Our gift to the Iraqis

While Iraq bleeds and the Western media obsess over the Bush administration’s (increasingly) limited options in the ravaged nation, what is happening on the ground? Al-Jazeera.info translates some articles from the London-based Arabic newspaper, Al-Quds Al-Arabi:

The first article is about a study conducted by the Iraqi Southern Research Center for Strategic Planning. It mentions that about 400 Iraqis are killed daily in Baghdad alone. The killing is sectarian aiming at cleansing East Baghdad from Sunnis and West Baghdad from Shi’is.

Perpetrators commit their crimes using car bombs, mortars, motorbikes, bicycles, and guns. They kill in day times with protection from security forces.

In another article, there are stories about Shi’i families forced to quit their homes in Sunni areas, and Sunni families forced to quit their homes in Shi’i areas by militiamen. Despite their plight, they are better off than the ones who are killed daily to complete this ethnic cleansing campaign.

About fifty families are forced daily to leave their homes from one area to another. About fifty more families are forced to leave Baghdad as a result of this campaign of ethnic cleansing.

In addition, extended families and neighbours exert pressure on men to divorce their wives from another sect. Thus, many Sunni women have been divorced by their Shi’i husbands, who usually take the children in their custody. Many Shi’i women are also being divorced by their Sunni husbands, who keep children in their custody, too.

The article tells some of these stories, with names of people and their locations.

A third article is about the opportunist Iraqi exiles, who were used by the Bush-Blair administrations to convince the public in the US-UK to accept the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

After completing their role, they and their families are now back in the wealthy London neighbourhoods. The article mentions names and locations of residence of these Iraqis who helped destroy their country. These include Iyad Allawi, Ibrahim Al-Ja’afari, Ahmed Chalabi, Adnan Pajahji, Laith Kubba, and Ali Bin Al-Hussain.… 

The faux debate over “civil war” proves the shallowness of much Western discourse. We’ve unleashed ethnic cleansing.

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