The Phantom
Weapons...
By Baghdad Burning
17 January, 2005
Baghdad Burning
The
phone hasn't been working for almost a week now. We just got the line
back today. For the last six days, I'd pick up the phone and hear...
silence. Nothing. This vast nothingness would be followed by a few futile
'hellos' and a forceful punching of some random numbers with my index
finger. It isn't always like this, of course. On some days, you can
pick up the telephone and hear a bunch of other people screaming "allooo?
Allooo?" E. once struck up a conversation with a complete stranger
over the phone because they were both waiting for a line. E. wanted
to call our uncle and the woman was trying to call her grandson.
The dial-tone came
about an hour ago (I've been checking since morning) and I'm taking
advantage of it.
The electricity
situation isn't very much better. We're getting two hours of electricity
(almost continuous) and then eight hours of no electricity (continuous).
We still can't get the generators going for very long because of the
fuel shortage. Kerosene is really becoming a problem now. I guess we
weren't taking it very seriously at first because, it really is probably
the first time Iraq has seen a kerosene shortage and it is still difficult
to believe. They say in 1991 when there was a gasoline shortage which
lasted for the duration of the war and some time after, kerosene was
always plentiful. This isn't the situation now. We're buying it for
obscene prices and it's really only useful for the lamps and the heaters.
It feels like just
about everyone who can is going to leave the country before the elections.
They say the borders between Syria and Jordan might be closed a week
before elections so people are rushing to get packed and get out. Many
families are simply waiting for their school-age children to finish
mid-year finals or college exams so they can leave.
This was an interesting
piece of news a couple of days ago:
The United States
has ended its physical search for weapons of mass destruction (WMD)
in Iraq, which was cited by the first administration of President George
W Bush as the main reason for invading the country, the White House
has said.
Why does this not
surprise me? Does it surprise anyone? I always had the feeling that
the only people who actually believed this war was about weapons of
mass destruction were either paranoid Americans or deluded expatriate
Iraqis- or a combination of both. I wonder now, after hundreds and hundreds
of Americans actually died on Iraqi soil and over a hundred-thousand
Iraqis are dead, how Americans view the current situation. I have another
question- the article mentions a "Duelfer Report" stating
the weapons never existed and all the intelligence was wrong. This report
was supposedly published in October 2004. The question is this: was
this report made public before the elections? Did Americans actually
vote for Bush with this knowledge?
Over here, it's
not really "news" in the sense that it's not new. We've been
expecting a statement like this for the last two years. While we were
aware the whole WMD farce was just a badly produced black comedy, it's
still upsetting to hear Bush's declaration that he was wrong. It's upsetting
because it just confirms the worst: right-wing Americans don't care
about justifying this war. They don't care about right or wrong or innocents
dead and more to die. They were somewhat ahead of the game. When they
saw their idiotic president wasn't going to find weapons anywhere in
Iraq, they decided it would be about mass graves. It wasn't long before
the very people who came to 'liberate' a sovereign country soon began
burying more Iraqis in mass graves. The smart weapons began to stupidly
kill 'possibly innocent' civilians (they are only 'definitely innocent'
if they are working with the current Iraqi security forces or American
troops). It went once more from protecting poor Iraqis from themselves
to protecting Americans from 'terrorists'. Zarqawi very conveniently
entered the picture.
Zarqawi is so much
better than WMD. He's small, compact and mobile. He can travel from
Falloojeh to Baghdad to Najaf to Mosul
whichever province or city
really needs to be oppressed. Also, conveniently, he looks like the
typical Iraqi male- dark hair, dark eyes, olive skin, medium build.
I wonder how long it will take the average American to figure out that
he's about as substantial as our previously alleged WMD.
Now we're being
'officially' told that the weapons never existed. After Iraq has been
devastated, we're told it's a mistake. You look around Baghdad and it
is heart-breaking. The streets are ravaged, the sky is a bizarre grayish-bluish
color- a combination of smoke from fires and weapons and smog from cars
and generators. There is an endless wall that seems to suddenly emerge
in certain areas to protect the Green Zoners... There is common look
to the people on the streets- under the masks of fear, anger and suspicion,
there's also a haunting look of uncertainty and indecision. Where is
the country going? How long will it take for things to even have some
vague semblance of normality? When will we ever feel safe?
A question poses
it self at this point- why don't they let the scientists go if the weapons
don't exist? Why do they have Iraqi scientists like Huda Ammash, Rihab
Taha and Amir Al Saadi still in prison? Perhaps they are waiting for
those scientists to conveniently die in prison? That way- they won't
be able to talk about the various torture techniques and interrogation
tactics...
I hope Americans
feel good about taking their war on terror to foreign soil. For bringing
the terrorists to Iraq- Chalabi, Allawi, Zarqawi, the Hakeems
How is our current situation going to secure America? How is a complete
generation that is growing up in fear and chaos going to view Americans
ten years from now? Does anyone ask that? After September 11, because
of what a few fanatics did, Americans decided to become infected with
a collective case of xenophobia
Yet after all Iraqis have been
through under the occupation, we're expected to be tolerant and grateful.
Why? Because we get more wheat in our diets?
Terror isn't just
worrying about a plane hitting a skyscraper
terrorism is being
caught in traffic and hearing the crack of an AK-47 a few meters away
because the National Guard want to let an American humvee or Iraqi official
through. Terror is watching your house being raided and knowing that
the silliest thing might get you dragged away to Abu Ghraib where soldiers
can torture, beat and kill. Terror is that first moment after a series
of machine-gun shots, when you lift your head frantically to make sure
your loved ones are still in one piece. Terror is trying to pick the
shards of glass resulting from a nearby explosion out of the living-room
couch and trying not to imagine what would have happened if a person
had been sitting there.
The weapons never
existed. It's like having a loved one sentenced to death for a crime
they didn't commit- having your country burned and bombed beyond recognition,
almost. Then, after two years of grieving for the lost people, and mourning
the lost sovereignty, we're told we were innocent of harboring those
weapons. We were never a threat to America...
Congratulations
Bush- we are a threat now.