A Family In Baghdad: Reflections On The Imamain Shrine

I follow up the news from Iraq, through the Iraqi satellite channels, the meetings with the people there, and with various religious, political, and social leaderships in Iraq, and they all condemn what happened. And through the Mobile phone messages between me and my friends in Baghdad, I feel like I live among them, recalling back the ordeal of the war in its first days, in March2003 , when we were in our houses watching the events; the state fell, the occupation forces entered, and mercenaries got in, those who destroyed the museum and stole the antiquities, the national library was burned, with the Historical documents, the Ministries were plundered, then burned afterwards (except the Ministry of Oil), the Universities were plundered, burned, or its libraries were destroyed, as if it was a barbarian onslaught, reminding us of what the Moguls did to our ancestors, when they entered Iraq, centuries ago….
It was also said in history books that Tigris, the great river, turned black, because of the ink from the many books that were torn, then thrown in it…

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I talked to a lot of our kin and friends in Baghdad, yesterday and today, and they said: Do not fear for us, we organized joint comities in the neighborhoods, by Shia'ats and Sunnies, we cleaned the mosques and performed joint prayers. Every ordeal makes us stronger, fear not for us…
I said: Thank GOD, this is Iraq, and these are the Iraqis I have known all my life.
They said: Tell the whole world the truth of what is happening, there is no civil war in Iraq, and will not be. All these are lies, and the dreams of the Iraqi's enemies.
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How can Iraq get out of the dilemma in which America put it?
The answer to this question lies with the Iraqis, and they agree upon it; the answer is to put the bases of a national unity government, without ethnicity, without sectarianism, giving the Iraqis healthy atmospheres for dialogue among them, without the interference of the occupation to support a group or marginalize a group, then, putting a timetable for the withdrawal of the occupation…
For thousands of years we lived together; Muslims and Christians, Shia'ats and Sunnies, in peace and harmony, our history never witnessed this violence, destruction, and free bloodshed like we saw during the occupation years that has passed upon us. Even in the days of Saddam Hussein, we never witnessed such fear for our lives and families, and the Iraqi society was never ripped apart like what happened now…
This ordeal made the Iraqis sterner, their vision clearer, and made them more convinced to choose the path of national unity as an only choice to get out of the deadlock in which the present American administration's policy put them into, and the only intact way to build a new Iraq….
The Iraqis are in agreement on the choice of National Unity, and rebuilding Iraq all over again, on just, right bases. But who will convince the American administration to get out of Iraq, and stop its military and political interferences?
Here lies the problem……..

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