A Welcome
Parade Of Blood
And Seething Anger
By Dahr Jamail
17 May, 2005
Dahrjamailiraq.com
As
if to add insult to injury, with over 400 Iraqis killed in violence
during the first two weeks of the newly sworn in Iraqi government,
US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice made a surprise one day visit
to the newest US colony.
After visiting northern
Iraq which has been spared the brunt of the ongoing violence, Rice traveled
to the heavily entrenched green zone in central Baghdad
where the U.S. embassy is located. She addressed a crowd
in the former Republican Palace, the perfect setting for her symbolic
visit to Iraq where more and more Iraqis are referring to the devastating
occupation which has beset their country as their new bloodocracy.
We are so
grateful that there are Americans willing to sacrifice so the Middle
East will be whole, and free and democratic and at peace, she
announced before she returned to northern Iraq in her huge contingent
of military helicopters to the mountain stronghold of Kurdish Democratic
Party leader Massoud Barzani before exiting the war ravaged nation.
Rather than a welcoming
parade with ticker-tape and rose petals for the US Secretary of State
who was one of the architects of the invasion, 34 corpses of men shot,
beheaded or with their throats slit were discovered across Iraq today.
Other aspects of
her warm welcome included drive-by shootings in Baghdad which claimed
the lives of a senior Industry Ministry official, his driver and a prominent
Shia cleric as well as a dual-bomb attack in Baquba which narrowly missed
taking the life of the governor of Diyala province (but took the lives
of four others in his convoy). A second bomb was delivered five minutes
after the first by a man running on foot towards the convoy who then
detonated an explosives belt.
When ambulances
arrived medical workers found body parts strewn about in pools of blood
and shattered glass as they attended to 37 wounded Iraqis.
Not only are the
vast majority of Iraqis in Iraq vehemently opposed to the ongoing occupation,
but in Amman those I met at the Between the Two Rivers Trucking
Company today were just as angry about the occupation.
Inside the large
office of the general director of the company, drivers from Baghdad,
Baquba, Sadr City, Fallujah, Ramadi and Basra, Sunni and Shia alike,
crowd about glasses of hot tea to take turns venting their frustrations
amidst my questions.
Prior to the invasion
they used to make 4-5 trips between Amman and Baghdad per month. Now
they make one trip per month, primarily due to the fact that prior to
crossing the border into Jordan they are forced to wait in a line several
kilometers long
for 18 days. This is due to, what they believe,
unnecessary harassment by Jordanian border authorities.
They sleep in the
cabs of their trucks as the line inches closer to the border, and when
a driver from Basra tells me that if they leave their trucks at night
they are shot at by American soldiers, I glace across the room to find
all of the men nodding in agreement.
None of them are
content with the situation.
All of our
problems are due to the Americans, says Ahmed, a driver who has
been trying to get supplies into Ramadi, The soldiers have surrounded
the city for so long, there is one entry way in and all of the people
of the city are suffering. The Americans brought all of these problems
with them.
The subject of civil
war is broached, and Mohammed, a Shia driver from Sadr City blurts out,
The occupiers are creating these problems between the Shia and
Sunni, but they will not divide us! All occupations only mean destruction
and suffering!
Again I look around
the room filled with seething Iraqis and find them nodding once again.
Ahmed raises his
voice over the others and with eyes seething with anger asks, My
cousin is in al-Qaim, and he just told me the Americans have destroyed
so many houses in that area and killed women and children!
All of the attention
in the room shifts to the large, mustached man wearing a brown dishdasha
as he continues.
They are entering
our houses where women and children are, and this is totally against
our traditions and culture. They must leave our country immediately!
It isnt only
the Iraqis in Amman who are opposed to the brutal occupation of their
country. Most Jordanians Ive spoken with over the last week feel
likewise. As an older Jordanian man from Palestine told me two days
ago at my hotel, The Iraqis must resist this occupation now, or
they will end up like the Palestinians.
In the office of
the trucking company, the mood is that of searing anger, frustration
and urgency.
Hamad, a Shia man
from Basra enters the discussion and states, I have seen them
destroy three farms in Diyala! Why cant they stay on their bases
like the British do in the south? If they would just stay on their bases
things would be so much better for us.
With my own
eyes Ive seen the Americans, when their patrol was hit by a roadside
bomb open fire on all the civilian cars around them, exclaims
Mohammed.
At this everyone
begins talking at once, the anger raising their voices.
Over the din Rathman,
a driver from Fallujah demands, If Bush is a real man, he should
walk down the street alone!
InshAllah
[God willing] Iraq will be the graveyard of the Americans, adds
Ahmed, Qaim is three small villages and with all their planes
and tanks they still fail to control it. If they were brave they should
attack one or two villages without planes and helicopters and tanks
and fight man to man!
A Shia driver from
Hilla, a small city south of Baghdad, sternly says that the US is the
mother company of terrorism.
My interpreter Abu
Talat, my friend Aisha and I decide its time to excuse ourselves.
Several of the men follow us to the street as we wait for a taxi, continuing
to make their statements as we wait. They are anxious to continue, seeing
my pen as an outlet for their frustrations as I continue to take notes.
Why is the
media not talking more about al-Qaim, asks Ahmed, as a taxi approaches
and begins to pull over to collect us.
We strongly
advise the American people to pressure their government to leave Iraq,
says a man from al-Karma who asks to be called Ali.
As I begin to step
into the car he asks, We are now free of Saddam Hussein, so did
the Americans come as liberators or acquirers?