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TechnoratiThrough Occupation, The Very Dreams Change for Iraqis
BAQUBA - After more than five years of U.S. occupation, the very dreams of the people of Baquba have changed. For a start, they are no longer about the future.
Today, a shower is a dream. Or that the electricity supply continues just that little bit longer.
"These needs are very trivial for people of other countries," 43-year-old political leader Saad Tahir told IPS. "But in Iraq, people dream more of these things than of some ambition or success."
Abdullah Mahdi, a retired 51-year-old trader, says he dreams only of electricity.
"Like millions here, I hope supply gets better to help us to sleep in this hot summer," Mahdi told IPS. "We have been suffering from this problem since the 1991 Kuwait war, and this current occupation only made things worse."
Others dream of freedom of movement. "I dream of travelling among the Iraqi provinces freely and safely," a local resident said. "For more than two years now, I have not travelled to any province of my country." Lack of security means Iraqis can rarely travel even to a neighbouring area.
Children also seem to have begun to dream differently.
"I dream of a playground in which I and my friends can play freely and at any time," 11-year-old Luay Amjad told IPS. Children are not allowed to play just anywhere for fear of unexploded bombs, haphazard firing, and a general fear of the Iraqi military. Many children in Baquba and other districts of Diyala province have been kidnapped.
"All families wish to see their children safe, and then enjoying their time," said a young father. "We know that they currently live in a very closed world. But we put pressure on our children for their own safety. Streets are dangerous, and even gardens may sometimes be dangerous."
Others dream of a functioning economy. According to the ministry of trade, unemployment has been vacillating between 40-70 percent over the last two years.
"I hope that the trade and economic process will improve," said an unemployed trader. "I wish Iraq could be an industrial country with a flourishing and luxurious status of living. I want to get back to my shop and have my own customers."
Teachers dream of an Iraq that can be a centre for education again. "Iraq was one of the countries that paid great attention to education," a university professor, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS. "Now, breaking the rules of schools is very common, and fake certificates are spread widely all over the country. We dream of a rigorous and successful educational process."
Farmers simply dream of water, and the security necessary to work in their fields. "I hope I can work on my farm again, and have water to irrigate all the land," said a local vegetable farmer.
A cleric spoke of bigger dreams. "I dream that all Iraqis will love each other again, as we used to in the past days. We miss hope, a smile, and true love. We hope that cooperation prevails again among people. We hope for killing and displacement to end forever in this once peaceful country. We hope that the sectarian discrimination disappears."
A political analyst said he dreams of an end to the occupation. "The occupation is the source of all the problems of our people. I do dream of the end of the occupation -- no more arrests, no more prison for simple and poor people, and no more suffering."
Ahmed, our correspondent in Iraq's Diyala province, works in close collaboration with Dahr Jamail, our U.S.-based specialist writer on Iraq who has reported extensively from Iraq and the Middle East.
© 2008 Inter Press Service
9 Comments so far
Show AllWhat happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
- Langston Hughes
Thanks for writing this report of the illegal, immoral occupation of the Iraq people. While many people in the US are whining about their own personal struggles, I can't think of any that would want to trade places with those people suffering in Iraq.
" curmudgeon99 May 27th, 2008 2:09 pm
...
The violence is down only because we are 'buying off' our opposition and subjugating the rest - yes, SUBJUGATING is the only term for the result of our actions in an illegal occupation."
People can call the situation "only occupation" if they cannot muster up enough critical ability to think and/or speak the whole truth and nothing but that; [sharply], with well sharpened double-edges of the tongue instrument.
The situation, however, is far more and this can be thoroughly argued to be reality; while 'only occupation' is never defended and cannot be competently defended. Only through hasty, negligent analysis could we treat the situation as 'only occupation'.
But I'm not going to develop further, with an extensive explanation on this; I'll just include the link to my other post in which the the point is considerably (enough,)illustrated (in the articles that I provided links for).
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/27/9230/#comment-286402
It was tagged for moderators to verify, but I hope it'll be pass, be accepted (of course). I linked to a very good and important ProjectCensored.org (#3, of 25) 'Award for 2008' article and maybe CD will choose to censor it too, as most or all news media have censored the realities the article and the (far more extensive) source article describe.
