An Arab Woman Blues
I was not sure how to title this post, for it is a fairly complex subject that needs to take into account several factors. I will start easy and simple and see where that will take me...
Echoes I hear from Baghdad and I will refer mainly to Baghdad as the center - the eye of the storm, so to speak, and from my observation of Iraqi refugee youth outside of Iraq, either those whose have already emigrated - been placed in another country or are still caught in a limbo, in some psychological no man's land, unable to move back or move forward...
The age group I shall focus on is the 15-25 years old or so. Bear in mind this is not an in depth sociological study nor is it meant to be. It is more like a mix of observations, experience and listening to people.
But before I do, I need to rewind back in time a little, first to the sanctions years then to the 2003 U.S occupation.
These young men and women were born during the sanction years or just a little before. The bulk of their growing up life experience in Iraq was marked by the first Gulf War and the subsequent sanctions years that lasted 13 years, in other words years perceived as years of "deprivation".
If you have not lived the sanctions you would not know what am talking about. The only image that comes to mind, a close enough picture - is one huge prison with transparent windows, where you are allowed to watch the outside the world but never participate in it.
The sanctions years were crucial in preparing the whole psychological atmosphere for what was to come later - the brutal destruction of Iraqi culture and society.
Yet despite these draconian sanctions that left the majority of Iraqis in a state of total helplessness, the societal fabric even though pulled at the seams, had not cracked open yet, nor did it disintegrate like in the subsequent post 2003 years.
It remained a deeply secular society in its intra sect /intra ethnic dealings. Religion played a role ,sure, but remained confined to the personal and overall cultural realm. After all, Iraq is an Arab country and Islamic contributions to the world came forth from the Abbassid period, where Baghdad was one of the most important centers of learning and contributions to world civilization. But Religion, never NEVER occupied the center stage as it has done post 2003.
A parenthesis here - Every time I attempt to write an overall picture of the Iraq of before and after, I need to take a break, a choking feeling grips me in my throat and the rage rises again, like some lava from a volcano unwilling to die down.
That is why, when I hear shits of Westerners talk of the Iraq of before and after, in particular the garbage Americans the so called experts who made a fortune dissecting us like insects, in occupied Iraq, I honestly want to go for their jugular, literally... These are opportunistic bastards who came late on the scene and are still aiming for a best seller. They sicken me, my contempt for them sickens me...
That is why I refuse, categorically to read ANYTHING, any analysis of the War on Iraq by an American - apart from an occasional article that never fails to make me cringe with disgust.
I am writing this for myself...not for the reader. I have come to learn that the so-called reader does not effect any difference whatsoever. Hence whether s/he understands or not, does not make the slightest difference...
Against this background of "deprivation" , came an occupation with an agenda. The agenda of sect, ethnicities, religion etc...
The grounds were prepared in the early 90's. Iran with its so called Islamic Revolution had already one foot in Iraq, capitalizing on the Shiite population.
Iran was only able to fully impose itself as a cultural ideology (forget politics for the moment) in 2003 after the American invasion and occupation of Iraq. Before that date, it had some influence through its Shiite clerics in Najaf and Kerbala, but that influence was limited.
The American invasion and occupation of Iraq paved the way for the erasure of the Iraqi identity coupled with the strong Iranian hallmark that accompanied this occupation.
People, laypersons refuse to acknowledge that aspect of the occupation, yet we Iraqis are so aware of it, hence our total bewilderment when we are disbelieved in our own experience of what the American occupation is all about.
Political Shiism, and its parties made headways in Iraq, (forget the North for the moment where Israelis were arming and training the Kurds).
During the years 2004 to 2009, and till this day, an ethnic cleansing has been taking place...
A cultural and ethnic cleansing of anything Iraqi.
It started in waves, batches of cleansing...first there was the ex Iraqi army officers, then the Scientists, then the Academics, then the teachers, then the Doctors and nurses, then the Sunnis then the other minorities and now the time has come for the Christians of Iraq...
These are waves of cultural and ethnic cleansing...coupled with the burning and destruction of the Iraqi national heritage such as libraries, archives, antiquities, history...
Am trying to simplify it as much as I can...am trying to simplify the unthinkable in a few lines....
The American occupation encouraged the ethnic and cultural cleansing of Iraq and of its so called minorities. It did so by using Shiite parties and militias and did its own share in enhancing, exacerbating the sectarian divide that flared up post 2003, thanks to Iranian hands.
