Day one

2009-03-10T21:13:00.001-07:00

From http://www.opednews.com/articles/Iraqi-Refugees--America-s--by-Medea-Benjamin-080622-794.html

To quote the article I just read:

Many Iraqis think the United States has been carefully carrying out a diabolical scheme to obliterate their culture, their people, their sense of nationhood. “The U.SO. wanted to turn a strong, proud Muslim country into a weak, divided, pitiful territory that could be easily dominated and controlled,” said Faisal Al-Alawi, an Iraqi PhD in history who lives in Syria but refuses to call himself a refugee. “Thanks to the Americans, our modern, secular society has now disintegrated into tribalism, sectarianism, barbarism and fundamentalism, with Sunnis pitted against Shia, Christians against Muslims, Muslims against Muslims. Iraq is no longer even a nation-state.”

Intentionally or not, the U.S. government has brought Iraq to its knees. The best and brightest are gone, and even if the violence quells, most will not return. The education and health care systems that were once the jewels of the Middle East are now in tatters, with most of the academics and doctors murdered or in exile. This fiercely proud people who gave the world its earliest civilizations have be reduced to beggars, waiting on food lines for handouts or selling their bodies to feed their children.

My understanding:

A very realistic viewpoint from one person. The most important thing to note is that it refers to the "US government" and not the "US people". The problem that may arise from this, if it is a problem, is that the US people are so strongly patriotic to their country and since their government is the face of their country to the world..who is to blame, the people or the government? If any US citizen hears "the USA is to blame", well, nothing but patriotism will result (i.e the aftermath of 9/11). According to this article, and feelings I know from my Iraqi family, I ask a fair question: How is America so strong that it, through bombs, turns a "strong, proud Muslim country into a weak, divided, pitiful territory"? Where is the reference and blame to the continuous attacks by forces within it's own culture? Isn't it always easier to place blame outside of one's own home? Therefore it seems that America opened a can of worms and continues to be blamed for the worms that, while they were there to begin with, have hence emerged and run free. I cannot ever agree that what America did in Iraq was right because it was so very wrong. The previous American president should be condemned and prosecuted. But where is the whole story?

I also need to ask when the Iraqi people will stand up, shake off the dust of the previous multitude years of war, tyranny, embargo, terror, and bloodshed (which not all can be blamed on America) and take ownership of their own destiny and quit blaming America? Did not America, albeit through a very wrong method, offer them this chance? I am beginning to think that this offering of a chance was wrong and that the Iraqi people are better off with the tyranny, bloodshed, oppression and fear that has dominated their recent history.

America needs to withdraw all armed forces immediately and let an Iraq problem be solved by Iraqis. The American government did not create this problem but allowed it to come to the surface. From a global perspective it would be a shame if Iraq sheds its friendship and alliance with America because of the violence within the Arab word but if that is what it takes, so be it. This is further proof that America needs to rid it's dependence on oil, rely on it's own resources and let the violence of one people not kill its own children.

I say this to all Iraqis and Americans....May God and Allah, who are the same in the eyes of Abraham, determine our destiny. Please rise up to the words of The Almighty and live in peace and preserve the land and lives with whom have been so graciously given to us. We are all the same in the end.

What I think

Day one