Free Iraq

Several of us on the web were discussing Riverbend a few months back, she deserves the Nobel Peace prize !
 

“We come to Iraq with respect for its citizens, for their great civilization and for the religious faiths they practice. We have no ambition in Iraq except to remove a threat and and restore control of that country to its own people.”
Bush's Speech, THE NEW YORK TIMES
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/19/international/worldspecial/19BUSH-TEXT.html?ex=1113796800&en=e2b6b16e205a43b0&ei=5070


Yah, all right Iraqis waiting for the promises you made two years….
 

I don't know if yall saw but riverbend was also interviewed by aljazeera a few weeks back. I put it on my favorites but for wome reason it doesn't let me pull it up anymore so i can't give yall an exact address. Maybe a search of the aljazeera website could turn up something. It was pretty interesing. It was mostly about the growing pressures of women in Iraq. And yall know riverbend has thoughts on that!
 

It saddens me to think that some people swallow this propagandist rhetoric.

That interviewer was REALLY objective in their questioning (not!)....and the interviewee was REALLY balanced in her assessment of the situation too (not!).

She says "Democracy has to come from within and it has to be a request of the people"

- is that true? The Iraqis attempted this in 1991 and it ended in the deaths of around 300,000 of them because Bush Snr backed out of supporting them. They displayed their desires for freedom alright, and the rebellion was CRUSHED. The Iraqis needed the help of the US and UK, and that proves it beyond any doubt.


Secondly, the Iraqis don't necessarily have to watch American broadcasting Riverbend talks about, as they now have the freedom to have satellite dishes (something not permitted previously). They have a choice to switch it off and watch something else - like I switch off Fox News. American broadcasting has always been squeaky clean and US-centric. Tell me something I dont know! Its not about controlling mind of the Iraqis, its merely how the American media are!

After this, Riverbend then gives a very balanced view on the good and bad aspects of the occupation (not!). I wonder why she doesnt discuss projects like assessing local police departments? The successful recruiting of officers and soldiers? The successful repairing of roads, bridges, irrigation systems, and schools?

Its funny she mentions rich people like Chalabi living luxury lives abroad whilst sitting watching and encouraging the devastation of the Iraqi people - and yet she doesn't mention loyalist Saddamites such as Mohammed Sahhaf, Jafaar Dhia Jaafar et al, who are also living luxurious lives abroad in one of the leisure beach resort capitals of the world, after having actually CONTRIBUTED ACTIVELY to the devastation and rape of Iraq when their master ruled. At least Chalabi has the guts to return to Iraq.

She also says "Iraqis don't like being labeled as Sunni, Shia or Kurd. These labels are being promoted by the current new government and the Bush administration"

- that's funny! I thought these "labels" were actually encouraged by Saddam. He had the Sunnis as the superiors who governed Iraq, whilst he was quite prepared to assassinate anything of a Shia or Kurdish nature. If thats not labelling, I don't know what is.

"Many children have lost their childhood in this war and occupation" -

they lost it anyway because of the way children were recruited as Child Soldiers, because of the way some were forced to watch their parents tortured in Saddam's jails, and because the UN sanctions starved them after Iraqi tried to hide its weapons. She forgot to mention that, what a surprise.

"Three years ago, normal was being able to walk down the street with a sense of security" -

Security for whom exactly? Not the Kurds who were once bombed with nerve agents and mustard. Not for the Marsh Arabs who had their land drained and their lives devastated. Not for the Shias who often found themselves in mass graves.

Riverbend's interview is pure propagandist, subjective trash of the worst kind.
 

Imad,

I hae been reading your blogsite with interest. Just wanted to mention that I've been reading on the use of napalm in Fallujah, and found that one of your lionks on the matter - aljazeera.com - is supposedly a 'fake' site. The real one is aljazeera.net, which I read from time to time. aljazeera.net also published a report similar to the 'fake' site, about March 17 I think, but I couldn't locate an English version.

http://politicsofdissent.blogspot.com/2005/04/fallujah-dresden-in-iraq.html

I read pretty widely on Iraq. I protested the invasion and keep myself as informed as possible, time permitting. I am grateful to you for providing information and your views, and hope you will take my correction (?) well.

