[Mb-civic] A snippet of life this week in Iraq to counteract the propoganda....

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

Electronic Iraq - May 23, 2005
http://electroniciraq.net/news/1974.shtml

Daily Life in Baghdad, from Afar

by Dahr Jamail
Amman, Jordan

It's coming apart at the seams now in Iraq. We saw on the news today
that members of the Mehdi Army in the south, the militia of Shia
cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, exchanged gunfire with members of the ING
(Iraqi National Guard) who in the south are primarily, if not entirely
composed of members of the Badr Army, also a Shia group. So now we have
Shia fighting Shia.

Meanwhile in Baghdad, things are just as bad. Abu Talat, my friend and
interpreter, was speaking with his family who live in the al-Adhamiya
district of the capital city. Just across the Tigris River from Adhamiya,
which is predominantly Sunni, is the predominantly Shia Khadamiyah
neighborhood.

A car bomb detonated inside Khadamiyah which killed at least one ING, so
people in that area began firing guns across the Tigris into Adhamiyah.
According to two sources in Adhamiyah, they confirmed there was heavy
damage to several houses-broken windows, bullet pockmarked walls, etc.
When people inside Adhamiyah began returning fire, a US warplane bombed 
a
small mosque on the Adhamiyah side of the Tigris, for yet unknown reasons.

Abu Talat was talking via IM with his wife as she nearly fainted
because bombs and gunfire were so near their home.

"What can I do," Abu Talat asked me from a nearby computer at an
internet café, "My family is in great danger and what can I do to help
them?"

I stared at him dumbly--there was no response.

I helped find phone numbers of friends and other family members of his
around Baghdad to try to go check on his family. He called them five
times, constantly monitoring their situation while he was crying. Between
calls he set the phone down to hold his head in his hands. Abu Talat later
spoke with his sister, who informed him that Iraqi soldiers were raiding
houses in her neighborhood and detaining men of "fighting age," which if
we go by the US military definition of such when they do home raids, means
men roughly between the ages of 15-50 years.

"They almost took my nephew," Abu Talat told me in frustration, "But
thanks to his father telling them that his son is a doctor and never
leaves the home nowadays, they let him be."

Abu Talat had his two young sons go with his wife over to a relatives home
so they would not be detained. Although one of his sons, Ahmed, is merely
14 years old. Ahmed is a soft-spoken, gentle boy who wouldn't hurt a fly.

When I was in Baghdad in February, one day we were taking tea in the
home of Abu Talat. Ahmed came out and began shining the shoes of his
father.

"You don't need to do this in front of Dahr," said Abu Talat to his
youngest son.

"You are my father, and I am your son," replied Ahmed, "I wish to
shine your shoes. Dahr understands that this is what a son does for
his father."

Abu Talat beamed and held up his hands with a huge smile on his face. My
friend Aisha who is here, also an Iraqi, has a friend who lives in
Adhamiyah.

"He just left the day before this all happened to bring his sick son
to Amman for cancer treatment," she tells me while we sit under palm
trees and a nearly full moon later that evening while having dinner
with her mother.

Her friend believes his son has DU poisoning.

"He learned that one of the rooms of his home was destroyed by a
missile shot from an American helicopter," she added while shaking her
head.

Things quieted down in Baghdad after the events of the 20th, as well
as the next day, relatively.

However, today Abu Talat came over to me in a panic and asked for
Ahmed's mobile number.

"He's just been shot at," he tells me as I feel the panic with my
friend and begin finding the number of his son.

Ahmed was walking down the street when two men demanded his ring and
his mobile. When Ahmed started yelling "Thieves, Thieves," they kicked him
to the ground and shot their pistols over his head. At gunpoint, the two
men commenced to loot him.

Abu Talat received the information from his oldest son, then called
home to find that his youngest son was home crying, but alright.
"He has his exams tomorrow and now he is sleeping," Abu Talat explains
with tears in his eyes, "He is alright but terribly shaken."

This is the life in Baghdad today. This is the life of having a dear
friend whose family is living in peril and his attempts to remain in
contact with them from Amman. This is one family in a city of 5.5
million Iraqis, struggling to survive the brutal, chaotic, lawlessness
caused by the Anglo-American occupation that has destroyed their country.


(c)2004, 2005 Dahr Jamail. More writing, photos and commentary at
dahrjamailiraq.com. All images and text are protected by United States and
international copyright law. If you would like to reprint Dahr's
Dispatches on the web, you need to include this copyright notice and a
prominent link to the DahrJamailIraq.com website. Any other use of images
and text including, but not limited to, reproduction, use on another
website, copying and printing requires the permission of Dahr Jamail.

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