Iraqi Citizens Want U.S. Troops Out

Pathless

Pathless

Fiercely Interdependent
Messages
2,526
Reaction score
4
Points
0
Location
In a farmhouse, on a farm. With goats.
As I come across them, I'll be posting quotes and sources here of Iraqis who want the U.S. military occupation to end. Some of these will also contain graphic descriptions of the atrocious daily reality that ordinary Iraqis are subjected to under occupation.

A good source for the feel of life in occupied Baghdad from the beginning of the war to last year is Riverbend's blog, Baghdad Burning. Two volumes of a book by the same name are also available. I have been reading through the first one, which compiles the first year of Riverbend's entries, and includes a foreword and introduction that are informative regarding the Iraqi people and the history of U.S. intervention and adventures in Iraq. Both volumes are published by and available from The Feminist Press.

In March of 2006, Code Pink hosted the Iraqi Women's Delegation which brought many Iraqi women to the United States to speak about life in their occupied country. Dr. Entesar Mohammad Ariabi, a pharmacist, had the following to say:

Dr.Entesar Mohammad Ariabi said:
I have seen too many bodies of Iraqis maimed, bleeding, destroyed. They are shot by U.S. troops, blown up by roadside bombs, caught in the crossfire, mutilated by kidnappers. Iraq has become a continuous river of blood. The most beautiful thing God created is the human body. It should not be treated so violently.


I have seen too much suffering, too many orphaned children, too many mothers crying. I cry with them every day. I cry because I can't bear their pain. I cry because I feel so guilty that I can't help the sick and the injured. I cry because I see my people come to the hospital and die.

I remember one day in the hospital we started talking about the Americans and asking if they had brought us anything good. No, we said, with all their wealth and knowledge, they haven't shared their great technology, they haven't given us new equipment, they haven't even given us basic medicines. "Yes, they have given us something," said one doctor."They brought us cold storage for the corpses."

The U.S. invasion has killed our people, destroyed our lives, ruined our health care system. I want the U.S. troops to get out of my country. I want them to go home now. I think that if the Americans leave, we Iraqis will have more of a chance to come together to heal our wounded nation.

Since the day I arrived in the United States, people ask me if I have any hope. Of course. No one can live without hope. My one sliver of hope lies with the American people. No other force in the world can make the American troops leave our country. No other force in the world can make this government hear our cries. Please don't let us down.


​
Click to expand...
 
Namaste Pathless,

Would this also be the place to post notes from Iraqi's who appreciate US assistance or would you prefer it one sided?

Just asking, I know we differ yet I am the one that votes for Ron Paul, the only politician that receives delegates and promises to get the US out.
 
wil said:
Namaste Pathless,

Would this also be the place to post notes from Iraqi's who appreciate US assistance or would you prefer it one sided?

Just asking, I know we differ yet I am the one that votes for Ron Paul, the only politician that receives delegates and promises to get the US out.
Click to expand...

Wil,

I think you will be hard pressed to find them. If you do, since you asked, I'd prefer you start your own thread.
 
wil said:
No problem, quite telling though.
Click to expand...

Hi Wil,

While it may seem that Pathless is running a one sided show, remember that the corporate media has been doing so since the start of the war. With daily images of soldiers and civilians sharing good times, children laughing and playing with the troops, it's no wonder that joe average gets the idea that everything is golly swell and everybody is having ice cream and the insurgents are so scared they ran away never to come back.
Okay sounds extreme but this kind of stuff comes from people I know all around town.

So Pathless takes a small corner of the 'net to tell the tale. I say let him tell it.
 
Noam Chomsky reports (in "'Good News,' Iraq and Beyond") that the U.S. Army released "a study of focus groups" or Iraqis in December of 2007.

Chomsky said:
The survey "provides very strong evidence" that national reconciliation is possible and anticipated, contrary to prevailing voices of hopelessness and despair. The survey found that a sense of "optimistic possibility permeated all focus groups . . . and far more commonalities than differences are found among these seemingly diverse groups of Iraqis." This discovery of "shared beliefs" among Iraqis throughout the country is "good news, according to a military analysis of the results," Karen de Young reported in the Washington Post (Dec. 19).

The "shared beliefs" were identified in the report. To quote de Young, "Iraqis of all sectarian and ethnic groups believe that the U.S. military invasion is the primary root of the violent differences among them, and see the departure of `occupying forces' as the key to national reconciliation." So according to Iraqis, there is hope of national reconciliation if the invaders, who are responsible for the internal violence, withdraw and leave Iraq to Iraqis.
Click to expand...




