Updates from Baghdad and surrounding area...bad very bad

[Mari333]

Just got a call from a friend whose son is an army ranger in Bagdhad. Sounds really bad. She tells me that she is in touch with an Italian woman in Baghdad, who was told yesterday by the sheiks to leave Baghdad immediately. Also, there are attacks on Fallujah right now. This Italian woman would never leave Baghdad under any other circumstances, but she is now. The sheiks told her "we cannot keep the people contained, the worst is yet to come"
My friend said she is starting to accept the fact that her son will probably die, and is trying to deal with it as best she can.
I am praying Michael does not die.
I will post the email from the woman in Baghdad on here as soon as my friend sends it to me.
Things look like they are getting worse, and the media here is ignoring it.

[Ladyhawk]

1. ((((((((((Mari)))))))))))

This must be hell for you. I am so sorry.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

2. Very sorry to hear about that Mari ---

I have no doubt that we are only hearing about a fraction of what is really happening over there.

I know it's Easter and all that but damn Bush and all his evil enablers. :mad:

[frank frankly]

3. the media is our mortal enemy

they are doing some of their worst work yet right now.

the average american thinks things are docile over there. it is a revolution.

[burrowowl]

4. We are all praying

for you and yours and the troops and the Iraqis
and May God smite Bu$hco

[BeFree]

5. Best wishes for you and yours..

BeFree

[Mari333]

6. we arent having an Easter.

I will update you when the email comes in from my friend. She speaks with women in Baghdad all the time, by email, and I will let you know whats going on.I wish we had one or two friends in this town, but we dont, they all left when I became a peace activist. I guess thats what happens. I wish this damned holiday were over.

[markses]

7. Oh, for God's sake

My friend said she is starting to accept the fact that her son will probably die, and is trying to deal with it as best she can.

I hope you did your best to dissuade your friend of this belief, since it is rubbish, and accomplishes little other than agitating her unnecessarily.

I don't want to disturb whatever voodoo and negotiations with chance that best help you deal with the situation, but I wonder whether some of these deals aren't making things worse. To think that her son will "probably" be killed is a bit much, and unhealthy.

I spoke to my mother about this recently. She lived through my uncle's tour in Vietnam (67-68); a first cousin they were both close with was killed during this same period (during the Tet Offensive). I asked about the worry. Of course, she said, the worrying made her just sick, but that she had learned to hack it. It was best, she said 1) not to assume the worst will happen and 2) not to get yourself into what she called "worry-echo-chambers." The first is easy enough to understand, and applies to your friend. The second is more complicated, especially because the worry-echo-chamber can double as a support group. There is a point, however, when the support group starts to function against itself, providing not support, but an increasing spiral of despair. Such a point needs to be guarded against at all costs - if you are to maintain your sanity.

Am I saying "Get over it." of course not. But you do have to remain strong over here - for Michael - and spiralling deeper into hopelessness and despair is not a good way to do it. Am I saying "Abandon your support structures." Of course not. But there is a point where the support turns into damage, and you need to regulate that.

I have no idea what you're going through. I can only get it second hand. At the same time, from what I have seen, I think you may need to reassess ther way you're approaching this experience.

[Mari333]

10. Its a matter of acceptance of any outcome

allowing for any outcome to be. Michael may very well come home, and be safe and fine. He may also die. My friend is trying to accept, within her, all outcomes so she is prepared for the worst and the best. we both hope at least my stepson and her son will be slightly wounded, and brought home, at this point. Thats the only way we know they will get out soon. We cant count on the BFEE to get them out thats for sure. Or most of the US populace.
DU and my dog and my husband are my support structure.

[markses]

11. I understand that

But I don't think that's what you're doing over there. I apologize if I'm out of line here, but I think an honest critique of the way you seem to be dealing with this crisis is better than a thousand posts that feed into the echo chamber.

Needless to say, my best wishes are with you.

[Qanisqineq]

12. I agree with this statement:

"There is a point, however, when the support group starts to function against itself, providing not support, but an increasing spiral of despair."

When my husband was in Iraq, it became too depressing communicating with others whose husbands where also there. I thought it would help talking to others in the same situation, but after a while it became more damaging to my emotional state than it was helpful. Eventually I limited my communication with them and concentrated on surrounding myself with more positive people.

Mari- I know how hard it is, but I also know that your friend should not have the "he's going to die anyway" attitude. It is not healthy for her or her son.

[Mari333]

13. well it didnt help much today but both her son and Michael

are in a horrible spot. Nonetheless, I dont know anyone in town here and have no support group. I only posted the thread to let people know, actually, that things are heating up over there and going to get worse.
Good point btw. thanks.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

17. My prayers go to you and yours

We do the Dances of Universal Peace, and today thought especially of the Middle East when our group met.