I appreciate Riverbend's blogsite along with a number of other Iraqi blogs. I lamented the lack of Iraqi voices in the lead-up to war, and am glad to hear from locals now.

Regards to you, sir.
 

Regardless of this woman's rantings, the US is there to help Iraq and historical facts have proved that nation-building the American (our) way does work. Japan, and many European nations can thank the Americans for their modern-day infrastructure (hope that doesnt sound arrogant, but its true). With American money and resources, we can exponentially grow the Iraqi infrastructure and economy. Iraq is well-equipped for rebuilding than the majority of the countries devastated in WWII, for obvious reasons.
The invasion of Iraq had to go ahead. People constantly snipe about Iran and North Korea. They are approached differently for obvious reasons and that is that they haven’t invaded any sovereign nations in the past 3 decades. In contrast, Iraq has invaded Kuwait and Iran and raped and killed its peope, it has fired SCUDS at Israel and Saudi Arabia, and it has massacred the Iraqi Kurdish and Shia people with chemical and conventional weapons. I have seen the heads of their previous biological and nuclear programmes interviewed and both claimed they did it out of "patriotism" and that "Iraq had the right to defend itself". They have missed the point though and that is that Iraq has a history of using WMD for offensive purposes. Maybe they have short memories, who knows.
I am glad the Israelis bombed the Osiris nuclear reactor in 1981 because I am in no doubt that bombing saved thousands of Iranian, Kuwaiti and Israeli lives.

Taking a sly sling shot at the Jordanian Royal family will not help this woman's opinion come across as either balanced or with good intention. They are well respected for trying to bridge the gap between the west and the east and the Israelis and Palestinians and they have certainly not battered anyone with chemical weapons, unlike the people she fails to criticize. Maybe Riverbend would like to reserve some of her criticism for the former Iraqi regime? Instead of aiming it at all and sundry in a somewhat erroneous manner?
 

Republican -
Central to your position is a feeling (perhaps unconscious) of American superiority with resulting condescension toward the rest of the world. Overlooked is the fact that all the original stated reasons for the invasion and occupation of Iraq have been shown to be baseless. (Do you suppose OIL or strategic positioning had anything to do with the invasion?) Our national arrogance in the field of uninvited "nation-building" has caused untold havoc. You say: "Iraq has raped and killed its people." Perhaps you could comment on how our own record in Iraq compares.

As for countries that "haven’t invaded any sovereign nations in the past 3 decades," are you able to name any (other than, of course, Afghanistan and Iraq, which probably still are in our "short memories") that the United States may have invaded in the past 3 decades? I'm wondering how quickly the rest of the world will forget about American offensive use of WMD.
 

Etienne -
You say, "Riverbend has given a very prejudiced assessment of the Iraqi reality." Which of her particular statements did you find to be incorrect?

Regarding the coalition soldiers, I totally believe you when you say they "would rather not be there and are doing their best just to get through each day." They have been asked to do a terrible job and I cannot begin to imagine the stress of their moment to moment existence. Soldiers are indeed, as you say, human, and certainly, I would not like to patrol the streets of Baghdad or Basra. And if that is what you have to do, I am so sorry about that. These young men and women are as sacrificial lambs and have paid a terrible price. My wish is that each one of them would be returned to their loved ones, and that somehow their scars, in time, will heal.
 

Having long counted on Riverbend to get a sense of life on the ground for ordinary Iraqis, I greatly admire this extraordinary human being. I was interested to note in the interview what she had to say about:
- her reason for blogging (expression of emotions and opinions; showing that part of the war not ordinarily covered by media)
- the security situation and infrastructure problems
- the consequences (intended and unintended) of Bush administration actions in Iraq
- her view of people like Chalabi and others who may be regarded as American puppets
- the desire of Iraqis to live together in peace in a united country, irrespective of religious or ethnic differences
- the incremental adjustments people have had to make as a consequence of the occupation and resulting instability
- the sources of insurgency, resistance and terror
- her fear of fundamentalism
- the braindrain in Iraq because of people's fear for their lives and for the lives of their children
- the lack of press coverage of various military assaults, and the resulting deaths and detentions
- the devastatingly high unemployment rate and terrible poverty, contrasting these to the misallocation of funds intended for reconstruction
- numbers of people who have died, been tortured, rendered homeless, abducted or succumbed to debilitating health problems
- her perception of the stated vs. real reasons for the invasion
- her belief that a timetable for complete withdrawal of occupation forces would bring hope to Iraqis and would push the Iraqi government to become better organized
- the disaster that has befallen Iraqi children, and
- her longing for peace and normalcy.
 