This from the U.S. military itself. One would hope that such a report would influence the powers-that-be (congress, the current and future presidents) to begin withdrawing troops immediately.
 
Last edited:
wil said:
couple links

Olive Branch Interfaith Peace Partnership | OliveBranchInterfaith.org

5 YEARS TOO MANY
Click to expand...


Very cool.

10 said:
Whether or not you can come to Washington in March you can be part of the web of resistance by offering a strand of hope.

Here's how: send or bring to Washington a six-foot length of light rope (multi-colored easy-tie clothesline is ideal). Attach to the rope ribbons or bands of cloth with your own hopes for a peaceful Iraq, your own prayers for peace, your own definitions of peace. Imagine something like Buddhist prayer flags.

Leave a foot at each end of your length of rope (so they can be tied together) and fill the remaining four feet. Please keep the ribbons or bands of cloth or prayer flags to two feet or shorter (so they can be carried without dragging the ground), and make them whatever width you like (keeping in mind that onlookers will want to be able read your hopes and prayers).
Click to expand...

Thanks for the links, wil.

Peace,
P
 
I'm reading Riverbend again this morning, after taking a hiatus of several days. Here is an entry that she wrote from her home in Baghdad during the seige of Faloojeh (Falujah, whatever). It really does call attention to the fact that American citizens have been fed a warped story of the war by the media. We have to struggle against the official corporate media to become aware of the horrors of the mass, irrespective and completely disrespectful slaughter of people:

Baghdad Burning

Riverbend-April 9 said:
The people in Falloojeh have been trying to get the women and children out of the town for the last 48 hours but all the roads out of the city are closed by the Americans and refugees are being shot at and bombed on a regular basis… we're watching the television and crying. The hospital is overflowing with victims… those who have lost arms and legs… those who have lost loved ones. There isn't enough medicine or bandages… what are the Americans doing?! This is collective punishment … is this the solution to the chaos we're living in? Is this the 'hearts and minds' part of the campaign?

A convoy carrying food, medication, blood and doctors left for Falloojeh yesterday, hoping to get in and help the people in there. Some people from our neighborhood were gathering bags of flour and rice to take into the town. E. and I rummaged the house from top to bottom and came up with a big sack of flour, a couple of smaller bags of rice, a few kilos of assorted dry lentil, chickpeas, etc. We were really hoping the trucks could get through to help out in the city. Unfortunately, I just spoke with an Iraqi doctor who told me that the whole convoy was denied entry... it seems that now they are trying to get the women and children out or at least the very sick and wounded.

The south isn't much better… the casualties are rising and there's looting and chaos. There's an almost palpable anger in Baghdad. The faces are grim and sad all at once and there's a feeling of helplessness that can't be described in words. It's like being held under water and struggling for the unattainable surface- seeing all this destruction and devastation.

Firdaws Square, the place where the statue was brought down, is off-limits because the Americans fear angry mobs and demonstrations… but it doesn't matter because people are sticking to their homes. The kids haven't been to school for several days now and even the universities are empty. The situation in Baghdad feels very unstable and the men in the neighborhood are talking of a neighborhood watch again- just like the early days of occupation.
Where are the useless Governing Council? Why isn't anyone condemning the killings in the south and in Falloojeh?! Why aren't they sitting down that fool Bremer and telling him that this is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong??? If one of them were half a man or even half a human, they would threaten to resign their posts if there isn't an immediate ceasefire… the people are enraged. This latest situation proves that they aren't Iraqi- they aren't here for the welfare of the Iraqi people.

The American and European news stations don't show the dying Iraqis… they don't show the women and children bandaged and bleeding- the mother looking for some sign of her son in the middle of a puddle of blood and dismembered arms and legs… they don't show you the hospitals overflowing with the dead and dying because they don't want to hurt American feelings… but people *should* see it. You should see the price of your war and occupation- it's unfair that the Americans are fighting a war thousands of kilometers from home. They get their dead in neat, tidy caskets draped with a flag and we have to gather and scrape our dead off of the floors and hope the American shrapnel and bullets left enough to make a definite identification…
Click to expand...
 
