Echo

Friday, June 16, 2006

Hi,

Thanks to all my friends who expressed their relief on being reassured of my safety. That means a lot to me and really touches me. Well I can assure my friends that I am a very careful man and take very good precautions but “Death will overtake you even if you be in built towers” as the holy Koran says. Human psychology is very complex and can adapt to any kind of situation such as the constant presence of danger. But we are not going to go into that right now, despite being a very interesting subject.

Today, I have something quite serious to talk about. At long last, it has come to be realized that any security strategy in Iraq must start from securing the Capital. This is something that I have said long ago and was probably the main reason for starting to blog just to get across this message. It would have been easier to implement such a strategy earlier before the “enemy” has had enough time to infest many neighborhoods and entrench in considerable areas of the Capital. Indeed it was the enemy who started the offensive with a deliberate and coordinated plan that escalated especially after blowing up the shrines in Samara, which was definitely an important part of the plan in order to escalate sectarian violence and invite retaliation which would then facilitate and help a campaign of “ethnic cleansing” to clear increasingly large chunks of the capital and turn them into “Faluja” style safe havens for the “insurgency”. I don’t know whether people abroad are really aware of the real situation in Baghdad right now. The capital is divided along sectarian lines with parts of it becoming no-go zones especially for Shiaa’s, and these zones are not just in the peasant outskirts of the city but have moved to the heart of middle class areas especially to the west of the city. The situation has worsened considerably in the last couple of months. Many of our relatives and acquaintances have left their houses and villas and taken refuge to safer parts of the city with friends and relatives. Certain neighborhoods in West Baghdad have almost become deserted.

Thus the government announced security plan for Baghdad is not so much an initiative but a badly needed counteroffensive to save the capital from a very dangerous situation. I have warned against this many a time to no avail. The onslaught is getting dangerously close to the part of the city where I myself live. The tactic used by the enemy is to concentrate terrorist operations on the areas where they plan to move to and then follow that with a campaign of intimidation and threats to inhabitants with few murders of whole families and the like to induce all undesirables to move out so that they can have a free hand and safe haven in the area and entirely take over the neighborhood. The intent of the sectarian gangs should not be underestimated or misunderstood; they have the serious intent and foul ambition to take over completely at least the western half of the city of Baghdad and that includes by the way the famous Green Zone. Thus you can understand that the true significance of the present operation by Iraqi Government and American forces; it is a necessary, urgent and critical counteroffensive to save Baghdad.

I don’t know if many of my western friends really understand the nature of the geography of Iraq and its cities. In many ways it is different from what you are accustomed to. In particular, Baghdad is a huge horizontal urban expansion of mostly low rise dwellings; i.e. brick and concrete single and two story houses. With the collapse of municipal services the whole city is turning into a great big slum including even the erstwhile prosperous and bourgeois quarters. Thus these vast urban growths with innumerable side streets and alleyways can be bewildering even for us who have lived most of our lives in this place. For instance, I myself in days bygone when one could drive safely anywhere in the city without any fear, could not find my way in many parts of city. The population of the Greater Baghdad Area is estimated at about six millions, that is roughly a quarter of the entire population of the whole country. The mass migration from the provinces towards Baghdad has been one of main problems in Iraq in the last century. The Baathists in particular have encouraged their clans from the Sunni Triangle to come and provided them with land and support to settle in the capital in deliberate scheming to change the demography of the city. Thus most of present day Baghdad did not actually exist half a century ago. The real original Baghdadis do not represent but a small percentage of the present population of the city. The deposed regime actually allocated land on the basis of professional affiliation. Elements close to the regime such as members of the Saddamist security forces and the like had the lion share in these housing projects which explain why certain areas in Baghdad are such hotbeds of terrorism and rebellion.

As I am writing these lines another horrible outrage has just taken place. A suicide attack has been perpetrated in one of the main Shiaa mosques in Baghdad, the ancient Bratha mosque, which had been attacked before recently. The attackers hid the explosives in shoes and slippers. An ugly mood and terrible anger is seizing the street right now, which can jeopardize all the government efforts at reconciliation and national unity. I was planning to examine coolly the requisites for the security plan to succeed but I fear the events are so exasperating that I cannot think dispassionately right now. All I can say is that if the plan does not shift gear and strike with iron fist on quite well known safe havens for the criminals in Baghdad itself, then the chances of success are not very promissing. We are all for national unity and reconciliation but those sensible and honorable elements within the Sunni camp must come forward and take the lead in condemning and fighting these awful killers who are based in their neighborhoods and their midst. The position of these is so crucial and any hesitation on their part can have quite disastrous consequences.

Regards

Friday, June 09, 2006

HELL WELCOMES ITS LATEST ILLUSTRIOUS INMATE

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Hi,

I extend warm greetings to all my friends after such a long absence.

Well, today is a good day. The urge to express my feelings is so strong that I am back at the keyboard despite the terrible apathy that has gripped me these last months. You can probably guess at some of the reasons for this state of mind. I am not going into details. Only it seems to me that intelligent people should not pay such a high price just to learn some few facts that have always seemed to me quite simple and mundane.

But I don’t plan to go into that today, because today is a good day indeed. An arch zombie has been blown to smithereens. You know, I am the sort of guy who gets distressed at the sight of blood and cannot bear the sight of even a dead animal, believe it or not. But you know, I was shocked at my own feelings of pleasure on beholding the photo of the dead face of Zarqawi. I would never have thought that possible. I have never felt this way my whole life. Yet the atrocities and outrages that these pseudo humans, these misanthropes, have perpetrated have engendered such anger, such sorrow, such rage that not even the most peaceful of souls can control their hatred of these criminals. My only regret was that the death was fast and sudden, and I felt pain that the true martyr of our country our beloved Ussama Al-Jadaan could not witness this day which he had predicted and played a big role in bringing about.

Well, I am not going to dwell on the reaction of people like Al Jazeera (again) who showed their true color today without even any attempt at dissimulation. So this arch murderer of day laborers, bakers, school children and etc. etc., this master be-header of poor hostages and planner of car bombings and all kinds of the most outrageous orgies of mass killings; this man is to be mourned and regretted as a martyr and mujahid etc. etc.!!! Yes, friends, believe it or not these sentiments were expressed openly and repeated hysterically on mass media like the notorious one referred to above. I still cannot understand why when whole countries and regimes are labeled as rogue states and suffer sanctions and the like when, here we have an official state owned media outlet that has played a major role in inciting and aiding and abetting the most violent forms of terrorism; and nothing has been done against them and those who sponsor and finance them. Indeed the state that harbors this state of affairs enjoys the blessings and the best of relations with the west and the free world.

But it is not that which I want most to say today. I want to congratulate the valiant eagles of the American Air force and all the men of the U.S. Army, the Iraqi security forces and all those involved in executing this just punishment and for being the instrument of providential justice. Blessed be the wombs that bore you, and please accept this expression of gratitude and love from an ordinary Iraqi man. And as for you American people rest assured that our faith in victory has not shaken on single iota. I can only end with the words of our dear President Bush: “God Bless Iraq and May God continue to Bless America”.

Al Salam Alaykum