The rant of the Riverbend bashers leaves me stunned. It’s amazing to see to what extent these nay Sayers can go in their denial state. They won’t believe in the wanton murder of an Iraqi child unless a fresh bleeding corpse is thrust in their faces. They won’t believe in the rape of an Iraqi woman unless they, or their trusted reps, have seen the act from close quarters. They won’t believe the rape of an entire nation unless they can see the whole region deluged in one huge hemorrhage.

Holding election in Iraq is a big farce. It’s like breaking into someone’s house, killing some of the family members and asking the rest to vote on whether the housebreakers were right in doing that or not….a “Yes” being the only choice on the ballot paper.

The lid on the lies, cover-ups and distortions of the neocons has blown sky high. The rest of the world does see now these monsters, and their agenda, for what it really is. A brazen loot of the Iraqi resources….a brazen loot…a brazen loot…a brazen loot…a brazen loot….. Yet the nays Sayers keep nodding their heads in a sickening sideways motion.

Like I read somewhere “The fact is that a ghastly drama is being witnessed by the bleeding, lacerated dawns of Iraq. The fact is that America’s sacred cowboys are once again busy doing a liberation job hoping to ride off into the sunset after a job well done. The fact is that as their jets scream away from the blood drenched Iraqi deserts, their compatriots on ground are kicking their way through the decomposing Iraqi corpses, slashing with their bayonets through the walls of meat that stand in defiance of their masters’ vision for Iraq. The fact is that they are indeed in a hurry to get back home to pursue the American dream yet least worried that they will one day be answerable to the misshapen children of Iraq. The fact is that this is any thing but a war of liberation.”
 

Evly, it is only good thing that Saddam is history, you cannot deny this. Iraqi people recognise this fact and applaud every day of their life. Riverbend though is honestly not providing dispassionate picture and this must be done in order to obtain accurate picture. Press coverage of military attacks is bound to be limited to keep troops secure as possible. Soldiers do not want their positions and other important factors revealed by TV cameras. There has to be some sensible behaviour here.
All the problems she mentions existed in Saddam Iraq but on worse scale, the only difference is no-one bothered about them then because it was just accepted. When was last report you saw on children being tortured and killed in Saddam's Iraq? I cannot remember one because it was just accepted as a matter of course and because many people did not have the motivation or courage to speak up about what was going on there.
They have motivation and courage to challenge Bush but not Saddam. This tell me that they use democracy/freedom as weapons with which to attack the west in flawed way.In other words they bite hand that feeds them. Riverbend would not be having blogs and speaking her mind under Saddam because she knows her obvious fate if she did.
 

Evelyn, i have to comment on what you said about the soldiers..Remember these, It Is There Job, Its what they do..Men and women have lived off the military for so long by going to school and such people forgot there true purpose. The military is a fighting machine..The M16 is not a paper weight and they do give it to you for a reason.
 

Riverbend: Troop Withdrawal (the actual text)-

BuzzFlash: What would happen if the U.S. forces completely pulled out of Iraq within a month?

Riverbend: No one knows what would happen. Some people say civil war, others say Iraqis would be able to sort things out. I think the best thing would be to set a timetable for complete withdrawal. This would have the dual effect of giving hope to the millions of Iraqis who feel their country will be under occupation for at least another decade, and it would also push the current Iraqi government to organize themselves and try to win over the favor of the people instead of looking out for personal gain and power. It would also inspire Iraqi security forces to take better charge of the situation in the knowledge that, eventually, they'll have to protect Iraqis instead of Americans.
 

Evelyn, there is a timetable of 2 years from now, but that is subject to many conditions and may extend beyond that and that has to be accepted. The Iraqi government and the Iraqi security forces are doing their best in a challenging situation.