SUBJUGATION?
Iraqis are deliberately and criminally being starved and deprived of necessities, not only subjugated. Their situation is more like internment in numerous concentration camps in Iraq.
It's what the situation the IPS article describes strikes me as being, given that it factually reports that Iraqis can no longer go to neighbouring areas of Iraq, their own country, shop or store owners and workers can't go to work, the situation being far too dangerous, Iraqis are now too poor, etc., f.e.; being very deliberately deprived of being able to do things they need and have the right to do, and like they formerly could do, before March 19-20 2003. And the extreme lack of security, which the war criminals against Iraq clearly have no real intention of ensuring (and it's a legal responsibility of "occupiers" to ensure real security), makes the situation all the more like concentration camps; violent, dangerous ones, not only the occupying foreign forces committing the violence, but also the U.S. puppet regime (mis-)called an Iraqi govt.
It's not really (certainly not significantly anyway) better than the concentration camp prisons of WWII in Nazi Germany. Whether you're quickly or instantly killed through the application of lethal gases (assuming that that really did happen during WWII and which is something I'm sure no one who's live since actually were eyewitnesses to, else they'd have also died or been killed); well, whether the method is that quick, or you're deliberately deprived of essential food and therefore and deliberately made (forced) to starve to death, DEAD IS DEAD.
Otoh, the latter, slow ("progressive") method is much more painful and difficult, given that it takes a lot longer to slowly die than it does to instantly die. Consider all of the severe suffering caused from severe diseases that are due to the war criminal occupying forces not ensuring that necessary reconstruction is provided; that sanitation of drinking water is left to the diseased state, f.e. Consider the serious suffering due to being forced to and then seeing, and feeling, oneself starve to death. Consider .... ETCETERA.
Whether or not subjugation is involved is beyond doubt; but the situation is far worse than 'only subjugation', which is a serious understatement.
Only HOPE permits such victims to resist total collapse of morale, say; maintaining sane and healthy hope that maybe there'll one day be an end to the criminal actors' actions and the suffering they very deliberately cause. Very, or else wholly deliberately!
The intent clearly is to kill as many Iraqis as possible, given by far most Iraqis have been opposed to this criminal war-occupation for a long time now; and not respecting this demand of the Iraqi People [is] continued ACT OF WAR (of aggression), absolutely nothing less than that.
It's just that the methods to murder these Iraqis isn't as blatantly obvious as it is when killing with guns and bombs, or quickly acting ("effective") lethal gases.
Killing people, quickly or slowly, is not subjugation; it is [killing], actually [murder].
POLITICS; STRATEGY:
Given the extremely violent INSANITY of the many war criminals involved, it's likely enough that they strategically perceive this slower-death (-murder, mass-murder) approach as less politically (so also less legally) dangerous for or to themselves; figuring that it's less "explosive", say.
Also WAR UPON USA:
And it's also war, Global War OF (state) Terrorism, against The People of the USA; a parallel war that's very and strategically related. It's always commanded by the same cabal of ruling elites of the U.S. "government" and its military superpower (and police forces, federal and state).
Treating the Constitution and Bill of Rights as has been going on for many years now, as "only a piece of (toilet) paper", [is] WAR UPON the USA by the ruling elites; including both the Congress and the Senate, which could have stopped all of this years ago, already. After all, the wars (of aggression) continue only because Congress and the Senate pass bills of approval; approving more funding than is asked for by the Bush-Cheney cabal.
Ever see the original sci-fi movie entitled, 'Metropolis'? No sci-fi is that any longer in the USA; and perhaps it wasn't entirely sci-fi from the start, 1927.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_(film)
[WAR] CRIMES TRIALS is where these people would be tried, if ever they are indicted and tried, which we can easily (while chagrin-[fully]) is very unlikely; not 'occupation', but [war] crimes trials'. They would be tried as [war] criminals, for it's what they are. That they've committed war crimes during the war-criminal occupation is beyond any doubt; but it's [war].
The same type of trials are where the Canadian elites and govt leaders would also be tried for their continued crimes of genocide of the First Nations Canadians. Rev. Kevin Annett states this in excellent terms in the article of his linked in my above post. Yes, WAR CRIMES TRIALS; he's fully right about this.
