Faiza Speaks

Having followed the events in the Iraqi blogosphere from early in 2003, this post from Faiza Al-Arji is so sad. I have not read the Family in Baghdad blog for quite some time, but I have followed one of the son's blogs, Raed in the Middle. I do not think Amerika will ever understand the depth of depravity to which we have taken this innocent nation. We continue to work for justice that will see George Bush and Dick Cheney (and many others) in the dock of the Criminal Justice Court in the Hague.

Peace be upon you…

The news from Baghdad is depressing and deteriorated more and more… hope is diminishing in people everyday…
When you meet an Iraqi who is living inside, he is usually sad, broken, has lost hope, and keeps repeating a sentence: Iraq is lost, and will not come back…

And of course I cannot argue with people and cross them, telling them they are fools, and mistaken. I cannot play that silly role with them, for whoever lives inside sees the dark picture, and he is right.
But those who live outside; I mean- outside the borders of the Iraqi hell, who work with organizations or Parties, perhaps see the picture better, because that who works retains the hope to make a change more than that who doesn't join or isn't informed about events and their annoying daily details…
Other Iraqis are emigrating, fleeing the daily hell. Each one started thinking how to secure his future and that of his family.
Why do we blame them?
I read a report about members of the present Iraqi government and the one before it, and parliamentary members; most own houses outside Iraq, in neighboring countries or in Europe, in which to secure their families from the fires of strife, so why should I blame the ordinary people if the leadership has fled from the lands of the country, which has turned into a stage for violence and daily bloodshed?
And these people themselves, when they came along with the occupation, preached about a new, free, happy, democratic Iraq, then changed their minds, and arranged a residency for their families outside of the new, free, happy, democratic Iraq. Then they came back to live in the Green Zone, to attend the meetings of the Minister's council or the Parliament, to debate about issues as far as possible from the daily sufferings of the people, or to quarrel and fight among themselves under the dome of the Parliament.
Alas; I regret, as a lot of other Iraqis regret, like me, having participated in the elections process, thinking we were making a better future for our country, that we were giving the chance to new, nationalistic leaderships to lead the country's fate.
But after one year passed since the last elections, here we are asking ourselves; what have we reaped from this government?
We saw nothing but destruction and ruin, political stupidness and narrow, selfish viewpoints, while at the time of the elections the slogans were like honey…
We shall solve the country's problems…
We shall have a national unity government…
We shall…
We shall…
And then what?
We saw nothing but dust.

Read the rest here.