New President,
New Car Bomb
By Dahr Jamail
03 June, 2004
The
New Standard
While
Iraqi and American political players have been frenetically rearranging
the chairs of interim government members on the Titanic that is occupied
Iraq today, a massive car bomb explosion rumbles my hotel, miles from
where it detonated outside of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan building
near the so-called Green Zone.
So rather than celebratory gunfire for the appointment of a new president,
we have a car bomb, a huge mushroom cloud and whaling sirens in the
center of the capital city today.
What good
does having these new people in these new positions do me, says
my friend, Abu Talat, angry after hearing the news of Ghazi
Yawar being appointed the new president of Iraq.
An Iraqi doctor
sitting nearby laughs out loud and asks, Did I miss the elections?
Even though in a
rare show of backbone the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council stood
up to Bremer and company, helping to thwart the US plan of Pachachi
as their first choice, most Iraqis Ive spoken with thus far remain
apathetic as another decision made which they have no control over feeds
the deep layers of distrust, as well as disdain, towards the U.S. policymakers
and Iraqi appointees in their country.
Those who have some
hope for the new president, do so mainly because he is the sheikh of
a very large tribe, and has a good reputation amongst Iraqis.
Then there is the
continuing mis-reporting by mainstream media of a convoy of foreign
civilians being killed by gunmen in Baghdad on Sunday. Keep
in mind, it was the killing of mercenaries in Fallujah two months ago
that led to the slaughter of between 800-1200 Iraqis when a siege of
the city followed the barbaric treatment dealt the corpses of those
four guns-for-hire.
A more truthful
lead sentence for the incident last weekend might read: Western
mercenaries wearing black helmets and holding their guns out the open
windows of heavily-armored SUVs hosting multiple antennae that stand
out like a sore thumb were attacked by members of the resistance in
occupied Iraq today.
Somewhere in the
story about the attack it would have to mention that several of the
surviving mercenaries in the vehicles managed to hijack an Iraqis
car at gunpoint on the other side of the highway in order to escape
alive. Because according to Iraqi police and several witnesses, shortly
after the attack on the mercenaries, cheering bystanders doused two
of the bullet-riddled SUVs with gasoline and lit them on fire.
The American public
might be fooled into thinking that innocent Westerners are being killed
mindlessly in occupied Iraq, but members of the Iraqi resistance know
the mercenaries when they see them. Even the children here can identify
them -- they are hard to miss.
After interviewing
several Iraqis on Rashid Street for their reaction to the new president
today, I found myself in a café with men playing dominoes and
drinking lemon chai.
The owner told us
of his frustration with the security situation... that before the invasion
he used to stay open until 3 a.m., and it was completely safe to do
so. Now he must close by 6 p.m.
While we were getting
ready to leave, the owner of the café insisted on escorting us
to our car. Why? Because not far from the café a looter was robbing
another looter.
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Dahr Jamail is Baghdad
correspondent for The NewStandard. He is an Alaskan devoted to covering
the untold stories from occupied Iraq. You can help Dahr continue his
crucial work in Iraq by making donations. For more information or to
donate to Dahr, visit The
NewStandard.
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