Between An Iraqi Woman And An American Man
By Nesreen Melek
26 March, 2013
Countercurrents.org
My Dear American Friend:
It’s been ten years since you became part of my life. Ten year ago, I wrote about the brutality of your government and how your president decided to launch his ugly war on my beloved country Iraq and posted it on the internet. I was devastated by the fact that the war was based on a lie and that the innocent Iraqi people would pay the price. I was shocked with the evil will of destroying my country...Iraq which was the cradle of civilization. You wrote me apologizing for your leaders’ acts and you didn’t know from my name whether I was a woman or a man. I responded to you saying that I am an Iraqi woman to the bones; I told you that I immigrated to Canada in 1989 and the more I live in Canada the more Iraqi I become. When I am writing you this now, I keep wondering what is in Iraq that makes so attached to it.
Since then, you taught me a lot my dear American friend. You taught me how a decent human being should treat others. You taught me how to coop with difficult situation. You taught me how to like myself and the others. You taught me how to stand for myself and how to express my ideas without fear. You taught me to like myself and see my strengths and my good qualities. You told me many times that I should be proud that I belong to that part of the world. You were my mentor. I told you so many times that I have so much respect for you and that you’ve added so much to life.
While I was passing through this hard time, you shared my pain and my concerns. You expressed your anger, you felt sorry for my people and felt helpless the same way I felt. You kept telling me that not all the American people are evil and to relay your apologies to my friends and family members who were living in Baghdad. A few times you’ve asked me if you could help. The pain was lessened by having you as a good friend who supported me and cared for me.
What surprised me the most though during all that time, is how come you belong to a nation that watched its government launching ugly wars toward innocent people? Iraqis caused no harm to the Americans so why they couldn’t stop their governments from launching these wars. I kept wondering if the American people were in a deep sleep or they are an arrogant and a selfish nation.
While the planes were flying on Baghdad and other cities, bombing people’s houses, killing and displacing people, spreading fear and agony in the heart of the Iraqi kids, you expressed your shame but you told me that you drove for a few hours to drop a few things to a single mother who could barely make it in life.
While we witnessed the torture and the rape after the war, you were still feeding your birds and your animals and you kept them alive by providing them food and shelter.
While the bodies of the innocent Iraqis during the were left in the streets to be eaten by dogs, you kept emailing me and caring about my mental status and assured me that you would be there to listen to my pain if I needed you.
You said so many times those killers one day would pay the price and justice will be prevailed.
In one of your emails you said that it was the most difficult time in your life and your people are the most aggressive people in the world and you were brought up to believe that guns are the solution and that hunting is manly art, as if there was any danger from the little deers that they shot. Were Iraqis like deers my good friend?
Your government is not willing to spend money on its own citizens. You had to fight with your insurance company for your cancer drugs, single women can barely make it in life, homeless people sleeping on the pavements in all USA cities, people can’t find employment in the states, the poverty rate is high, yet your government had the money to spend trillions of dollars to kill innocent people and is willing to launch another wars based on another lie.
Where is the logic in this my good friend, where?
Nesreen Melek
Comments are moderated