An eagle's view shows that the aim was to erase any Arab identity to this country..and turn it into a purely Shiite theocracy affiliated to Iran and some sort of Kurdish (Israeli) free zone in the North.
I ask anyone, whomsoever reads this, to keep these details in mind. I will not repeat the American agenda no more. I have been doing that for over 5 years now. And am getting frankly tired of the repetition to thick obstinate brains...even a brick wall would have understood by now.
Am on a roll, might as well get to the bottom of it...I can always crash later.
.............
In my post no.2, I spoke of agendas, cleansing, i.e erasing...
This is totally normal. You can't impose a new culture if you don't erase the previous one.
To erase a previous one, you need to obliterate anything that held it together. That seems so evident to me. Like common sense. No?
Was it secularism that held it together? Destroy that. Was it a person, an intelligentsia? Cleanse that. Was it a multi diverse culture? Reduce it to quantifiable entities. Was it a state apparatus and a leadership? Dismantle it. Was it a sense of belonging to a history? Erase it and re-write the curriculum (this is actually happening in school curriculums).
What are we to conclude from 8 years of the most hideous, brutal, savage destruction ?
Was it because of Saddam Hussein ? Was it because of WMDs? Was it because of Al-Qaeda that never existed in Iraq before the Americans occupied us?
Surely any remotely intelligent person can answer these questions...it is so obvious.
What was the aim of 13 years of embargo and the occupation? Come on show me your IQ's and don't you dare mention the word oil. Take into account all what I've said before.
Today there are over 13 officially acknowledged intelligence services belonging to foreign countries. Thirteen is an underestimate, some say up to 20 spying agencies in Iraq, armed to the teeth.
During Saddam Hussein's era, there was zero agency...except for the dirty Western NGO's who came for "humanitarian" reasons...to alleviate the "suffering of Iraqis". And the so called UN inspectors who were for the most part working for the CIA. FACT.
Why am I telling you all of this ?
Because am trying to show you in summary form, how to invade and occupy a country...
It's like a thousand daggers fell upon us in 2003...no one can understand that, except an Iraqi.
In parallel, a whole media warfare was waged...Wikileaks did a good job exposing some of it, the embedded journalism concept played a crucial role in how the occupation was sold to the herd...because herd you are.
The weapons, the artillery, the deaths are a natural outcome of this war that started first in your minds.
Am not done yet...this will be continued.
Echoes I hear from Baghdad and I will refer mainly to Baghdad as the center - the eye of the storm, so to speak, and from my observation of Iraqi refugee youth outside of Iraq, either those whose have already emigrated - been placed in another country or are still caught in a limbo, in some psychological no man's land, unable to move back or move forward...
The age group I shall focus on is the 15-25 years old or so. Bear in mind this is not an in depth sociological study nor is it meant to be. It is more like a mix of observations, experience and listening to people.
But before I do, I need to rewind back in time a little, first to the sanctions years then to the 2003 U.S occupation.
© Unknown
If you have not lived the sanctions you would not know what am talking about. The only image that comes to mind, a close enough picture - is one huge prison with transparent windows, where you are allowed to watch the outside the world but never participate in it.
The sanctions years were crucial in preparing the whole psychological atmosphere for what was to come later - the brutal destruction of Iraqi culture and society.
Yet despite these draconian sanctions that left the majority of Iraqis in a state of total helplessness, the societal fabric even though pulled at the seams, had not cracked open yet, nor did it disintegrate like in the subsequent post 2003 years.
It remained a deeply secular society in its intra sect /intra ethnic dealings. Religion played a role ,sure, but remained confined to the personal and overall cultural realm. After all, Iraq is an Arab country and Islamic contributions to the world came forth from the Abbassid period, where Baghdad was one of the most important centers of learning and contributions to world civilization. But Religion, never NEVER occupied the center stage as it has done post 2003.
A parenthesis here - Every time I attempt to write an overall picture of the Iraq of before and after, I need to take a break, a choking feeling grips me in my throat and the rage rises again, like some lava from a volcano unwilling to die down.
That is why, when I hear shits of Westerners talk of the Iraq of before and after, in particular the garbage Americans the so called experts who made a fortune dissecting us like insects, in occupied Iraq, I honestly want to go for their jugular, literally... These are opportunistic bastards who came late on the scene and are still aiming for a best seller. They sicken me, my contempt for them sickens me...
