A few months ago, some of the Iraqi politicians, poisonous Mullas, corrupted businessmen, murderers and thugs waved their red-cover passports and left to Cairo. They left behind a country that is sinking in its daily bloodshed. The aim was a vacation; the Iraqi government called it “The Iraqi National Reconciliation Conference in Cairo.”

Months before the “loyal servants of the Iraqi people” left to Cairo, the preparations began. Media outlets called the conference “the first and very necessary” step to reach a compromise and “end years of violence and the shed of the Iraqi blood.” The first formal delegation from the Arab League since the invasion in 2003 came to Iraq and worked hard to convince the “national unity government” to start talks with the “Iraqi resistance” groups and other “opposition” groups. They wanted to find a way to end the fight over power and money and start to actually care about the country.

The plan was to hold the “national reconciliation conference” in Baghdad. Some even went too far in their immature brains and called for holding it outside the Green Zone. Little they knew about the country and the lack of security outside their fortified zones, obviously!

They failed to reach a compromise. Nevertheless, they decided to leave the country anyway, because they already promised themselves with some drunken nights and a tour in the city of the Sphinx and the pyramids. It’s for free, courtesy of the Iraqi people, those who were killed and those who are waiting in the line!

The conference was held, but without the needed legitimacy to call it a “reconciliation” conference. Several Iraqi groups boycotted the conference for many reasons, of which none was concerned with the Iraqi people.

The Association of Muslim Scholars, which is the Sunnis’ most powerful group, boycotted the event after complaining that its demands weren't met.

The association, many Iraqis and I believe, is behind a good part of the violence in the country. It sponsors at least 50% of terrorism in Iraq. Just a few weeks ago, the leader of the association, Harith al-Dhari, described al-Qaeda as “a legitimate resistance against the infidels.” And that is why they had to participate in the conference. If Dhari and his henchmen don’t agree, they will never stop what they are doing.

Only those, who are already in the government, participated in the “reconciliation” conference in Cairo. So, basically what happened in Cairo was a vacation for the Iraqi government.

But to say the truth, they issued a statement after the conference ended. After going through many deadlocks [imagine, deadlocks within the parties that are already together in the government] and many fights and talks, the conference agreed on (roughly translated):

- The Iraqi blood should be respected and the bloodshed should stop.
- The militias should be dissolved and those responsible for killing Iraqis should be brought to justice.
- There is resistance and there is terrorism and there should be a difference.
- The Iraqis, who are detained by the Iraqi forces and coalition forces, should be released unless proved guilty of committing crimes.
- Reconstruction should start in the country.
- The government should try to quell the violence and fight sectarianism.
- Train more Iraqi forces and make them responsible for maintaining security in the country.
- Compensate those who lost bla bla bla…

And other stuff that I laughed at when I heard!

Now, months later, what happened? What are the tangible results of the conference? More widows and orphans. And what “reconciliation” did the conference discuss if all the attendees were already participants of the government and see each other in the Green Zone everyday? And what good did it bring if the groups who opposed the government either didn’t attend or didn’t agree on what was said in the conference?

A few months later, Iraqi religious groups packed their bags and headed to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Shiite and Sunni religious decision makers decided to give it a shot and meet in Islam's holiest city and try to discuss the situation. Ali al-Sistani, the Shiites’ most revered and respected Mulla in Iraq and who leads at least 75% of the Shiites in the world, did not attend the gathering. He was busy doing……… nothing… seriously! Or maybe he thought it is not a big deal that thousands of Iraqis get killed a month and thousands of Iraqis are displaced inside Iraq and thousands of Iraqis are leaving the country to nowhere that they know.

Sistani thought it is not a big deal that the conflict in Iraq is mainly between Shiites and Sunnis. That the main problem is Islam and its different branches and he, as the man who is much more more powerful than the Pope for Christianity, had to say his word. He was busy doing…… nothing.

