McClatchy: "First-hand report from Iraq" (reporter flees Baghdad)

[Newsjock]

This is a long and powerful first-person account that just about had me in tears at work when I read it on the wire earlier today.
http://www.startribune.com/722/story/838723.html

Shatha Al-Awsy, McClatchy News Service

I left my home Monday.

As my family fled the fighting that's engulfed our neighborhood in Baghdad, I gazed out the car window, thinking that I might never again see the fruit stand off our street, the shops where my sisters and I bought soft drinks, the turquoise-domed mosque where we prayed in the holy month of Ramadan.

... I had two suitcases. What to take? I stuffed one with my daughter's clothes and diapers, along with all our personal documents. Into the other went my smallest painting, a cherished Indian bedspread and warm sweaters for winter.

As we began loading the car, I realized that there was no space for the second bag. With a broken heart, I left it behind.

I told myself they were just material things. There's nothing we can't buy except our lives. Nothing was as important as my daughter, and I was just grateful that we'd made it to morning.

I took one last look at my living room, locked the door and walked away.

[Erika]

1. How very sad. No democracy, no liberation

Just profits for W's buds.

[originalpckelly]

2. This is undoubtedly the first of many...

many horrible accounts of people fleeing Baghdad and Iraq as a whole.

[ninkasi]

3. It seems that one horror piles upon others

for the people of Iraq. How dare Bush and the neocons so casually bring about all of this suffering and pain, simply because Bush wanted to be a war president, and the neocons wanted more wealth and power. There is no way they will ever be able to atone for the tragedies they have caused. These people's lives are every bit as precious to them as Bush's is to him. I don't think he's even capable of beginning to understand the depth of his sins.

[Erika]

4. W and his family lead the "good life"

They have no connect at all with anyone who doesn't. No sympathy, no empathy, no connect.

W will be smirking and laughing tomorrow, his girls are on holiday in Argentina, and Babs thinks life in hurricane shelters for Katrina victims was a "step up" for them.

Republican elitism running wild.

[Vexatious Ape]

5. I'm wondering if the American people

understand the depth of his sins. I know most people are tired of seeing the US body count and want the troops home, but do they realize what we've done to that country? I doubt it.

[Newsjock]

6. No, we don't have a clue

That's why, if I were editing a front page tonight, I'd put this story front and center on tomorrow's front page. I'll eat my words if there's a single paper in the country that actually does so.

[EFerrari]

10. We have to hang in there, Newsjock. This tide is turning

and I hope people like you will be there when it does.

Never give up.

[IndyOp]

13. Never give up. Never give in. AND THIS TIME WE TAKE THEM DOWN SO FAR

they will NEVER BE ABLE TO START ANOTHER DAMNED WAR.

:nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke:

[Newsjock]

18. I eat my words

Front page centerpiece of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis today:


Yes, I'm shocked.

[leftchick]

21. Now That is Big!

:)

[samfishX]

22. I have no idea why,

But seeing that really does make me SO happy.

[Erika]

7. I don't think many of them want to know

They can view daily activities at www.icasualties.org I doubt if many go there. They might have to face their conscience and their voting record. Few will do that.

[Vexatious Ape]

9. All they have to do is wrap themselves in

the flag, replace the fadded yellow ribbon on the SUV and tune into Hannity on their way to the mall.

[Azathoth]

8. Bush's legacy

It's no wonder he's desperate to build a $500 million monument to himself.

[Phrogman]

12. Has "W" laid the keel on his aircraft carrier already?

I'm sure thats already on his little mind.

[Sirveri]

17. George HW Bush is in the yards getting put together now.

I think it is suppossed to be launched sometime in 2008-09 or something. Apparently 1 term Republican Presidents get carriers, whereas 1 term Dem presidents like Carter only get Submarines. Kinda odd that.

[Yukari Yakumo]

26. What's wrong with subs?

We submariners always kick the surface fleet's ass in wargames.

[Phrogman]

28. Bush kinda got "torpedoed" anyway, didn't he?

LOL

[nealmhughes]

32. As an erudite old master chief once taught us: Submarines once, submarines twice....

and there are only two types of ships: submarines and targets.

ET2 (SS) USS Kamehameha SSBN 642 Gold
Reactor and shutdown reactor operator, engineering watch supervisor.

[EFerrari]

11. May the people be safe.

Sorry, world. We're hating this, too.

