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Recent
Stories
April
1, 2003
William
S. Lind
The Pitfalls of War Planning
Jorge
Mariscal
Latinos on the Frontlines, Again
Paul
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Arrogant Propaganda
Jo
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Lee
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Labor's War at Home
Akiva Eldar
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Bernie Sanders Voting Maybe on
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We Never Spit on Any Baby Killers
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Simon Jones
A Letter from Uzbekistan
William
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A Naked Display of Imperial Power
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A Battlefield from Hell
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Mass Murder as Liberation?
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Report from Baghdad: Mothers, Kids and Crash Kits
Scott Handleman
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Richard Lichtman
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Website of the War
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Jo Wilding
From
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Stephen Banko
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Shane Claiborne
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If War is Business as Usual, There Should be No Business as Usual
Chuck O'Connell
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Ralph Nader
Come
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War is Theft
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April 3,
2003
From Baghdad
with Tears
Farewell to
a City Under Siege
By JO WILDING
I started crying this morning. I thought I was
leaving at 8am in a convoy for Jordan and I said goodbye to the
staff in the Andalus. Many's the evening I've spent setting the
world to rights over tea and cake round the desk on the ground
floor or, in the last week and a bit, leaning against a post
on the roof with Ahmed, looking out at the city lights, or sometimes
the lack of them, and the flashes and the jets of flame.
It got worse when I said goodbye to the
young soldiers on the street outside, who share their tea with
us and tell jokes in mime. "Ma'assalama," I said, and
added, as a reflex, "Good luck." And then I couldn't
bear the thought of them having to face those overwhelmingly
powerful tanks and guns and ammunition that can pierce body armour,
with nothing but an aging rifle and a hard hat to protect them.
Then when all the bags were in the car,
there was a mix-up and the rest of the convoy left without us
and I wasn't leaving after all, and leaving was the last thing
in the world I wanted to do, but by then my defences had lapsed
and the crater of sorrow inside me had filled to the top and
it overflowed with the tears of Akael's mother for her boy, writhing
in pain, with metal in his head, and Nahda's husband for his
new wife, crushed in the rubble of the farmhouse, and all the
unbelievable, intolerable, uncontainable sadness in this place.
Missing the convoy meant I got to say
goodbye to Zaid, at least, because he arrived here at the Service
Centre just after I did. He looks tired--he said he hasn't been
sleeping, because there's nothing to do all day: no work, no
money, nowhere open to go to, not even the kids to play with
because they're staying somewhere else.
There's been no chance today to go and
catch up with the people we met yesterday in the hospital and
find out how they're doing. Akael's mother rebounds around my
thoughts. Please let his head wound be shallow.
The bombing is a constant background
noise today, a rhythm in stereo with no visible source.
Ali is playing a game on the computer
involving tanks firing missiles at things in a city. Wasn't that
a bit too close for comfort, I asked, or was it simulator practice
in case he needed those skills in the coming weeks. He thought
that was funny.
The kids in the Fanar Hotel were playing
Risk the other day--basically a war board game, where players
invade each other's countries and try to take over the entire
world with small plastic pieces. War is deeply strange.
It will probably be a while before any
of my friends in Iraq are able to read this, but when you do,
this is what I wanted to say. I'm so glad I've met you and had
time to hang out with you. Thank you for your friendship, for
glasses of tea and numi basra and coffees and arghilas and songs
and chat and gossip and tours of the city and evenings by the
river and rollercoaster rides and shared secrets and everything.
I hope you make it safely through this
war and I hope you find your freedom, from the bullying of the
US/UK and the Iraqi government; I hope you are allowed your peace.
Your courage, your dignity, your kindness and humour inspire
me. Ma'assalama.
Jo Wilding
is a British peace activist from Bristol currently in Baghdad.
She can be reached at: wildthing@burntmail.com
Today's
Features
William
S. Lind
The Pitfalls of War Planning
Jorge
Mariscal
Latinos on the Frontlines, Again
Paul
de Rooij
Arrogant Propaganda
Jo
Wilding
From Baghdad: "I Am His Mother"
Tarif
Abboushi
Operation Embedded Folly
Lee
Sustar
Labor's War at Home
Akiva Eldar
Israeli Dreams of Iraqi Oil
Bernard
Weiner
The Vietnam Connection
Robert
Fisk
The Graveyard at Baghdad's North
Gate
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 04/01
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