What are Iraqis feeling now, during the sixth anniversary of the U.S. invasion? In order to help answer that question, WORLDMEETS.US just posted this article from Iraq’s Kitabat newspaper, written by a man who witnessed the fall of Baghdad, tells of what went through his mind back then and expresses his great concern for the fate of his nation.
For Iraq’s Kitabat newspaper, Warid Bader as-Salim writes in part:
“In April, 2003, with my senses trembling, I believed I was witnessing the first American tank pierce the Iraqi mystery that had so darkened our lives. … Throughout their history, the Iraqi people were instructed to applaud the regime, but with amazing speed, the leaders of that regime disappeared – almost as if they were spirits or ghosts!”
“The country was opened like an oyster and its innards tampered with by fishermen, smugglers, louts, friends with blue collars, the gluttonous, the bald, the blind, the one-eyed, the lame, the cross-eyed, those wearing robes that don’t fit, mourners of the dead, those who circulate rumors, those who manufacture rotten yeast, liars, pretenders, hypocrites, those with short pants, desert dogs, wolves of the night, the cowboy mafia, drug traffickers and journalists complicit in spreading news according to the timing of the occupation … ”
“Oh nation between the two rivers [the Tigris and Euphrates], how much more can you endure?
By Warid Bader as-Salim
Translated By Jenny Oliver
April 9, 2009
Iraq – Kitabat – Original Article (Arabic)
Six years ago today when American tanks first entered central Baghdad, like many others, I thought I was the first Iraqi to see it!
With reticence I can recall the scene and more or less bring it to mind, trying to reduce the distance that time imposes on a period so stained with Iraqi blood. Life stopped precisely on the Jumhouriya Bridge [aka/the July 14 Bridge]. Back then we could only wonder: Is this a sign of salvation or just the latest milestone of death overseen by people with different names and titles?
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, your most trusted translator and aggregator of foreign news and views about our nation.
Founder and Managing Editor of Worldmeets.US