Riverbend has no right to say that they need to "pull their socks up".

These men and women are actually putting their lives in danger by agreeing to start the development of a new Iraq. Anyone associated with them is targeted by extremist Islamic and Saddamist groups. This is one reason why it is so hard to progress and Riverbend does not seem to appreciate this fact. They actually are active in developing the country and helping people, they have no time to sit and criticize people through a blogsite. They get on with the actual "doing".

There is a very distinct anti-western spin to Riverbend's interview and that does not help her cause at all. Many good things are happening in Iraq now and there are many good men and women of all nationalities that are really helping the country. For everyone that criticizes the coalition troops, there is another person to complement them. By airing such biased opinions so publicly, she actually makes the situation worse than it is.
 

Said -
Unless your point is that Riverbend expresses herself either with a hidden agenda or with malevolant intent, then her stated opinion represents, to the best of her ability, her thoughts based on her particular observations and judgments and expectations. I do not understand why there should not be room for more than one point of view in the new Iraq.
 

"The only way Jaafari's transitional government can garner any measure of popular credibility is to demand a firm deadline for total American withdrawal. This is what the Shi'ite masses voted for. Whatever the scale of mass protests though, Rumsfeld remains unfazed: he wants Saddam's Mukhabarat back in action and he wants the 14 military bases.

"The White House/Pentagon/Green Zone axis wants "shock therapy", deregulation, wide-ranging privatization, control of Iraqi natural resources, Iraq reduced to a deregulated capitalist colony with all or most government properties and services controlled by American multinationals and all assets held by the foreign lending institutions that own the majority shares of the Iraqi National Bank. People who disagree may hit the streets and scream. So much for Iraqi "democracy". Long live the shadow Iraqi government."
 

Evlyn you are very good at supplying links, of that there is no doubt. But you rarely express any opinions of your own. Regurgitating news stories is not the sign of someone who cares or thinks for themselves.
 

Evlyn,

Riverbend is entitled to her opinion, but when one person gets even half famous or influential, they have a moral obligation not to incite hatred and more violence by painting pictures full of half truth.

Iraq is the ancient Mesopotamia where civilization grew in the valley of the Tigris...now all we see is dead women and children who have been slaughtered by what some people still insist on calling "Iraq freedom fighters". I hope people wake up, and soon.
 

No doubt we will all have seen the stories about the masses of Iraqi men, women and children killed in the last few days by these extremists that are chomping on Iraqi and foreign flesh. Unfortunately, they don't have security to protect them, like Allawi has. However, I am still glad that Allawi has survived what is now labeled as the 6th attempt on his life.

These extremists also reared their ugly heads in the UK the other day. They threatened MP George Galloway's being and said that it is "immoral" to try to get Muslims to vote. This sums up the mentality of these unbalanced and ruthless tormentors. They are both primitive and detrimental to any society.

I know people have slated Tony Blair for his plans on dealing with extremists, but I feel that having seen the events of the last few days, both at home and abroad, he is right. In the past I was never a supporter of Bush or Blair, but I think their tough stance against these Islamic elements is beginning to look well justified. I would support them in any measures they take to permanently eliminate these oppressive freaks of nature.
 

Said-
Periodically, from the beginning, my opinions have been very clearly stated. All links relate. I would have thought restating those opinions unnecessary for those following the conversation.
 

One would easily notice the number of above deleted Comments.

Just a reminder, kindly re-read Who is this site for?

as this policy for this Blog site continues to hold.
 

Stoned Crow -
Thank you for your link to the Christian Science Monitor (a respected source) article. As for being 6000 miles away, that applies to many of us, complicating the search for accurate information and informed opinion.

Jessop -
Curious? Ignorant?
 

An aside -
In the course of this posting, two very different positions have been put regarding legitimate/allowable opinions:
1. Riverbend (a Baghdad resident), being "biased" and well-known, should hold her tongue.
2. Dr Khadduri (an Iraqi abroad), lives at a 6000 remove and may be out of touch.
For unbiased correct positions, refer to: The Ministry of Truth
 

Vote for freedom of expression blog award-winners!
riverbendblog.blogspot.com
 

Stef-
Thank you for making known the above. I now have voted!