy to be an Arab these days. If you are old, the place where you live is likely to have changed so much that little seems friendly and familiar. If you are young, years of rote learning in dreary state schools did not prepare you well for this new world. In your own country you have few rights. Travel abroad and they take you for a terrorist. Even your leaders don't count for much in the wider world. Some are big on money, others on bombast, but few are inspiring or visionary.

These are gross generalizations, of course. Huge differences persist among 300m-odd Arabic speakers and 22 countries of the Arab League. With oil prices touching record highs, some Arab economies are booming. The gulf between a Darfuri refugee and a Porsche-driving financier in Dubai is as great as between any two people on earth. Yet to travel through the Arab world right now is to experience a peculiar sameness of spirit. Particularly among people under 30, who make up the vast majority of Arabs, the mood is one of disgruntlement and doubt."

And here is the link to the rest of the article:

http://www.economist.com/world/africa/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=10499063

This time its not about politics. If you're looking for another entry talking about the politics of Iraq, just hit the close button of this page. I just feel so lonely and could not find something better to do than share it with you.

I am in the middle of no where here in Sudan. Yeah people. Believe it or not. I have been in Sudan for about two months now. I left Baghdad to Syria last September, and left Damascus last November to Khartoum. Why? you're asking?

Its because it is the only country that cared enough to give Visa and residence for a PhD holder like myself. I feel so scattered. My wife and daughter are in Baghdad and the rest of my family are in Amman. And I feel so lonely.

I miss the heavenly smile of my little daughter when she used to wake me up in the morning. I miss having my wife waiting for me when I come back from work. And most of all., I miss my dear mother whom I have not seen since last May.

Although Sudanese people are so kind and they just love Iraqis, it just does not feel like home to me. I don't know why. For some one spent the last two and a half years wandering between Turkey, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq, another country should not feel that much different. And despite that I have spent long times alone and away from my family, I am not able to understand the strange feeling of loneliness here.

Of course Sudan is not as fancy or developed as Jordan, in which I spent most of the last two years. But feeling the you are living in a society that does not reject you for holding an Iraqi passport is just way too different from the hatred I faced in Jordan. Sudanese are very simple and soft hearted people.

I have imagined being in so many places in the world, and Sudan was not one of them. But as I said before, this was the only country that I had the opportunity to enter, work, and have a valid residence permission in. Unlike Jordan where I lived and worked with no valid residence visa or work permit. And accordingly, I was haunted by the idea of being departed from Jordan, as many of my friends, at any time.

Life here is slow. And people here feel like there is nothing that can not wait until tomorrow. Probably thats why Sudan is not that well developed despite the uncountable resources this country has.

I just wish I can go back to Baghdad at this very moment. You may ask why don't I. Knowing what I know, and seeing what I have seen there, no one can think of having a settled family life there. I escaped from death in Baghdad, or death have evaded me, for countless number of times. And I just don't feel that I can raise my daughter there. I feel obligated to provide a better life for my daughter and wife. At least better than the one that I had so far. Three major wars, including an 8-years one, along with 13 years of sanctions, followed by 5 years of occupation summarize my 28-years in this world. I just don't want my daughter to see any of this. This is why I am working hard to get her and my wife out of Iraq as soon as I can.

The night here is so long, or at least it seems like that to me. Endless thought race into my mind as soon as I try to settle my head on that pillow. It seems like I am stuck here with that ugly coffee mug I bought in Syria, my laptop, and that stinky pack of cigarettes that is wearing me out.

In Jordan, I used to have a lot of friends. I used to tranquilize my loneliness by spending time with them without thinking about all people and things I miss. But here, its just not the same. I don't know why. There are many decent places that one can spend time in. And the nature is just unbelievably beautiful. But I don't know why I lost the appetite to go out. I used to lead the trips and parties back in college, and now I am just so tired. So weary, that I just want the days to pass. I really would like to settle down. Anywhere. And I mean just anywhere. I need to settle and get my family here. I don't know how long would that take. And I just don't know if I will be able to see my mother and father again. I was forbidden to enter Jordan more than once. And I am just haunted by the idea that I might just die without seeing my mother and father. And what makes it even worse, both of them do not have valid residence visa in Jordan. So, if the leave Jordan they won't be able to go back there. I mean I was like 4 hours drive from Amman in Damascus, I the motherf*cker at the Jordanian borders did no allow my to enter Jordan to see them off before coming here to Sudan. He said "You don't have adequate reasons to enter the kingdom".

