Parliament
members are afraid to attend meetings. Iraq's nascent economy is
deteriorating. Hundreds of armed militias are ready to fight for their
own interests. This is Iraq today.
Not long after the statue of Saddam fell in Firdos Square, several
CODEPINK women and I returned to Iraq. We'd first visited in February
during the time Bush proclaimed, "The game is over" and announced his
plans for "shock and awe." We'd learned then how much Iraqis loved
Americans and did not want our disrupting their country; they asked us
to let them deal with Saddam because the change had to come from within
or it could be a disaster. We fell in love with Iraq and felt totally
safe there, taking cabs in the wee hours of the morning, walking at 2
a.m.
There's not much talk these days about Iraqi refugees even though
the numbers haven't changed much. About 2 million Iraqi refugees live
in the neighboring countries of Syria and Jordan. Another 2 million are
internally displaced.
There's not much talk these days about Iraqi refugees even though
the numbers haven't changed much. About 2 million Iraqi refugees live
in the neighboring countries of Syria and Jordan. Another 2 million are
internally displaced.
CommonDreams.org Editor's note: This article was orignally published in the Fall 2007 issue of YES!
The great number of Iraqi children affected with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is one of the saddest, and least known, legacies of the Iraq war. That a new clinic for their treatment opened last August in Baghdad is the first of its kind says a lot about how this problem is being addressed. Until now, hundreds of children suffering from PTSD have been treated by Dr. Haider Maliki at the Central Pediatric Teaching Hospital in Baghdad. Hundreds of thousands remain untreated.
Recently, Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa said it would be
“wonderful if [Mr. Obama] would apologize for the U.S.-led invasion of
Iraq on behalf of the American people.”
Such an act would submit our nation to the power of forgiveness, which
is what Nelson Mandela did when he became president of South Africa.
