Fallujah
Posted by Laura
The city is under siege. You can not go in only through certain checkpoints with a badge issued by the marines. The main soccer field in the city is now a cemetery. The only amusement park in the city was looted and destroyed; its trees were used by the locals to bake their bread. Now the former amusement park is intended to be the next cemetery.
Instead of being the city of mosques it will be the city of cemeteries and this will be another achievement of the invasion that residents of Fallujah will remember through generations. Please don’t let that happen. Don’t give extremists more arguments and evidences to fuel anger and to deceive and recruit young men with them.
It can be avoided by allowing the residents to burry their beloved in the northern east cemetery through Al Sichir checkpoint (as locals call it). Just move that check point 300 meters away and then it is solved.
Restore cell phones. Take a bold action and bring cell towers to the American camps or provide security to the existent ones so Al Qaeda won’t attack em. Prove to the people that you can do things right.
People can not understand how great armed forces, like the U.S.army and marines, can not help restoring electricity, water not even cell phones so people can cooperate with the authorities at least.
Please don’t let the people remember your country in this way; making cities full with cemeteries more than it is already (some people in Fallujah buried their sons in their home gardens in 2004).
It is unfair to my people in Fallujah.
It is unfair thing to do to the mothers of the soldiers who thought that they are sending their beloved sons to help millions of Iraqis.
It is unfair thing to do to the good American citizens that I knew and met.
Please help not to change the name of Fallujah to the city of cemeteries.
The city, for the last three weeks and still, is under vehicles curfew. Students walk for long distances to do their final exams. Can you imagine the heat over here in Fallujah? It is about 130 F. patients, pregnant women and old men who can not walk. Add to that those who have to earn some money for their families.
You will ask me why the people don’t demonstrate and demand their rights. My answer is:
The city is under marshal laws and people have to demonstrate by the approval of the military, which is not approved usually. And the most important reason the people here still remember what happened in April 2003, when two demonstrations were faced by fire and led to all these problems. People are afraid and oppressed by every one; Al Qaeda is killing them, the Shiite led government look to them as Sunnis not Iraqis, the Americans look to them as Saddam loyalists and their bitter enemy.
Will some one please look at them as humans?
Why the military can not allow people to enter the city freely like any other place in the world? In a prison you can enter but you can not leave. In Fallujah you can not enter and you can not leave.
Let them leave the checkpoints in place if they think it must but make it easier. Don’t issue that racist badge?
When the southern Iraqi provinces raised against Saddam in 1991 he didn’t issue them badges that say they are residents of that certain city and can not enter to that city unless they carry it not even for Kurds not even for Ramadi residents after 1994 incidents.
This badge is bad to the limit that even Saddam was shy to make it.
We became third degree citizens in this country because of Al Qaeda, Americans and Iranian backed government.
I don’t care about tribes, sheikhs, fighters, smugglers or insurgents. All what I care about are the widows who lost their supporters, orphans who lost their parents and patients who can not leave the city unless they walk for miles and can not come back unless they carry that stupid badge.
Please help these people for the sake of any thing that you believe in whether it was God, a tree, oil or above all humanity sake.
Please send this to any politician, congressman and any one who can help these people. They are suffering more than the most of others.
Help giving these people some hope.
posted by dulaimy
Posted at 09:55 PM | Permalink
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Comments
Dulaimy, thank you and your friends for continuing to tell us the truth about what's happening. I cannot imagine the horrors of living in your city, the city of cemeteries. Daily, there are more of us who read thesee blogs, more of us joining together to push for changes in US policy which will support human dignity, safety and joy. Best to you.
Posted by: Randi | June 18, 2007 at 01:41 PM
dulaimy i am sorry for your agony and the agony of your country. the mclatchey/knight ridder newspaper chain in the united states were the only ones from the beginning to question this war. you should be proud to be associated with them.
Posted by: maile | June 17, 2007 at 06:40 PM
Look at this (McClatchy news, 6/17):
At least 4 civilians were killed and 10 were wounded in a suicide bombing. The incident happened afternoon in Jbil district south Falluja when a suicide wearing a vest bomb detonated among the civilians who had gathered to renew their Falluja residency badges.
Posted by: Laura | June 17, 2007 at 06:37 PM
I sit here and cry reading what the Iraqi people are having to endure. My son is a soldier. We really did only have the best interests of Iraqis in mind when we supported Bush in doing this. We thought we could help you break free of Saddam and build your own free country. I'm sorry that it has turned out to be so much more complicated than that. I wish I knew what we could do to help. I'm glad I am becoming more educated on what is going on in Iraq. Thank you for that.
Posted by: Cindy | June 17, 2007 at 02:25 AM
My heart breaks as I read your plea for help. I have passed this to my friends and family and I will post it to everyone who can make a difference.
God bless you and keep you strong through your struggle know that many Americans are on your side and we as citizens are doing what we can to help.
Posted by: Denise | June 16, 2007 at 01:17 PM
I love my country, but I hate my government.
Why doesn't it make the ones who supported this mess sick with grief? It certainly does the rest of us, tough guy American soldiers included!
Posted by: Captain America | June 15, 2007 at 07:23 PM
I will post this letter in my own blog right now, and it will be sent to my Senators and Representatives straightaway.
This war is horrible. It needs to stop.
Posted by: Rogue | June 15, 2007 at 02:50 PM
I am outraged by the treatment of innocents trapped in the madness of this war. Not only will I contact those who represent me in the U.S. government, but I will alert my friends in Europe and Latin America to your situation. Perhaps pressure from the international community will lend some weight to the struggle to restore dignity and civility to the situation in Fallujah.
My prayers are with you,
Rebecca
Posted by: Rebecca del Rio | June 15, 2007 at 01:12 PM
Your message has now gone out far and wide.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003599498
http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_06_10_archive.html#3456433786800323760
Posted by: focus360 | June 15, 2007 at 11:59 AM
Your message is getting around on the internet. I've had responses on blogs I posted it. You may not get all you've asked for here, but if we're lucky, something positive will come from your plea.
Posted by: ljm | June 15, 2007 at 02:01 AM
I sent the link to this blog to my congressman and senator. I also signed the letter to both my senators posted by the IRC for Iraqi refugees. You can find it under the Iraq refugee section and click take action. I also made a donation to the UNHCR to help Iraq refugees. You can designate on their website.
http://www.theirc.org/
I'll post the link to this blog for you Dulaimy on the blogs I frequent and see if I can get more people to write letters.
Nobody expects people in Fallujah to demonstrate in 130 degree heat in the middle of that crazy civil war going on with AQ in Fallujah.
Much has been in the news about the Sunni groups fighting AQ and in cooperation with the Marines. I think people understand the situation pretty well. Take care of yourself, my friend.
Posted by: ljm | June 14, 2007 at 10:59 PM
Dear friends: Below is a link that will take you to a website with the names, emails, phone numbers and fax numbers of U.S. Congress members.
You can use it to look up your representatives if you don't already have their numbers handy. Please consider sending it, too, to committe chairs, such as Representative Tom Lantos, Chair of the House Foreign Relations Committee, who has a special interest in Human Rights and to the members of the Armed Services Committee.
I've sent this on to my reps. Who's next? (leave a post!)
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/