[SayitAintSo]

8. My prayers and good thoughts are with you ...

I have been following your posts about your love one in Iraq. You are very brave. I can't imagine what it must be like to have a loved one in IRAQ right now. Please keep us posted - my thoughts are with you.

SayitAintSo

[aquart]

9. Praying with you, Mari.

Trying to include all of them.

[Gloria]

14. The level of hostility I heard today on the BBC is unnerving...

on Talking Point (Which I posted about earlier with the link to the on demand player) as well as reports during the day today...

The seething anger against Americans, their Iraqi stooges, the belief it's all about oil and manipulation, humiliation......it's a cauldron.
Professionals, a reporter who had just left (probably from a ME country), man in the street......it's just overpowering.

[goclark]

15. I said a pray for you in church Mari n/t

[Ilsa]

20. It was clear from the Sunday talk shows that

the CPA doesn't have a clue as to how it is going to "hand over" Iraq to the Iraqis in 11-12 weeks. This provides us with more ammo for bringing the troops home NOW. Emails and calls will go out again to my senators, not that those repukes (Hutchinson and Cornyn) will listen, but my US Rep Ron Paul has generally been against the war, if I understand him correctly. Maybe this is the time we can get something done if enough people speak out.

Blessings on your son and all the others over there, Mari. Hang tight.

[John_H]

16. He probably won't die.

The odds have to be less than ten percent, statistically., so your friend should give herself, and you, a break.

This doesn't change the fact, however, that the 675 who have died are way too many.

[Mari333]

18. Update: the email I recieved about Baghdad firsthand witten a few

days ago, april 10th..things are getting worse..here is the email my friend sent me, she is in touch with this reporter who sent her this email from Baghdad: (spread it around)

The following series of emails came to me from eyewitnesses to the civilian
uprising against the occupation of Iraq. Paola G is an Italian woman
from Occupation Watch and Bridges to Baghdad whom I met in Baghdad in
January. She is devoted to humanitarian work and spreading the truth of her
experiences in Iraq. I trust Paola's words as she writes:

Dear All,
I want to stay in Iraq but I believe its best to leave. It's getting really
dangerous as Italians are being targeted. (Italy has a 2,500 plus force
including Carabinieri occupying Nassiriyah. The town has been subject to a
number of resistance attacks including a devastating attack on the police
station: four soldiers, one civilian, one documentary film maker, twelve
Carabinieri police and eight Iraqis were killed.)
An 'elastic' sheikh ('elastic' because his interpretations of Islam and
moral conduct is flexible) in Sadr City told me I should leave as even he
can't control his people. He says foreigners are targeted and already six
foreigners are hostage, four of whom are Italian security firm employees
kidnapped from their car.
Some Iraqis and NGO people are driving back and forth into Falluga to bring
people out. We've not been able to help as the situation is getting much
worse.

Below journalist Ewa Jasiewicz describes present events in Iraq where a
great many innocent people are dying yet only a small part is reported in
the media. Ewa worked with Voices in the Wilderness and Occupation Watch in
Iraq, lived in Basra and Baghdad for eight months as well as in Palestine's
Jenin camp for six months. She speaks Arabic, got back from Iraq two months
ago, and is in regular contact with friends in Basra and Baghdad. On Friday,
April 10, she spoke to friends in Baghdad who have been ferrying the injured
from Falluja to Baghdad for the past three days. They report ambulances have
been barred from entry into the blood-drenched city.
Please spread the information below as widely as possible, and act upon it.

Iraq Solidarity Action - Resist the Massacre in Falluga
Falluga is under siege. At least 470 people have been killed, and over 1,700
injured in the last few days. American military snipers are following and
discouraging ambulances by firing on them.
There has been no ceasefire. Instead, American forces told people they have
eight hours to leave. Many left but are now they're trapped and under attack
in the desert. Iraqi people are trying to bring them supplies as well as
support civilians in Falluga.
Baghdad was quiet today except for Abu Ghraib in west Baghdad, where a vast
prison is bursting at the seams with over 12,000 prisoners. An American
convoy was attacked there and nine soldiers injured and 27 kidnapped. No
newswires are reporting this incident.
My team, Bridges to Baghdad is leaving. We have flights booked from Amman
but, first, tomorrow a team will go to Sadr City -- fifty people have been
killed there -- to deliver medicines.
People were told to leave Falluga and now thousands are trapped in the
Desert. There is a 13 km long convoy of people trying to reach Baghdad.
The American military is dropping bombs -- everything, everything, they have
-- on families, children, old men and women in the dessert. Even after
agreeing there'd be a ceasefire I saw planes and helicopters fly over and
drop cluster bombs and new mortars that jump three to four meters. People
lie dead in the streets. Hospitals, too, are attacked.
Fallugans are fighting back but we're expecting the main attack in 24-48
hours when the military takes the town street by street.
Everyone here is going crazy. It's not safe for foreigners and a Sheikh from
Falluga says he can't guarantee my safety and that it will get more crazy. I
think foreigners will start getting killed soon as people get more
desperate. As their families, houses, pets, everything is bombed they'll
fight back ferociously.
The American military says this operation will last only five days and that
it's drawing to an end as they need troops on the fronts breaking out all
over the country. But no one is safe. We'll probably be killed tomorrow.

