Explosions and explosions, Basra and Riyadh too.
The Dominican and Hondurans decided to pull their armies from Iraq, after the Spanish decision, others are planning to follow too.
But really…
What is this war on Al Jazeera all about?
Evil? Bad? Change the channel?!
I mean.. why?
Why do Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz waste their time cursing Al Jazeera?
Isn’t that very childish and funny? Having the Ministers of the only Super Power on earth whining all the day about a T.V. channel?
Let’s say that Al Jazeera and Al Arabia are pure evil channels, (unlike CNN and FOX), doesn’t the bush administration believe in democracy and in exporting freedom to the world?
I really wonder how far this irresponsible and impolite criticism will go… are they going to bomb the central offices of evil Jazeera like they bombed their branches in Kabul, Baghdad and Falluja?
Can’t a person like Wolfowitz respect himself a bit more and think of other reasons for the failure of his administration in Iraq?
“we cant change everything overnight” he said!
Habeeeebi!!! If u hadn't noticed… it has been a YEAR… not a night.
And attacking media channels (by bombs or by words) is only more proof of how the bush administration is bankrupt and lost.
Over a year, and no one can name a single success for the American administration in Iraq…
I mean… I really try to find something bright…
Public services? Electricity... water... telecommunication… hospitals… schools…
The only thing that has happened is “rehabilitating” some schools by Bechtel, and let me tell u more about it…
Bechtel charged around $75,000 per school, and gave the contracts to Iraqi sub-contractors, the Iraqi sub-contractors gave to other Iraqi sub-sub-contractors, and the sub-sub-contractors painted the schools, fixed the bathrooms, changed the broken windows and put some light bulbs, the thing that cannot cost more than $7,500 (around fifteen million Iraqi Dinars). Rehabilitation was poor and extremely costly; it was the first corruption story that destroyed the credibility of the plans of reconstruction. I’m sure I had already said many things about how bad the situation of hospitals, libraries (the ones that were not burned and looted), universities and gas stations are.
Infrastructure? Landmarks? Governmental buildings? Telephone exchanges?
Destroyed buildings and bridges are as they were one year ago, some buildings were brought down at Najaf and Basra (which is better than leaving them standing and adding more depression to the urban skyline), but the buildings in Baghdad were not even touched… they look sad and painful, downtown Baghdad looks like a battlefield, can you imagine all the buildings that you love… that you spent your life watching and using… being burned and partially destroyed? Can u imagine the feeling you would have if you went by the White House or the Capitol while it was burning and destroyed? Can you imagine what it would feel like to have the twin towers of the WTC standing for months burned and partially destroyed… the skyline of Baghdad reminds me of war and death, reminds me of explosions and destruction. Other smaller landmarks like status of people, pictures, small monuments and other things that were destroyed after the war, under the campaign of De-Baathification left Baghdad and the other Iraqi cities full of small destroyed icons, I mean… I don’t care about the Statue of Al-Baker (the former Iraqi president), and I don’t see his status as a sign of Evil and Baath, it is simply the landmark in front of my house!! We either put another one or remove this one completely! Leaving things partially destroyed is the worst thing to do.
Social changes? Democracy? De-Baathification? Gender issues?
The entire society is more protective and defensive. We had a real democratic couple of weeks after the war and everyone could do whatever he wanted… loot… sing in the street… start his own political party… and build some palaces on moving sand, but “democracy” became a cheap word that is used in jokes now… we have something like a dozen small Saddams trying to prove how powerful can they be now. De-Baathification (led by the corrupt figure, Chalabi) destroyed the hopes of rebuilding the community, it added more reasons for conflicts and gave Bathists a dark corner to hide and rebuild themselves slowly, instead of using their experiences in rebuilding the post war Iraq. When an Iraqi-Man-Professor-smart-Architect-educated-father-teacher like my supervisor and Director of the Architectural Department of Baghdad’s University is simply judged as a Baathist that must go and die slowly in his house… we are not doing the right thing. The GC discovered this some weeks ago when they started their First Conference of National Reconciliation but that was late as their other decisions. Gender-related problems increased, women can’t go outside without covering their hair, they can’t easily go to public markets, and maybe Riverbend can describe more details of what she face in her life as a girl in Baghdad. Iraqis –in general- are disappointed and losing/lost faith.
Security? Business? Average income?
Bad bad bad… and getting worse. Most people don’t go outside their homes.
But maybe the worst button that the Coalition forces pushed was humiliating Iraqi individuals. Pictures like this and this are not coming out of nothing.
But you know what…
I think everyone heard so much criticism, I know…
But still it is not enough.
The unjustified war on Iraq will be criticized for decades.
But I think the time of suggesting some answers came too.
I will discuss some ideas tomorrow,
I really think the time of the Iraqi Road Map is coming soon.
