Rain & Death

Four days of continuous rain caused floods in many parts of Baghdad. It revealed a lot about the public services & the infrastructure, and how much rehabilitation they need. Sewerage system needs lot of maintenance since it did not work properly to drain water which created small lakes. Water break into houses & many families had to leave theirs. Electricity was cut off & people, whose houses were filled with water, could not pump water out since there is no electricity. Power had been cut for many days, so one can imagine what kind of mess people had been living in. Telephone service is out of order in most of the city districts; mine is one of them. So I have to come to this cyber café to write this post.
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I admire all my blog visitors' comments. On my post (Kill, No One Punished), one of the comments drew my attention. It was Stefania's, so I sent her an email which she replied to. I'm grateful for the reply & I understand her attitude.

Now, I find my email to Stefania is worthy to be posted, since it shows my point of view about very dangerous circumstances which ordinary Iraqi people have to face. I'll try to notify her about this post so she might comment on it.

"Hi Stefania
First, thanks for visiting my blog & commenting. Second, I made a post leading to the "Regime change in Syria" petition, which I expect you don't mind. I signed the petition.

Now, I hope that you won't mind explaining your attitude toward Segrina. I could not perceive the last line of your comment. Is it easy to wish others death? I'm not on her side, since I don't know whom she represents exactly. I wanted to draw attention to one of the daily hostilities the Iraqis face. Your comment says:

"Sgrena was a friend of the Terrorists, That means a friend of those who kill innocent iraqis everyday.Too bad that she is still alive"

Another comment you made says:

"Ibn, would you be happy if we let you in the hands
of Zarqawi?..."

Well, it is not a matter of comparing bad to worse. Criticizing a bad way of conduct dose not mean that the worse is the solution.

People who claim being tolerant & wise should accept criticism to
move to better positions. I think that I'm addressing such people. On the other hand I am not addressing Zarqawi & people of hatred, since they do not respect human lives.

You also say:

"I think you are committing a big mistake comparing the Americans to the head-choppers a la Zarqawi."

For the simple Iraqi person it is death no matter who kills him/her. I am not against the the Americans & I recognize any American withdrawal from Iraq as a disaster.

Thanks again, with high respects.

Yours,
Ibn-Alrafidain"

Many journalists wrote about the same matter. I read some Arabic articles referring to some of them. One is written by Ania Sizadlo (sorry for the misspelling, the name mainly in Arabic) in the Christian Science Monitor about her experience with the American checkpoints in Iraq. Another says that it took an American soldier more than 48 hours & more than 30 Iraqi casualties to understand that his sign for the Iraqi car drivers to stop means a salutation according to the Iraqi tradition.

Petition

A site to visit. Maybe, you'd like to sign.

Kill, No One Punished

Giuliana Sgrena (the Italian journalist) was shot by American soldiers. The poor lady managed to escape being killed by the kidnappers, but she couldn't avoid the Americans. Anyhow, it may draw attention to dangerous conduct of the Americans which became part of our everyday life.

Last week, an uncle of one of my friends was about to be killed by an American soldier. The man is in his sixties and owns a poultry farm at the countryside nearby Baghdad. He was driving his car back home when the American soldier fired at him three shots. His story about the incident says "First I did not see the American patrol, but at the moment the soldier pointed his gun at me, I braked hard and the car, thank God, swerved which caused the bullets to miss me. I jumped immediately out of the car raising my hands up to show that I was clean".

In November or October (I don't recall) 2003, I witnessed a similar incident but without shots. I had just left a friend house, at night, and at the moment I was around the corner, an American soldier was lit by the headlight. He was standing in the middle of the completely dark street pointing his gun at me. I stopped immediately but I did not know what to do. The soldier might shoot me for no reason. Since then I stopped using my car and changed to the public transportation. I try not to leave home at night.

Iraq became a hunting ground for the American soldiers since they are protected against any kind of legal pursuance. Iraqis are killed, nowadays, in a non-organized way. Till the 9th April 2003, Saddam organized the massacre under his control and the Iraqis were killed through rhythmical events. Americans, suicidal bombers, saddamists, baathists, Arabs, ordinary criminals…etc kill Iraqis chaotically. Iraqis are used as a cushion by several sides against each other.

I can assure you that the Iraqis made the greatest number of final sacrifice in this region during the last fifty years. Still, they gained nothing.