Five years of blood and tears
On March 20th, 2003, the air-raid siren woke me up. I hate that sound more than anything else: the first sound of war. I ran downstairs from my bedroom to see what was on TV. We had a satellite receiver at that time although it was illegal to have one.
My family and I were switching channels when the first missiles hit Baghdad. I saw it on TV as it happened, and it was horrifying and heart-breaking to me. Now, it's true that we have been throw two wars before, and it's true that I lived all my life except for two years in wars or in its consequences, but this war was different. It was different before it even started: we knew that this time Iraq would either be occupied or would endure many years in wars before its occupation. It was common sense that this war was a lost cause; The Iraqi army was so exhausted, they were working with old army supplies, there was no Iraqi air force to resist the supreme US air force, the army and intelligence was infiltrated by spies and corrupted members, most of the soldiers had no faith in their leader or the government as a whole, and most important of all it was the strongest army in the world against an exhausted, desperate, but brave Iraqi army.
There was something inside me wishing for a miracle to happen.
The air raids were at night, so during the day life it was somewhat normal, especially during the first days. Like I said, Iraqis are used to wars, and they know how to handle them. My family, like most Iraqis, had an extensive supply of food and fuel. During the early days of war I would go out, visit my friends to see if they had survived the night, and stay with them until dusk, when I had to get back home and the shop owners started to close their shops.
We managed the situation well until Baghdad's electricity was attacked. When that happened, the fuel became scarce and the hard days began... the attacks increased and expanded into the morning. That’s when we got the sense that it was a really fierce war.
Many of my friends and relatives left Baghdad to stay in Diyala or Anbar, but my immediate family decided to stay home. If we were going to die, we decided, then it should be in our home.
I really admired the bravery of the Iraqi army in Um Kasir, Basra, southern Iraq and Baghdad's airport. I was so proud of them and I hoped that that would be the case in all Iraq. Unfortunately, there were traitors holding high ranks like Saif Al-Rawi who gave Baghdad up on a plate of gold.
At the noon of April 9th, 2003 my family along with a family of a distant relative, who was a professor, was sitting in our living room watching news as always... and we saw the most shocking, unimaginable scene on TV. The US troops were surrounding Alfirdos Square, with Saddam's statue in the middle. I remember that when the US soldier covered the statue's head with the American flag I felt great anger, not because I love Saddam but because this he was the Iraqi president and they were making fun of him, and humiliating us. They could have just brought down the statue and the message would have been clear. Did they really have to do that? At that moment I turned to the professor, who I really admire, and saw him crying with an angry red face. I was shocked to see him like that. I looked at my family, and they were so grim and angry. I saw my father's eyes filled with tears; he didn't like Saddam, his regime or its acts. He was always talking bad about them and how they were destroying Iraq, but it wasn’t about Saddam anymore. It was about Iraq, our country. It's the country my family left Europe to return to and help build it up despite all the great chances offered to them in Europe. It's the country he [Saddam?] dedicated his life to serve (by the way my family is far away from politics and has never interfered in it).
All that night I couldn't sleep. I stayed awake thinking of what might happen to Iraq, to Iraqis and to us. I spent the night thinking of what the post-war situation would be like, but I never imagined it would be like this. Ever.
At that time I thought, "The US government will keep its word." I thought that Iraq would be a free, democratic and luxurious country, or that in the worst case it would be better than before. My only regret was that we would be an occupied country also. How naïve I was!
At dawn of the next day, the most intense and severe confrontation I’d been through happened near my house. The bullets were coming from everywhere; there was no given second without the sound of at least 20 bullets. It continued like this for more than an hour with explosions, and helicopters roaming over the house. It was like a front line battle.
In the morning I heard my neighbor saying that the US troops are in our street and every one should carry a white flag if he wants to go out. I was curious so I made a white flag and got in the car with my cousin and I saw them. It was something really strange: the first time I had faced an American soldier. I saw the tanks; they are so big and scary. I pitied the Iraqi tanks. How could they stand in front of these modern war machines? "It was a lost case from the beginning" I said to myself.
Later the resistance started in Adhamiya. We heard the rumors that the American tanks have a magnetic field and that's why the anti-tank missiles (RPG) weren’t able to hit them, and that the resistance in Adhamiya had painted them with mud and thus could hit the tanks. It was a resistance at that time but gradually it turned to something else: terrorism.
The looting started. I wished I could kill every single looter. I remember the US soldiers standing there and doing nothing to them. I saw the Iraqi museum being looted; the US troops should have done something about that. It's not only Iraqi history that was inside. It was an important part of human history in general and it was being looted right in front of them. I saw the banks being looted, and the firesale between the looters, and the US soldiers doing nothing. That was my first disappointment. I remember when I was standing in front of my house and the looters passed by me and I spit when every one of them pass by me. I wanted to hit them as hard as I could. I remember when some guy passed by me and was carrying a chair! He stole a chair! A normal one. I couldn't help myself and asked him, "Why do you do that?" and he replied "I don't know, it just came to me."