The Dominican and Hondurans decided to pull their armies from Iraq, after the Spanish decision, others are planning to follow too.
But really…
What is this war on Al Jazeera all about?
Evil? Bad? Change the channel?!
I mean.. why?
Why do Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz waste their time cursing Al Jazeera?
Isn’t that very childish and funny? Having the Ministers of the only Super Power on earth whining all the day about a T.V. channel?
Let’s say that Al Jazeera and Al Arabia are pure evil channels, (unlike CNN and FOX), doesn’t the bush administration believe in democracy and in exporting freedom to the world?
I really wonder how far this irresponsible and impolite criticism will go… are they going to bomb the central offices of evil Jazeera like they bombed their branches in Kabul, Baghdad and Falluja?
Can’t a person like Wolfowitz respect himself a bit more and think of other reasons for the failure of his administration in Iraq?
“we cant change everything overnight” he said!
Habeeeebi!!! If u hadn't noticed… it has been a YEAR… not a night.
And attacking media channels (by bombs or by words) is only more proof of how the bush administration is bankrupt and lost.
Over a year, and no one can name a single success for the American administration in Iraq…
I mean… I really try to find something bright…
Public services? Electricity... water... telecommunication… hospitals… schools…
The only thing that has happened is “rehabilitating” some schools by Bechtel, and let me tell u more about it…
Bechtel charged around $75,000 per school, and gave the contracts to Iraqi sub-contractors, the Iraqi sub-contractors gave to other Iraqi sub-sub-contractors, and the sub-sub-contractors painted the schools, fixed the bathrooms, changed the broken windows and put some light bulbs, the thing that cannot cost more than $7,500 (around fifteen million Iraqi Dinars). Rehabilitation was poor and extremely costly; it was the first corruption story that destroyed the credibility of the plans of reconstruction. I’m sure I had already said many things about how bad the situation of hospitals, libraries (the ones that were not burned and looted), universities and gas stations are.
Infrastructure? Landmarks? Governmental buildings? Telephone exchanges?
Destroyed buildings and bridges are as they were one year ago, some buildings were brought down at Najaf and Basra (which is better than leaving them standing and adding more depression to the urban skyline), but the buildings in Baghdad were not even touched… they look sad and painful, downtown Baghdad looks like a battlefield, can you imagine all the buildings that you love… that you spent your life watching and using… being burned and partially destroyed? Can u imagine the feeling you would have if you went by the White House or the Capitol while it was burning and destroyed? Can you imagine what it would feel like to have the twin towers of the WTC standing for months burned and partially destroyed… the skyline of Baghdad reminds me of war and death, reminds me of explosions and destruction. Other smaller landmarks like status of people, pictures, small monuments and other things that were destroyed after the war, under the campaign of De-Baathification left Baghdad and the other Iraqi cities full of small destroyed icons, I mean… I don’t care about the Statue of Al-Baker (the former Iraqi president), and I don’t see his status as a sign of Evil and Baath, it is simply the landmark in front of my house!! We either put another one or remove this one completely! Leaving things partially destroyed is the worst thing to do.
Social changes? Democracy? De-Baathification? Gender issues?
The entire society is more protective and defensive. We had a real democratic couple of weeks after the war and everyone could do whatever he wanted… loot… sing in the street… start his own political party… and build some palaces on moving sand, but “democracy” became a cheap word that is used in jokes now… we have something like a dozen small Saddams trying to prove how powerful can they be now. De-Baathification (led by the corrupt figure, Chalabi) destroyed the hopes of rebuilding the community, it added more reasons for conflicts and gave Bathists a dark corner to hide and rebuild themselves slowly, instead of using their experiences in rebuilding the post war Iraq. When an Iraqi-Man-Professor-smart-Architect-educated-father-teacher like my supervisor and Director of the Architectural Department of Baghdad’s University is simply judged as a Baathist that must go and die slowly in his house… we are not doing the right thing. The GC discovered this some weeks ago when they started their First Conference of National Reconciliation but that was late as their other decisions. Gender-related problems increased, women can’t go outside without covering their hair, they can’t easily go to public markets, and maybe Riverbend can describe more details of what she face in her life as a girl in Baghdad. Iraqis –in general- are disappointed and losing/lost faith.
Security? Business? Average income?
Bad bad bad… and getting worse. Most people don’t go outside their homes.
But maybe the worst button that the Coalition forces pushed was humiliating Iraqi individuals. Pictures like this and this are not coming out of nothing.
But you know what…
I think everyone heard so much criticism, I know…
But still it is not enough.
The unjustified war on Iraq will be criticized for decades.
But I think the time of suggesting some answers came too.
I will discuss some ideas tomorrow,
I really think the time of the Iraqi Road Map is coming soon.