It doesn’t matter, the rest of the turbaned men decided, and left. The conference was held and the group decided that:

- The Iraqi blood should be respected and the bloodshed should stop.
- The militias should be dissolved and those responsible for killing Iraqis should be brought to justice.
- There is resistance and there is terrorism and there should be a difference.
- The Iraqis, who are detained by the Iraqi forces and coalition forces, should be released unless proved guilty of committing crimes.
- Reconstruction should start in the country.
- The government should try to quell the violence and fight sectarianism.
- Train more Iraqi forces and make them responsible for maintaining security in the country.
- Compensate those who lost bla bla bla…

[You should notice that I only copy pasted the points mentioned in the Cairo conference.]

One point in the Mecca conference that caught my attention: There is no difference between Shiites and Sunnis or Muslims and non-Muslims and that it is forbidden by God that and Iraqi kills an innocent Iraqi.

What happened since then?

More deaths.

A few days ago, some Sunni politicians decided to go to Turkey to find a solution for what Iraq is going through. [I don’t know why they look for the solutions outside Iraq. To me, it looks like I lose my wallet in my room and go look for it in the street!]

Without copy and pasting stuff, basically the Sunni politicians decided the same things the people in Cairo and Mecca conferences decided.

In the last two days, there was a conference for “national reconciliation” in Baghdad.

“We have always said that we are excited about the real national reconciliation,” Jalal al-Talbani, Iraq’s president, said in his speech to the audience in the conference. “Every time we said that we consider the reconciliation as reorganizing the people’s powers in all their factions.”

What is the point of holding a “reconciliation conference” anyway?

Maliki, the Iraqi PM, said the goal is to “rethink the political groupings and rebuild them on the basis of national interests and to form a national and wider front that would include all the political factions and be above the loyalties to other sides, which would open the way to professional individuals to run the country away from sectarian and party shares.”

Maliki called for all Iraqis to support the reconciliation conference. He said that the conference will discuss many issues, including the situation of the thousands of former Baathists, who were affected by Bremer’s famous dibaathification decree, and the Iraqi armed groups “who are not involved in crimes against the Iraqis.”

The goal is to bring all the sides, which are fighting each other over power and are killing scores of Iraqis everyday in shows of power, together and try to give each a bite of the cake.

To prove to the Iraqis that the invasion brought them “freedom of speech and information” and “democracy” and to show them that the government is only working to achieve what the people want, the conference was held behind closed doors!

Muqtada al-Sadr, one of the powerful anti-American Shiite leaders who also leads one of Iraq’s murderous militias, the Mehdi Army, boycotted the conference. Why? Because some baathists participated in it.

The Association of Muslim Scholars, the Sunni mafia, boycotted the conference also. Why? Because they are still thirsty for more Iraqi blood.

Iyad Allawi’s group, the secular one, boycotted the conference. Why? Because the others didn’t pay attention to the list of suggestions the group proposed.

Salih al-Mtlaq, leader of an important Sunni group called The Iraqi National Dialogue Front, boycotted the conference. Why? I don’t know!

Once more, the Iraqi government failed to bring the politicians, corrupted businessmen, turbaned Mullas, murderers and terrorists together to stop the violence.

Meanwhile, men, dressed in Iraqi forces uniforms, raided the offices of the Iraqi Red Crescent in central Baghdad and kidnapped more than 20 employees. And more than 50 bodies were found in and around the capital. The bodies showed signs of torture and were shot in the chest and head.

Now, do you really think the government and the politicians know what the problem is and what the Iraqis want? Do you think the government and the people are in the same boat?

I don’t!

A government that consists of almost a dozen parties that each one of them is an enemy of the other would never be able to lead Iraq. This “democracy” isn’t working. If anyone ever thought that this is “the rule of people,” well, you are wrong. This is the rule of the powerful and the death of the people. This is a jungle.

I am away from home again. After fighting my way through hell to make myself feel at home in the States and after finally reaching that point, where I could say “home sweet home” when I enter the building in which I live, I packed my backpack again and hurried to the airport.

I left my place and went to Philadelphia to see BT and spend the winter break touring the East Coast.

I left behind dear friends who I won during the last three months. We hugged the night before. Carola gave me my Christmas present last Thursday. It was “The Art of War” pocket book. She knows what interests me! That night, we had an early Christmas party in school because most of us were leaving soon and we wanted to celebrate the end of semester anyway. It was a fun night. They wanted me to dance, but I don’t know how. Therefore, I decided to take dancing lessons next semester!