They were a disgrace on Iraq and Iraqis. Iraqis were called Ali-baba because of those thugs. I was so ashamed and angry. Then there was the burning of government buildings once they had been stripped clean. Why did they burn the buildings? Were they members of the former regime? Wouldn't the new regime use them? We heard many rumors about who did it and why, but there was nothing certain.
After that, day after day, the situation was deteriorating. Every new day was worse than the one before. It started with Iraqis killed by explosions and road-side bombs, then moved to the killing of high ranking members in the former army, then reached the level of kidnapping and asking for ransom. Eventually, the kidnappers started killing their kidnapped even if the ransom was paid. Later there was the fierce campaign to kill, threaten or displace doctors, dentists, scientists, professors and merchants. It was a campaign to get rid of any one who was capable of rebuilding Iraq. It was a campaign to kill Iraq's brain.
Then there were the various attempts to start the civil war and ignite the sectarian violence. Every attempt failed due to the actions of heroic Iraqis, until that dark day, which I'll never be able to forget as long as I live, when the holy shrines of the two Askari Imams in Samaraa were attacked. It was the perfect opportunity for the seekers of Iraq's destruction to start acting quickly to ignite the sectarian hatred and violence. I remember on that ugly day when the mosques were burned and Imams were killed, the streets were empty and everybody stayed in their homes while the militias were destroying and killing, spreading fear and hatred and eating Iraq alive.
From that day on the sectarian violence escalated in a frightening way. It was like cancer taking over Iraq's body, harvesting innocent souls, feeding from fear and hatred, making life even more difficult, leaving more than 1,400 widowed women without a supporter, forcing millions to leave their houses and their neighborhoods and forcing more millions to flee the country and facing humiliation in other countries just to be alive.
During these 5 years I have experienced everything. Two of my relatives have been kidnapped, and 6 of the people I know closely, including relatives and close friends, have been killed. I can't count the number of people that I know who were murdered. My niece who is 7 years old died in an explosion. Most of my friends and relatives have left the country. I watched my teachers and college professors being killed or kidnapped one after the other. I have been near an explosion countless times. I have witnessed an uncountable number of dead bodies and crying families taking their dead beloved from the forensic medicine building. I have seen 3 men at different times being shot to death in front of me. I have been through unofficial militia checkpoints several times. I have seen dead bodies left on the side walk with no one daring to bury them. My family has been threatened and forced to leave the country. I joined them and stayed in Jordan/Amman for about a year, and then had to return back despite the horrible situation and the extra danger to me as a professional dentist, but what could I do? I tried desperately to find a job there, but like most of Iraqis, I couldn't. I'm just one Iraqi and I have such losses. Imagine 28 million people like me. How much has Iraq lost?
I remember when I returned to Baghdad in the beginning of 2007, when I passed the very first neighborhood of the city that I could see, Al-Jami`a. I saw the abandoned streets, the destroyed buildings and the exploded car bodies laying in the street without a single human walking there. I couldn't handle my self: I burst in tears and cried. I cried for Iraq, I cried for my beautiful Baghdad, I cried because I had never imagined that it would be like this, I cried because Iraq is lost, and most of all I cried because Iraq is not for real Iraqis anymore. Iraq has been raped by everyone, everyone had a role in raping Iraq, Iraq was like a cake and everyone wants his share, not caring what will happen when he press his knife to split it.
I continued crying as I passed by every neighborhood, remembering how it was and how it is now, and thinking, "Wasn’t it bad enough back then?" I reached a checkpoint for the police. They stopped us and threatened to apprehend/kidnap us, but thanks to my wife's tears and all the money I have in my wallet, they let me go. It was so horrifying. I reached home and didn’t leave the house for a whole week.
Five years have passed since the invasion of Iraq. They have been five years of blood and tears. Five years of horror, death, grief and sorrow.
After those five years, millions of Iraqis are now displaced within Iraq or are refugees in other countries. Millions have died through various causes. There are widows without a supporter, children without parents, houses being taken over through force and people without a place to sleep. This occupation is one of the worst disasters in history; it is a disgrace on humanity.
After those five years Iraqis have became like a lethal disease. No country lets them in. Iraqis are rejected everywhere. Iraq has become like a torturous prison for those who didn't leave earlier. Even the neighboring countries are rejecting the Iraqis; for example, Jordan, which was build by Iraqis and Iraqi money, rejects Iraqis, humiliates them, detains them for at least a day in the airport prison and returns them to Iraq. This happened to me and my wife twice, when all we wanted to do was to see our families and relax there.
