| The Collateral Repair Project in affiliation with International Humanities Center Iraqis Talk to Americans Messages sent for the 5th anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq |
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" I happy when I know that US people hate American policy in Iraq.
Tell them my greeting. All people in Iraq hate occupation" Ali in Iraq
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I want to say to all you wonderful people about the fact that we bare no animosity
towards you. Because it is a fact. I just want to say that Iraq and the Iraqi people
have been reduced to death, assassinations, unlawfulness, rape, robbery , disease and
total misery and tragedy. Our men. women , and children , both boys and girls have
been raped by your troops as well as by the people Mr. Bush and his neo-con cronies let
into Iraq. They are all guilty of this. Please get your Administration, present and
future to get out of Iraq.
We are Iraqis and irrespective of our faiths and ethnicities we have lived together in
peace for thousands of years . We will know how to cope with our problems as soon as
you say you are leaving. If the Democrats get elected, make them leave. They have
no intention of leaving , whatever they may say now! This has been proved to you in
the last congressional elections. They made such wonderful promises during the runup,
but you saw the results.
We do not want to have your young men killed and we certainly don't want ours to be
killed - we do not want to see a unified nation for the past 4,000 years and a civilization
that is 11,300 years old be destroyed. However, our resistance will be forced to fight
you - there has been a lull in the resistance because they were all waiting to see what
happens , but now it has started again and we will get your troops out even if it takes us
a hundred years !
Let us unite against all these war mongering governments and administrations so that
we can join hands and rebuild - heal the wounds first and rebuild so that we can build a
better world for all mankind.
Asma Al - Haidari - refugee in Jordan
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HEAR OUR VOICE
Dear our friends in U S A
I am an Iraqi woman lives in Amman
my age 56 years I am homeless, no old dear friends ,no memory , there is ONE question
To you all, IS this justice???????
I really want the Answer from you My friends!!!!
Sanaa - a refugee in Jordan
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Dear Friends,
A 50 years old Iraqi family man with a wife & two children, who’s forced to leave his
beloved country (Iraq) to a neighboring country (Jordan) and living in ultimate stress
under terrible circumstances out there.
As a family, we suffered & survived four wars; 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, 1991Freedom
of Kuwait, 2003 Invasion of Iraq and the sectarian on-going one since 2003 till now.
The old regime was removed & we thought that hope is coming, but we ended to be out
of the country, losing our beloved ones who were killed kidnapped or threatened, having
lots of others displaced within the country or outside with no resources of income at all.
I had the chance to stay alive, but many of the ones I know did not make it & lost their
lives. I had the chance to join the massive demonstrations in the first anniversary in
London with Stop-The-War coalition (STW) March 2004 among two Iraqis that came to
join these loving people who were against the war. The slogan was [Stop the war on
Iraq].
Two years later (2006) I had the chance to talk to the same people while the arranged
an even, and there was a slogan saying [Stop the war on Iran]. I put my hand on the
letter ‘n’ in the slogan & told them: “Two years ago there was a ‘q’ instead of ‘n’ which
changed the country name from Iraq to Iran. I’m telling you people, if you do not stop
these actions that are done in your name using your the money of the tax that you pay,
believe me: you are queuing & this fire will reach you soon”.
We suffered 28 years of wars & the painful results of its impact, just imagine friends;
What happens when your peaceful & promising life turn to be living in a war zone, i.e.:
When you can’t feel safe in your home!
When you can’t send your 10 years son to play in your back yard!
When you can’t send you 10 years old to school!
When you reach the step that you can’t afford the bread for your children!
When you can’t move even in your neighborhood!
When you face death three times in one day with your 20 years old son!
When you, as a father, reach the stage that you cannot afford paying for the University
study of your eldest son (19 years old) who was studying Bio-Medical Engineering and
drops out of his future!
When a 26 years old wife has a stroke in the brain because of the 1991 war that kept
her paralyzed for a year, which developed to become a Multiple Sclerosis!
Please, try to feel what I feel by imagining what if this happens to you?
The question is WHY is that happening to us? Is it because of freedom?!
[NO] is what I shout out loud, because as we all know all what was said were lies, and it
was because of the oil.
Please, please dear friends, do your best to stop the destruction that these greedy people
are doing for their on interest & using your tax money to create wars.
“I believe we can make a change”
Thanks a lot for listening to my message. May God bless you all & all beloved ones.
Regards from far away, from a man with hope, faith & dignity.
Auf Al-Rawi - refugee Jordan
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Message to the protestors around the world
Dear All
After Five years we are back here to the streets that unified us , to say to the world that
each one of you who went around the world protesting against that Illegal war "WAS
RIGHT."
I know it was costly it was costly for us as Iraqis, It was costly of our blood and tears but
it was for a bigger cause , a cause that our country to be free and dignified. After five
years we proved that everyone was here , was right and everyone was not listening to us
was wrong.
The Iraqis was watching you and proud that you were expressing the lively consciousness
of the humanity , marching for one reason to Say NO for Evil , No for War, Not in our
Name.
