Some Iraqi bloggers losing hope

Photo: A door riddled with bullet holes from a joint raid conducted by the Iraqi and U.S. Forces is seen as a boy walks out from a house in Baghdad's Sadr City February 7, 2008. (Kareem Raheem/Reuters)

Sunshine talks about the hard times in her city of Mosul, but she is one of the few bloggers who still seems hopeful. But as you can see, her situation is very difficult:

On Wednesday the situation was really bad, in the morning there were shooting all the time, at 4:30 pm I was combing my hair, and about to continue studying, something like an earth-quake happened, without thinking I knew it’s an explosion, I didn’t have time to run or hide, BOOOOOOOM, I felt like the blaster pushed me, I ran, and tried to avoid something but it hit me, I wasn’t sure what was it, smoke filled the rooms, I was glad to see everyone ok, I went to my room to see what has happened to it, the thing that hit me was my mug, and thank god we didn’t have many losses, I saw an orange smoke, we thought it was CL gas, so we put wet towels on our noses, grandpa and dad closed all the windows, and replaced the broken ones with cartoons ..
In the next day, my mom went to work, she said there were so many people in the hospital, and from time to time a family would go out crying loud because their wounded member died, it was a painful view..
On Thursday morning I couldn’t study well, there was a fight in the street behind our house, and I had to stay in the corridor, I was angry, and told grandma when she asked me to stay in a safe place “THE TERRORISTS ARE CHALLENGING ME, BUT I WILL STUDY NO MATTER WHAT” so I brought my books, sat on the floor, and studied , at noon, I got a phone call from my headmistress , she said Z was very badly injured, I couldn’t take it anymore, I lost my ability to tolerate, I was devastated, and I had a killing headache..

Sunshine has some even more hopeful words to say about the recent massive bombing in Mosul:

There were many terrible stories, people lost their whole family members, mothers lost their kids, etc, you most saw that in TV. But I heard stories made me feel how great people the Iraqis are.

I heard a talk show in the radio, when A man said “ I was in the hospital in the day of explosion, and I saw the ambulances bringing people injured very badly, I wanted to help but didn’t know what to do, so I took my car, went to a neighborhood and started to shout “ an explosion happened in a neighborhood, many people were injured, is there any one willing to donate with blood?” and I came to the hospital with about 25 guys”

Many people called and adopted the orphans, many people donated with money, clothes, & medicines, my mom and her friend called every dentist they knew collected money to the wounded people.

A man called the radio and his words touched my heart he said “I don’t have money to give, but I’ll work for free and re-build the destroyed houses and shops“ and he gave the reporter his number, the world needs more people like him.

Amazing words from someone living in a war zone who is only 16 years old!

Baghdad Dentist also talked about the massive bombing in Mosul, where he is currently living. He called it a disaster.

even the word disaster doesnt describe the crime happened there. as if a nuclear bomb were thrown there.the trees were 100metre away. the bricks of the buildings were everywhere.the power cables were in pieces allover the place. i couldnt distinguish the houses from each other and from the shops. a cyclon is less less destructive. i stood astonished there. i havent seen like this only when the b52 aircraft bombed one of the buildings during war in baghdad. without any exaggeration 20 houses were severly ruined up and nearly 35 affected. who was that monster who did it? he is the evil himself. the people who live in this area are poor and lovely and they can't harm a creature. one is working and doing his best to build a house and to grow his children up in a life with dignity and in a second all this just vanished so easily. after all i have seen I went back home and pain was tearing my heart.

Treasure of Baghdad watched the video released of Iraqi children being trained as ‘al qaeda’ although some of the training seems to him to be regular military training. He identifies the children and their adult trainers as being Iraqi from the accent. He thinks the trainers are former members of Iraqi’s military which was disbanded in 2003.

