Reply #12: K&R

[Ms. Clio]

From Miraj

When have you started blogging?
January, 2006

How did your perceptions change since?
I faced reality by realizing that our role as Iraqi bloggers is bigger than we have thought and that majority of the people who read our blogs were unaware of the facts and the bitter reality that the war dragged on us. Having said that, I found majority of our readers who supported the war are still insisting that America was right. So basically I have lost faith in American people in General with apologizing for the Americans who were and still against the war and the killing of innocents.


Compared to the current situation in Iraq, how different was it before the war?

(snip)

Anyway, despite that before the war I used to beg Allah for a miracle to take Saddam and all his gang members away from us and despite the pain I felt when saw these strangers who invaded our streets and buildings I felt that it was the only way to get rid of him and feel free.

On a personal level, even if I couldn't manage to work for a good company for Saddam's Mukhabart used to control everything and at that time the good jobs used to go mostly to the people with the strong contacts and despite the brutal sanctions imposed on us by the USA , I never had a security problem, I never saw a dead body, I never had to deal with a friend who was raped ,I never had to freak out when ever I try to call a friend with no answer thinking the worse might happened, I never had a problem with what I wear, I used to go out with a bunch of girls up till 10 pm to take long walks either in Alrubai'e street, Mansour or Karrada, I used to take my mother and sister and go visit our aunt and get back home real late, three women in a car in the night in Baghdad (now the idea it self is a good base for a horror movie!!!) .The electricity back then was far better comparing to now, other services were not easy to have but I never had to stand in line for 7 hours to fill my car with fuel nor my parents had to stay for 4 hours on their feet to get oil to the heaters in winter. Long list my friend!

Now we have lost in three years more than we lost in 30 years. You do not have to dig under ground to look for hidden mascaras, the dead bodies are thrown in the streets, a huge operation was preformed against doctors, engineers, writers, journalists, university prophesiers to execute everything that is good in my country. Then if that was not enough, terrorists were encouraged to enter the country from the country's widest open doors, a corrupt government took over and a civil war was provoked. A lot of people fell in that game due to the lack of education since all the educated people were either killed or emigrated from the country and not forgetting the huge gap created by the sanctions which were on educational level as well.