Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Bad memories about war

I realy don't like to call it the War of Freedom like other call it, it was a war against Iraqis, against Saddam and now we are paying the price of The American government's big mistake.
I remember the first days of the war, it was about 05:00 to 06:00 am, 20 March 2003, we were sleeping in peace but there was fear inside our heart to here the sounds of bombs any time, as they announced the Zero Hour, which means the time to start the war.
We heard the sounds, we went down stairs and listened carefully, we hugged each other and prayed to God to protect everyone. I was scared to death, my heart was beating very fast, then my father's friend called and they must go to their duty, I didn't want my father to leave, but this is his job and his duty towards the country, he went and we didn't heard any thing about him for several days.
I remember my aunt (Allah yrhamha) the sister of my father, which lives in the south of Iraq, was calling us everyday to check upon us. My grandparents was asking us to go their house untill the situation to be calm, my aunt (the sister of my mother) was asking us the same thing and they were living in Aadhamiyah at that time. during the Gulf War in 1991, all my aunt's (My Mother's sisters, their husbands and kids, we were kids at that time) went all there, we spend the hard days of war togther, but in the war of 2003, my mother refused to leave the house, she said "I will not leave it for I'm waiting for my husband to come in any time, we should wait for him in his house". We refused. Thanks be to Allah that we didn't leave our house, because all of them came to us, and we spent the war days together in our home, because the situation in their neighborhoods was getting worse.
we were about 11 members, my father was still in his duty and my grandfather was in his house, he didn't leave his house to protect it and all the men in their area were there, but he was trying to come to our house, he couldn't because the streets were closed, all the Iraqi tanks were damaged, he was walking all the streets just trying to reach us, all the streets were filled with chopped and burned bodies, he was alone for along time, we couldn't call him, he spent the days alone in the dark nights hearing the bombings every little hour, untill the roads re-opened, he came but he was in a bad situation, he lost weight, and he was depressed for seeing the bloody scenes in the streets, this caused him the Zehimar and died three years later.
After several days, and when the military operation by the US troops decreased, my father came back, Then we heard that the US troops entered Baghdad.
When US troops occupied Baghdad, there were no electricity, no water from time to time, no food, we were making bread at home, I was dreaming to eat a banana or at least a small dish of fresh salad.
We lived in bad situation, we start to hear the Iraqis are being killed for money, cars, revenge, as well as sectarian reasons. The killing is continuing till now. Iraqis were displaced for being Sunni, Shiite, Christian or Kurds, men were killed for doing their hear in a stylish way, women were killed for speaking on the mobile in the street, as it is Haram, (Forbidden) by the Islamists.
During college, my christian friend was living in al-Dora, one of al-Qaeda srtongholds, she was forced to wear Hijab.
She tells me someday, a man came to her house, spoke with her mother "You should make your two girsl wear Hijab, or you will be forced to pay 50 dollar every day for us, and we'll take your girls and marry them!".
They wore Hijab, then they moved to another house in another area later. Me too, I was putting scarf all the way from home to college, for security reasons.
I remeber one day during Ramadan in 2003, which several month after the war, we were invited to have the Iftar in my aunt's house in Adhamiya, then we went back home, on the way, we found a US tank in front of us, the soldier on the top of it was directing the mashine gun of the tank to us, it was a deadly moments, you can't imagine what happened to us, we were scared to death, we prayed that we would not feel pain if we die but later he just waved his hand to us telling move!.
I have more to tell, I heard many things worth to be shared here, but I don't want my post to be very long. Maybe I will speak about it later, maybe not. All I can say that be safe and live in peace.

8 comments:

mhmd said...

it is touta the fog al nakhal blogger.
i speak english and kurdish and little arabic, so her brother translated what she said from arabic into english, because touta's family don't know kurdish.

they asked what her brother was in relation to here, and we were all shocked. my grandparents who have lived in baghdad for most of their life said that never have happened before.

I am sorry for your loss in the war, and i believe the us is most to blame for all the problems-they had their chance to help iraq in 1991 but they let iraqis suffer through that war and this one.

Keep safe.

moonlight said...

It's sad and terrible what the U.S government has forced iraqis to live through. I rememeber the first days of the war as we sat glued to the TV in shock and also attempting to call family in Baghdad we were so sacred for them. I never liked the name war of freedom either there is no freedom when another countries soldiers are there.

Allah yer7am your grandpa and aunt inshAllah

:(

Khalid from iraqiblogupdates.blogspot.com/ said...

Hello Micho,

How are you?

It's sad to read what happened to your loved ones during the war. I hope the future'll bring you happiness and every thing good.

I hope you enjoyed the post I wrote about your search for your dreamy house.

Khalid

Touta said...

I loved how frank and realistic this post was.

Allah yirham your relatives, and i hope that the future brings you all your dreams and happiness.

I do want you to post more please, because its very interesting. :D

best wishes.:)

David said...

Your post really captured my attention Micho! Your words help me to feel a bit of what you experienced. Please continue.

I think that writing about troubling memories is a good way to put them in perspective and help to heal the pain that the writer experienced.

I am sorry for your loss of your grandfather.

Michomeme said...

Mhmd,
ok the first thing you have to do is to learn Arabic, :)
I'm sorry as well for all Iraqi whom killed because of the war. thank you




Moonlight
o yerham everyone, thank you for your nice comment, Moon, living in a war is really different from watching on TV. but at least you were watching the news while we had not tv channels because they closed it during the war.



Khalid,
hi how are you? I'm fine thank you for asking, I liked the post you wrote, it was really cool, I even asked my fince to read it. thanks for your nice suggestions.



Touta
Thank you Touta, inshallah I will write about it.



David
Thank you David for your nice words, I will write more.

Khalid from iraqiblogupdates.blogspot.com/ said...

Micho,


Many thanks and I'm ok.
I'm happy that you and your fiancé enjoyed reading my proposals.

I pray for you both to be happy today and every day insa ALLLAH.

Khalid

Anonymous said...

Oh, shut the fuck up already. You Muslims want to cause terrorism and backward hatred in the world. THIS IS WHAT YOU FUCKING GET.

And still to this day, Muslims attacks all over the world. You're DESTROYING this earth!