Falluga, a city with a population of 232,000), is now undergoing a trauma
similar to the massacre in Jenin but with a larger, more powerful, better
armed military that is carpet bombing the town. We have to do what we can in
solidarity with the dying, the bereaved, and those still struggling,
defending, and fighting back. There is honor and dignity in resisting and
the Iraqi intifada is raging. Iraq is on fire. We cannot be silent. Remember
the massacre in Jenin. Never Again. Stop the massacre in Falluga.
Please help, get people to protest, ask them to go to the Embassies, to the
streets, to do something. This is a massacre. We need world attention on
this. I have photos and film but I need to get it out of the country. Do
everything you can. Meanwhile, we're going back.
Here's what you can do:
Demonstrate, organize, protest, occupy; block roads to catch people's
attention; practice civil disobedience; stop working; prevent B52s from
taking off at Fairford Military base.
Resist! Take action in your neighborhoods; print leaflets; paint banners.
Take to the streets. Even small groups can change this situation.
Learn more:
Find addresses of US Embassies in London, Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff and
complain (seven hundred more British troops have been flown in to quell the
uprising in the South.): http://www.usembassy.org.uk/ukaddres.html provides
Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases:
http://cndyorks.gn.apc.org/caab/ has a list of the locations of all the main
US air bases used in the UK.
Find a full list of arms companies, including BAE Systems, and Lockheed
Martin, that have been principal supplies of weapons of mass destruction for
the war on Iraq: http://www.caat.org.uk/links/companies.php
For tips on confronting arms companies see Campaign Against the Arms Trade:
http://www.caat.org.uk/support/confronting-companies.php

Read Al Jazeera for breaking news in Iraq that mainstream media won't
report: http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage

Create leaflets with the following text:
A massacre is taking place in Falluja, a town currently resisting the
occupation of Iraq and regularly pummeled by F16 fighter jets and Apache
Helicopter gun ships.
Well over 470 civilians have been killed this week, and over 1,700 injured.
This toll will rise as the military cordon closes around the town.
Eyewitnesses report that ambulances trying to enter the town are fired upon.
Bodies lie dead in the streets. Hospitals are attacked and medical supplies
and personnel are in short supply. People from all over the country are
attempting to get into Falluja to evacuate the injured with private cars.
People are donating food, medical supplies, and water to those fleeing.

At this time (10/04/04) a 13km column of Falluja residents, fleeing their
bomb-smashed town, is trapped in the desert and surrounded by US troops.
Eyewitnesses report firing upon elderly men, women and children.
US soldiers stationed near the town are in an impossible situation. Now that
the brewing discontent, frustration, humiliation, and mounting rage against
the occupation has exploded against the occupation, blood of American
soldiers is being shed for the market-profit-chasing corporate interests of
the US and UK governments.
The climate in Iraq has moved on from protest to resistance, and now to
insurgency. Demonstrations have been taking place every day all over the
country since the occupation began, with protestors ranging from students to
pensioners, unemployed, women, former soldiers and children.
Here is a brief list of Iraqi grievances and objections to the occupation:
* The Coalition Provisional Authority is re-writing Iraqi law. For example,
Order 30, Salaries and Employment Conditions for Civil Service Employees,
sets the minimum wage for Iraqi Public Sector workers at 69,000 ID ($40 per
month - less than half the recommended wage of a sweatshop worker in a free
trade zone neighboring Iran); Order 39, Foreign Investment, allows 100%
foreign ownership - privatization - and slashes the highest income tax rate
from 45% to 15%.
* There is a recycling and re-empowering of a neo-Baathist ruling elite
* There is a re-training and re-hiring of over 10,000 Baathist intelligence
agents.

Occupying forces label this revolt in support of the anti-occupation cleric
Muqtada al Sadr but it is a more widespread, uncontrollable, inchoate, and
varied than that. It is not just Islamic, not just nationalist, not just
Baathist. Instead, it is a general struggle against the Occupation.
Stand in solidarity with the people in Iraq. Join the protest against the
bloody massacre in Falluja, which will spread if the occupation armies
continue unchecked and without international challenge. Stop the ongoing war
on Iraq. Get troops out of Iraq; Bring 'em home now!

For views from the British military perspective see: "US tactics condemned
by British officers: Senior British commanders have condemned American
military tactics in Iraq as heavy-handed and disproportionate. By Sean
Rayment, Defense Correspondent (Filed: 11/04/2004)

[burrowowl]

19. Kick

Kick!