Before I left my place, I asked my friends to have fun and not to “forget me. Always remember that if I were there, the outing would have been much much more fun!”

On Friday, on my way to the airport, I got a message from one of my friends. It said “I miss you already… friends don’t ignore a friend. Friendship is being… just us, Omar. Be happy.”

It made me feel happy. Really happy.

In the airport and to pass time while waiting for my flight to Philadelphia, I sat to watch Friends on my laptop, as usual.[In the airport, if you find a stranger with headphones and watching friends, come talk to ME!]

While watching Friends and having fun [saying the dialogue with the actors,] I noticed some one sitting beside me giggling. I turned to see what was funny. He was watching something on his laptop too. It was Seinfeld! I imagined that it would be funny for a third person to see this scene.

The flight was ok. Nothing was interesting there to tell you about. The “fun” started right after I got off the plane in Philadelphia.

I had to…. well go to the restroom. So, I went to the restroom! Very normal, I thought. Little I knew that it will not be a bloody pee!

It was stinky and the floor was wet, not with water or any cleaning liquids but with dirty stuff [no elaboration on that.] So I did what I had to do, thinking about how filthy this airport restroom was. And then I wanted to leave. And bam. I didn’t feel a thing. I suddenly found myself on the ground facing the floor. Thank God no one was there. Although no one would care!

I cursed loud in both languages, Arabic and English, and stood up.

I saw blood on the floor. "Where the hell is that coming from?" I thought.

It was very cold that I didn’t feel that I injure myself. I looked at my hands. Here you go, my right ring finger was injured. Seriously injured. It was bleeding nonstop. I tried to stop the bleeding with a tissue, but it wouldn’t stop. So, I wrapped it with three tissues and left the restroom. It was still bleeding.

People saw me trying to stop the bleeding, but no one offered any help. They came to see why this hand is bleeding, made faces [but no words] and left. It made me feel alone. BT and a friend of ours were picking me up, but weren’t there yet.

No one offered to help. No one offered to help me with the bag. No one. No one.

Twenty minutes later my friends arrived. I offered on arm for hugging. I took care of the wound in BT’s apartment. It was big. A big piece of my finger got cut when I fell. I put it back and stopped the bleeding.

If I were in Baghdad, or anywhere near Iraq, people would have carried my bag and helped me get medical help. But oh Omar, you are not there now!

It’s been a hell of a happy time here the last three days. It is a nice city. People here are not as nice as where I live, but the place is gorgeous. It is cold, which I love, but not cold enough to make me happy and snow. For God sake I’ve never seen snow in my life and wish to see it. I am not leaving the East Coast before I see snow. Tell me where it is and I will go. Years ago, I decided to face Miss Liberty in NY and tell her some words. It was very difficult and crazy to think that I could make it, but I did last year! For God’s sake seeing snow should be easier and I will make it happen!

Today, while I’m enjoying my time here, I got this email from my cousin in Baghdad:

“As for us, I’m sure you get our news. Everyone is waiting for their turn to die. Life here is getting worse by the day. Tomorrow, we will yield for today. Schools and universities are not working. The government employees are barely making their way to their jobs…. Pray for us maybe God could save us because it is becoming impossible to live anymore. We have no other choice other than waiting for God to notice what is happening to us and help.”

It doesn’t seem that the report is bringing anything new to us.

Although I haven’t been able to read the whole report yet, but I read the Executive Summary and have been following the notes that were leaked from the report before. It basically doesn’t invent any solutions. It only speaks loud what the Iraqis have been saying for years now, which is to return those who were dismissed from their jobs in the name of debaathification, release the prisoners who’ve been in jail for a long time for no legal reasons, rid the country from the militias that are killing thousands of Iraqis a month and improve the security forces and include Iraq’s neighboring countries in the talks, and other issues. The report just put these issues in one document and in an organized order.

The report and what it seems to suggest is very far from solving any problems in Iraq. It was a report written in the name of Iraq, but really was intended to address the average American.

To answer to the increasing demand to pull out of Iraq and bring the U.S. troops back, the Baker-Hamilton group worked and advertised for their attempts to calm the American public.