God! What does Iraq have anymore? The entire new generation is going down. It is impossible Iraq would improve or return to its former shape at least after having this new generation destroyed. Of course, they are destroyed! They have nothing to see except death, bombs, warplanes, helicopters, dead and wounded bodies, shootings, beheadings etc… It has been five years since the war started. It has been five years of their eight or ten years, seeing all of these things in front of their eyes. It’s been five years of complete failure of the Iraqi politicians to sit down and see how grave the danger surrounding us has become. It has been five years of concentrating on who gets more, who changes the flag, and who prays for God. It’s been five damned years and all Iraqis could see is nothing but collapse, segregation, hatred, and blast walls surrounding their once opened neighborhoods.

He concludes by saying that “And you know what? It’s not only al-Qaeda whom we should blame for that. It’s a lot of people.”

A Star from Mosul is in college in Mosul, and she reports on what is happening in her city and her life. She talks about two university professors who were killed and the massive explosion in her town. She titled her piece Dead Zone.

It is a bad dream, but that's it, it doesn't end. You just have to live through it and put all your feelings in some jar because they won't do you any good. During the exams a car bomb exploded in our street and broke some of the windows.. And during the exams, and in the midst of the mess, they decided to change the flag. And they did. And we the people didn't have a say in this.. They're just way too wise to be true.

Now it's the break.. and I hate breaks.. I'm sitting here at home waiting for the decisive battle on Mosul.. I'm waiting for them to come search the house.. and I do not feel like writing, so excuse me.

She sums it up with this sentence: “In short very little is going right, and the situation in Mosul is going from really bad to much worse.”

In Last of Iraqis blog, Mohammad says good bye to Iraq. He is 25 years old and a dentist living in Baghdad, and is planning on immigrating to Jordan. The title of his blog “Last of Iraqis” came from his belief that he might be the last Iraqi in Iraq, and his fear that Iraqis are going to be extinct. Mohammad completely rejects the new Iraqi flag, and is very distressed about what has happened to his country, and distressed that he feels forced to leave.

Nothing is like it used to be in my country….or what used to be my country…poor Iraq, everything beautiful in it was destroyed, everything was stolen, they even messed with the most important thing that identifies it, they even messed with the great and beautiful Iraqi flag, I wonder when will they change it's name claiming that it's a Baathiests name or Saddamists name!!!!
I wonder when will they have enough of messing around and destroying our country, I wonder when will those idiots who calls them selves politicians working for a new Iraq stop messing up Iraq!
They changed the flag, the great Iraqi flag the rolled the dead bodies of the brave soldier whether Shiite, Sunni or Kurds….it's the flag the covered the coffins of millions of Iraqis it's the flag that fluttered for many years in the Iraqi sky.

Neurotic Iraqi wife reports on an encounter with an acquaintance in a post called The Silently Grieving Black Veils. At first she did not recognize her, then the women took off her sunglasses and veil. Neurotica was disturbed by the change she saw in this women, and started to question why and if this total change in dress was only in Basra. This is what her acquaintance had to say:

She stopped applying her makeup, turned towards me and said in the saddest voice ever “Oh Neurotica, this is happening everywhere in Iraq, not just in Basrah or here but everywhere. We have become easy targets for those animal extremists”. The sadness in her voice slowly turned into anger. “Yes we suffered under Saddam’s regime, but atleast then, we knew who to blame. Now Neurotica, now, we don’t even know who to point the finger at? The Sadr Militias? The Badr Brigades? The Al Qaeda Wahabi extremists? Who do we blame Neurotica? Even the US forces are guilty.”

“I don’t even know if my neighbour will tell on me, or my friend. Or that old man I buy the vegetables from. Or that small boy sitting in the corner begging. I don’t know who will shoot me first. The militia? The police? The Americans? Or maybe a drug addict, or a drunk man? Who is it gonna be? If it wasn’t for my elderly parents I would have left long long time ago."

But the saddest post that I have run across recently was written by HNK. She is a young college student living in Mosul, and the younger sister to A Star From Mosul blogger. This one really broke my heart.

Ended Life, Killed Laughter

Breathless, hopeless, and fatigue
That's what I am now..

I am between the devil and the deep blew see
and between them

I am wishing I am never be...

What can you say after that? Updated information on Iraq at Iraq Today blog. Updated pictures of Iraqis at Faces of Grief blog. If you would like to help bring an Iraqi child to the US for medical treatment, please go to No More Victims website.