New from Riverbend

[Richard D]

Assassinations...
We woke up yesterday morning to this news: Sunni tribal leader and his sons shot dead.

“Gunmen in Iraqi army uniforms shot dead an aging Sunni tribal leader and three of his sons in their beds on Wednesday, relatives said…”

Except when you read it on the internet, it’s nothing like seeing scenes of it on television. They showed the corpses and the family members- an elderly woman wailing and clawing at her face and hair and screaming that soldiers from the Ministry of Interior had killed her sons. They shot them in front of their mother, wives and children… Even when they slaughter sheep, they take them away from the fold so that the other sheep aren’t terrorized by the scene.

In war, you think the unthinkable. You imagine the unimaginable. When you can’t get to sleep at night, your mind wanders to cover various possibilities. Trying to guess and determine the future of a war-torn nation is nearly impossible, so your mind focuses on the more tangible- friends… Near and distant relations. I think that during these last two and a half years, every single Iraqi inside of Iraq has considered the possibility of losing one or more people in the family. I try to imagine losing the people I love most in the world- whether it’s the possibility of having them buried under the rubble… or the possibility of having them brutally murdered by extremists… or blown to bits by a car bomb… or abducted for ransom… or brutally shot at a checkpoint. All disturbing possibilities.

more: http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

link corrected on edit.

[Canuckistanian]

1. Link doesn't work

Typo in riverbendblog.
use this:
http://www.riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

[teach1st]

2. Permalink

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/2005_11_01_riverbendblog_archive.html

[eleny]

3. I wonder who Riverbend is

The writing has always been flawless as well as powerfully descriptive.

[Richard D]

5. Someone . . .

. . . I'd love to meet. I hope someday she gets the recognition she deserves. I hope and pray for her safety.

[Elidor]

7. I think her blog would make a good book

Almost an Anne Frank look behind the war. She's an Iraqi national treasure.

[starroute]

9. It already is

You can go find it at Amazon.

[stillcool]

6. i wonder that too...

it's funny how i feel i know her, as if she were a school chum, a co-worker, or someone i'd been in group therapy with,...i always get worried when she goes too long between posts...i can not imagine what her life must be like....but her writing is so much that of 'every woman'.

[buzzard]

8. I have been reading her since she first started posting and she

writes beautifully, I find myself worrying when she has not been heard from. It is well worth reading her blog.

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

[Clara T]

4. Atrocious

All of it.

Impeachment is not enough. Rumsfeld-Cheney the whole gang must face War Crimes Trials. We desperately need foreign intervention to make these criminals face tribunal in the Hague for we here in US simply aren't up to the task it seems.

What's it gonna take?

[necso]

10. I think that it's just about time for

Riverbend and her family to beat feet.

Insofar as this remains possible.

[IndyOp]

11. The goal of invasion is to create chaos - and they are doing a great job

In the last three weeks, at least six different prominent doctors/professors have been assassinated. Some of them were Shia and some of them were Sunni- some were former Ba’athists and others weren’t. The only thing they have in common is the fact that each of them played a prominent role in Iraqi universities prior to the war: Dr. Haykal Al-Musawi, Dr. Ra'ad Al-Mawla (biologist), Dr. Sa'ad Al-Ansari, Dr. Mustafa Al-Heeti (pediatrician), Dr. Amir Al-Khazraji, and Dr.Mohammed Al-Jaza'eri (surgeon). <snip>

Whoever is behind the assassinations, Iraq is quickly losing its educated people. More and more doctors and professors are moving to leave the country.

The problem with this situation is not just major brain drain- it's the fact that this diminishing educated class is also Iraq's secular class…

[annabanana]

12. Her fear and sorrow are palpable..

How long will it be until her voice is silenced? How much loss will she have to sustain? I send her an occasional email, letting her know that there are people here who look for her.