Last year I lost my uncle , my cousin and then I Lost my father , they been killed by
militias. It was an attempt to shut our mouths ,But they could not understand that this
made me more determents to say what the truth.
Five years on, the 2003 US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq has left a devastated
country and people. While dictatorships always come with their unique problems, and
Iraq was no exception and neither was it unique, prior to 2003, the majority of Iraqis
had access to basic facilities, ranging from education, health, food and other
infrastructure.
Today, Iraqis have access to barely an hour of electricity daily, if they are fortunate; the
cost of fuel has skyrocketed, despite Iraq being the second largest producer of oil in the
world; potable water is lacking, resulting in a variety of illnesses through the
consumption of untreated water; unemployment stands at around 40-60%; there is a
severe shortage of basic medicines and health care; children's education has been
severely disrupted, with an entire generation of psychologically traumatised children;
there is a sharp increase in widows, orphans and street children, and the displacement
of thousands upon thousands of families, both internally and externally, is surely the
greatest tragedy of the 21st Century.
The new government " if its a real government" has proved that it is incapable of
protecting its citizens – the violence and bloodshed continues unabated, despite all
claims to the contrary. Sectarian tension and distrust intiated by militias, which did not
exist prior to 2003, has affected the livelyhood of Iraqi society. Freedom of movement is
impossible today. Bands of militia roam the streets, and safety and security for Iraqis is
but a haunting memory.
The perpetrators of this crime of such great magnitude, resulting in the innocent loss of
life and livelihood of an entire sovereign nation, must be held accountable and justice
must be done. Contrary to popular belief that Iraq would disintegrate further if the
occupation ended. as often stated by those who support this war of aggression, the
occupation of Iraq must end, before any real reconstruction and reconciliation takes
place. Iraqis should be left to chart their own destiny, while they take their rightful place
among the other nations of the world.
Dr Salam Ismael
Doctors for Iraq
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The American Occupation of Iraq:
Most Flagrant Crime of Modern History
The American ongoing crime of invading and occupying Iraq since 2003,
was the most notorious and comprehensive political and military aggression in
modern history, mocked at all the moral codes of humanity and the
international laws. While all the world, including the American administration
itself, was completely aware that all the pretexts of invading Iraq (WMD, link
to terrorism, or liberation) were false, and in spite of the fact that the
international community opposed that aggression and protested against it,
the Bush administration ignored everything and everybody and invaded one of
the oldest civilizations of the world. Iraq, 6000 years of history, the cradle of
civilizations, where the first letter was written, the first law was put, the first
university was built, the first money was done, the first irrigation system was
created , the first poetry was written…
What the occupation authorities and their Iraqi agents did during the last 5
years of controlling Iraq, and what they are still doing now, were even more
flagrant. Iraq was subjugated to systematic destruction. The State was
dismantled, the institutions were abolished, the educational, health,
economic, security and infrastructure systems were broken, even the cultural
and social fabrics were torn apart. So far 1.3 million civilian Iraqis were killed,
more than 5 million are refugees outside Iraq or displaced inside (1.5 m of
them are children), 2 million orphans and more widows, and hundreds of
thousands are detainees, exposed to the worst kinds of torture and
humiliation (including 10.000 women), and without any kind of legal
procedures…
According to the UN 8 million Iraqis are in need of emergency assistance.
70% of Iraqi's are without access to safe drinking water supplies. Electricity
supply is beneath pre-invasion levels (in many areas electricity simply does
not exist). 43% of the population lives on less than half a Dollar a day. Living
standards in Iraq are getting worse despite contracts of over $20 billion being
paid to companies to rebuild Iraq, they were swallowed by governmental
corruption. Iraq now is the 3rd on the list of the most corrupted states in the
world. The Iraqi Government figures say that unemployment is between 60%
and 70%. Child malnutrition has increased from 19 percent during 1990s
"economic sanctions period" before the invasion, to 28 percent today.
But worst of all these hardships is the dark future that is awaiting Iraq.
The old colonial divide and rule strategy is 100% responsible for the sectarian
divisions, and the longer the occupying armies remain the greater the chances
of civil war and a break up of the country. The occupation created different
official security bodies out of sectarian militias, hence giving them the
authority to kill or to support and help those who kill, kidnap, displace on
sectarian bases. On the other hand there are 180,000 mercenaries (apart
from 170,000 official American troops) who are committing different kinds of
killings, assassinations and explosions of civilian areas in the name of
sectarian conflict.
The American administration is working with its Iraqi agents in the Iraqi
government to sign a long term treaty that will control Iraq politically,
economically (including oil), and militarily for decades to come. Needless to
say this treaty is illegal as it is signed by two illegal parties: the occupying
state (by its name it has no right to sign) and the Iraqi government which was
created under (and by the occupation) , and also because it is the third most
corrupt government in the world according to the international reports.
The only way to stop all these crimes, to hold the American and other
criminals responsible of them, and to start the real rebuilding of Iraq is to
support the Iraqi people in its resistance to the occupation, to mobilize the
world community against it, and to stop the world silence and indifference to
the first genocide of the 21st century.
Eman Khammas
Iraqi journalist and activist, former director of Occupation Watch, now a refugee
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