And I think now is the time for numbers to speak for themselves. I should make it clear that these numbers are much less than reality. I took most of the statistics from here.
Iraqi loses:
Iraqi civilian casualties: over 600,000 (this is much less than reality because the ministry of health refused to give statistics to the UN several times and even when they did they didn't give the real number, and there are so many cases that are not reported and many are missing so they are not included, so I'd personally estimate the casualties by 1,400,000 Iraqi civilians.)
Iraqi police and soldiers killed 7,951....and I would estimate the real number to be 10,000.
Journalists killed: 127, 84 by murder and 43 by acts of war. 14 killed by US forces.
Iraqi insurgent killed: (roughly estimated) 55,000. I'd like to think how many of them were killed for nothing but suspicion. My father was shot at while he was driving his car. He didn't see the U.S. convoy. They shot the car's tank but thank god it didn't explode, and a distant relative was killed because he was driving at night and didn't see the convoy. I'm thinking that he was listed among those 55,000 even though he didn't own a gun!
Iraqis displaced inside Iraq as of May 2007: 2,250,000, so I think it has reached 2,750,000 now.
Iraqi refugees according to the UN statistics are about 1.5 million in Syria, 750,000 in Jordan, 150,000 in Egypt, 50,000 in Iran and 20,000 in Turkey. These numbers are for refugees who registered in the UN. I think it has been a long time since they announced those numbers. I believe that more than 40% of refugees in Jordan are not registered so I'd estimate the number of refugees in Jordan by 1,250,000, and in Syria 2 million.
Iraqi unemployment rate is 27% to 60% when the curfew is not in effect.
Consumer price inflation in 2005 was 50%. I think it has reached 70% or 80% now. It's too expensive to live in Baghdad these days. I lived in Amman and in Damascus and they were much cheaper than here. I spend about the same here as I did there, although there I never stayed home and rarely ate at home, I was essentially on vacation and I was outdoors most of the time. Here I got out once in the month maximum.
Iraqi children suffering from chronic malnutrition is 28% in June 2007 according to CNN.
The number of Iraqi physicians before 2003 is 34,000
Iraqi physicians who have left Iraq since 2003 are 12,000
Iraqi physicians murdered since 2003 are 2,000
I should say that most of the physicians who were murdered or had to leave Iraq are the highly specialized, very famous and well-known physicians.
Average daily hours Iraqi homes have electricity is 1 to 2 hours a day, according to Ryan Crocker in Los Angeles Times on July 27, 2007. Sometimes in July it's 1 hour every two days.
Pre-war daily hours Baghdad homes have electricity is 16 to 24 hours a day. For my home it was 20 to 24 hours a day.
Iraqis without access to adequate water supplies is 70% according to the CNN.
USA casualties:
More than 3,979 soldiers killed, 29,320 seriously wounded.
Non US troops casualties 308 including 175 from UK.
30% of US troops develop serious mental health problems within 3 to 4 months of returning home.
War expense:
Spent and approved war spending is about $600 billion of US taxpayers' funds.
Another $200 billion was requested for 2008 so the total is close to $800 billion.
The cost of deploying one US soldier for one year in Iraq is $390,000.
Just keep in mind that Iraqis aren't just numbers. They are people. They have families and friends, they once had a life to live, they are not just a number you see or hear in the news. Just count the number of deaths above whether they are Iraqis or Americans and think to yourself, is it worth it? NO. There is nothing in the world that is worth these frightening numbers, even if something was achieved. Is the world safer now? Is the Middle East safer now? Is the West safer now? Are Iraqis free? We used to have one tyrant and now we have hundreds of them, is that any better?
What happened has happened. Now, everyone should do something to put an end to this. The U.S. government should accelerate its movements, not only because they have invaded Iraq and they should do what they have promised, but also for their own people, soldiers and their families, and for their economy which is deteriorating. I don't want the US troops to leave just like that and leave everything as it is. They are in Iraq and they should leave at least when it's like it used to be. It has been 5 years and the U.S., with all its technology, money, and science couldn't rebuild the electricity grid to provide Iraq with at least 12 hours of electricity.
We Iraqis must love each other and help each other to rebuild our country. We must put aside our differences because we used to live in peace and love despite our differences. We must stand together and forget our personal interests and focus on the most important thing: our country. I wish these words could reach all the Iraqis: I'm begging you stop supporting anyone, support your country and it's best interest, love each other and always think Iraq must come first. Forget about your sect, your political views and your tribe. Always think of Iraq, don't give the invisible barriers between us any more chances. Let us be united so we can be strong again.
Note: This is the shortest post I could write about this subject, because if I wanted to say all I have in mind then I'll need a book!
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