Back from Syria

The New York Times ^ | May 6, 2008 | Mohamed Hussein

[moderatewolverine]

I came back to Baghdad last week.

First, it is important to mention the main cause that made me leave everything behind and go to Syria. By the end of 2006 my neighborhood had become an unbearable place. No one could continue there. It was without any simple services, from bakery shops to the hospital and physicians. They all closed their doors and left.

But the real cause is something hidden inside me that affected me more. One day while driving my car to work I saw a corpse thrown alongside the road, and for next three days no one could remove or even touch it. If you moved it you would face the same fate.

So I was gazing at that corpse twice a day for the next three days. That made me think about the whole situation and I said: “It is possible there will be a day when I will be the next corpse laid on that road.”

The other more important cause that made me leave was that it seemed like someone had started a campaign to assassinate everyone living in my area, no matter from which side -Sunni or Shiite - as they just needed numbers of people who had to be killed.

In Syria I did not really get any rest because although my wife and children came with me, my parents stayed behind. They were alone and they are both aged people, so they did not think anyone would target them. But what could I do for them either staying in Syria with all that agony inside me, or returning back and paying with my life as the price of that compassion?

[camerakid400]

So we still need the Americans because if they intend to leave, there will be something like a hurricane which will extract everything - people, buildings and even trees. Everything that has happened and all that safety will be past, just like a sweet dream. As people say in my neighborhood: “The Americans are now Ansar al Sunna.” Protectors of the Sunni.

[Wavrnr10]

Maybe if your backboneless self would have helped your country instead of relying on Coalition to do it for you, you would not have had to run like wuss. Thats the #1 problem in Iraq is the civilians turning a blind eye to the thugs trying to ruin their worlds. Finally some are stepping up to the plate and turning on the idiots killing them hand over fist.

[beebuster2000]

btt

[lonestar67]

Well said.