Everything you need to know about Iraq*
I wish we had more time to celebrate the Democratic victory, but unfortunately, the bomb we've made of Iraq continues to tick...
tick...
tick...
tick...
*complete with pictures, so even Junior can understand.
11.16.2006
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5 comments:
I have stopped watching the news these days. I can't handle the sinking feeling in my stomach. Iraqis don't have to watch the news - they live it every day.
PS I am linking your site to my blog.
Thank you, Maryam...you don't know what a huge honor that is for me.
And you're wise to stop watching the news. I continue to follow the news online (BBC, not any American sites, which are just as bad as American TV news), but I've long since turned it off my TV. The American viewing public should be shaking, daily, with the very real shame and horror of what has been wrought on the Iraqis and others in our name. If there is a god(dess), may s/he forgive us for these unforgiveable sins.
Dear Miss Bitty - I have my own tales of Iraqi horror to tell. After my first visit to Iraq, the American woman who had coordinated my trip and the Iraqi woman who had acted as my translator were both killed. Over 20 bullets each. And then their bodies were dumped in the trunk of a car. Such waste, such horrible waste. I had nightmares for days. Can you imagine the dreams of Iraqi mothers and fathers every night...?
Maryam...as usual, you continue to both awe and humble me.
I can only imagine -- and poorly, I'm sure -- the deep sense of grief you must've felt at their loss. What a courageous woman you are, and you're doing such important work. And the women who helped you...there are no words to describe the full depth and breadth of their courage; no doubt they knew exactly what they were risking by doing so and yet they did it anyway. I honestly...I just don't have the words to do them justice.
It hurts my soul to know this kind of tragic waste is being multiplied daily in that country. I know it happens in other places, too, but in Iraq, it's being done in my name, in the name of my husband and my mother and my friends and my future children. The thought of this fills me with such despair that some days, I can't imagine ever finding hope again.
This is why, no matter how tired and worn down I get from fighting this Administration, and doing my part to try right this ship and correct our course, I continue to keep fighting. I think about how, no matter how tired and hopeless I feel, it's NOTHING compared to what women like these halfway across the world are facing. And I put my head back down and get back to the work of stopping this disaster in whatever way I can.
Dear Miss Bitty,
I was thinking about you yesterday. My husband was recounting a story that had been related to him by a colleague. This person has a son who spent a year in Iraq in the armed forces. When he came back, he returned to college. At first all was fine (He had always excelled in school.) but then things gradually fell apart; he was having nightmares, felt like he couldn't cope, felt hopeless, etc. Basically he sank into a deep depression. He is doing better now, and his father is grateful that he is as well as he is because everyone else who returned from his platoon is completely disfunctional -- can't hold jobs, are drinking, are violent, etc.
Just think about it Miss Bitty. This full scale human tragedy. The costs to these lives. Will they ever recover? I wonder. I really do.
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