wil said:
couple links

Olive Branch Interfaith Peace Partnership | OliveBranchInterfaith.org

5 YEARS TOO MANY
Click to expand...

Outreach | Olive Branch Interfaith Peace Partnership

Forty-Two Arrested for Civil Disobedience in Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC, March 7, 2008 -- More than forty religious leaders and faith-based peace activists were arrested in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill late Friday afternoon for their non-violent witness to end the war in Iraq. Hundreds of people assembled earlier in the afternoon for a public demonstration against the U.S. war and occupation of Iraq, and thousands of worshippers gathered at noon Friday for services calling for peace and an end to the war in Iraq.
​


Yesterday was also the day that these same activists were going to assemble the "Rope of Hope":

On Friday, March 7th in Washington, DC, people from across the United States will attend religious services at over a dozen different houses of worship and centers of faith at noon. Then we will come together for a public witness and demonstration against the war, including inspirational and diverse speakers, opportunities for civil disobedience, and the creation of a "rope of hope."

​
Anyone make a piece for the rope? I had talked about doing it and made some amorphous plans (usually as close to planning as I get) to make something, but the day crept up on me.
 
Keep them coming please Pathless and thank you.

Salaam
 
Here's a link to Raed Jarrar's blog. He's an Iraqi living in New York City. He was in Baghdad until 2005. He writes on the occupation of Iraq as well as his impressions of American democracy. A sample from January 29th of this year:

Raed in the Middle said:
Before the illegal and immoral U.S. invasion in 2003, Iraq did not have any Sunni-Shia divisions, and there was no Al-Qaeda presence in the areas controlled by the central government. It is not a coincidence that Iraq is witnessing the current civil conflict, and that Al-Qaeda has established a foothold in Iraq since the fall of Baghdad. Civil conflicts, extremist organizations, and foreign intervention thrive in places where there is no central government to protect national sovereignty.

The former Iraqi socialist government consisted of a large public sector that ran the country. This public sector did not belong to one political leadership. It was inherited by the Baathist regime from the regime before. The U.S.-led invasion did not only destroy the Baath political regime, it also annihilated education, health care, food rations, social security, armed forces, and all other systems that were run by the public sector.
Click to expand...
 
Before the illegal and immoral U.S. invasion in 2003, Iraq did not have any Sunni-Shia divisions, and there was no Al-Qaeda presence in the areas controlled by the central government.
Click to expand...
No sunni shia divisions?? It is my understanding, perfectly possible from the media we are provided that sunni and shia have been at it for centuries, including in Iraq. And it was the iron fist and low tolerance policies of Saddam that kept them under control.

But I'm thoroughly intrigued at the need for the caveat no Al-Qaeda presence in the areas controlled by the central government.

Makes me wonder in which areas they were....
 
wil said:
No sunni shia divisions?? It is my understanding, perfectly possible from the media we are provided that sunni and shia have been at it for centuries, ...
Click to expand...
Pathless said:
Wil, you may want to check out this article by Raed Jarrar:
Is it possible that our government and media have been lying to us, spinning false stories made of rose-colored threads?
Click to expand...
I read the article you provided the first time through. I also intimated that my knowledge is largely based on information I've received through most likely biased sources.

This however doesn't discount that Raed also has his bias and reasoning. Again, my understanding, Sunni are the largest group of Muslims, and in power in most gov'ts and were in power with the Bath party under Sadam. Big difference, in Iraq they were the minority, the persian shia being the majority and then the kurds up north. With this in mind, yeah, no Sunni/Shia issues, Sunni rules, Shia stay in their place in the decades of Sadam rule or visit a prison.

If I'd have to guess Raed is Sunni, and was among the priviliged class in Iraq and benefitted from Sadam's rule.

I could easily be completely wrong.
 
wil said:
If I'd have to guess Raed is Sunni, and was among the priviliged class in Iraq and benefitted from Sadam's rule.

I could easily be completely wrong.
Click to expand...

Even if you water out biases on both sides it seems easy to see that the country being "better off" would be a stretch. Some people might be, but the country? Before business was able to be conducted. Even if you call them the privileged class, that means there was one.

And prior to the 6(?) presidents they had a caliphate government which was as democratic as many nations we have in the european alliance.
Caliphate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Invading a country is bad. Invading it for questionable reasons is very bad. And now we have those who feel that we did not improve things, those who feel that we did but do not wish any more presidents, those who would like a return to the caliphate, and those who are willing to let the US help them create a new government in its image. I do not get the impression that the last group is the majority by numbers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top