[Peace-discussion] Meanwhile in Baghdad...By Dahr Jamail

[Michael Canney]

Meanwhile in Baghdad...

By Dahr Jamail

09/12/06 "t r u t h o u t" -- -- I've recently received several emails from
Iraq. Some, like the first, have been sent to me from people I know. Others
were passed on by my friend Gerri Haynes, who receives emails regularly 
from
friends she made during her several trips to Iraq. I include them here, as
the brunt of this piece, because they show the living hell that Iraq has
become under US occupation.

Here is an email from a doctor living in Baghdad:

Although I have perfect job satisfaction as a full professor with an MRCP,
FRCP, and two more degrees from London and France, things are so unhappy
here in Baghdad. There is no quality of life at all. There are no services;
we are loaded with garbage as it is not collected more than once every so
many weeks. Garbage collectors are also afraid of being killed. We have
almost no electricity, no fuel, bad water supply and what is more, you 
could
get killed whether you are Shi'ite or Sunni if you fall into the wrong
hands! I nearly got killed on several occasions!

As for our colleagues, nearly none are with me from our class since most
have left the country. The last one to leave was Abdul Aal, who left two
months ago to Oman. The only one left with me is Khdayyer Abbas, who is a
physician in the department of Medicine.

It is not a miserable life; if there is a grade more than miserable, 
then it
will be ours!!! We work no more than three days a week in the university.
The medical city, which was elegant and beautiful before the occupation, is
now surrounded by garbage, barbed wire and concrete blocks from all
directions. We don't spend more than three hours maximum at work so that
totals nine hours a week!!! This is the maximum that anyone is working. In
the afternoons, most of my colleagues say that they have completely stopped
going to their private clinics for fear of death or abduction.

I work no more than one hour and a half hour in the afternoon. I come back
rushing to my house after that. We lock our doors and do not leave at all.
What about shopping? It is called "Marathon Buying," for I try to spend no
more than ten minutes getting all the needed vegetables, fruits and food
items. This is on my way back from university, three times a week. I also
spend another ten minutes in the afternoon on my way back from the clinic
buying car fuel for my home electric generator. It is all black markets now
since the lines are so long at the pumps, reaching four to five times the
official price. If I need to get it officially, I have to spend the 
night in
line in front of the gas station where people bring their blankets, water,
food and sleep in the street in front of the gas stations. Sometimes I 
speak
nicely to the guard of the gas station, presenting my ID and my business
card and ask them if I can fill my car out of line. Sometimes they kick me
out, other times I am lucky and the guard has some rheumatic complaints,
back pain or knee pains, and bingo, I can fill my car out of line with a
promise to bring him medicines to where he is. Of course, this is without
any physical exam or investigations. If I was really lucky and the stars
were on my side that day, then I might even be allowed to get an extra 20
liters of gas for my generator!!!

One month ago there were militia men with their guns storming the
dormitories of the resident doctors in the medical city. They were looking
for doctors from Mosul or Al-Anbar province. There was a big fuss, and the
targeted doctors went into hiding so none were caught. The next day, two of
them who were rheumatology post-graduates under my supervision asked me to
give them leave to go to their hometowns and not be back except for their
exams. I agreed, because they were leaving anyway. They would have been
killed if they were caught, not because they have done any crime, but just
because they are Sunni from Mosul or Al-Anbar. I believe that many doctors
from southern parts of Iraq who were Shi'ites also left the dormitory that
day because they feared that they were not safe anymore and it would be
their turn with maybe Sunni militia gunmen who will come sooner or 
later. So
everyone left!!!!

That same week, I had prepared a lecture for post graduate doctors in the
medical city, and nobody appeared since all the resident doctors had left!
Many have come back again, but are terrified. Life has to go on.

The same applies for other hospitals, where services are almost 
non-existent
now. I was in Yarmouk Hospital two days ago. The resident doctor whom I was
visiting was living inside the hospital with broken dusty furniture, wood
and metal scattered all over. The doors and windows were broken and it
looked like an animal barn. I was requesting a death certificate for a
colleague, so I went with him to the morgue, where he kept the death
registry. Outside the morgue there were bodies of two young men, both shot
in the head, lying on stretchers in the open air. The hospital was
barricaded behind huge cement walls. The hospital itself has been targeted
several times by car bombs. Several months ago, doctors in this hospital
declared a one-day strike because they were beaten and wounded by officers
of the Iraqi National Guard. The hospitals are frequently raided by militia
men who will pull the wounded out of their hospital beds and drag them to
where they will be executed.

Attendance of patients to hospitals has dropped tremendously. Before the
invasion, we used to see an average of 100 patients in our consultation
clinic of rheumatology every single day. We don't see more than 20 
nowadays.
Don't ask me where the patients disappeared. Many are scared to leave their
homes and go to the hospitals. The hospital used to provide medicines for
the chronically ill, for diseases like rheumatoid arthritis. We used to 
have
a monthly blood checking available, followed by a month supply of DMRDs.
These supplies are now infrequent and blood checking is not done because
services are so irregular. So most patients got fed up and decided it is no
longer worth it to attend hospitals. Even simple medicines are not 
available
most of the time for patients coming for acute complaints. Many who used to
come from towns and cities away from Baghdad for better treatment in the
capital city now think it is too risky and dangerous to travel to Baghdad
for a follow-up. Patients stop their therapy altogether or depend on local
facilities and whatever simple resources they get where they are, 
regardless
of whether it is effective or not.

The financial situation of most families in Baghdad has gone so much down,
that many find it is a luxury to treat chronic illnesses, since the 
priority
is for food, fuel and staying alive. This is a small summary of what and 
how
we are living.

Here is an email written on August 10. The woman who wrote it, Souad, holds
a PhD and is a DU researcher who recently moved to northern Baghdad due to
the security situation. She is a mother of four.

For a while we have been going through very hard times. My oldest 
brother, a
kidney surgeon, died one month ago in a very painful situation. He was a
director of a large clinic and was 61 years old. He had a severe stroke in
the middle of the night. My brothers took him to Al-Kindy Hospital in the
morning, because it is the closest to the area. After long time of waiting,
they refused to hospitalize him in the intensive care because as they said
they had no time for stroke victims and they had to perform so many
amputations because of the explosions and the street fights. They asked my
brothers to bring him back on Saturday, when they might have a place in the
intensive care. My brother took him to private hospitals, which were very
good at one time. Most of them were closed because their specialists had
received envelopes saying "You have to leave, or else" with a gun bullet in
the envelope. They took him back home, and he died the next morning. 
This is
how much a human being is worth in liberated, democratic Iraq now. He 
worked
all his life to save people's lives, but nobody saved his. We feel outraged
and hopeless. We have more than 150 young men get killed every day only in
Baghdad, and nobody knows what the Americans in Iraq are up to. The death
squads attack Sunni Arabs areas, and when the people fight back to protect
their kids and families, the American tanks start bombing the areas with 
the
civilians in them. That proves that these squads are part of occupation 
plan
to control Iraq. About two million people left Iraq this summer. On TV, we
see the media making the relation between American and Iran look really
tense. In Iraq, the Americans work hand in hand with the Iranian 
militias to
slaughter Iraqis. I don't know when this bloodthirsty president of yours
will stop. He is executing Hitler's plans with the Jewish, but this time on
Muslims. I wonder what the children and teenagers will do after they see
their parents suffering or being killed at the hands of occupation
criminals. Excuse me for being so harsh and disappointed, but this is what
we are doing every single day of our lives now.

Here is another email from Souad:

I know it is hard to imagine the situation. Baghdad turned into a ghost 
city
this summer. Things are beyond the tolerance of any human being. No
electricity, no fuel in the richest oil country to run even small house
generators. 90% of the stores are closed because of the kidnappings and
explosions. Some of my women relatives couldn't leave the house to their
garden for six months. Can you imagine the house-prisons women are 
locked in
here in Iraq these days? Some of them PhD holders. About two million Iraqi
have left since June of this year to close-by countries waiting for a
miracle to happen. We have no clue what will happen the next day. There is
no planning and no reconstruction. Where are all the oil revenues going?
Nobody knows. Every single dollar is being spent on security plans, and we
have no security.

The following email is from Rizgar Khosnow, who is a Kurdish man with US
citizenship and author of the book, Nothing Left But Their Voices. Khosnow
lives in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, where most people in the US
are led to believe things are so much better than the rest of Iraq. This
first email is from August 12:

We have been stuck at home this summer because it is so hot here and we 
have
very little electricity. Things are not that great here. As I have said in
the past, I am considered wealthy here and I am just barley keeping my head
above water. Believe it or not, I am spending $600-700 a month in gas 
alone!
This gas I use to run my two generators, at different times in the day, and
I must use them to run lights and fans. The rent is getting so ridiculous
that the president of Kurdistan came on TV last night and said that he will
do something about the rent increase that is going on here.

Three years ago, I rented a furnished home for $100 in the city of Arbil.
Now, I pay $1500 a MONTH without furniture! My next door neighbor rented 
his
home for $3,500 a month. Things are extremely bad here. The rich are 
robbing
the poor. I wish I knew how people here are living when their monthly
salaries are no more than $200 a month! Last year, a gallon of gas cost 25
cents and now the same gallon cost $6.00.

Here is another email from him:

I am glad that you are trying your best to get the word out. I feel that we
need to let all Americans know what is going on. I have moved to my new 
home
and it has taken me one week to do so. I have help from three of my
relatives who are staying with me till I finish everything, and we still
cannot seem to complete all that work that is needed. You will not believe
how difficult things are here and how much I needed to do in my new home.
Things are not easy here. At the new home we have electricity one hour a
day. I have now bought another generator, now I have three of them, to give
me power to run lights and fans. We also have not had water for three days
so I had to buy water worth $20 a day! That is life here even for the
well-to-do like myself!

Here is another email from him:

It is true what is going on is horrifying, but there is even more happening
every day that goes by. Since I am moving from my current home to a new
home, my cousin told me that he will come to Arbil and help us move. He
lives in Baghdad. He called this morning and told me that he cannot make it
because of the curfew that is going on in Baghdad. There is absolutely
nobody going out of their home at any time.

