The Iraq War: The root of Europe's refugee crisis. [View all]

[madfloridian]

Those who voted for, approved the war, refused to speak out against it....of course would deny this.

We talked so much about it back then in the early 2000's. We were ignored. If we spoke out too much against the war we became less than patriotic.

It was a nightmarish time.

From Al Jazeera in September this year.

The Iraq war: The root of Europe's refugee crisis

Subtitle:

Al Jazeera correspondent Imran Khan looks at the conflicts that led to millions fleeing their homes in the Middle East.

It's the kind of tired neither a holiday nor a rest will cure. It's the kind of tired that comes with living in temporary accommodations for years. The kind of tired that comes with constantly battling heat and dust and looking after her children. The kind of tired that comes after you have been forced to flee for your life and carry your belongings in your hand to a strange place.

...What no one talks about is the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

March 2003 was the pivotal point. Based on controversial evidence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (WMD), the war drums beat loudly

Suddenly the radical groups had found a new cause and a new fight.

They learned new tactics. They became hardened fighters. They dreamed of a caliphate that would spread across the Arab and Muslim world.

Angry that the US had invaded another Muslim country, money and weapons were donated in huge number from Muslim countries by individuals who might never have thought about donating to a cause that was violent in nature.

Once irrelevant, al-Qaeda became a threat again, and for the first time the group found a foothold in Iraq.

Recently I posted some words from Riverbend's Baghdad Burning blog. One section in particular showed the utter hopelessness they felt.

It's a bit discouraging to watch the current government so uncoordinated. It's like they don't even communicate with each other. It's also somewhat disturbing to know that they can't seem to decide who is a criminal and who isn't. Isn't there some "idiots guide to being a good Vichy government"?

They say communications are going to be cut off very soon. Telephones are often cut off and the mobile network is sometimes inaccessible for days at a time but we heard there also might not be web access. Students have a mid-year vacation right now but no one is going anywhere. Almost everyone is trapped at home because the security situation is quite bad and no one wants to be caught in an area where an explosion might occur. If the bomb doesn't kill you, the Iraqi security forces or the Americans might and if no one kills you then you risk getting a bag over the head and a trip to Abu Ghraib.

There's an almost palpable anxiety in the air these last couple of weeks and it's beginning to wear on people- fuel shortages, water shortages and a lack of electricity. It's like the first days of the war all over again.

Juan Cole has a "The Speech Bush SHOULD have Given" and it's quite good. In my opinion, during this year's inaugral Bush could have summed it up with the following: "Ha! I can't believe you people actually re-elected me! Unbelievable! Some people just loooove the abuse!"

This paragraph stood out from Juan Cole's writing:

So why do I want to go to war? Look, folks, I’m just not going to tell you. I don’t have to tell you. There is little transparency about these things in the executive, because we’re running a kind of rump empire out of the president’s office. After 20 or 30 years it will all leak out. Until then, you’ll just have to trust me.

When you force people out of their country with no place to go, they get angry. Riverbend had a way of putting things bluntly and clearly.

Leaving Home

I got tears.

t happened almost overnight. My aunt called with the exciting news that one of her neighbors was going to leave for Syria in 48 hours because their son was being threatened and they wanted another family on the road with them in another car- like gazelles in the jungle, it’s safer to travel in groups. It was a flurry of activity for two days. We checked to make sure everything we could possibly need was prepared and packed. We arranged for a distant cousin of my moms who was to stay in our house with his family to come the night before we left (we can’t leave the house empty because someone might take it).

It was a tearful farewell as we left the house. One of my other aunts and an uncle came to say goodbye the morning of the trip. It was a solemn morning and I’d been preparing myself for the last two days not to cry. You won’t cry, I kept saying, because you’re coming back. You won’t cry because it’s just a little trip like the ones you used to take to Mosul or Basrah before the war. In spite of my assurances to myself of a safe and happy return, I spent several hours before leaving with a huge lump lodged firmly in my throat. My eyes burned and my nose ran in spite of me. I told myself it was an allergy.

The last few hours in the house were a blur. It was time to go and I went from room to room saying goodbye to everything. I said goodbye to my desk- the one I’d used all through high school and college. I said goodbye to the curtains and the bed and the couch. I said goodbye to the armchair E. and I broke when we were younger. I said goodbye to the big table over which we’d gathered for meals and to do homework. I said goodbye to the ghosts of the framed pictures that once hung on the walls, because the pictures have long since been taken down and stored away- but I knew just what hung where. I said goodbye to the silly board games we inevitably fought over- the Arabic Monopoly with the missing cards and money that no one had the heart to throw away.

We were all refugees- rich or poor. And refugees all look the same- there’s a unique expression you’ll find on their faces- relief, mixed with sorrow, tinged with apprehension. The faces almost all look the same.