If we go back to what Bush said in his speech after he received the report today, we’ll find that he rarely mentioned Iraq in what he said. All what he wanted to emphasize on was that the congress should be working with the administration and that they both will find a way out.

The congress “won’t agree on every proposal and we probably won’t agree on every proposal. Nevertheless, it is an opportunity to come together, to work together on this important issue.”

What does this have to do with preventing 100 killings in Iraq today?

“The country is tired of pure political bickering that happens in Washington. But this report will give us all an opportunity to find common ground for the good of the country. Not for the good of the Republican party or the Democrat party.”

WHAT?

What country? I must be confused. I remember there were more than 3000 people killed in October. Was that in Iraq or America? Because from what Bush is saying, it looks like it happened in the U.S.!

I thought the report was to suggest solutions to stabilize Iraq and save the Iraqis from the mass massacre they’ve been living in for more than three years.

“The United States must not make an open-ended commitment to keep large numbers of American troops deployed in Iraq.”

But that’s not what the administration has been saying for four years now, even before the invasion. It was always promised that the U.S. will be in Iraq as long as it is needed.

I don’t get it. If the report believes that staying in Iraq is not needed now, it means that the Americans have never come to help the Iraqis. Because if scores of Iraqis are being killed every day in a brutal civil war and that doesn’t make the States committed to help Iraq, it means they only wanted to topple Saddam Hussein, which they did, and now its time to go home.

What shocked me the most in the repot is the way it urges the American administration to punish the Iraqis for what the United States and the Iraqi governments [since 2004] messed up and failed to solve.

“If the Iraqi government does not make substantial progress toward the achievement of milestones on national reconciliation, security and governance, the United States should reduce its political, military, or economic support for the Iraqi government,” the Iraq Study Group suggested!

And we all should know what that means. It is a Deja vou. It is what America did after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. To punish Saddam Hussein, the United States isolated the Iraqis from the rest of the world and starved them to death.

Is that the way American politicians solve problems? Just isolate Iraq again and cut the news from that part of the world and protect the Americans from hearing the horrible stories from their, we’ll be fine?

It worked before. 12 years of sanctions and more than 500,000 Iraqi children died and millions of Iraqis fled the country. Thousands died because they didn’t have money to buy medications or because there were no medications in hospitals. The education system went from one of the best in the Middle East down to NOTHING. The government was paralyzed and had no services to offer to its people.

Yes, that was under the name of punishing Saddam Hussein’s government. That was a real success!

The Associated Press published “Key figures about Iraq since the war began in March 2003.”

I thought you might be interested.


CASUALTIES:
— U.S. deaths as of Dec. 4: 2,901.
— U.S. wounded as of Dec. 4: 21,921.
— At least 68 U.S. personnel killed in November.
— Iraq civilian deaths are estimated at more than 50,000, with one controversial study contending as many as 655,000 Iraqis have died.
— At least 673 civilian contractors killed.

COST:
— Nearly $340 billion, or about $250 million a day.

OIL PRODUCTION:
— Prewar: 2.58 million barrels daily.
— As of Nov. 22: 2.04 million barrels daily.

ELECTRICITY:
— Prewar nationwide: 3,958 megawatts. Hours a day (estimated): four to eight.
— Nov. 22, nationwide: 3,600 megawatts. Hours a day: 11.
— Prewar Baghdad: 2,500 megawatts. Hours a day (estimated): 16-24.
— Nov. 22, Baghdad: not available. Hours a day 6.8.

TELEPHONE:
— Prewar land lines: 833,000.
— Oct. 31: 1 million.
— Prewar cell phones: no service.
— Oct. 31: 7.9 million.

WATER:
— Prewar: 12.9 million people had potable water.
— Oct. 31: 14.3 million people have potable water.

SEWERAGE:
— Prewar: 6.2 million people served.
— Oct. 31: 10.7 million people.

INTERNAL REFUGEES:
— Nov. 3, 2006: 1.6 million people.

EMIGRANTS:
— Prewar: 500,000 Iraqis lived abroad.
— Nov. 3, 2006: estimated 1.8 million abroad.

