Iraq (written April 14, 2007)

I know that many of you probably saw the title and had this feeling ...sigh...Iraq again ...can we just move on and talk about something else...But what does move on mean....what does it mean for the mother that lost all her three children...what does it mean for a population where unemployment is rampant....what does it mean for the American Soldier missing a limb or two and still waiting on benefits because (s)he was a reserve...More than anything what does it mean when things seem to get worse instead of better...

We want to move on...our attention span is short...there are other problems and it has been 4 years now since it started......some of us were lost before it even started....the next few followed after the first weeks of shell shocking...the next left when the "official war" was over...and Saddam caught...even the most faithful have a hard time to spend time in prayer, thought....thinking... or maybe even acting for the good of the Iraqi people....So what do we do complain (note the difference between protest and complain)....Bush this ...America that...and I am not saying that we should applaud them (ps. anyone that knows my knows i ache with the whole situation there and the destroying of lives)...but if that is all we got are we really doing anything...So too the ones that talk about the loss of innocent lives...I am with you and we should put pressure on our government letting them know that 1 death is one too many and that every human being has just as much value as any other whether your name be George W. or Ibrahim Abbas Khalaf ...but those who talk about the loss of innocent lives ...the question I have is where were you when Saddam and his sons were experimenting on Kurds and Shiites a like...

Do be frustrated...do be in pain...do push for justice...do push for peace...but let it be out of love...let it be because every day this senseless war goes on more wonderful children of God are being put to senseless deaths...let it be because you recognize the promise that Iraq has...and because you realize the promise that America has if it would just spend a few more dollars on programs to rebuild societies (including its own) than it does on destroying ones...for I have never ever seen a gun or tank built anything...no to build and repair...education and health care seem to me more viable tools...

It seems to me that the words of the Great Martin Luther King Jr seem as relevant today about Iraq as they were back then on Vietnam...there must be a revolution of values within the people of this nation (and many others a like)- and sorry if this quote is too long for some...but i guess if you came to this point you have showed a sense of caring in the fist place.

"A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.

A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of South America and say, "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.

A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing except a tragic death wish to prevent us from reordering our priorities so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war."


I understand that daily newspapers dont really help...I understand they do not tell you anything about the deeper underlying things...You hear about sectarian violence but not about how Hussein was killed at Karbala in 680 AD and subsequent history both in Iraq and the broader Middle East....you hear about the hate for Americans...without any connections to why that hate might be there...just some vague...Western values mentioning....Where is the connecting of dots...I know there are hard questions and the answers are not as clearcut but if anything this should lead you to ask the questions do the research.....It should lead you to want to understand....it should never leave you indifferent...for indifference is the most unnatural state...and in a situation where lives and land is being destroyed hourly how can it not matter to you what happens...

Lastly, I know there are people who want to see the US fail...and it is very tempting...hah teach them a lesson...but think what US failure would mean...it would not mean as much to the US army...still the most powerful in the world...it would not mean that much to George W. has legacy has been tarnished already to such a point that now that he is more willing to discuss alternatives...he is left without allies...But to the Iraqi civilian...failure would be absolutely devastating....so Please for the sake of God...for the Sake of his Children...both Sunni and Shi'ite ...both Iraqi and American...Never ever stop caring/speaking out/ praying and acting ...no matter how long it lasts...


I salute you for reading till the end:)