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

Summer of Goodbyes... Residents of Baghdad are systematically being pushed out of the city. Some families are waking up to find a Klashnikov bullet and a letter in an envelope with the words �Leave your area or else.� The culprits behind these attacks and threats are Sadr�s followers- Mahdi Army. It�s general knowledge, although no one dares say it out loud.

In the last month we�ve had two different families staying with us in our house, after having to leave their neighborhoods due to death threats and attacks. It�s not just Sunnis- it�s Shia, Arabs, Kurds- most of the middle-class areas are being targeted by militias. Other areas are being overrun by armed Islamists. The Americans have absolutely no control in these areas. Or maybe they simply don�t want to control the areas because when there�s a clash between Sadr�s militia and another militia in a residential neighborhood, they surround the area and watch things happen.

Since the beginning of July, the men in our area have been patrolling the streets. Some of them patrol the rooftops and others sit quietly by the homemade road blocks we have on the major roads leading into the area. You cannot in any way rely on Americans or the government. You can only hope your family and friends will remain alive- not safe, not secure- just alive. That�s good enough.

For me, June marked the first month I don�t dare leave the house without a hijab, or headscarf. I don�t wear a hijab usually, but it�s no longer possible to drive around Baghdad without one. It�s just not a good idea. (Take note that when I say �drive� I actually mean �sit in the back seat of the car�- I haven�t driven for the longest time.) Going around bare-headed in a car or in the street also puts the family members with you in danger. You risk hearing something you don�t want to hear and then the father or the brother or cousin or uncle can�t just sit by and let it happen.

I haven�t driven for the longest time. If you�re a female, you risk being attacked. I look at my older clothes- the jeans and t-shirts and colorful skirts- and it�s like I�m studying a wardrobe from another country, another lifetime. There was a time, a couple of years ago, when you could more or less wear what you wanted if you weren�t going to a public place. If you were going to a friends or relatives house, you could wear trousers and a shirt, or jeans, something you wouldn�t ordinarily wear. We don�t do that anymore because there�s always that risk of getting stopped in the car and checked by one militia or another. There are no laws that say we have to wear a hijab (yet), but there are the men in head-to-toe black and the turbans, the extremists and fanatics who were liberated by the occupation, and at some point, you tire of the defiance. You no longer want to be seen. I feel like the black or white scarf I fling haphazardly on my head as I walk out the door makes me invisible to a certain degree- it�s easier to blend in with the masses shrouded in black. If you�re a female, you don�t want the attention- you don�t want it from Iraqi police, you don�t want it from the black-clad militia man, you don�t want it from the American soldier. You don�t want to be noticed or seen. I have nothing against the hijab, of course, as long as it is being worn by choice. Many of my relatives and friends wear a headscarf. Most of them began wearing it after the war. It started out as a way to avoid trouble and undue attention, and now they just keep it on because it makes no sense to take it off.

What is happening to the country? I realized how common it had become only in mid-July when M., a childhood friend, came to say goodbye before leaving the country. She walked into the house, complaining of the heat and the roads, her brother following closely behind. It took me to the end of the visit for the peculiarity of the situation to hit me. She was getting ready to leave before the sun set, and she picked up the beige headscarf folded neatly by her side. As she told me about one of her neighbors being shot, she opened up the scarf with a flourish, set it on her head like a pro, and pinned it snuggly under her chin with the precision of a seasoned hijab-wearer. All this without a mirror- like she had done it a hundred times over� Which would be fine, except that M. is Christian. If M. can wear one quietly- so can I.

I�ve said goodbye this last month to more people than I can count. Some of the �goodbyes� were hurried and furtive- the sort you say at night to the neighbor who got a death threat and is leaving at the break of dawn, quietly. Some of the �goodbyes� were emotional and long-drawn, to the relatives and friends who can no longer bear to live in a country coming apart at the seams. Many of the �goodbyes� were said stoically- almost casually- with a fake smile plastered on the face and the words, �See you soon�� Only to walk out the door and want to collapse with the burden of parting with yet another loved one.

During times like these I remember a speech Bush made in 2003: One of the big achievements he claimed was the return of jubilant �exiled� Iraqis to their country after the fall of Saddam. I�d like to see some numbers about the Iraqis currently outside of the country you are occupying� Not to mention internally displaced Iraqis abandoning their homes and cities. I sometimes wonder if we�ll ever know just how many hundreds of thousands of Iraqis left the country this bleak summer. I wonder how many of them will actually return. Where will they go? What will they do with themselves? Is it time to follow? Is it time to wash our hands of the country and try to find a stable life somewhere else?

Sunday, July 30, 2006

Qana Massacre... Although the sun is blinding this time of year in our part of the world, the Middle East is seeing some of its darkest days� I woke up this morning to scenes of carnage and destruction on the television and for the briefest of moments, I thought it was footage of Iraq. It took me a few seconds to realize it was actually Qana in Lebanon. The latest village to see Israeli air strikes. The images were beyond gruesome- body parts and corpses being hauled out from under tons of debris. Wailing relatives and friends, searching for loved ones� So far, according to humanitarian organizations, 34 were children. They killed them while they were sleeping inside their bomb shelters- much like the Amriya Shelter massacre in 1991. We saw the corpses of the children on television, lifeless and twisted grotesquely, what remained of their faces frozen in expressions of pain and shock.

I just sat there and cried in front of the television. I didn�t know I could still feel that sort of sorrow towards what has become a daily reality for Iraqis. It�s not Iraq but it might as well be: It�s civilians under lethal attack; it�s a country fighting occupation. I�m so frustrated I can�t think straight. I�m full of rage against Israel, the US, Britain, Iran and most of Europe. The world is going to go to hell for standing by and allowing the massacre of innocents. For God�s sake, 34 children??? The UN is beyond useless. They�ve gone from a union of nations working for the good of the world (if they ever were even that), to a bunch of gravediggers. They�re only good for digging mangled bodies out of the ruins of buildings and helping to identify and put them into mass graves. They won�t stop a massacre- they won�t even speak out against it- they�ll just come by and help clean up the mess. Are the lives of Arabs worth so little?

If this had happened in the US or UK or France or China, somebody would already have dropped a nuclear bomb� How is this happening? Where is the Security Council??? Why haven�t they stopped Israel? Ehud Olmert recently told Condi that he needs 10 to 14 more days of bloodshed- and nothing is being done about it! Where are the useless Arab leaders? Can�t the pro-American, spineless emirs crawl out of their gold palaces long enough to condemn this taking of lives? Our presidents/leaders are only as influential as their oil barrels are deep. And the world wonders how �terrorists� are created!

A 15-year-old Lebanese girl lost five of her siblings and her parents and home in the Qana bombing� Ehud Olmert might as well kill her now because if he thinks she�s going to grow up with anything but hate in her heart towards him and everything he represents, then he�s delusional. Is this whole debacle the fine line between terrorism and protecting ones nation? If it�s a militia, insurgent or military resistance- then it�s terrorism (unless of course the militia, insurgent(s) and/or resistance are being funded exclusively by the CIA). If it�s the Israeli, American or British army, then it�s a pre-emptive strike, or a �war on terror�. No matter the loss of hundreds of innocent lives. No matter the children who died last night- they�re only Arabs, after all, right? Right?

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From: http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com