"First Nations: Why an Apology is Wrong, and Deceptive: Bringing Humanity to Bear on the Residential School Atrocity
by Rev. Kevin Annett
Global Research, May 25, 2008
www.mohawknationnews.com "
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9066
EXCELLENT and either wholly or else very relevant article for analogy does this article by Rev. Annett represent; in addition to its critically important, urgent, and specific purpose. It's urgent alright; sirens, air-raid-like sirens should be sounding off all across Canada to alarm everyone about the gravity of the situation and crimes he refers to. He doesn't describe many of the critically important details in this article of his, for the purpose is to draw attention to what PM Harper is going to say on June 11th; more hellishly false, ..., definitely criminal, charlatan, ... words from the criminal.
[Only] occupation? [Only] subjugation?
BS!
I haven't read the article yet, so am not making any comments on it; not specifically anyway.
The following may strike some people as off-topic, however it really is not. I perceive it as a strongly fitting analogy and a very alarming one at that.
"First Nations: Why an Apology is Wrong, and Deceptive: Bringing Humanity to Bear on the Residential School Atrocity
by Rev. Kevin Annett
Global Research, May 25, 2008
www.mohawknationnews.com "
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9066
A few ways that I believe we can justly consider the analogy are:
*) In asking ourselves what kind of future is in store for Iraqis, Afghans, and many other peoples, the many victims of the imperialist, ... warmongering, ... West, which has a never-ending trait of constantly LYING about supposedly doing and/or bringing any good [whatsoever] to and/or for anyone else. Another many of the victims are residents and citizens of these Western countries run by totalitarian, corporatist, ... hypocrites, hegemons, charlatans, ....
*) Another way is with respect to SOVEREIGNTY. It is NEVER respected by these above ... "sons of NOT God" (for briefer manner of summarising all of their hellbent traits and ways).
*) And the analogy can be considered in terms of critically realising that if these ... bastards treat the indigenous peoples here the way that has LONG been done and continues (and evidently or clearly is planned to continue MUCH longer), then it's not really realistic to think or believe that we can really do good for the many millions, tens or hundreds of millions of foreign victims.
We most definitely need to oppose these crimes, nevertheless; there's absolutely no doubt about this being our DUTY. However, I prefer to realise the complete reality (or set of realities, i.e., crimes against humanity) that we need to oppose; instead of focusing on only one, while ignoring all of the others. Too many so-called 'humanitarians' are lousy in terms of analysis, and too many come up with nonsensical excuses for not opposing the evil acts or actions that do need to be opposed and curbed. Too many of such so-called 'humanitarians' contribute to the evils, instead of really contributing to curbing them and having them addressed in courts of law.
If we think that we can stay silent about the major crimes of genocide against the indigenous peoples here, then to hell with the lot of us. It'd be infantile dreaming to think that these crimes are not reflective of also much or many more (elsewhere). Major thieves, murderers, ... don't steal from only one location when they can repeat the same acts in other or many other profitable locations.
Rev. Kevin Annett, "a community minister", who's clearly and very true to his "calling" and/or religious OATH, states (at the start of the above article by him) that he submitted it to the editors of many, enough, Canadian newspapers, and they all DISREGARDED it; refusing to publish it. They are therefore and criminally complicit with the criminals responsible for these many acts of genocide committed by the ruling elites (state and church) of Canada.
And their likes are (I believe) surely not going to be any better, or less criminal, towards Iraqis, Afghans, Africans, Haitians and other South Americans, and others, either.
They agree to good treaties, sure; but ONLY ON PAPER, which incinerates merely with a lit match. CHARLATANS is the least of what they are.
I would not count on such stories being available on the internet for much longer. They have to combat child pornography and home grown terrorists you see.
Nothing much to discuss. The article says it all. The only thing I can add is that I wish articles like this were printed in American newspapers everywhere.
'i have a dream' MLK 1963.........................
Wow--we have not only destroyed their nation, we have destroyed their dreams. We are in for some extreme payback.
Isn't Occupation grand?
Aren't you glad we are in violation of any sense of humanity in Iraq?
The violence is down only because we are 'buying off' our opposition and subjugating the rest - yes, SUBJUGATING is the only term for the result of our actions in an illegal occupation.