** Sources: Associated Press archives, State Department, Defense Department, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, Brookings Institution, Iraq Body Count, The Lancet Web site, Iraqi ministries of health and education.

If a civil war were to happen in Iraq, “our Sunni brothers will be the ones to lose the most.”

That’s what Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the most powerful criminal group in Iraq, The Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, said last week.

What a powerful, full of hidden and obvious meaning sentence that was. I wonder how many hours or days he had to think about it to make it as smooth as it sounded when he said it.

Now we turned into a new era in Iraq. It is time to go public and threaten each other. Because you know what, the Unite States is, again, backing this up.

When Abu Musa al-Zarqawi, the late leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, called for an overall war against the Shiites in Iraq, the Iraqi government spared no efforts to call him “a terrorist whose goal is to divide Iraq and provoke a civil war.” Most of the lawmakers in Iraq condemned what Zarqawi said and called for Iraqis to unite.

Why when the poisonous turbaned snake, Hakim, publicly threatened his “brothers” the Sunnis, the government did not oppose?

Why did not the devil-Mullah’s speech get enough publicity in Iraq to give an idea what one of the country’s most powerful terrorist wants to turn Iraq into?

What was a total strange coincidence is that what Hakim said came just a few days before the White House leaked information about what the administration intended to do next: Back the Shiites and Kurds, who make about 80% of Iraq’s population, because that’s who you should care about. And leave the Sunnis to themselves and to the mercy of the Shiites.

When I read this in today’s Washington Post, I laughed. You know why? Because in Iraq, we have a proverb that could be roughly translated into “a huge catastrophe makes you laugh.”

What did the American administration do in the early days of the occupation in 2003? It was favoring the Shiites and Kurds and totally ignoring the Sunnis.

What was the result?
A Sunni insurgency, which the Iraqis are still paying a high price for and the Americans too.

Then what?
The American administration, after it was too late, realized that what it’s done was wrong and that they should try to solve the problem.

How?
Include the Sunnis in the political process before the 2005 elections to eventually be included in the government!

What happened?
Many Sunnis were already in prison, accused of insurgency. And their families were angered by how the Iraqi government and the Americans treated them. Many Sunni groups have already joined the insurgency an were blacklisted, so they couldn’t join the political process. Many Sunnis were threatened to be killed by insurgents if they participated in the elections. And the result was a “national unity government” that doesn’t include ONE member who would be willing to stay in Iraq and help. When the members were threatened, they left!

Now, because the White House is under pressure to bring home the American troops and to end the U.S. involvement in Iraq, suddenly the first mistake of ignoring the Sunnis seems to be the best solution.

It would be very easy to show the world that Iraq is stable when the media shows the Kurdish and Shiite leaders shaking hands on T.V. how can I, as a journalist, compete with this image when I cannot go to Anbar, Mosul, Tikrit, Diyala, Basra and other cities where the Sunnis are and show how pissed off they are?

How can I compete with an image of Iraqi leaders smiling and kissing, when I cannot go to the Sunni neighborhoods in Baghdad and talk to people about how they feel?

The devil-Mullah, Hakim, threatened the Sunnis that they will be the only losers if they opposed what will happen in the next three months. [Empowering the Shiite militias to kill more Iraqis.] And then flew to Amman-Jordan on his way to Washington D.C. to meet with Bush!

It is true that the Sunnis make 20% of the Iraqi population [maybe less now with all the killings.] But let’s face it, they were able to destabilize Iraq and fail the American plans in the last three years.

When the U.S. ignored the Sunnis earlier after the invasion, it was a mistake. But now, it is not. Now, the want to apply the mistake again because that is the easiest way to solve the problem, not of the Iraqis but of the Americans.

The easiest way to show the world that America has won the war in Iraq is by telling the Iraqis “her you go. This is democracy. 80% of you is ruling the country.” And then the Iraqis themselves should solve the problem of sectarian civil war, although the Americans provoked it when three years ago and under the name of democracy, they called for a Shiite-Kurdish-Sunni- government with some other minorities.

“Our role is not to resolve those issues for them,” Condoleezza Rice told reporters last month! “They are going to have to resolve those issues among themselves.”