[stackit-up]

15. well said sfexpat2000

I am hating this too, even to the point of harsh words to a brother n' law who told me over Turkey the past Thursday that going to Iraq was justified. I hate to resort to stereotypes, but he is a Baptist that listens to Christian radio and is a fat cat in the oil business--Peckerwood Pulease!

The really sad part is that Bushco lacks the capacity to ever really understand the harm they are personally responsible for causing. F'em and feed 'em fish heads!

[EFerrari]

20. Welcome to DU, stackit-up.

:hi:

[grizmaster]

14. what the murder monkey hath wrought

may it be visited upon him one day


I've never been so ashamed of this country as I am right now. bush shouldn't be impeached, he should be put on trial for war crimes and the most severe sentence allowed by law passed on him.

[CornField]

16. And as people try to pick up the pieces of the lives they have left

As others bury their dead... or worse, leave them to rot in the street because it is too dangerous to retrieve them... American press, conservatives and Bush supporters bide time by arguing if an image was photoshopped to place Bush's own face under a burqa.

The atrocities being done in my name are becoming too great for me to bear.

[Black Adder]

19. What a disaster!!

Iraq was effectively contained in 2001 - with no-fly zones, etc.. It had no WMDs and it was not involved in 9/11.
But Bush and the neo-cons were gonna show the world just how big and strong (Shock and Awe) the U.S. was (now that it was the lone super-power). And think of all the "God Bless America" and "We're #1" parades (just like after Gulf War 1).
Well, Iraq has become the neo-cons Stalingrad. 25,000 American casualties (dead and wounded) and probably 10 times that in Iraq as well as $500 million pissed down the drain and Iraq is a worse hellhole than it was under Saddam..
And now there are no good options, only bad and worse.
I'm as sorry for America and the American people as I am for Iraq and the Iraqi pe

[EFerrari]

23. Welcome to DU, Black Adder.

I don't remember who I heard say this, the other day -- one of our public intellectuals -- but, he said, "Why not 'God bless everybody'?"

[brainshrub]

27. Welcome to DU! Any relation to our beloved Plaid Adder?

Welcome to DU! Any relation to our beloved Plaid Adder?

:toast:

[Black Adder]

29. Thx for the welcome, but no - I'm not related N/T

[Bucky]

30. Welcome, Black Adder. Sadly, Iraq is not their Stalingrad for several reasons.

Stalingrad is where the nazis were finally stopped. Iraq was supposed to be the opening salvo in the neocons' ignoramus would crusade. It was the weakest and most vulnerable of the "Axis of Evil" and still managed to grind them to a halt. Iraq isn't the neocons' Stalingrad; it's the little stain on their big blue dress. It only hints at the shit they had in store for the world, even if all the dead people means nothing to them.

[warrens]

24. Wonder if Bush will visit him and get all compassionate

Every person who voted for that monster and hasn't repented shares the blame for this mess. Make sure to remind them of that fact.

[KoKo]

25. The "untold story" of innocent Iraqi's caught up in Bush Crime Family depravity.

While we are told to hit the stores and spend that money that we saved by having gas prices go down (after they went up and broke our budgets) there are people having to flee their land because we've invaded and occupied.

The Bush girls are in Argentina running naked down hallways and living it up in the private owner's box at a Soccer Game and the liars who got us into this still spew on C-Span in their Think Tank Conferences.

I hope that the documentaries that need to be done on the story of the Iraqi People under the Bush Dictatorship will be told in the coming years. The world should never forget what the Bush Crime Family has done. And Americans who supported them should never forget, either.

[wicket]

31. My god what have we done

:cry:

[dpbrown]

33. This is what Bush the Terrorist brought to Iraq

Meanwhile, he's already abandoned Afghanistan, complaining that NATO isn't using enough troops.

But he says we'll never leave Iraq.

[illinoisprogressive]

34. It Reminds me of The stories my mother told me

She is from france and was a young girl when the war came. She told me stories about her family fleeing to the south of France one step ahead of the Nazi's and planes flying overhead shooting at the people on the road.
The little men who go to war to make themselves feel like peacocks and strut around do not think or care about the hell and devastation they bring with them and thier hubris.
My heart aches for the people of Iraq. I feel so bad for them and know thier lives are ruined because of us.

[a la izquierda]

35. This is sick

Bush and co. stomp carelessly all over the world with no regard for the misery, destruction and anguish that he leaves in his wake. We will reap what we sow.:cry: