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Iraq Update Last summer I had the chance to write about Iraq in this magazine. Today I want to continue telling the story. . . . I was in Vermont for a training course about peace building. At the end of the course, I gave a short presentation about Iraq. I told everyone that what the U.S. government has been doing in Iraq is nothing more than conflict building. I decided to go back home to work with Iraqi NGOs to help Iraqi families. But in the same month, July [2005], my son was kidnapped from his university by the interior ministry’s militia. They kept him in prison for 12 days. He was innocent, but we paid thousands of dollars to take him to the judge and release him. The family decided to close the house and leave Iraq. Since last summer, we live in Jordan with other thousands of Iraqi families who are living like refugees, waiting to go back home. But what about Iraqis who are inside Iraq now? They are suffering from the lack of security, electricity, clean water, fuel, medicines, jobs, and hope. There is no reconstruction work going on, and there are many stories about corruption with millions of dollars stolen from Iraq’s money for nothing done. There is a big assassination campaign targeting Iraqi professionals like doctors, professors and well-educated people. Iraqis are asking: Who is targeting our civilization, our culture and our future? Since the destruction of the Iraqi national museum in the first days of the occupation there has been a systematic destruction of everything in Iraq. In the same time, the occupation forces are spending billions building huge permanent military bases. This is giving one message to the Iraqi people: The U.S. will stay forever. The chaos and violence seem to benefit occupation authorities─a good investment to justify their presence in Iraq. They created the civil war myth to divide Iraqis and push the country to accept the idea of federalism, which means Iraq would be divided into three different colors due to the constitution written by American hands. Iraqi families are hiding in their houses scared. They don’t know who are the mercenaries running in the streets killing Sunni and Shias in mixed neighborhoods to provoke civil conflict. Iraq is the cradle of civilization, and the beauty of Iraq is the mixed cultures living together for thousands of years. If there was conflict in the past, it was between the government and the people for political reasons, but we never had such civil tension based on religious, sectarian and ethnic belonging. Today’s conflict is political, not faith-based as the mainstream media are trying to say falsely. This war started with lies, and continued with more lies. The American people have to open their eyes and minds to stop crimes committed in Iraq under the banner of “liberation” of Iraq. What is the solution? Let Iraqi leaders sit together, without interference of the American administration, to establish a unity national government, to train new Iraqi army and police. Create a time schedule to pull out the troops, and at the same time, stop building bases in Iraq. Fix what has been destroyed by paying compensation to Iraqis. We can rebuild our country by our own hands. Leave Iraq for Iraqis. . . . Faiza Al Araji
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