It was supposed to be for two days but now it will be one full week. The
curfew is only in the Sunni areas. That means the Shi'ites will still have
their weapons to kill more Sunnis as they wish. Yesterday, some 20 or so
soldiers entered all the homes in my cousin's area. They entered my 
cousin's
home to search for weapons. It was a very scary and unpleasant experience
for my relatives. Let me tell you what that means for people too scared to
leave their houses now.

They have no food; only water, bread and some rice. Since there is no
electricity, they cannot store food. We all know that Iraqis go to the
market on a daily basis to buy food or they have to stay hungry for a week.
Since there is no electricity, some areas have large private generators 
that
they turn on for at most five hours a day to give each home enough power to
run two fans and few lights- each home usually gets 4 to 5 Amps. They
usually charge a lot of money for this service, and even that is not 
working
this week, because the owner of the generator is not allowed to turn it on
and he cannot even leave his home. Anyone needing medicine is out of luck.
No government offices are open. Anyone needing to go to the hospital must
wait for a week! Simply put, Iraq is nothing but a large prison.

Here is an email from him on August 19:

I do have a lot to say and I wish to get the word out. No American can
imagine what is going on here at this time. It seems that the sad stories
never end here. Just a few weeks ago, my cousins, the five of them 
brothers,
were warned that they would be killed if they did not leave their homes in
the Sunni areas of Baghdad. They all packed their bags and moved to Egypt
with their families. The brothers will return to Kurdistan to work with me
in the next couple of months once they set up their families in Egypt. This
is the life in Iraq, and Bush and Rice keep telling us that we are "making
progress in Iraq." What a bunch of bull - -

Here is an email from him on August 28:

I have concluded that there is no way on earth that Iraq will recover, as
one country, in the next ten to twenty years. We need a new generation here
if we are going to see any kind of peace. There have been so many killings
here that there is no way one will forgive the other. I personally know 
many
people in Baghdad who are waiting for the right time to seek revenge on
others that have hurt them. There has been so much hurt here that you can
never imagine it.

Iraqis have given up on peace in Baghdad especially. There is no hope. What
you see on TV is propaganda and controlled by the USA and is absolutely not
true. There is no such thing as "reconciliation" between Iraqis. There has
been too much blood spilled and Iraqis are VERY well known not to forget 
and
forgive.

Here is a letter I received from a WWII veteran named Jack Cross who had
asked me if I had figures of the tonnage of bombs dropped by US 
warplanes in
Iraq. I include it here to underscore the fact that those responsible for
creating the living hell that Iraq has become are war criminals and should
be treated as such. I include it here for those currently serving in the US
military as an example of what true honor looks like:

I am 84 years old, and I flew as a navigator on B-25s in the campaign that
drove the Germans out of North Africa - from Cairo to Tripoli. Then,
returning home I undertook pilot training as a student officer. I then
transitioned in B-29s, flying from Tinian as a co-pilot on the last ten
missions against Japan. I was in the air when the atom bombs were 
dropped on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki - and I participated in the total destruction of
Aomori on the northern tip of Honshu.

Realizing how ignorant I really was, I returned home and entered the
University of Chicago and spent several years getting my AB, MA, and PhD
there. After this I served for a while in Air Force Intelligence in
Washington in a relatively new "targeting division," then transferred to 
the
CIA where, in the Materials Division of the Office of Research and Reports,
I spent about seven years as an analyst, rising from a GS7 to a GS11 before
quitting in disgust after sitting in on some of the early planning sessions
in which the overthrow of Mossadegh [democratically-elected prime minister
of Iran, 1951-1953] was planned.

Over the years, as I reviewed my experiences, I have come to realize that I
was a participant in war crimes myself, as were so many others - and just
how difficult it is to face that reality. Because we were all such 
heroes of
the "good" war. Retrospect, however, shows me that there are no good wars.
War is an abomination, a failure of our humanity, and a neglect of our
better natures.

I sit here knowing that every major city in the world has been carefully
targeted and the international armaments industries of all the major powers
have become the most important things in supporting the economies of the
countries of the world. I know that the electoral process has been 
corrupted
by diabolical power brokers and realize just how ignorant - in the sense of
not knowing anything about the structure (or mal-structure, if you will) of
our governments - the people are, or their believing in an innate goodness
of man despite all the evidence to the contrary. I cringe before the
monsters that the Pentagon and its Air Force have become.

I cringe knowing that all political parties are completely complicit in
these developments. I wish I could see some hope. But unless and until the
people turn these Republicans out of office and Congress mounts serious
investigations of all levels of corruption in the Bush administration and
act on their findings, I am very pessimistic about the future. Unless these
investigations are carried out and the findings are laid bare for the 
entire
world to see just how nefarious this administration has been - and because
this bunch of people know just how serious all this is to their own 
survival
- I am very pessimistic about the future.

No, I don't think we will be able to get the figures for the number of 
bombs
and missiles we have used in this Iraqi war crime, nor will we know what
will be used in Iran. It has become important to these people for us not to
know these things.

©2004-2006 Dahr Jamail.