In Iraq, The Love Stories Are Gone

[babylonsister]

In Iraq, The Love Stories Are Gone
by Ali al-Fadhily


BAGHDAD - As statistics go, at least 655,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the occupation, now in its fifth year. Every one of them has left behind once loved ones to mourn the loss and to think of what might have been.


This is the land of the Arabian Nights, and of love stories that became fables far and wide. In these stories, in the traditions of which they were born, the lover thought nothing of giving up his life for a beloved. But no one thought death would come to this land under the present circumstances.

All who have died had their own love stories, if not all romantic ones. And that must be a million of them. The figure of 655,000 - of Iraqis who died as a result of the U.S.-led invasion and occupation — came from the British medical journal Lancet based on a study in July last year. The number would have risen significantly after one of the bloodiest years of the occupation.

The deaths are not the only tragedies to have fallen upon Iraq’s love stories.

“We were engaged to be married after the end of the war,” Hussam Abdulla, a 28-year-old engineer from Baghdad told IPS. “We thought the war would not last more than a month, and so we planned our marriage for May 2003. But everything went wrong. I was detained for two years, and my fiancée’s family had to flee to Egypt because her father was a senior army officer whose life was threatened first by occupation forces and later by death squads.”

Abdulla’s engagement never led to marriage.

And it was the lucky ones who fled the country early. Others stayed on to face death, detention, or a living hell at home. Army officers, doctors, journalists and artists came particularly to be targeted by death squads.


more...

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/13/9629/

[Missy Vixen]

1. These people deserve better

We sure as hell do.

Julie

[truedelphi]

2. For me, just as so much of my Vietnam era sleepless nights

Revolved around the image of the naked girl fleeing the napalm, my sleepless nights this era revolve around the youngster in her rose patterned dress, her parents' blood spattered across that garment, while our brave soldiers point their rifles at her and her small brother.

The people of Iraq have my prayers and countless tears.

[countryjake]

3. that living hell... (warning graphic - the image you mentioned)

I have the same sort of wide-awake nightmares (and did way back when, too).

Difference tho, our nightly news was plastered with reminders of the hell that was Vietnam, that news was primary and we all lived it thru those reports; now, it's almost as if our presence in the nations we occupy has become secondary news, tacked on occasionally to the supper-hour programs as two-second sound bites, if that.

All those people whose lives we're destroying have purposely been made invisible to us. Where there should be analytical programs with this poor child's picture as the daily opening shot, we instead have mindless feel-good shows, "reality" for a public that knows nothing of the bitter truth.

[truedelphi]

4. You are so-o right about the lack of news coverage.

Why to report the down side of that war would be UNPATRIOTIC!!
<sarcasm meant>

[K Gardner]

5. Why DON'T we have the same kind of coverage that we did on Vietnam? Is it OUR attention spans, OUR

inability to tolerate it.. or did the media just decide NOT to cover it. ?

I really wonder about this.

[countryjake]

6. Because the MSM are now the PR people for the warmongers...

and they directly share in the profits from that hell our nation has created with its Occupations.


The Military-Industrial-Media Complex
Why war is covered from the warriors’ perspective
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2627



Bill Moyers Journal "Buying the War"
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/transcript1.html

and the video:
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/watch.html



JournalismNow Interviews Dahr Jamail
http://www.journalismnow.com/viewFeature.php?fid=69


Dahr Jamail: “Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq”
http://www.democracynow.org/2007/10/15/dahr_jamail_beyond_the_green_zone



Reuters Says U.S. Troops Obstruct Reporting of Iraq
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0929-06.htm


Iraq Checkpoint Killings Unchecked
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0323-35.htm

[K Gardner]

7. Wow.. THANK YOU for this response.. Bookmarked and should be an OP if it already isn't somewhere..

[Bucky]

8. Personal note to Hussam Abdulla: Dude, get off you ass, fly to Egypt & marry that girl!

Good gravy, man, you only go around once in life. Thanks to Mr Bush, a lot of people are going around a lot quicker than they planned. War is good for romance--go marry her!

The worst thing any of us can do is let those crooks in the White House rob us of joy.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

9. A major clash is about to take place in the city of Amarah

We're not hearing much about it on American television, but French television news (which I get through Dish Network) led with it as their major story. They showed the military build-up of American and Iraqi army forces and it looked pretty big.

Amarah is a city of about 400,000 located on the border with Iran. According to the Bush Administration, it's the major landing point for Iranian forces infiltrating Iraq. It's also where major elements of the Shiite Mahdi Army fled after the intense fighting in Basra. Supposedly, there's going to be a major showdown within the next few days. Hopefully, the fighting won't spill over into Iran.