That is why I refuse, categorically to read ANYTHING, any analysis of the War on Iraq by an American - apart from an occasional article that never fails to make me cringe with disgust.
I am writing this for myself...not for the reader. I have come to learn that the so-called reader does not effect any difference whatsoever. Hence whether s/he understands or not, does not make the slightest difference...
Against this background of "deprivation" , came an occupation with an agenda. The agenda of sect, ethnicities, religion etc...
The grounds were prepared in the early 90's. Iran with its so called Islamic Revolution had already one foot in Iraq, capitalizing on the Shiite population.
Iran was only able to fully impose itself as a cultural ideology (forget politics for the moment) in 2003 after the American invasion and occupation of Iraq. Before that date, it had some influence through its Shiite clerics in Najaf and Kerbala, but that influence was limited.
The American invasion and occupation of Iraq paved the way for the erasure of the Iraqi identity coupled with the strong Iranian hallmark that accompanied this occupation.
People, laypersons refuse to acknowledge that aspect of the occupation, yet we Iraqis are so aware of it, hence our total bewilderment when we are disbelieved in our own experience of what the American occupation is all about.
Political Shiism, and its parties made headways in Iraq, (forget the North for the moment where Israelis were arming and training the Kurds).
During the years 2004 to 2009, and till this day, an ethnic cleansing has been taking place...
A cultural and ethnic cleansing of anything Iraqi.
It started in waves, batches of cleansing...first there was the ex Iraqi army officers, then the Scientists, then the Academics, then the teachers, then the Doctors and nurses, then the Sunnis then the other minorities and now the time has come for the Christians of Iraq...
These are waves of cultural and ethnic cleansing...coupled with the burning and destruction of the Iraqi national heritage such as libraries, archives, antiquities, history...
Am trying to simplify it as much as I can...am trying to simplify the unthinkable in a few lines....
The American occupation encouraged the ethnic and cultural cleansing of Iraq and of its so called minorities. It did so by using Shiite parties and militias and did its own share in enhancing, exacerbating the sectarian divide that flared up post 2003, thanks to Iranian hands.
An eagle's view shows that the aim was to erase any Arab identity to this country..and turn it into a purely Shiite theocracy affiliated to Iran and some sort of Kurdish (Israeli) free zone in the North.
I ask anyone, whomsoever reads this, to keep these details in mind. I will not repeat the American agenda no more. I have been doing that for over 5 years now. And am getting frankly tired of the repetition to thick obstinate brains...even a brick wall would have understood by now.
Am on a roll, might as well get to the bottom of it...I can always crash later.
.............
In my post no.2, I spoke of agendas, cleansing, i.e erasing...
This is totally normal. You can't impose a new culture if you don't erase the previous one.
To erase a previous one, you need to obliterate anything that held it together. That seems so evident to me. Like common sense. No?
Was it secularism that held it together? Destroy that. Was it a person, an intelligentsia? Cleanse that. Was it a multi diverse culture? Reduce it to quantifiable entities. Was it a state apparatus and a leadership? Dismantle it. Was it a sense of belonging to a history? Erase it and re-write the curriculum (this is actually happening in school curriculums).
What are we to conclude from 8 years of the most hideous, brutal, savage destruction ?
Was it because of Saddam Hussein ? Was it because of WMDs? Was it because of Al-Qaeda that never existed in Iraq before the Americans occupied us?
Surely any remotely intelligent person can answer these questions...it is so obvious.
What was the aim of 13 years of embargo and the occupation? Come on show me your IQ's and don't you dare mention the word oil. Take into account all what I've said before.
Today there are over 13 officially acknowledged intelligence services belonging to foreign countries. Thirteen is an underestimate, some say up to 20 spying agencies in Iraq, armed to the teeth.
During Saddam Hussein's era, there was zero agency...except for the dirty Western NGO's who came for "humanitarian" reasons...to alleviate the "suffering of Iraqis". And the so called UN inspectors who were for the most part working for the CIA. FACT.
Why am I telling you all of this ?
Because am trying to show you in summary form, how to invade and occupy a country...
It's like a thousand daggers fell upon us in 2003...no one can understand that, except an Iraqi.
In parallel, a whole media warfare was waged...Wikileaks did a good job exposing some of it, the embedded journalism concept played a crucial role in how the occupation was sold to the herd...because herd you are.
The weapons, the artillery, the deaths are a natural outcome of this war that started first in your minds.
Am not done yet...this will be continued.
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