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This is what you can not find in the mainstream press: from the blog
www.democracyiniraq.blogspot.com:
Sunday, March 20, 2005
2 Years
It has been now two years since the United States, UK and other
countries invaded our nation. It has been two years since Iraqis have had to
live with daily violent attacks and rampant terrorism. It has been two
years since our nation began being turned upside down. It has been two
years since the road to democracy began.
It has been a very hard two years. So many people have died, so much
has been destroyed, so many drops of tears and blood have been shed, so
many have been robbed of loved ones, and so many words have been spoken
about Iraq, it's future, and this war.
Two years...seems like yesterday that I was awoken by bombs going off
in Baghdad, and the realisation that my life and that of my country was
going to change. That very day I remember being scared that my house
might be destroyed by a bomb, or that my relatives who were forcibly put
into the Iraqi army might be killed.
Two years since Saddam came on TV, and pledged that Iraq would never
fall. Little did he know, he surrendered like a rat in a whole only
months later. Two years since my father had a heart.
Two years is about 730 days. In those days what have I seen. My eyes
have seen more than I had ever hoped, more blood, more death and more
pain, then I ever imagined or hoped I would have seen.
In those days I have seen the worst of humanity, the animal that lives
in all humanity, the ability of humanity to destroy at will others, and
rob the life given to others by God almight himself.
So you ask me, Husayn, was it worth it. What have you gotten? What has
Iraq acheived? These are questions I get a lot.
To may outsiders, like those who protested last year, who will protest
today. This was a fools errand, it brought nothing but death and
destruction. I am sheltered in Iraq, but I know how the world feels, how
people have come to either love or hate Bush, as though heis the
emobdiement of this war. As though this war is part of Bush, they forget the over
twenty million Iraqis, they forget the Middle Easterners, they forget
the average person on the street, the average man with the average
dream.
Ask him if it was worth it. Ask him what is different. Ask him if he
would go through it again, go ahead ask him, ask me, many of you have.
Now I answer you, I answer you on behalf of myself, and my countrymen.
I dont care what your news tells you, what your television and
newspapers say, this is how we feel. Despite all that has happened. Despite all
the hurt, the pain, blood, sweat and tears. These two years have given
us hope we never had.
Before March 20, 2003, we were in a dungeon. We did not see the light.
Saddam Hussain was crushing Iraq's spirit slowly, we longed for his
end, but knew we could not challenge him, or his diabolical seed who would
no doubt follow him and continue his generation of hell on Earth.
Since then, we now have hope. Hope is not a tangible thing, but it is
something, it is more than being blinded by darkness, by being stuck in
a mental pit without any future.
Hope has been the greatest product of the last two years. No doubt,
many have died, many have died by accident or due to crimes. But their
sacrifices are not, and will not be for nothing. I refuse to let it be,
and my countrymen stand with me.
Our cities are smoking, our graveyards full, and terrorists in our
midst. But we are not defeated. We are not down, we are not regretful. We
are not going to surrender. For all that the two years have brought, the
greatest thign they have given us is a future, and a view of the finish
line.
Iraqis see the finish line, the finish line of freedom and democracy
and a functioning nation. We can smell it, taste it, and like a sprinter,
one who has broken his legs, but who has a heart full of passion, we
will crawl there no matter what the cost. No matter what we must endure,
we have realized what we can become, and that is the biggest result of
the last two years.
Noone can take that from us. Not the terrorists, not those who want to
question the good of the removal of Saddam, not those who want to
reduce our glory for politics, none.
We have been brought from darkness to light. And not only has the
future been made better for Iraq, but the martyrs of our nation, their blood
is watering the roots of democracy across the world. We are watching
our neighbors come closer to the light, and this only pushes us more, and
makes us stronger in our burning desire to reach the finish line, to
realize the dream that our people have had for so long.
No, we will not give up, and we will not say that the last two years
were a waste. They for all their trouble have been momentus. They for us,
have been a turning point in history. Whether or not you agree, this is
how it looks from Iraq.
Posted by Husayn at 12:10 AM
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