And now I see that I don't have adequate reasons to live. 

While having a discussion at 24Step blog, I managed to gather up some ideas in the form of definite steps to take Iraq out of the violence.

It sounds more like a dream to me than a true applicable agenda. Despite that, I would like to share these steps with you because I see it as a non-violent way out.

1. The rise of public awareness in Iraq about the importance of voting in a non-sectarian, non-tribal, objective way. This can occur through non-biased media, which is very rare.

2. Protests against the current electoral committee and demand its change with a one that is FULLY controlled and run by the UN. And the new committee should participate in the electoral education of people.

3. Cut-out all the bad guys off the Iraqi Police and Army. This can happen by appointing non-sectarian ministers and giving them full authority over their ministries. And a better solution would be the one I mentioned before.

I have a wild suggestion although most people won't like it and I would really like to see the Americans leave Iraq.
My suggestion is to hand the ministry of defense and the ministry of interior to the Americans. And the Americans should have secular consultants that run the whole show behind the curtains. Maybe six months would be enough to eliminate all the bad apples there. And add the right "Awakening" guys to the security forces in a balanced way.
I know its not going to happen. But I believe its a good way out. If this handover period is run in the right manner, we will not have the battle over power anymore.
Once the Iraqi forces are clean, there will be a real fight of all Iraqi people against terrorism, not a hidden war of sects. And this step would regain the trust of the public in the security forces. Afterwards, when a decision is made to disarm everyone but the government security forces, people would cooperate.

4. When a new non-sectarian government takes over (yeah sure), they should bring to court of justice each and every corrupted official since 2003 until now. And they should be punished with the law's maximum punishment for their crimes. This way, no government official would think that he's above the law.

5. Follow the law. It drives me crazy that the same government that passed many laws since they came in power are not abiding the very same laws. Many laws governing the financial and managerial aspects of the government are being violated everyday. The government, before the public, need to learn to abide the law.

6. Boycott ALL sectarian media. Each and every media mentioned that this person who got killed or kidnapped is Shiite, Sunni, Kurdish, Christian, or whatsoever need to be boycotted. This will lead to de-attach the hatred emotions related to a certain wrong doing to a certain sect. People need to understand that there are good people and bad people, and there is no such thing as a good sect, relegion or ethnic group and a bad one.

7. If the parliament is seriously honest to find a solution, they should call for an early elections within the next few months.

I have much more in my dream, but its just a dream after all. And nothing will really happen. 

It seems like the sectarian violence is not enough. So, a new war need to be started. During the last 48 hours, six explosive attacks targeted churches in Baghdad and Mosul. These attacks happened in the same time and in different shapes; bombed cars, road side bombs, and mortars.

Things just seem to be getting worse no matter how much the media brags about the "improvements" in the security situation. Al-Qaeda maniacs just can't let go. These attacks are aimed to drag Iraqis into the rock bottom of a civil war. With Al-Qaeda on one side, and the Shiite militias on the other, no way violence will come to a closure in Iraq.

Thank God no one died in the churches attacks,although few guards were wounded and parts of the churches were destroyed. Non-official reports say that the number of christians in Iraq degraded from 1.5 Million before 2003 to 750,000 in 2007. This is cause by all the "imrpovement" in the security. They just can not live in a calm country as Iraq, they had to go to more wild countries in Europe and all over the globe.

On another "improvement", the leader of Adhamiya Awakening Force was killed today. For a few days now, the situation in Adhamiya has been so edgy. Some clashes to place between the Awakening forces and the American and Iraqi Army a couple of days ago. Although Al-Qaeda is the number one suspect in this assassination, something smells fishy.

Some guys I know in Adhamiya said that there have been some inside disturbance in the Adhamiya awakening force. These disturbances were caused by some misuse of power done by some low level soldiers in the force. And this cause the discrepancies between the leaders of the force on who should be the big guy there. Of course all of this remains unclear. And I'd still point the accusation finger on Al-Qaeda, because the said they will kill the leaders of the awakening forces, maybe they have started.

Its kind of a funny fact that Al-Qaeda propaganda seem to be more accurate than the American and the Iraqi ones. Time after time we have heard Gen. Petraius, Jawad Al-Bolani, Abdul-Qader Al-Ubaidy, and the butt head talking about how Al-Qaeda is becoming weaker. Well guys, at least they did what they said they would do.